Letter from George Crabbe, Trowbridge, to Henchman Crowfoot, 1831 January 19 : autograph manuscript signed.

Discussing the social unrest and saying "I had an Appointment & met my Friends at Hastings, and we had the good Fortune to leave the Place & the County, one Day before the Fires & tumultuous Assemblies were seen or heard of; The things are very grevious & the more because we must mix so much pity with our Condemnation. People who are all but starving, though they may be unwilling to begin a Riot must be so disposed as to yield easily to the Persuasions of those who suffer less privation but design great Mischief, & when Once they have broken the Law, they proceed till the law they have broken vindicates itself & punishes them. On this Occasion, I have observed that ladies do not call for Mercy not, we are certain, because they have less soft & pitiable feelings than Man, but because they have more Fear & stronger Apprehendsion of the Danger: let the Terrors subside and the Tenderness of Heart comes home again...After a freedom of several Months duration, I have once more to endure the almost-continual Attacks of the pain over which I boasted a victory that Alas! is by no Means complete; Again I have Recourse to Steel & again feel Relief, but I am nearly convinced that travelling in Stage-Coaches however good the Roads, has a Tendency to awake this kind of Disease, which (I speak reverendly) is not dead but sleepeth;" saying he would be very happy to re-visit Beccles "...where Every One is kind to me & where every Object I view has the Appearance of Friendship & Welcome;" comparing it to his visits to Aldborough where "...a Sadness mixes with all I see or hear : Not a Man is living whom I knew in my early portion of Life, my Contemporaries are gone and their Successors are unknown to me & I to them;" inviting him to visit and thanking him again for the gift of the turkey, saying his family is all in good health and expressing his wish for "...an Hour's Conversation, inter nos, without participation, without Interuption, & I am fully persuaded that you would not reject it."