He remained stout of heart--his faith in Providence still his strong comfort--and the Vickery family, though he must have been constantly in their debt, were unfailingly kind and hospitable.

He was also appealing to the possible patrons of literature among the leading statesmen of the hour.

On May 21 we learn that he was preparing "a book" (which of his many ventures of the hour, is uncertain), and with it a letter for the Prime Minister, Lord North, whose relative, Dudley North, had started him on his journey to London.
When, after a fortnight's suspense, this request for assistance had been refused, he writes yet more urgently to Lord Shelburne (at that time out of office) complaining bitterly of North's hardness of heart, and appealing on this occasion to his hoped-for patron both in prose and verse-- "Ah! Shelburne, blest with all that's good or great, T' adorn a rich or save a sinking state, If public Ills engross not all thy care, Let private Woe assail a patriot's ear, Pity confined, but not less warm, impart, And unresisted win thy noble heart"-- with much more in the same vein of innocent flattery.

But once again Crabbe was doomed to disappointment.

He had already, it would seem, appealed to Lord Chancellor Thurlow, with no better success.