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+Project Gutenberg's The Parish Clerk (1907), by Peter Hampson Ditchfield
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Parish Clerk (1907)
+
+Author: Peter Hampson Ditchfield
+
+Release Date: September 3, 2004 [EBook #13363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PARISH CLERK (1907) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE PARISH CLERK
+
+BY
+
+P.H. DITCHFIELD
+
+M.A., F.S.A.
+
+WITH THIRTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_First Published in 1907_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                               PAGE
+
+I. OLD-TIME CHOIRS AND PARSONS                           1
+
+II. THE ANTIQUITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE OFFICE OF
+CLERK                                                   16
+
+III. THE MEDIĈVAL CLERK                                 31
+
+IV. HIS DUTIES OF READING AND SINGING                   48
+
+V. THE CLERK IN LITERATURE                              63
+
+VI. CLERKS TOO CLERICAL--SMUGGLING DAYS AND
+SMUGGLING WAYS                                          79
+
+VII. THE CLERK IN EPITAPH                               90
+
+VIII. THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS          104
+
+IX. THE CLERKS OF LONDON: THEIR DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES  115
+
+X. CLERKENWELL AND CLERKS' PLAYS                       130
+
+XI. THE CLERKS AND THE PARISH REGISTERS                140
+
+XII. THE CLERK AS A POET                               154
+
+XIII. THE CLERK GIVING OUT NOTICES                     169
+
+XIV. SLEEPY CHURCH AND SLEEPY CLERKS                   179
+
+XV. THE CLERK IN ART                                   195
+
+XVI. WOMEN AS PARISH CLERKS                            201
+
+XVII. SOME YORKSHIRE CLERKS                            206
+
+XVIII. AN OLD CHESHIRE CLERK AND SOME OTHER WORTHIES   225
+
+XIX. THE CLERK AND THE LAW                             245
+
+XX. RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD CLERKS AND THEIR WAYS         255
+
+XXI. CURIOUS STORIES                                   306
+
+XXII. LONGEVITY AND HEREDITY--THE DEACON-CLERKS OF
+BARNSTAPLE                                             318
+
+XXIII. CONCLUSION                                      333
+
+INDEX                                                  335
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+THE PARISH CLERK. By Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.  _Frontispiece_
+  _From the original in the National Gallery_
+
+                                                           PAGE
+
+THE VILLAGE CHOIR. By Thomas Webster                          8
+  _From the original in the Victoria and Albert Museum_
+
+THE MEDIĈVAL CLERK: THE CLERK IN PROCESSION                  18
+  _From old engravings_
+
+THE CLERK BEARING HOLY WATER AND ASPERGING THE COOK,
+AND OTHERS                                                   28
+  _From old engravings_
+
+THE OLD CHURCH-HOUSES AT HURST AND UFFINGTON, BERKS          42
+  _By permission of Messrs. G.J. Palmer and Sons_
+
+THE CLERK AND PRIEST VISITING THE SICK AND ADMINISTERING
+THE LAST SACRAMENT                                           46
+  _By permission of the S.P.C.K._
+
+OLD BECKENHAM CHURCH. By David Cox                           60
+  _From the drawing at the Tate Gallery_
+
+OLD SCARLETT                                                 98
+  _From_ "_The Book of Days_"
+  _By permission of Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, Ltd_.
+
+ENTRANCE TO THE HALL OF THE COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS.       104
+
+THE MASTER'S CHAIR AT THE PARISH CLERKS' HALL               106
+
+PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM ROPER, SON-IN-LAW AND BIOGRAPHER OF
+  SIR THOMAS MORE, BENEFACTOR OF THE CLERKS' COMPANY        110
+
+THE GRANT OF ARMS TO THE COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS           111
+
+STAINED GLASS WINDOW AT THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS'
+COMPANY, SHOWING PORTRAITS OF JOHN CLARKE AND STEPHEN
+PENCKHURST                                                  112
+
+A PAGE OF THE BEDE ROLL OF THE PARISH CLERKS' COMPANY.      114
+
+THE ORGAN AT THE PARISH CLERKS' HALL                        121
+
+A PAGE OF AN EARLY BILL OF MORTALITY PRESERVED AT THE
+HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS' COMPANY                          122
+
+INTERIOR OF THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS' COMPANY          126
+
+PORTRAIT OF JOHN CLARKE, PARISH CLERK OF THE CHURCH OF
+ST. MICHAEL, CORNHILL                                       128
+
+OLD MAP OF CLERKENWELL                                      130
+
+A MYSTERY PLAY AT CHESTER                                   132
+  _From a print after a painting by T. Uwins_
+
+THE DESCENT INTO HELL                                       136
+  _From William Hone's "Ancient Mysteries_"
+
+THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION. By W. Hogarth                    182
+  _From an engraving at the British Museum_
+
+THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST AT HOLY BAPTISM              196
+  _By permission of the S.P.C.K._
+
+THE DUTIES OF A CLERK AT A DEATH AND FUNERAL                198
+  _By permission of the S.P.C.K._
+
+THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. By W. P. Frith                      199
+  _From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co_.
+
+PORTRAIT OF RICHARD HUST, THE RESTORER OF THE CLERKS'
+  ALMSHOUSES                                                200
+
+THE CHURCH OF ST. MARGARET, WESTMINSTER                     210
+  _After an engraving from a photograph by Messrs.
+  W.A. Mansell and Co_.
+
+WILLIAM HINTON, A WILTSHIRE WORTHY. Drawn by the Rev.
+  Julian Charles Young                                      239
+    _By permission of Messrs. Macmillan and Co_.
+
+SUNDAY MORNING. By John Absolon                             270
+  _From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co_.
+
+THE PARISH CLERK OF QUEDGELEY                               280
+  _By permission of Miss Isabel Barnett_
+
+JAMES CARNE, PARISH CLERK OF ST. COLUMB MINOR, CORNWALL,
+  THE OLDEST LIVING CLERK                                   320
+    _From a photograph by Mr. R.P. Griffith, Newquay_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+The race of parish clerks is gradually becoming extinct. Before the
+recollection of their quaint ways, their curious manners and customs,
+has quite passed away, it has been thought advisable to collect all that
+can be gathered together concerning them. Much light has in recent years
+been thrown upon the history of the office. The learned notes appended
+to Dr. Wickham Legg's edition of _The Parish Clerk's Book_, published by
+the Henry Bradshaw Society, Dr. Atchley's _Parish Clerk and his Right to
+Read the Liturgical Epistle_ (Alcuin Club Tracts), and other works, give
+much information with regard to the antiquity of the office, and to the
+duties of the clerk of mediĉval times; and from these books I have
+derived much information. By the kindness of many friends and of many
+correspondents who are personally unknown to me, I have been enabled to
+collect a large number of anecdotes, recollections, facts, and
+biographical sketches of many clerks in different parts of England, and
+I am greatly indebted to those who have so kindly supplied me with so
+much valuable information. Many of the writers are far advanced in
+years, when the labour of putting pen to paper is a sore burden. I am
+deeply grateful to them for the trouble which they kindly took in
+recording their recollections of the scenes of their youth. I have been
+much amused by the humorous stories of old clerkly ways, by the
+_facetiĉ_ which have been sent to me, and I have been much impressed by
+the records of faithful service and devotion to duty shown by many
+holders of the office who won the esteem and affectionate regard of both
+priest and people. It is impossible for me to publish the names of all
+those who have kindly written to me, but I wish especially to thank the
+Rev. Canon Venables, who first suggested the idea of this work, and to
+whom it owes its conception and initiation[1]; to the Rev. B.D.
+Blyn-Stoyle, to Mr. F.W. Hackwood, the Rev. W.V. Vickers, the Rev. W.
+Selwyn, the Rev. E.H. L. Reeve, the Rev. W.H. Langhorne, Mr. E.J.
+Lupson, Mr. Charles Wise, and many others, who have taken a kindly
+interest in the writing of this book. I have also to express my thanks
+to the editors of the _Treasury_ and of _Pearson's Magazine_ for
+permission to reproduce portions of some of the articles which I
+contributed to their periodicals, to the editor of _Chambers's Journal_
+for the use of an article on some north-country clerics and their clerks
+by a writer whose name is unknown to me, and to the Rev. J. Gaskell
+Exton for sending to me an account of a Yorkshire clerk which, by the
+kindness of the editor of the _Yorkshire Weekly Post_, I am enabled to
+reproduce.
+
+[Footnote 1: Since the above was written, and while this book has been
+passing through the press, the venerable clergyman, Canon Venables, has
+been called away from earth. A zealous parish priest, a voluminous
+writer, a true friend, he will be much missed by all who knew him. Some
+months ago he sent me some recollections of his early days, of the
+clerks he had known, and his reflections on his long ministry, and these
+have been recorded in this book, and will now have a pathetic interest
+for his many friends and for all who admired his noble, earnest, and
+strenuous life.]
+
+
+
+THE PARISH CLERK
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+OLD-TIME CHOIRS AND PARSONS
+
+A remarkable feature in the conduct of our modern ecclesiastical
+services is the disappearance and painless extinction of the old parish
+clerk who figured so prominently in the old-fashioned ritual dear to the
+hearts of our forefathers. The Oxford Movement has much to answer for!
