By Clifford W. Holgate, M.A. 5 
the remaining copyright of all his previous poems, Murray paid 
him the sum of £3000. A letter from Thomas Moore, the poet, 
to Murray, dated January Ist, 1834, is quoted in Crabbe’s Life, 
giving an account of the transaction, which ended as follows :— 
“When he received the bills for 3000/7. we earnestly advised that he should, 
without delay, deposit them in some safe hands; but no—he must ‘take them 
with him to Trowbridge, and show them to his son John. They would hardly 
believe in his good luck, at home, if they did not see the bills.’ On his way 
down to Trowbridge, a friend at Salisbury, at whose house he rested (Mr. 
Everett, the banker), seeing that he carried these bills loosely in his waistcoat 
pocket, requested to be allowed to take charge of them for him, but with equal 
ill-success. ‘There was no fear,’ he said, ‘ of his losing them, and he must show 
them to his son John.’”’ 
Sermons, perhaps, hardly count as literary work, though those 
which relate to events in the county will have to be reckoned with 
when the bibliography of Wilts is undertaken. Mention, however, 
may be made of a sermon on [. Cor., x., 6, “The Variation of 
Public Opinion and Feelings, considered as it respects Religion,” 
preached before Bishop Fisher, and the Clergy of the Deanery of 
Potterne, on February 9th, 1817, at the Bishop’s Visitation, and 
published by their desire. 
Also, a volume of “ Posthumous Sermons” of Crabbe’s was 
published in 1850, edited by the then Rector of Trowbridge, the 
Rey. John David Hastings, which in all probability were all 
(twenty-one) preached in Trowbridge. From the preface to this 
collection it appears that the money for the restoration of the 
Church in 1847 being deficient, a suggestion was made that the 
publication of a collection of Crabbe’s sermons would probably 
excite interest, and the profits of sale should be given to the 
Restoration Fund. The poet’s son was appealed to, who said that 
his father’s sermons were in a rough state, and were evidently never 
intended to be published. However, though he declined to edit 
them, he eventually consented to their being published. What 
profits accrued from the sale of them I am unable to state. 
So much then, by the way, as to Crabbe’s literary work in 
connection with the county. 
After the poet’s death his body was buried in a vault on the 
