"In my own village," he told James Smith, "they think nothing of me." The three years following the publication of _The Borough_ were specially lonely.

He had, indeed, his two sons, George and John, with him.

They had both passed through Cambridge--one at Trinity and the other at Caius, and were now in holy orders.

Each held a curacy in the near neighbourhood, enabling them to live under the parental roof.

But Mrs.Crabbe's condition was now increasingly sad, her mind being almost gone.