+People who have scarcely passed the rubicon of middle life can recall
+the curious scene which greeted their eyes each Sunday morning when life
+was young, and perhaps retain a tenderness for old abuses, and, like
+George Eliot, have a lingering liking for nasal clerks and top-booted
+clerics, and sigh for the departed shades of vulgar errors.
+
+Then and now--the contrast is great. Then the hideous Georgian
+"three-decker" reared its monstrous form, blocking out the sight of the
+sanctuary; immense pews like cattle-pens filled the nave. The woodwork
+was high and panelled, sometimes richly carved, as at Whalley Church,
+Lancashire, where some pews have posts at the corners like an
+old-fashioned four-posted bed. Sometimes two feet above the top of the
+woodwork there were brass rods on which slender curtains ran, and were
+usually drawn during sermon time in order that the attention of the
+occupants of the pew might not be distracted from devout meditations on
+the preacher's discourse--or was it to woo slumber? A Berkshire dame
+rather admired these old-fashioned pews, wherein, as she naively
+expressed it, "a body might sleep comfortable without all the parish
+knowin' on it."
+
+It was of such pews that Swift wrote in his _Baucis and Philemon_:
+
+     "A bedstead of the antique mode,
+     Compact of timber many a load,
+     Such as our ancestors did use
+     Was metamorphosed into pews;
+     Which still their ancient nature keep
+     By lodging folks disposed to sleep."
+
+The squire's pew was a wondrous structure, with its own special
+fire-place, the fire in which the old gentleman used to poke vigorously
+when the parson was too long in preaching. It was amply furnished, this
+squire's pew, with arm-chairs and comfortable seats and stools and
+books. Such a pew all furnished and adorned did a worthy clerk point out
+to the witty Bishop of Oxford, Bishop Wilberforce, with much pride and
+satisfaction. "If there be ought your lordship can mention to mak' it
+better, I'm sure Squire will no mind gettin' on it."
+
+The bishop, with a merry twinkle in his eye, turned round to the vicar,
+who was standing near, and maliciously whispered:
+
+"A card table!"
+
+Such comfortable squires' pews still exist in some churches, but
+"restoration" has paid scanty regard to old-fashioned notions and ideas,
+and the squire and his family usually sit nowadays on benches similar to
+those used by the rest of the congregation.
+
+Then the choir sat in the west gallery and made strange noises and sang
+curious tunes, the echoes of which we shall try to catch. No organ then
+pealed forth its reverent tones and awaked the church with dulcet
+harmonies: a pitch-pipe often the sole instrument. And then--what
+terrible hymns were sung! Well did Campbell say of Sternhold and
+Hopkins, the co-translators of the Psalms of David into English metre,
+"mistaking vulgarity for simplicity, they turned into bathos what they
+found sublime." And Tate and Brady's version, the "Dry Psalter" of
+"Samuel Oxon's" witticism, was little better. Think of the poetical
+beauties of the following lines, sung with vigour by a bald-headed
+clerk:
+
+     "My hairs are numerous, but few
+     Compared to th' enemies that me pursue."
+
+It was of such a clerk and of such psalmody that John Wilmot, Earl of
+Rochester, in the seventeenth century wrote his celebrated epigram:
+
+     "Sternhold and Hopkins had great qualms
+      When they translated David's Psalms,
+         To make the heart more glad;
+      But had it been poor David's fate
+      To hear thee sing and them translate,
+         By Jove, 'twould have drove him mad."
+
+When the time for singing the metrical Psalm arrived, the clerk gave out
+the number in stentorian tones, using the usual formula, "Let us sing to
+the praise and glory of God the one hundred and fourth Psalm, first,
+second, seving (seven), and eleving verses with the Doxology." Then,
+pulling out his pitch-pipe from the dusty cushions of his seat, he would
+strut pompously down the church, ascend the stairs leading to the west
+gallery, blow his pipe, and give the basses, tenors, and soprano voices
+their notes, which they hung on to in a low tone until the clerk
+returned to his place in the lowest tier of the "three-decker" and
+started the choir-folk vigorously. Those Doxologies at the end! What a
+trouble they were! You could find them if you knew where to look for
+them at the end of the Prayer Book after Tate and Brady's metrical
+renderings of the Psalms of David. There they were, but the right one
+was hard to find. Some had two syllables too much to suit the tune, and
+some had two syllables too little. But it did not matter very greatly,
+and we were accustomed to add a word here, or leave out one there; it
+was all in a day's work, and we went home with the comfortable
+reflection that we had done our best.
+
+But a pitch-pipe was not usually the sole instrument. Many village
+churches had their band, composed of fiddles, flutes, clarionets, and
+sometimes bassoons and a drum. "Let's go and hear the baboons," said a
+clerk mentioned by the Rev. John Eagles in his Essays. In order to
+preserve strict historical accuracy, I may add that this invitation was
+recorded in the year 1837, and therefore could have no reference to
+evolutionary theories and the Descent of Man. This clerk, who invariably
+read "Cheberims and Sepherims," and was always "a lion to my mother's
+children," looking not unlike one with his shaggy hair and beard, was
+not inviting a neighbour to a Sunday afternoon at the Zoo, but only to
+hear the bassoons.
+
+When the clerk gave out the hymn or Psalm, or on rare occasions the
+anthem, there was a strange sound of tuning up the instruments, and then
+the instruments wailed forth discordant melody. The clerk conducted the
+choir, composed of village lads and maidens, with a few stalwart basses
+and tenors. It was often a curious performance. Everybody sang as loud
+as he could bawl; cheeks and elbows were at their utmost efforts, the
+bassoon vying with the clarionet, the goose-stop of the clarionet with
+the bassoon--it was Babel with the addition of the beasts. And they were
+all so proud of their performance. It was the only part of the service
+during which no one could sleep, said one of them with pride--and he was
+right. No one could sleep through the terrible din. They were the most
+important officials in the church, for did not the Psalms make it clear,
+"The singers go before, and the minstrels" (which they understood to
+mean ministers) "follow after"? And then--those anthems! They were
+terrible inflictions. Every bumpkin had his favourite solo, and oh! the
+murder, the profanation! "Some put their trust in charrots and some in
+'orses," but they didn't "quite pat off the stephany," as one of the
+singers remarked, meaning symphony. It was all very strange and curious.
+
+Then followed the era of barrel-organs, the clerk's duty being to turn
+the handle and start the singing. He was the only person who understood
+its mechanism and how to change the barrels. Sometimes accidents
+happened, as at Aston Church, Yorkshire, some time in the thirties. One
+Sunday morning during the singing of a hymn the music came to a sudden
+stop. There was a solemn pause, and then the clerk was seen to make his
+way to the front of the singing gallery, and was heard addressing the
+vicar in a loud tone, saying, "Please, sor, an-ell 'as coom off." The
+handle had come off the instrument. At another church, in
+Huntingdonshire, the organ was hidden from view by drawn curtains,
+behind which the clerk used to retire when he had given out the Psalm.
+On one occasion, however, no sound of music issued from behind the
+curtains; at last, after a solemn pause, the clerk's quizzical face
+appeared, and his harsh voice shouted out, "Dang it, she 'on't speak!"
+The "grinstun organ," as David Diggs, the hero of Hewett's _Parish
+Clerk_ calls it, was not always to be depended on. Every one knows the
+Lancashire dialect story of the "Barrel Organ" which refused to stop,
+and had to be carried out of church and sat upon, and yet still
+continued to pour forth its dirge-like melody.
+
+David Diggs may not have been a strictly historical character, but the
+sketch of him was doubtless founded upon fact, and the account of the
+introduction of the barrel-organ into the church of "Seatown" on the
+coast of Sussex is evidently drawn from life. A vestry meeting was held
+to consider about having a _quire_ in church, and buying a barrel-organ
+with half a dozen simple Psalm tunes upon it, which Davy was to turn
+while the parson put his gown on, and the children taught to sing to.
+The clerk was ordered to write to the squire and ask him for a liberal
+subscription. This was his letter:
+
+     "Mr Squir, sur,
+
+     "Me & Farmer Field & the rest of the genelmen In vestri
+     sembled Thinks the parson want parish Relif in shape of A
+     Grindstun orgin betwin Survisses--i am to grind him & the
+     sundy skool kildren is to sing to him wile he Gos out of
+     is sete.
+
+     "We liv It to yuresef wart to giv as we dont wont to limit
+     yur malevolens
+
+     "Your obedunt servunt
+
+     "DAVY DIGGS."
+
+Of course this worthy scribe taught the children in the school, though
+writing was happily considered a superfluous accomplishment. He taught
+little beyond the Church Catechism and the Psalms, which he knew from
+frequent repetition, though he often wanted to imbue the infant minds
+entrusted to his charge with the Christening, Marriage, and Burial
+Services, and the Churching of Women, because he "know'd um by
+heart himself."
+
+The barrel-organ was scarcely a great improvement upon the "cornet,
+flute, sackbut, psaltery"--I mean the violins, 'cellos, clarionets, and
+bassoons which it supplanted. The music of the village musicians in the
+west gallery was certainly not of the highest order. The instruments
+were often out of tune, and the fiddle-player and the flutist were often
+at logger-heads; but it was a sad pity when their labours were brought
+to an end, and the mechanical organ took their place. The very fact that
+all these players took a keen interest in the conduct of Divine service
+was in itself an advantage.
