It was at his house, it will be remembered, that FitzGerald died suddenly in the summer of 1883.

Through this long association with the family FitzGerald was gradually acquiring information concerning the poet, which even the son's _Biography_ had not supplied.

Readers of FitzGerald's delightful _Letters_ will remember that there is no name more constantly referred to than that of Crabbe.
Whether writing to Fanny Kemble, or Frederick Tennyson, or Lowell, he is constantly quoting him, and recommending him.

During the thirty years that followed Crabbe's death his fame had been on the decline, and poets of different and greater gifts had taken his place.

FitzGerald had noted this fact with ever-increasing regret, and longed to revive the taste for a poet of whose merits he had himself no doubt.