Following the publication of his A Book of Miscellaneous Lyrics (1878), Skipsey's work came to the appreciative attention of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and, in 1880, he travelled to London to meet Rossetti. During this visit, Skipsey was introduced to many of the leading cultural figures of the nineteenth-century, including most notably Edward Burne-Jones. Following this trip to London, and through the efforts of Burne-Jones, Skipsey was awarded a small annual pension from the Royal Bounty Fund for his services to literature by William Gladstone. By 1882 he was 50 years old and starting to feel his age, and so when a position of caretaker became vacant at a new Board School at Mill Lane, Newcastle, he applied for, and won the post. This school was successful and grew in size, until the workload became too much for him and his wife. In September 1888, he moved to the position of porter at the newly extended Armstrong College, but even this was hardly the job for a man of letters. When, in 1889, the post of custodian of Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford-upon-Avon became vacant, Skipsey was one of 132 applicants. Supported by some of the most important cultural figures of the late-nineteenth century, including Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Oscar Wilde, William Rossetti, William Morris, Edward Dowden, Edmund Gosse, and many others, Skipsey's application proved irresistible and he and his wife were appointed joint custodians. After less than two years he became disenchanted with the post which (he confided in a letter not to be opened until after his death) involved dealing with relics which had "no definite history"m and having to "perpetuate error and fraud" on the visitors and general public. Skipsey's experience inspired Henry James' story "The Birthplace". He and his wife returned to Tyneside, where they lived off his pension, residing, in turns, at the homes of their surviving children. Death Sarah Skipsey died on 9 August 1902, at the age of 73. Joseph Skipsey died in the house of his son Cuthbert at 5 Kells Gardens, Low Fell, Gateshead, on 3 September 1903, aged 71. He was interred in Gateshead Cemetery. Two of his five sons and the eldest of three daughters survived him. Collections Lyrics (1858) Lyrics (1859) Poems, Songs, and Ballads (1862) The Collier Lad and other songs and ballads (1864) Poems (1871) A Book of Miscellaneous Lyrics (1878) A Book of Lyrics (1881) Carols from