In 1809 Crabbe sent a copy of his poems in their fourth edition to Walter Scott, who acknowledged them in a friendly reply. Scott told Crabbe "how for more than twenty years he had desired the pleasure of a personal introduction to him, and how, as a lad of eighteen, he had met with selections from "The Village" and "The Library" in "The Annual Register"." This exchange of letters led to a friendship that lasted for the rest of their lives, both authors dying in 1832. Crabbe's favorite among Scott's "Waverley" novels was "The Heart of Midlothian".