+
+The barrel-organ killed the old musical life of the village. England was
+once the most musical nation in Europe. Puritanism tried to kill music.
+Organs were broken everywhere in the cathedrals and colleges, choirs
+dispersed and musical publications ceased. The professional players on
+violins, lutes, and flutes who had performed in the theatres or at Court
+wandered away into the villages, taught the rustics how to play on their
+beloved instruments in the taverns and ale-houses, and bequeathed their
+fiddles and clarionets to their rustic friends. Thus the rural orchestra
+had its birth, and right heartily did they perform not only in church,
+but at village feasts and harvest homes, wakes and weddings. The parish
+clerk was usually their leader, and was a welcome visitor in farm or
+cottage or at the manor when he conducted his companions to sing the
+Christmas carols.
+
+The barrel-organ sealed the fate of the village orchestra. The old
+fiddles were wanted no more, and were hung up in the cottages as relics
+of the "good old times." For a time the clerk preserved his dignity and
+continued to take his part in the music, turning the handle of
+the organ.
+
+Then the harmonium came, played by the school-mistress or some other
+village performer. No wonder the clerk was indignant. His musical
+autocracy had been overthrown. At one church--Swanscombe, Kent--when, in
+1854, the change had taken place, and a kind lady, Miss F----, had
+consented to play the new harmonium, the clerk, village cobbler and
+leader of parish orchestra, gave out the hymn in his accustomed fashion,
+and then, with consummate scorn, bellowed out, "Now, then, Miss F----,
+strike up!"
+
+It would have been a far wiser policy to have reformed the old village
+orchestra, to have taught the rustic musicians to play better, than to
+have silenced them for ever and substituted the "grinstun" instrument.
+
+[Illustration: THE VILLAGE CHOIR]
+
+Archbishop Tait once said that there is no one who does not look back
+with a kind of shame to the sort of sermons which were preached, the
+sort of clergymen who preached them, the sort of building in which they
+preached them, and the sort of psalmody with which the service was
+ushered in. The late Mr. Beresford Hope thus describes the kind of
+service that went on in the time of George IV in a market town of Surrey
+not far from London. It was a handsome Gothic church, the chancel being
+cut off from the nave by a solid partition covered with verses and
+strange paintings, among which Moses and Aaron show in peculiar
+uncouthness. The aisles were filled with family pews or private boxes,
+raised aloft, and approached by private doors and staircases. These were
+owned by the magnates of the place, who were wont to bow their
+recognitions across the nave. There was a decrepit west gallery for the
+band, and the ground floor was crammed with cranky pews of every shape.
+A Carolean pulpit stood against a pillar, with reading-desk and clerk's
+box underneath. The ante-Communion Service was read from the desk,
+separated from the liturgy and sermon by such renderings of Tate and
+Brady as the unruly gang of volunteers with fiddles and wind instruments
+in the gallery pleased to contribute. The clerk, a wizened old fellow in
+a brown wig, repeated the responses in a nasal twang, and with a
+substitution of _w_ for _v_ so constant as not even to spare the
+Beliefs; while the local rendering of briefs, citations, and
+excommunications included announcements by this worthy, after the Nicene
+Creed, of meetings at the town inn of the executors of a deceased duke.
+Two hopeful cubs of the clerk sprawled behind him in the desk, and the
+back-handers occasionally intended to reduce them to order were apt to
+resound against the impassive boards. During the sermon this zealous
+servant of the sanctuary would take up his broom and sweep out the
+middle alley, in order to save himself the fatigue of a weekday visit.
+Soon, however, the clerk and his broom followed Moses and Aaron, the
+fiddles and the bassoons into the land of shadows.
+
+No sketch of bygone times, in which the clerk flourished in all his
+glory, would be complete without some reference to the important person
+who occupied the second tier in the "three-decker," and decked in gown
+and bands delivered somnolent sermons from its upper storey. Curious
+stories are often told of the careless parsons of former days, of their
+irreverence, their love of sport, their neglect of their parishes, their
+quaint and irreverent manners; but such characters, about whom these
+stories were told, were exceptional. By far the greater number lived
+well and did their duty and passed away, and left no memories behind
+except in the tender recollections of a few simple-minded folk. There
+were few local newspapers in those days to tell their virtues, to print
+their sermons or their speeches at the opening of bazaars or
+flower-shows. They did their duty and passed away and were forgotten;
+while the parsons, like the wretch Chowne of the _Maid of Sker_, live on
+in anecdote, and grave folk shake their heads and think that the times
+must have been very bad, and the clergy a disgrace to their cloth. As
+with the clerk, so with his master; the evil that men do lives after
+them, the good is forgotten. There has been a vast amount of
+exaggeration in the accounts that have come down to us of the
+faithlessness, sluggishness, idleness, and base conduct of the clergy of
+the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and perhaps a little too
+much boasting about the progress which our age has witnessed.
+
+It would be an easy task to record the lives of many worthy country
+clergymen of the much-abused Hanoverian period, who were exemplary
+parish priests, pious, laborious, and beloved. In recording the
+eccentricities and lack of reverence of many clerics and their faithful
+servitors, it is well to remember the many bright lights that shone like
+lamps in a dark place.
+
+It would be a difficult task to write a history of our parish
+priesthood, for reasons which have already been stated, and such a
+labour is beyond our present purpose. But it may be well to record a few
+of the observations which contemporary writers have made upon the
+parsons of their day in order to show that they were by no means a set
+of careless, disreputable, and unworthy men.
+
+During the greater part of the eighteenth century there lived at
+Seathwaite, Lancashire, as curate, the famous Robert Walker, styled "the
+Wonderful," "a man singular for his temperance, industry, and
+integrity," as the parish register records.
+
+Wordsworth alludes to him in his eighteenth sonnet on Durdon as a worthy
+compeer of the country parson of Chaucer, and in the seventh book of the
+_Excursion_ an abstract of his character is given:
+
+     "A priest abides before whose lips such doubts
+     Fall to the ground, as in those days
+     When this low pile a gospel preacher knew
+     Whose good works formed an endless retinue;
+     A pastor such as Chaucer's verse portrays,
+     Such as the heaven-taught skill of Herbert drew,
+     And tender Goldsmith crown'd with deathless praise."
+
+The poet also gives a short memoir of the Wonderful Walker. In this
+occurs the following extract from a letter dated 1775:
+
+"By his frugality and good management he keeps the wolf from the door,
+as we say; and if he advances a little in the world it is owing more to
+his own care than to anything else he has to rely upon. I don't find his
+inclination in running after further preferment. He is settled among the
+people that are happy among themselves, and lives in the greatest
+unanimity and friendship with them; and, I believe, the minister and
+people are exceedingly satisfied with each other: and indeed, how should
+they be dissatisfied, when they have a person of so much worth and
+probity for their pastor? A man who for his candour and meekness, his
+sober, chaste, and virtuous conversation, his soundness in principle and
+practice, is an ornament to his profession and an honour to the country
+he is in; and bear with me if I say, the plainness of his dress, the
+sanctity of his manners, the simplicity of his doctrine, and the
+vehemence of his expression, have a sort of resemblance to the pure
+practice of primitive Christianity."
+
+The income of his chapelry was the munificent sum of £17 10 s. He reared
+and educated a numerous family of twelve children. Every Sunday he
+entertained those members of his congregation who came from a distance,
+taught the village school, acted as scrivener and lawyer for the
+district, farmed, and helped his neighbours in haymaking and
+sheep-shearing, spun cloth, studied natural history, and, in spite of
+all this, was throughout a devoted and earnest parish priest. He was
+certainly entitled to his epithet "the Wonderful."
+
+Goldsmith has given us a charming picture of an old-world parson in his
+_Vicar of Wakefield_, and Fielding sketches a no less worthy cleric in
+his portrait of the Rev. Abraham Adams in _his Joseph Andrews_. As a
+companion picture he drew the character of the pig-keeping Parson
+Trulliber, no scandalous cleric, though he cared more for his cows and
+pigs than he did for his parishioners.
+
+"Hawks should not peck out hawks' e'en," and parsons should not scoff at
+their fellows; yet Crabbe was a little unkind in his description of
+country parsons, though he could say little against the character of
+his vicar.
+
+     "Our Priest was cheerful and in season gay;
+     His frequent visits seldom fail'd to please;
+     Easy himself, he sought his neighbour's ease.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Simple he was, and loved the simple truth,
+     Yet had some useful cunning from his youth;
+     A cunning never to dishonour lent,
+     And rather for defence than conquest meant;
+     'Twas fear of power, with some desire to rise,
+     But not enough to make him enemies;
+     He ever aim'd to please; and to offend
+     Was ever cautious; for he sought a friend.
+     Fiddling and fishing were his arts, at times
+     He alter'd sermons, and he aimed at rhymes;
+     And his fair friends, not yet intent on cards,
+     Oft he amused with riddles and charades,
+     Mild were his doctrines, and not one discourse
+     But gained in softness what it lost in force;
+     Kind his opinions; he would not receive
+     An ill report, nor evil act believe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Now rests our vicar. They who knew him best
+     Proclaim his life t' have been entirely--rest.
