The younger, John, who married in 1816, became his father's curate, and the elder, who married a year later, became curate at Pucklechurch, not many miles distant.

As Crabbe's old cheerfulness gradually returned he found much congenial society in the better educated classes about him.

His reputation as a poet was daily spreading.

The _Tales_ passed from edition to edition, and brought him many admirers and sympathisers.

The "busy, populous clothing town," as he described Trowbridge to a friend, provided him with intelligent neighbours of a class different from any he had yet been thrown with.
And yet once more, as his son has to admit, he failed to secure the allegiance of the church-going parishioners.