He had never been happy there, for reasons we have seen.

What Crabbe's son calls "diversity of religious sentiment" had produced "a coolness in some of his parishioners, which he felt the more painfully because, whatever might be their difference of opinion, he was ever ready to help and oblige them all by medical and other aid to the utmost extent of his power." So that in leaving Muston he was not, as was evident, leaving many to lament his departure.

Indeed, malignity was so active in one quarter that the bells of the parish church were rung to welcome Crabbe's successor before Crabbe and his sons had quitted the house! For other reasons, perhaps, Crabbe prepared to leave his two livings with a sense of relief.

His wife's death had cast a permanent shadow over the landscape.

The neighbouring gentry were kindly disposed, but probably not wholly sympathetic.