The Skull of the Port Crabbe. 



to its restoration, from the most authentic source, as given in the 

 Trowbridge Chronicle, are as follows : — In lowering the floor of the 

 chancel at the restoration, the workmen came upon Crabbe's grave. 

 The coffin was entirely decayed, and the then Rector and church- 

 wardens ordered another one to be made for the remains. Whilst 

 this was being made the skull was abstracted. Every possible 

 search and enquiry was made for it, but it could not be found, and 

 the remains were accordingly re-interred without it. For some 

 years previously to 187G, it became known to a few, in whose hands 

 the skull was. Early in 1876 this came to Mr. Mackay's knowledge, 

 he being then (as already stated) one of the churchwardens of the 

 Parish Church, and he, with the then Rector, the Rev. Horace 

 Meyer, called upon this gentleman, representing to him that, as the 

 floor of the chancel was then being laid with encaustic tiles, it 

 would be an opportunity to re-inter the skull in the grave, or as 

 near to it as possible. The gentleman most willingly acceded to 

 this request, saying he had long wished to give up the skull. The 

 fact of the skull having been recovered gradually became known, 

 and a not entirely accurate paragraph about it appeared in the 

 Trowbridge and North Wilts Advertiser, for Saturday, July 15th, 

 1876, and was copied into other papers. The Daily Telegraph of 

 Wednesday, July 19th, 1876, in a leading article prompted by the 

 news of the discovery, in which Crabbe — amongst other appreciative 

 references — was spoken of as " one of the tersest and most vivid 

 word-painters that ever wrote in the English tongue ; he was as 

 realistic with his pen as Hogarth had been with his pencil ; " 

 pointed out, with regard to the authenticity of the skull, that an 

 unimpeachable pedigree would be required before the fragment 

 could be accepted as genuine. This, no doubt, led to the publication 

 of a more detailed account of the removal and restoration of the 

 skull in the Trowbridge Advertiser for Saturday, July 22nd, 1876, 

 from which the following is taken : — 



" Strangers are inclined to question the correctness of the story of the lost 

 skull, but as we have had it from the lips of the gentleman who has been the 

 means of restoring it, we give it : — Thirty years ago, I was standing by the open 

 vault of the Poet Crabbe, with the then Rector of Trowbridge, the late Rev. 

 J. D. Hastings. The Church was then undergoing thorough alterations, and 