+     The rich approved--of them in awe he stood;
+     The poor admired--they all believed him good;
+     The old and serious of his habits spoke;
+     The frank and youthful loved his pleasant joke;
+     Mothers approved a safe contented guest,
+     And daughters one who backed each small request;
+     In him his flock found nothing to condemn;
+     Him sectaries liked--he never troubled them;
+     No trifles failed his yielding mind to please,
+     And all his passions sunk in early ease;
+     Nor one so old has left this world of sin
+     More like the being that he entered in."
+
+A somewhat caustic and sarcastic sketch, and perhaps a little
+ill-natured, of a somewhat amiable cleric. Dr. Syntax is a good example
+of an old-world parson, whose biographer thus describes his
+laborious life:
+
+     "Of Church preferment he had none;
+     Nay, all his hope of that was gone;
+     He felt that he content must be
+     With drudging-in a curacy.
+     Indeed, on ev'ry Sabbath-day,
+     Through eight long miles he took his way,
+     To preach, to grumble, and to pray;
+     To cheer the good, to warn the sinner,
+     And if he got it,--eat a dinner:
+     To bury these, to christen those,
+     And marry such fond folks as chose
+     To change the tenor of their life,
+     And risk the matrimonial strife.
+     Thus were his weekly journeys made,
+     'Neath summer suns and wintry shade;
+     And all his gains, it did appear,
+     Were only thirty pounds a-year."
+
+And when the last event of his hard-working life was over--
+
+     "The village wept, the hamlets round
+     Crowded the consecrated ground;
+     And waited there to see the end
+     Of Pastor, Teacher, Father, Friend."
+
+Who could write a better epitaph?
+
+Doubtless the crying evil of what is called "the dead period" of the
+Church's history was pluralism. It was no uncommon thing for a clergyman
+to hold half a dozen benefices, in one of which he would reside, and
+appoint curates with slender stipends to the rest, only showing himself
+"when tithing time draws near."
+
+When Bishop Stanley became Bishop of Norwich in 1837 there were six
+hundred non-resident incumbents, a state of things which he did a vast
+amount of work to remedy. Mr. Clitherow tells me of a friend who was
+going to be married and who requested a neighbour to take his two
+services for him during his brief honeymoon. The neighbour at first
+hesitated, but at last consented, having six other services to take on
+the one Sunday.
+
+An old clergyman named Field lived at Cambridge and served three country
+parishes--Hauxton, Newton, and Barnington. On Sunday morning he used to
+ride to Hauxton, which he could see from the high road to Newton. If
+there was a congregation, the clerk used to waggle his hat on the top of
+a long pole kept in the church porch, and Field had to turn down the
+road and take the service. If there was no congregation he went on
+straight to Newton, where there was always a congregation, as two old
+ladies were always present. Field used to turn his pony loose in the
+churchyard, and as he entered the church began the Exhortation, so that
+by the time he was robed he had progressed well through the service. My
+informant, the Rev. M.J. Bacon, was curate at Newton, and remembers well
+the old surplice turned up and shortened at the bottom, where the old
+parson's spurs had frayed it.
+
+It was this pluralism that led to much abuse, much neglect, and much
+carelessness. However, enough has been said about the shepherd, and we
+must return to his helper, the clerk, with whose biography and history
+we are mainly concerned.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE ANTIQUITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE OFFICE OF CLERK
+
+The office of parish clerk can claim considerable antiquity, and dates
+back to the times of Augustine and King Ethelbert. Pope Gregory the
+Great, in writing to St. Augustine of Canterbury with regard to the
+order and constitution of the Church in new lands and under new
+circumstances, laid down sundry regulations with regard to the clerk's
+marriage and mode of life. King Ethelbert, by the advice of his
+Witenagemote, introduced certain judicial decrees, which set down what
+satisfaction should be given by those who stole anything belonging to
+the church. The purloiner of a clerk's property was ordered to restore
+threefold[2]. The canons of King Edgar, which may be attributed to the
+wise counsel of St. Dunstan, ordered every clergyman to attend the synod
+yearly and to bring his clerk with him.
+
+[Footnote 2: Bede's _Hist. Eccles_., ii. v.]
+
+Thus from early Saxon times the history of the office can be traced.
+
+His name is merely the English form of the Latin _clericus_, a word
+which signified any one who took part in the services of the Church,
+whether he was in major or minor orders. A clergyman is still a "clerk
+in Holy Orders," and a parish clerk signified one who belonged to the
+rank of minor orders and assisted the parish priest in the services of
+the parish church. We find traces of him abroad in early days. In the
+seventh century, the canons of the Ninth Council of Toledo and of the
+Council of Merida tell of his services in the worship of the sanctuary,
+and in the ninth century he has risen to prominence in the Gallican
+Church, as we gather from the inquiries instituted by Archbishop
+Hincmar, of Rheims, who demanded of the rural deans whether each
+presbyter had a clerk who could keep school, or read the epistle, or was
+able to sing.
+
+In the decretals of Gregory IX there is a reference to the clerk's
+office, and his duties obtain the sanction of canon law. Every incumbent
+is ordered to have a clerk who shall sing with him the service, read the
+epistle and lesson, teach in the school, and admonish the parishioners
+to send their children to the church to be instructed in the faith. It
+was thus in ancient days that the Church provided for the education of
+children, a duty which she has always endeavoured to perform. Her
+officers were the schoolmasters. The weird cry of the abolition of tests
+for teachers was then happily unknown.
+
+The strenuous Bishop Grosseteste (1235-53), for the better ordering of
+his diocese of Lincoln, laid down the injunction that "in every church
+of sufficient means there shall be a deacon or sub-deacon; but in the
+rest a fitting and honest clerk to serve the priest in a comely habit."
+The clerk's office was also discussed in the same century at a synod at
+Exeter in 1289, when it was decided that where there was a school within
+ten miles of any parish some scholar should be chosen for the office of
+parish clerk. This rule provided for poor scholars who intended to
+proceed to the priesthood, and also secured suitable teachers for the
+children of the parishes.
+
+It appears that an attempt was made to enforce celibacy on the holders
+of minor orders, an experiment which was not crowned with success.
+William Lyndewoode, Official Principal of the Archbishop of Canterbury
+in 1429, speaks thus of the married clerk:--
+
+"He is a clerk, not therefore a layman; but if twice married he must be
+counted among laymen, because such an one is deprived of all clerical
+privilege. If, however, he were married, albeit not twice, yet so long
+as he wears the clerical habit and tonsure he shall be held a clerk in
+two respects, to wit, that he may enjoy the clerical privilege in his
+person, and that he may not be brought before the secular judges. But in
+all other respects he shall be considered as a layman."
+
+In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the parish clerks became
+important officials. We shall see presently how they were incorporated
+into fraternities or guilds, and how they played a prominent part in
+civic functions, in state funerals, and in ecclesiastical matters. The
+Reformation rather added to than diminished the importance of the office
+and the dignity of the holder of it.
+
+[Illustration: THE MEDIĈVAL CLERK]
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK IN PROCESSION]
+
+The continuity of the office is worthy of record. From the days of
+Augustine to the present time it has never ceased to exist. The clerk is
+the last representative of the minor orders which the ecclesiastical
+changes wrought in the sixteenth century have left us. Prior to the
+Reformation there were sub-deacons who wore alb and maniple, acolytes,
+the tokens of whose office were a taper staff and small pitcher,
+ostiaries or doorkeepers corresponding to our verger or clerk, readers,
+exorcists, _rectores chori_, etc. This full staff would, of course,
+be not available for every country church, and for such parishes a clerk
+and a boy acolyte doubtless sufficed, though in large churches there
+were representatives of all these various officials. They disappeared in
+the Reformation; only the clerk remained, incorporating in his own
+person the offices of reader, acolyte, sub-deacon.
+
+Indeed, if in these enlightened days any proof were needed of the
+historical continuity of the English Church, it would be found in the
+permanence of the clerk's office. Just as in many instances the same
+individual rector or vicar continued to hold his living during the whole
+period of the Reformation era, witnessing the spoliation of his church
+by the greedy Commissioners of Henry VIII and Edward VI, the
+introduction of the First Prayer Book of Edward VI, the revival of the
+"old religion" under Queen Mary, the triumph of Reformation principles
+under Queen Elizabeth; so did the parish clerk continue to hold office
+also. The Reformation changed many of his functions and duties, but the
+office remained. The old churchwardens' account books bear witness to
+this fact. Previous to the Reformation he received certain wages and
+many "perquisites" from the inhabitants of the parish for distributing
+the holy loaf and the holy water. At St. Giles's, Reading, in the year
+1518-19, appears the item:
+
+EXPENS. In p'mis paid for the dekays of the Clark's wages vis.
+
+In the following year we notice:
+
+     WAGE. Paid to Harry Water Clerk for his wage for a yere ended
+     at thannacon of our lady a° xi° ... xxvi s. viii d.
+
+In 1545-6, Whitborne, the clerk, received 12 s. towards his wages, and
+he "to be bound to teche ij children free for the quere."
