IT is one of the evidences, or shall I say consequences,
of a happy frame of mind, that I am capable of deriv-
ing pleasure from things, the absence or even loss of
which does not give me pain. I should have rejoiced
had I been well born, could I have reckoned historical
characters among my ancestors; but it has never occa-
sioned me any serious uneasiness that my family are of Ancestors.
as insignificant a class as can be imagined. Among
the Robinsons I cannot find a single individual who
appears to have acquired any distinction, and among
the Crabbs only a remote probability of an affinity to
a single individual of the name, who has ever been
heard of-and that is the Poet.

My father used to say that his great-grandfather was a tanner at Bildeston in Suffolk, and that his name was Henry. My great-grandfather was Thomas. He was

VOL. I.

B

2

CHAP. I.

of

and

Family.

a tanner at Sudbury, where he is said to have attained the dignity of Mayor.

Some circumstances concerning the marriage of my father and mother are worth writing down. I have forMarriage gotten from whom I heard them. My mother Jemima H.Robinson Crabb was the eldest daughter of a large family, and when of an age to be useful she left her father's crowded house to reside at Bury with a family very intimate with her own. Mr. Bullen, the head of this family, being a Dissenter, it was quite a matter of course

Jemima
Crabb.

see envoi

by

lady

1764-5

of fadion 2

DIPRY

that Miss Crabb should be known to the Robinsons.

My grandfather was reputed wealthy, and was certainly one of the most respectable of the Dissenters. Jemima Crabb could have very little fortune, and my grandfather did not consent to a love-match between her and his second son Henry. She therefore returned to Wattisfield. One day her brother Zachariah seeing Henry Robinson in the Market-place, said to him, "Not yet married, Master Henry? I expected to hear of your marriage before this time." Henry answered, “No, Mr. Zachary, as I cannot have your sister Mimie I won't marry at all." A few days after this, a letter came to him from Miss Crabb, in which she said she was sorry for what she had heard from her brother-that it would be sinful in him not to marry, for it is God's ordinance, and he should not refuse to do so because he could not have the first woman he had taken a liking to. It would be undutiful to his father also, who did not approve of his marrying her. She hoped to hear that he had thought better of this, and that he would make a happy marriage in conformity with his father's wishes.

Birth.

This letter Henry showed to his brother Thomas, who carried it to his father. The old gentleman was so pleased with its tone that he withdrew his objection. Henry immediately went over to Wattisfield with the good news, and the marriage soon followed. It took place in 1766.

There were born two children, who died in infancy; and besides these Thomas, born January 25th, 1770, Habakkuk, born June 4th, 1771, and Henry Crabb, the writer of these Reminiscences, born May 13th, 1775.

When I was about twenty-one years of age I met on a stage-coach a very gentlemanly man, who, hearing my name, asked me whether my father was not a tanner, and whether my mother's name was not Crabb. Surprised at the question from a stranger I inquired why he asked. He thus explained himself—" More than twenty years ago I attended the Gentlemen's Club at The Angel, when the chairman gave as a toast, 'The Handsome Couple;' I was from the country, and it was then related to me that that morning there had been married a couple said to be the handsomest pair ever known to have lived at Bury. I recollect that the names were Robinson and Crabb, and that he was a young tanner."

In general, it is not easy to fix a date to the earliest recollections. My mother's pocket-books supply a few. The very earliest that I am aware of is the being taken out one night in the arms of the nurse to see an illumination. I recollect being frightened at the report of a gun, or some fireworks, and that advantage was taken of my crying to carry me home. Now my mother writes under February 15th, 1779, "The town (Bury

CHAP. I. St. Edmunds) illuminated in honour of Admiral Keppel." I was then three years and nine months old, being born May 13th, 1775.

1780.

Mrs.

Bard's
School.

Early Recollections.

I recollect going to a dame's school, to a Mrs. Bard who lived in a very small house in the South Gate Street. I find a payment of five shillings to Mrs. Bard -one quarter, for H. C. R. This was in July, 1780.

I have a very clear recollection of seeing my aunt Williamson enter the keeping-room one morning and lift up her hands in a melancholy way, on which my mother exclaimed "My father's dead!" In her pocketbook she has written, Feb. 25th, 1781, "My dear father died. 26th, Sister here by breakfast." This same aunt Williamson had a doleful tone of voice which I used to make game of; I recollect being reproved for crying out on her coming one day from Wattisfield "Behold, the groaner cometh."

I find that these are not the very earliest recollections, for it appears that my grandmother Crabb died June 22nd, 1779; now I very well recollect hearing it discussed with my mother whether the departed would be known in the other world, and saying "I shall know my grandmamma in heaven by the green ribbon round her cap."

Another very early, but also faint recollection is of going with my mother to see the camp on Fornham Heath, of being lost there, and taken into a tent by some officers and feasted, and while there seeing my mother pass, and calling out to her with great joy. This must have been in the summer of 1778.

Of early education and religious instruction I recollect

Catechism.

next to nothing. I was an unruly boy, and my mother had not strength to keep me in order. My father never attempted it. I have a faint impression of having learnt a catechism, in which there was this: "Dear child, can you tell me what you are?" A. “I am a child of wrath like unto others." I have never found this precisely in any catechism-but I was brought up with Calvinistic feelings.

It appears from my mother's pocket-book that I went to school in the year 1781 to old Mr. Blomfield. He was the grandfather of the present Bishop of London. My brothers went with me for a short time. They went to a boarding-school in 1782, and then, I incline to think, I was removed to an inferior English and Writing School kept by a Mr. Lease.

One really interesting occurrence I recollect which I have often thought of as significant. There used to be given to the boy who was at the head of his class a box and ring, and he had a present if he could keep it a certain number of days. On one occasion I lost it, to my great sorrow, and, as I thought, very unjustly; therefore next day I went boldly to young Blomfield, who was an usher under his father, and with a book in my hand, and with a consciousness of injured innocence, said, "Sir, you turned me down for spelling the word so, but I was right after all. There, see! I was right." Mr. Blomfield smiled, patted me on the head, and said, "Well, Henry, as you read it in a printed book you are not to blame, but that's printed wrong." I was quite confounded, I believed as firmly in the infallibility of print as any good Catholic can in

CHAP. I.

.1781.

5

Mr. Blomfield's School.