But Crabbe's achievement was practically a new thing.

The success of _The Parish Register_ was largely that of a new adventure in the world of fiction.

Whatever defects the critic of pure poetry might discover in its workmanship, the poem was read for its stories--for a truth of realism that could not be doubted, and for a pity that could not be unshared.
In 1809 Crabbe forwarded a copy of his poems (now reduced by the publisher to the form of two small volumes, and in their fourth edition) to Walter Scott, who acknowledged them and Crabbe's accompanying letter in a friendly reply, to which reference has already been made.

After mentioning how for more than twenty years he had desired the pleasure of a personal introduction to Crabbe, and how, as a lad of eighteen, he had met with selections from _The Village_ and _The Library_ in _The Annual Register_, he continues:-- "You may therefore guess my sincere delight when I saw your poems at a late period assume the rank in the public consideration which they so well deserve.

It was a triumph to my own immature taste to find I had anticipated the applause of the learned and the critical, and I became very desirous to offer my _gratulor_ among the more important plaudits which you have had from every quarter.