+
+After the Reformation, in the same town we find the same clerk
+continuing in office. He no longer went round the parish bearing holy
+water, but the collecting of money for the holy loaf continued, the
+proceeds being devoted to the necessary expenses of the church. Thus in
+the Injunctions given by the King's Majesty's visitors to the clergy and
+laity resident in the Deanery of Doncaster in the second year of the
+reign of King Edward VI, appears the following:
+
+"_Item_. The churchwardens of every Parish-Church shall, some one
+_Sunday_, or other Festival day, every month, go about the Church, and
+make request to every of the Parish for their charitable Contribution to
+the Poor; and the sum so collected shall be put in the Chest of Alms for
+that purpose provided. And for as much as the Parish-Clerk shall not
+hereafter go about the Parish with his Holy Water as hath been
+accustomed, he shall, instead of that labour, accompany the said
+Church-Wardens, and in a Book Register the name and Sum of every man
+that giveth any thing to the Poor, and the same shall intable; and
+against the next day of Collection, shall hang up somewhere in the
+Church in open place, to the intent the Poor having knowledge thereby,
+by whose Charity and Alms they be relieved, may pray for the increase
+and prosperity of the same[3]."
+
+[Footnote 3: _The Clerk's Book of 1549_, edited by J. Wickham Legg,
+Appendix IX, p. 95.]
+
+This is only one instance out of many which might be quoted to prove
+that the clerk's office by no means ceased to exist after the
+Reformation changes. I shall refer later on to the survival of the
+collection of money for the holy loaf and to its transference to
+other uses.
+
+The clerk, therefore, appears to have continued to hold his office
+shorn of some of his former duties. He witnessed all the changes of that
+changeful time, the spoliation of his church, the selling of numerous
+altar cloths, vestments, banners, plate, and other costly furniture,
+and, moreover, took his part in the destruction of altars and the
+desecration of the sanctuary. In the accounts for the year 1559 of the
+Church of St. Lawrence, Reading, appear the items:
+
+"Itm--for taking-downe the awlters and laying the stones, vs.
+
+"To Loryman (the clerk) for carrying out the rubbish x d[4]."
+
+[Footnote 4: Rev. C. Kerry's _History of S. Lawrence's Church, Reading_,
+p. 25.]
+
+Indeed, the clerk can claim a more perfect continuity of office than the
+rector or vicar. There was a time when the incumbents were forced to
+leave their cure and give place to an intruding minister appointed by
+the Cromwellian Parliament. But the clerk remained on to chant his
+"Amen" to the long-winded prayers of some black-gowned Puritan. That is
+a very realistic scene sketched by Sir Walter Besant when he describes
+the old clerk, an ancient man and rheumatic, hobbling slowly through the
+village, key in hand, to the church door. It was towards the end of the
+Puritan regime. After ringing the bell and preparing the church for the
+service, he goes into the vestry, where stood an ancient black oak
+coffer, the sides curiously graven, and a great rusty key in the lock.
+The clerk (Sir Walter calls him the sexton, but it is evidently the
+clerk who is referred to) turns the key with difficulty, throws open the
+lid, and looks in.
+
+"Ay," he says, chuckling, "the old surplice and the old Book of Common
+Prayer. Ye have had a long rest; 'tis time for you both to come out
+again. When the surplice is out, the book will stay no longer locked
+up." He draws forth an old and yellow roll. It was the surplice which
+had once been white. "Here you be," he says; "put you away for a matter
+of twelve year and more, and you bide your time; you know you will come
+back again; you are not in any hurry. Even the clerk dies; but you die
+not, you bide your time. Everything comes again. The old woman shall
+give you a taste o' the suds and the hot iron. Thus we go up and thus we
+go down." Then he takes up the old book, musty and damp after twelve
+years' imprisonment. "Fie," he says, "thy leather is parting from thy
+boards, and thy leaves they do stick together. Shalt have a pot of
+paste, and then lie in the sun before thou goest back to the desk.
+Whether 'tis Mass or Common Prayer, whether 'tis Independent or
+Presbyterian, folk mun still die and be buried--ay, and married and
+born--whatever they do say. Parson goes and Preacher comes; Preacher
+goes and Parson comes; but Sexton stays." He chuckles again, puts back
+the surplice and the book, and locks the coffer[5].
+
+[Footnote 5: _For Faith and Freedom_, by Sir Walter Besant, chap. 1.]
+
+Like many of his brethren, he had seen the Church of England displaced
+by the Presbyterians, and the Presbyterians by the Independents, and the
+restoration of the Church. His father, who had been clerk before him,
+had seen the worship of the "old religion" in Queen Mary's time, and all
+the time the village life had been going on, and the clerk's work had
+continued; his office remained. In village churches the duties of clerk
+and sexton are usually performed by the same person. Not long ago a
+gentleman was visiting a village church, and was much struck by the
+remarks of an old man who seemed to know each stone and tomb and legend.
+The stranger asking him what his occupation was, he replied:
+
+"I hardly know what I be. First vicar he called me clerk; then another
+came, and he called me virgin; the last vicar said I were the Christian,
+and now I be clerk again."
+
+The "virgin" was naturally a slight confusion for verger, and the
+"christian" was a corrupt form of sacristan or sexton. All the duties of
+these various callings were combined in the one individual.
+
+That story reminds one of another concerning the diligent clerk of
+R----, who, in addition to the ordinary duties of his office, kept the
+registers and acted as groom, gardener, and footman at the rectory. A
+rather pompous rector's wife used to like to refer at intervals during a
+dinner-party to "our coachman says," "our gardener always does this,"
+"our footman is ...," leaving the impression of a somewhat large
+establishment. The dear old rector used to disturb the vision of a large
+retinue by saying, "They are all one--old Corby, the clerk."
+
+One of the chief characteristics of old parish clerks, whether in
+ancient or modern times, is their faithfulness to their church and to
+their clergyman. We notice this again and again in the biographies of
+many of these worthy men which it has been a privilege to study. The
+motto of the city of Exeter, _Semper fidelis_, might with truth have
+been recorded as the legend of their class. This fidelity must have been
+sorely tried in the sad days of the Commonwealth period, when the
+sufferings of the clergy began, and the poor clerk had to bid farewell
+to his beloved pastor and welcome and "sit under" some hard-visaged
+Presbyterian or Puritan preacher.
+
+Isaac Walton tells the pathetic story of the faithful clerk of the
+parish of Borne, near Canterbury, where the "Judicious" Hooker was
+incumbent. The vicar and clerk were on terms of great affection, and
+Hooker was of "so mild and humble a nature that his poor clerk and he
+did never talk but with both their hats on, or both off, at the
+same time."
+
+This same clerk lived on in the quiet village until the third or fourth
+year of the Long Parliament. Hooker died and was buried at Borne, and
+many people used to visit his monument, and the clerk had many rewards
+for showing his grave-place, and often heard his praises sung by the
+visitors, and used to add his own recollections of his holiness and
+humility. But evil days came; the parson of Borne was sequestered, and a
+Genevan minister put into his good living. The old clerk, seeing so many
+clergymen driven from their homes and churches, used to say, "They have
+sequestered so many good men, that I doubt if my good Master Hooker had
+lived till now, they would have sequestered him too."
+
+Walton then describes the conversion of the church into a Genevan
+conventicle. He wrote: "It was not long before this intruding minister
+had made a party in and about the said parish that was desirous to
+receive the sacrament as at Geneva: to which end, the day was appointed
+for a select company, and forms and stools set about the altar or
+communion table for them to sit and eat and drink; but when they went
+about this work, there was a want of some joint-stools which the
+minister sent the clerk to fetch, and then to fetch cushions. When the
+clerk saw them begin to sit down, he began to wonder; but the minister
+bade him cease wondering and lock the church door: to whom he replied,
+'Pray take you the keys, and lock me out: I will never more come into
+this church; for men will say my Master Hooker was a good man and a
+great scholar; and I am sure it was not used to be thus in his days':
+and report says this old man went presently home and died; I do not say
+died immediately, but within a few days after. But let us leave this
+grateful clerk in his quiet grave."
+
+Another faithful clerk was William Hobbes, who served in the church and
+parish of St. Andrew, Plymouth. Walker, in his _Sufferings of the
+Clergy_, records the sad story of his death. During the troubles of the
+Civil War period, when presumably there was no clergyman to perform the
+last rites of the Church on the body of a parishioner, the good clerk
+himself undertook the office, and buried a corpse, using the service for
+the Burial of the Dead contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The
+Puritans were enraged, and threatened to throw him into the same grave
+if he came there again with his "Mass-book" to bury any body: which
+"worked so much upon his Spirits, that partly with Fear and partly with
+Grief, he Died soon after." He died in 1643, and the accounts of the
+church show that the balance of his salary was paid to his widow.
+
+Many such faithful clerks have devoted their years of active life to the
+service of God in His sanctuary, both in ancient and modern times; and
+it will be our pleasurable duty to record some of the biographies of
+these earnest servants of the Church, whose services are too often
+disregarded.
+
+I have mentioned the continuity of the clerk's office, unbroken by
+either Reformation changes or by the confusion of the Puritan regime. We
+will now endeavour to sketch the appearance of the mediĉval clerk, and
+the numerous duties which fell to his lot.
+
+Chaucer's gallery of ancient portraits contains a very life-like
+presentment of a mediĉval clerk in the person of "Jolly Absolon," a
+somewhat frivolous specimen of his class, who figures largely in _The
+Miller's Tale_.
+
+     "Now was ther of that churche a parish clerk
+     The which that was y-cleped[6] Absolon.
