His youth and the extreme uncertainty of his prospects could not well have been agreeable to Mr.and Mrs.Tovell, or to Miss Elmy's widowed mother who lived not far away at Beccles, but the young lady herself returned her lover's affection from the first, and never faltered.

The three following years, during which Crabbe remained at Woodbridge, gave him the opportunity of occasional visits, and there can be no doubt that apart from the fascinations of his "Mira," by which name he proceeded to celebrate her in occasional verse, the experience of country life and scenery, so different from that of his native Aldeburgh, was of great service in enlarging his poetical outlook.

Great Parham, distant about five miles from Saxmundham, and about thirteen from Aldeburgh, is at this day a village of great rural charm, although a single-lined branch of the Great Eastern wanders boldly among its streams and cottage gardens through the very heart of the place.

The dwelling of the Tovells has many years ago disappeared--an entirely new hall having risen on the old site; but there stands in the parish, a few fields away, an older Parham Hall;--to-day a farm-house, dear to artists, of singular picturesqueness, surrounded and even washed by a deep moat, and shaded by tall trees--a haunt, indeed, "of ancient peace." The neighbourhood of this old Hall, and the luxuriant beauty of the inland village, so refreshing a contrast to the barrenness and ugliness of the country round his native town, enriched Crabbe's mind with many memories that served him well in his later poetry.
In the meantime he was practising verse, though as yet showing little individuality.

A Lady's Magazine of the day, bearing the name of its publisher, Mr.Wheble, had offered a prize for the best poem on the subject of _Hope_, which Crabbe was so fortunate as to win, and the same magazine printed other short pieces in the same year, 1772.