By Clifford W. Holgate, MA. 9 
the floor of the chancel was up, for the purpose of lowering it. The removal of 
the surface disclosed the vault of the Poet Crabbe, where he was buried fifteen 
years before. It was his wish to be buried in a plain coffin, hence the rapidity 
of decay . . . . The workmen tossed up a skull, and Mr. Hastings said, 
‘That is the skull of Poet Crabbe; this is where he was buried.’ I was a student 
of phrenology then, and said, incidentally, ‘I should like to take a cast of that 
skull.’ Nothing more was said, and wé left. That evening a dirt-begrimed 
labourer presented himself at the side door of my father’s house and enquired 
for me, saying in a sepulchral voice, ‘I’ve got it.’ ‘Got what?’ Isaid. ‘Old 
Pa’son Crabbe’s skull! and we should like a drop o’ beer on the job, please Sir.’ 
‘I don’t want it; I can’t have it; put it back; don’t let my father see you here 
with it; where is it?’ I said. The man replied ‘I put it in my tommy-bag 
when you was gone, as I heard you say you should like to take a cast, and now 
I can’t put it back again, for the floor is all rammed down and cemented, and, 
the stones laid, and if you don’t have it I shall destroy it, that’s all,’ and he was 
proceeding to tie up his ‘tommy-bag,’ and to depart to fulfil his threat. To 
save the skull from such a fate, brought about by the simple remark I had made 
at the graveside, I decided to take care of it, and carried it indoors, but my 
father would not have it there, so I tied it up in a silk pocket-handkerchief, and 
hid it in a dry place for seven years, when I removed it to my iron chest, and 
there it has been ever since. I offered it to the late Rector for re-interment, 
but there was no opportunity for raising the chancel floor. . . . . Ihave 
shown it to his [7.e., the poet’s] son, before he went to Australia, and have since, 
- at his request, forwarded him photographs of it in four different positions.” 
Early in April, 1876, after obtaining possession of the skull, 
Mr. Mackay had a handsome square polished oak box made for it, 
lined with white sarsnet and wadding, into which it was put, and 
on the cover of which was an engraved brass plate bearing the 
following inscription :— 
“This box contains the skull of the Rev. George Crabbe, Poet, and for eighteen 
years Rector of this Parish. It was taken away at the Restoration of the Parish 
Church in 1847 from his grave in the Church, and was restored as nearly as 
practicable to the original spot, by the Rector and Churchwardens, in the year 
of our Lord 1876.” 
Finally, on Tuesday, July 18th, 1876, this box was buried as 
near as possible to Crabbe’s vault, in the chancel of the Church, by 
the churchwardens, thus bringing to a conclusion the strange 
incidents with regard to the poet’s skull. 
The matter came to the knowledge of the poet’s grandson, the 
Rey. George Crabbe, B.A., Rector of Merton, in Norfolk, and 
chaplain to Lord Walsingham, who wrote to Mr. Mackay, thanking 