+     Curl'd was his hair, and as the gold it shone,
+     And strutted[7] as a fannë large and broad;
+     Full straight and even lay his folly shode.[8]
+     His rode[9] was red, his eyen grey as goose,
+     With Paulë's windows carven on his shoes.[10]
+     In hosen red he went full febishly.[11]
+     Y-clad he was full small and properly,
+     All in a kirtle of a light waget;[12]
+     Full fair and thickë be the pointës set.
+     And thereupon he had a gay surplice,
+     As white as is the blossom on the rise.[13]
+     A merry child he was, so God me save;
+     Well could he letten blood, and clip, and shave,
+     And make a charter of land and a quittance.
+     In twenty manners could he trip and dance,
+     After the school of Oxenfordë tho',[14]
+     And with his leggës castë to and fro;
+     And playen songës or a small ribible;[15]
+     Thereto he sung sometimes a loud quinible.[16]
+     And as well could he play on a gitern.[17]
+     In all the town was brewhouse nor tavern
+     That he not visited with his solas,[18]
+     There as that any gaillard tapstere[19] was.
+       This Absolon, that jolly was and gay
+       Went with a censor on the holy day,
+       Censing the wivës of the parish fast:
+       And many a lovely look he on them cast,
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+       Sometimes to show his lightness and mast'ry
+       He playeth Herod on a scaffold high."
+
+[Footnote 6: Called.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Stretched.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Head of hair.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Complexion.]
+
+[Footnote 10: His shoes were decked with an ornament like a rose-window
+in old St. Paul's.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Daintily.]
+
+[Footnote 12: A kind of cloth.]
+
+[Footnote 13: A bush.]
+
+[Footnote 14: The Oxford school of dancing is satirised by the poet.]
+
+[Footnote 15: A kind of fiddle.]
+
+[Footnote 16: Treble.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Guitar.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Sport, mirth.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Tavern-wench.]
+
+I fear me Master Absolon was a somewhat frivolous clerk, or his memory
+has been traduced by the poet's pen, which lacked not satire and a
+caustic but good-humoured wit. Here was a parish clerk who could sing
+well, though he did not confine his melodies to "Psalms and hymns and
+spiritual songs." He wore a surplice; he was an accomplished scrivener,
+and therefore a man of some education; he could perform the offices of
+the barber-surgeon, and one of his duties was to cense the people in
+their houses. He was an actor of no mean repute, and took a leading part
+in the mysteries or miracle-plays, concerning which we shall have more
+to tell. He even could undertake the prominent part of Herod, which
+doubtless was an object of competition among the amateurs of the period.
+Such is the picture which Chaucer draws of the frivolous clerk, a sketch
+which is accurate enough as far as it goes, and one that we will
+endeavour to fill in with sundry details culled from medieval sources.
+
+Chaucer tells us that Jolly Absolon used to go to the houses of the
+parishioners on holy days with his censer. His more usual duty was to
+bear to them the holy water, and hence he acquired the title of
+_aquĉbajalus_. This holy water consisted of water into which, after
+exorcism, blest salt had been placed, and then duly sanctified with the
+sign of the cross and sacerdotal benediction. We can see the clerk clad
+in his surplice setting out in the morning of Sunday on his rounds. He
+is carrying a holy-water vat, made of brass or wood, containing the
+blest water, and in his hand is an _aspergillum_ or sprinkler. This
+consists of a round brush of horse-hair with a short handle. When the
+clerk arrives at the great house of the village he first enters the
+kitchen, and seeing the cook engaged on her household duties, he dips
+the sprinkler into the holy-water vessel and shakes it towards her, as
+in the accompanying illustration. Then he visits the lord and lady of
+the manor, who are sitting at meat in their solar, and asperges them in
+like manner. For his pains he receives from every householder some gift,
+and goes on his way rejoicing. Bishop Alexander, of Coventry, however,
+in his constitutions drawn up in the year 1237, ordered that no clerk
+who serves in a church may live from the fees derived from this source,
+and the penalty of suspension was to be inflicted on any one who should
+transgress this rule. The constitutions of the parish clerks at Trinity
+Church, Coventry, made in 1462, are a most valuable source of
+information with regard to the clerk's duties.
+
+The following items refer to the orders relating to the holy water:
+
+     "Item, the dekyn shall bring a woly water stoke with water
+     for hys preste every Sonday for the preste to make
+     woly water.
+
+     "Item, the said dekyn shall every Sonday beyr woly water of
+     hys chyldern to euery howse in hys warde, and he to have hys
+     duty off euery man affter hys degre quarterly."
+
+At the church of St. Nicholas, Bristol, in 1481, it was ordered that the
+"Clerke to ordeynn spryngals[20] for the church, and for him that
+visiteth the Sondays and dewly to bere his holy water to euery howse
+Abyding soo convenient a space that every man may receive hys Holy water
+under payne of iiii d. tociens quociens."
+
+[Footnote 20: Bunches of twigs for sprinkling holy water.]
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK BEARING HOLY WATER AND ASPERGING THE COOK]
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK BEARING HOLY WATER AND ASPERGING THE LORD AND
+LADY]
+
+At Faversham a set of parish clerk's duties of the years 1506, 1548, and
+1593 is preserved. In the rules ordained for his guidance in the
+first-mentioned year he with his assistant clerk is ordered to bear holy
+water to every man's house, as of old time hath been accustomed; in case
+of default he shall forfeit 8 d.; but if he shall be very much occupied
+on account of a principal feast falling on a Sunday or with any pressing
+parochial business, he is to be excused.
+
+A mighty dissension disturbed the equanimity of the little parish of
+Morebath in the year 1531 and continued for several years. The quarrel
+arose concerning the dues to be paid to the parish clerk, a small number
+of persons refusing to pay the just demands. After much disputing they
+finally came to an agreement, and one of the items was that the clerk
+should go about the parish with his holy water once a year, when men had
+shorn their sheep to gather some wool to make him a coat to go in the
+parish in his livery. There are many other items in the agreement to
+which we shall have occasion again to refer. Let us hope that the good
+people of Morebath settled down amicably after this great "storm in a
+tea-cup"; but this godly union and concord could not have lasted very
+long, as mighty changes were in progress, and much upsetting of
+old-established custom and practice.
+
+The clerk continued in many parishes to make his accustomed round of the
+houses, and collected money which was used for the defraying of the
+expenses of public worship; but he left behind him his sprinkler and
+holy-water vat, which accorded not with the principles and tenets, the
+practice and ceremonies of the reformed Church of England.
+
+This was, however, one of the minor duties of the mediĉval clerk, and
+the custom of giving offerings to him seems to have started with a
+charitable intent. The constitutions of Archbishop Boniface of
+Canterbury issued in 1260 state:
+
+"We have often heard from our elders that the benefices of holy water
+were originally instituted from a motive of charity, in order that one
+of their proper poor clerks might have exhibitions to the schools, and
+so advance in learning, that they might be fit for higher preferment."
+
+He had many other and more important duties to perform, duties requiring
+a degree of education far superior to that which we are accustomed to
+associate with the holders of his office. We will endeavour to obtain a
+truer sketch of him than even that drawn by Chaucer, and to realise the
+multitudinous duties which fell to his lot, and the great services he
+rendered to God and to his Church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MEDIĈVAL CLERK
+
+At the present time loud complaints are frequently heard of a lack of
+clergy. Rectors and vicars are sighing for assistant curates, the vast
+populations of our great cities require additional ministration, and the
+mission field is crying out for more labourers to reap the harvests of
+the world. It might be well in this emergency to inquire into the
+methods of the mediĉval Church, and observe how the clergy in those days
+faced the problem, and gained for themselves tried and trusty helpers.
+
+One method of great utility was to appoint poor scholars to the office
+of parish clerk, by a due discharge of the duties of which they were
+trained to serve in church and in the parish, and might ultimately hope
+to attain to the ministry. This is borne out by the evidence of wills
+wherein some good incumbent, grateful for the faithful services of his
+clerk, bequeaths either books or money to him, in order to enable him to
+prepare himself for higher preferment. Thus in 1389 the rector of Marum,
+one Robert de Weston, bequeaths to "John Penne, my clerk, a missal of
+the New Use of Sarum, if he wishes to be a priest, otherwise I give him
+20 s." In 1337 Giles de Gadlesmere leaves "to William Ockam, clerk, two
+shillings, unless he be promoted before my death." Evidently it was no
+unusual practice in early times for the clerk to be raised to Holy
+Orders, his office being regarded as a stepping-stone to higher
+preferment. The status of the clerk was then of no servile character.
+
+A canon of Newburgh asked for Sir William Plumpton's influence that his
+brother might have a clerkship[21]. Even the sons of kings and lords did
+not consider it beneath the dignity of their position to perform the
+duties of a clerk, and John of Athon considered the office of so much
+importance that he gave the following advice to any one who held it:
+
+[Footnote 21: _Plumpton Correspondence_, Camden Society, 1839, P. 66,
+_temp_. Henry VII.]
+
+"Whoever you may be, although the son of king, do not blush to go up to
+the book in church, and read and sing; but if you know nothing of
+yourself, follow those who do know."
+
+It is recorded in the chronicle of Ralph de Coggeshall that Richard I
+used to take great delight in divine service on the principal festivals;
+going hither and thither in the choir, encouraging the singers by voice
+and hand to sing louder. In the _Life of Sir Thomas More_, written by
+William Roper, we find an account of that charming incident in the
+career of the great and worthy Lord Chancellor, when he was discovered
+by the Duke of Norfolk, who had come to Chelsea to dine with him,
+singing in the choir and wearing a surplice during the service of the
+Mass. After the conclusion of the service host and guest walked arm in
+arm to the house of Sir Thomas More.
+
+"God's body, my Lord Chancellor, what turned Parish Clerk? You dishonour
+the King and his office very much," said the Duke.
+
+"Nay," replied Sir Thomas, smiling, "your grace may not think that the
+King, your master and mine, will be offended with me for serving his
+Master, or thereby account his service any way dishonoured."
+
+We will endeavour to sketch the daily and Sunday duties of a parish
+clerk, follow in his footsteps, and observe his manners and customs, as
+they are set forth in mediĉval documents.
+
+He lived in a house near the church which was specially assigned to him,
+and often called the clerk's house. He had a garden and glebe. In the
+churchwardens' accounts of St. Giles's Church, Reading, there is an item
+in 1542-3:--"Paid for a latice to the clerkes hous ii s. x d." There was
+a clerk's house in St. Mary's parish, in the same town, which is
+frequently mentioned in the accounts (A.D. 1558-9).
+
+"RESOLUTES for the guyet Rent of the Clerkes Howse xii d. 1559-60.
+
+"RENTES to farme and at will. Of the tenement at Cornyshe Crosse called
+the clerkes howse by the yere vi s. viii d."
+
+It appears that the house was let, and the sum received for rent was
+part of the clerk's stipend. This is borne out by the following entry:--
+
+"Md' that yt ys aggreed that the clerke most have for the office of the
+sexten But xx s. That ys for Ringing of the Bell vs for the quarter and
+the clerkes wayges by the howse[22]."
+
+[Footnote 22: _Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary's, Reading_, by
+F.N.A. and A.G. Garry, p. 42.]
+
+Doubtless there still remain many such houses attached to the clerkship,
+as in the Act of 7 & 8 Victoria, c. 59, sect. 6, it is expressly stated
+that any clerk dismissed from his office shall give up any house,
+building, land, or premises held or occupied by virtue or in respect of
+such office, and that if he fail to do so the bishop can take steps for
+his ejection therefrom. Mr. Wickham Legg has collected several other
+instances of the existence of clerks' houses. At St. Michael's
+Worcester, there was one, as in 1590 a sum was paid for mending it. At
+St. Edmund's, Salisbury, the clerk had a house and garden in 1653. At
+Barton Turf, Norfolk, three acres are known as "dog-whipper's land," the
+task of whipping dogs out of churches being part of the clerk's duties,
+as we shall notice more particularly later on. The rent of this land was
+given to the clerk. At Saltwood, Kent, the clerk had a house and garden,
+which have recently been sold[23].
+
+[Footnote 23: _The Clerk's Book of 1549_, edited by J. Wickham Legg,
+lvi.]
+
+Archbishop Sancroft, at Fressingfield, caused a comfortable cottage to
+be built for the parish clerk, and also a kind of hostelry for the
+shelter and accommodation of persons who came from a distant part of
+that large scattered parish to attend the church, so that they might
+bring their cold provisions there, and take their luncheon in the
+interval between the morning and the afternoon service.
+
+There was a clerk's house at Ringmer. In the account of the beating of
+the bounds of the parish in Rogation week, 1683, it is recorded that at
+the close of the third day the procession arrived at the Crab Tree, when
+the people sang a psalm, and "our minister read the epistle and gospel,
+to request and supplicate the blessing of God upon the fruits of the
+earth. Then did Mr. Richard Gunn invite all the company to _the clerk's
+house_, where he expended at his own charge a barrell of beer, besides a
+plentiful supply of provisions: and so ended our third and last day's
+perambulation[24]."
+
+[Footnote 24: _Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, by T.F.
+Thiselton-Dyer, p. 197.]
+
+In his little house the clerk lived and tended his garden when he was
+not engaged upon his ecclesiastical duties. He was often a married man,
+although those who were intending to proceed to the higher orders in the
+Church would naturally be celibate. Pope Gregory, in writing to St.
+Augustine of Canterbury, offered no objections to the marriage of
+clerks. Lyndewoode shows a preference for the unmarried clerk, but if
+such could not be found, a married clerk might perform his duties.
+Numerous wills are in existence which show that very frequently the
+clerk was blest with a wife, inasmuch as he left his goods to her; and
+in one instance, at Hull, John Huyk, in 1514, expresses his wish to be
+buried beside his wife in the wedding porch of the church[25].
+
+[Footnote 25: Injunction by John Bishop of Norwich (1561), B. i b.,
+quoted by Mr. Legg in _The Parish Clerk's Book_, p. xlii.]
+
+One courageous clerk's wife did good service to her husband, who had
+dared to speak insultingly of the high and mighty John of Gaunt. He held
+office in the church of St. Peter-the-Less, in the City of London, in
+1378. His wife was so persevering in her behests and so constant in her
+appeals for justice, that she won her suit and obtained her husband's
+release[26].
+
+[Footnote 26: Riley's _Memorials of London_, 1868, p. 425.]
+
+We have the picture, then, of the mediĉval clerk in his little house
+nigh the church surrounded by his wife and children, or as a bachelor
+intent upon preferment poring over his Missal, if he did not sometimes
+emulate the frivolous feats of Chaucer's "Jolly Absolon."
+
+At early dawn he sallied forth to perform his earliest duty of opening
+the church doors and ringing the day-bell. The ringing of bells seems to
+have been a fairly constant employment of the clerk, though in some
+churches this duty was mainly performed by the sexton, but the aid of
+the clerk was demanded whenever it was needed. According to the
+constitution of the parish clerks at Trinity Church, Coventry, made in
+1462, he was ordered every day to open the church doors at 6 a.m., and
+deliver to the priest who sang the Trinity Mass a book and a chalice and
+vestment, and when Mass was finished to see that these goods of the
+church be deposited in safety in the vestry. He had to ring all the
+people in to Matins, together with his fellow-clerk, at every
+commemoration and feast of IX lessons, and see that the books were ready
+for the priest. Again for High Mass he rang and sang in the choir. At 3
+p.m. he rang for Evensong, and sang the service in the south side of the
+choir, his assistant occupying the north side. On weekdays they sang the
+Psalms and responses antiphonally, and on Sundays and holy-days acted as
+_rectores chori_, each one beginning the verses of the Psalms for his
+own side. He had to be very careful that the books were all securely
+locked up in the vestry, and the church locked at a convenient hour,
+having searched the building to see lest any one was lying in any seat
+or corner. On Sundays and holidays he had to provide a clerk or "dekyn"
+to read the gospel at High Mass. The sweeping of the floor of the
+church, the cleaning of the leaden roofs, and sweeping away the snow
+from the gutters "leste they be stoppyd," also came under his care. The
+bells he also kept in order, examining the clappers and bawdricks and
+ropes, and reporting to the churchwardens if they required mending. His
+assistant had to grease the bells when necessary, and find the
+materials. He had to tend the lamp and to fetch oil and rychys
+(rushes), and fix banners on holidays, fold up the albs and vestments.
+On Saturdays and on the eve of saints' days he had to ring the noon-tide
+bell, and to ring the sanctus bell every Sunday and holy-day, and during
+processions.
+
+Special seasons brought their special duties, and directions are
+minutely given with regard to every point to be observed. On Palm Sunday
+he was ordered to set a form at the priory door for the stations of the
+Cross, so that a crucifix or rood should be set there for the priest to
+sing _Ave rex_. He had to provide palms for that Sunday, watch the
+Easter sepulchre "till the resurrecion be don," and then take down the
+"lenten clothys" about the altar and the rood. In Easter week, when a
+procession was made, he bore the chrismatory. At the beginning of Lent
+he was ordered to help the churchwardens to cover the altar and rood
+with "lentyn clothys" and to hang the vail in the choir. The pulley
+which worked this vail is still to be seen in some churches, as at
+Uffington, Berks. For this labour the churchwardens were to give money
+to the clerk for drink. The great bell had to be rung for compline every
+Saturday in Lent. At Easter and Whit-Sunday the clerk was required to
+hang a towel about the font, and see that three "copys" (copes) be
+brought down to the font for the priests to sing _Rex sanctorum_.
+
+It was evidently considered the duty of the churchwardens to deck the
+high altar for great festivals, but they were to have the assistance of
+the clerk at the third peel of the first Evensong "to aray the hye awter
+with clothys necessary for it." Perhaps this duty of the churchwardens
+might with advantage be revived.
+
+Sheer Thursday or Maundy Thursday was a special day for cleansing the
+altars and font, which was done by a priest; but the clerk was required
+to provide a birch broom and also a barrel in order that water might be
+placed in it for this purpose. On Easter Eve and the eve of Whit-Sunday
+the ceremony of cleaning the altar and font was repeated. Flagellation
+was not obsolete as a penance, and the clerk was expected to find three
+discipline rods.
+
+In mediĉval times it was a common practice for rich men to leave money
+or property to a church with the condition that Masses should be said
+for the repose of their souls on certain days. The first Latin word of a
+verse in the funeral psalm was _dirige_ ("direct my steps," etc.), and
+this verse was used as an antiphon to those psalms in the old English
+service for the dead. Hence the service was called a _dirige_, and we
+find mention of "Master Meynley's dirige," or as it is spelt often
+"derege," the origin of the word "dirge." Those who attended were often
+regaled with refreshments--bread and ale--and the clerk's duty was to
+serve them with these things.
+
+We have already referred to his obligations as regards his bearing of
+holy water to the parishioners, a duty which brought him into close
+relationship with them. Another custom which has long since passed away
+was that of blessing a loaf of bread by the priest, and distributing
+portions of it to the parishioners. Sometimes this distribution took
+place in church, as at Coventry, where one of the clerks, having seen
+the loaf duly cut, gave portions of it to the assembled worshippers in
+the south aisle, and the other clerk performed a like duty in the north
+aisle. The clerk received some small fee for this service, usually a
+halfpenny. Berkshire has several evidences of the existence of the
+holy loaf.
+
+In the accounts of St. Lawrence's Church, Reading, in 1551, occurs the
+following notice:
+
+"At this day it was concluded and agreed that from henceforth every
+inhabitant of the parish shall bear and pay every Sunday in the year 5
+d. for every tenement as of old time the Holy Loaf was used to be paid
+and be received by the parish clerk weekly, the said clerk to have every
+Sunday for his pains 1 d. And 4 d. residue to be paid and delivered
+every Sunday to the churchwardens to be employed for bread and wine for
+the communion. And if any overplus thereof shall be of such money so
+received, to be to the use of the church; and if any shall lack, to be
+borne and paid by the said churchwardens: provided always, that all such
+persons as are poor and not able to pay the whole, be to have aid of
+such others as shall be thought good by the discretion of the
+churchwardens."
+
+With the advent of Queen Mary the old custom was reverted to, as the
+following item for the year 1555 plainly shows:
+
+"Rec. of money gathered for the holy lofe ix s. iiij d."
+
+At St. Mary's Church there is a constant allusion to this practice from
+the year 1566-7 to 1617-18, after which date the payment for the
+"holilofe" seems to have been merged in the charge for seats. In 1567-8
+the following resolution was passed:
+
+"It is agreed that the clerk shall hereafter gather the Holy Loaf money,
+or else to have nothing of that money, and to gather all, or else to
+inform the parish of them that will not pay."
+
+There seems to have been some difficulty in collecting this money; so it
+was agreed in 1579-80 that "John Marshall shall every month in the year
+during the time that he shall be clerk, gather the holy loaf and thereof
+yield an account to the churchwardens."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Subsequently we constantly meet with such records as the following:
+
+"It'm for the holy loffe xiii s. vi d."
+
+Ultimately, however, this mode of collecting money for the providing of
+the sacred elements and defraying other expenses of the church was, as
+we have said, abandoned in favour of pew-rents. The clerk had long
+ceased to obtain any benefit from the custom of collecting this curious
+form of subscription to the parochial expenses.
+
+An interesting document exists in the parish of Stanford-in-the-Vale,
+Berkshire, relating to the holy loaf. It was evidently written during
+the reign of Queen Mary, and runs as follows:--
+
+"Here following is the order of the giving of the loaves to make holy
+bread with videlicit of when it beginneth and endeth, what the whole
+value is, in what portions it is divided, and to whom the portions be
+due, and though it be written in the fifth part of the division of the
+book before in the beginning with these words (how money shall be paid
+towards the charges of the communion) ye shall understand that in the
+time of the Schism when this Realm was divided from the Catholic Church,
+the which was in the year of our Lord God in 1547, in the second year of
+King Edward the Sixth, all godly ceremonies and good uses were taken out
+of the church within this Realm, and then the money that was bestowed on
+the holy bread was turned to the use of finding bread and wine for the
+communion, and then the old order being brought unto his [its] pristine
+state before this book was written causeth me to write with this
+term[27]."
+
+[Footnote 27: The spelling of the words I have ventured to modernise.]
+
+The order of the giving of the loaves is then set forth, beginning at a
+piece of ground called Ganders and continuing throughout the parish,
+together with names of the parishioners. The collecting of this sum must
+have been an arduous part of the clerk's duty. "And thus I make an end
+of this matter," as the worthy clergyman at Stanford-in-the-Vale wrote
+at the conclusion of his carefully drawn up document[28].
+
+[Footnote 28: A relic of this custom existed in a small town in Dorset
+fifty years ago. At Easter the clerk used to leave at the house of each
+pew-holder a packet of Easter cakes--thin wafery biscuits, not unlike
+Jewish Pass-over cakes. The packet varied according to the size of the
+family and the depth of the master's purse. When the fussy little clerk
+called for his Easter offering, at one house he found 5 s. waiting for
+him, as a kind of payment for five cakes. The shilling's were quickly
+transferred to the clerk's pocket, who remarked, "Five shilling's is
+handsome for the clerk, sir; but the vicar only takes gold."
+
+The custom of the clerk carrying round the parish Easter cakes prevailed
+also at Milverton, Somerset, and at Langport in the same county.]
+
+In addition to his regular wages and to the dues received for delivering
+holy water and in connection with the holy loaf, the clerk enjoyed
+sundry other perquisites. At Christmas he received a loaf from every
+house, a certain number of eggs at Easter, and some sheaves when the
+harvest was gathered in. Among the documents in the parish chest at
+Morebath there is a very curious manuscript relating to a prolonged
+quarrel with regard to the dues to be paid to the clerk. This took place
+in the year 1531 and lasted until 1536. This document throws much light
+on the customary fees and gifts paid to the holder of this office. After
+endless wrangling the parishioners decided that the clerk should have "a
+steche of clene corn" from every household, if there should be any corn;
+if not, a "steche of wotis" (oats), or 3 d. in lieu of corn. Also 1 d.
+a quarter from every household; at every wedding and funeral 2 d.; at
+shearing time enough wool for a coat. Moreover, it was agreed that he
+should have a clerk's ale in the church house. It is well known that
+church ales were very common in medieval times, when the churchwardens
+bought, and received presents of, a large quantity of malt which they
+brewed into beer. The village folk collected other provisions, and
+assembled in the church house, where there were spits and crocks and
+other utensils for dressing a feast. Old and young gathered together;
+the churchwardens' ale was sold freely. The young folk danced, or played
+at bowls or practised archery, the old people looking gravely on and
+enjoying the merry-making. Such were the old church ales, the proceeds
+of which were devoted to the maintenance of the poor or some other
+worthy object. An arbour of boughs was erected in the churchyard called
+Robin Hood's Bower, where the maidens collected money for the "ales."
+The clerk in some parishes, as at Morebath, had "an ale" at Easter, and
+it was agreed that "the parish should help to drink him a cost of ale in
+the church house," which duty doubtless the village folk carried out
+with much willingness and regularity.
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD CHURCH-HOUSE AT HURST. BERKSHIRE NOW THE CASTLE
+INN]
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD CHURCH-HOUSE AT UFFINGTON. BERKS NOW USED AS A
+SCHOOL]
+
+Puritanism gradually killed these "ales." Sabbatarianism lifted up its
+voice against them. The gatherings waxed merry, sometimes too merry, so
+the stern Puritan thought, and the ballad-singer sang profane songs, and
+the maidens danced with light-footed step, and it was all very wrong
+because they were breaking the Sabbath; and the ale was strong, and
+sometimes people drank too much, so the critics said. But all
+reasonable and sober-minded folk were not opposed to them, and in
+reply to some inquiries instituted by Archbishop Laud, the Bishop of
+Bath and Wells made the following report:
+
+     "Touching clerke-ales (which are lesser church-ales) for the
+     better maintenance of Parish-clerks they have been used
+     (until of late) in divers places, and there was great reason
+     for them; for in poor country parishes, where the wages of
+     the clerk is very small, the people thinking it unfit that
+     the clerk should duly attend at church and lose by his
+     office, were wont to send in Provisions, and then feast with
+     him, and give him more liberality than their quarterly
+     payments would amount unto in many years. And since these
+     have been put down, some ministers have complained unto me,
+     that they are afraid they shall have no parish clerks for
+     want of maintenance for them."
+
+Mr. Wickham Legg has investigated the subsequent history of this good
+Bishop Pierce, and shows how the Puritans when they were in power used
+this reply as a means of accusation against him, whereby they attempted
+to prove that "he profanely opposed the sanctification of the Lord's Day
+by approving and allowing of profane wakes and revels on that day," and
+was "a desperately profane, impious, and turbulent Pilate."
+
+It is well known that the incomes of the clergy were severely taxed by
+the Pope, who demanded annates or first-fruits of one year's value on
+all benefices and sundry other exactions. The poor clerk's salary did
+not always escape from the rapacity of the Pope's collectors, as the
+story told by Matthew Paris clearly sets forth:
+
+"It happened that an agent of the Pope met a petty clerk carrying water
+in a little vessel, with a sprinkler and some bits of bread given him
+for having sprinkled some holy water, and to him the deceitful Roman
+thus addressed himself:
+
+"'How much does the profits yielded to you by this church amount to in a
+year?' To which the clerk, ignorant of the Roman's cunning, replied:
+
+"'To twenty shillings, I think.'
+
+"Whereupon the agent demanded the percentage the Pope had just demanded
+on all ecclesiastical benefices. And to pay that sum this poor man was
+compelled to hold school for many days, and by selling his books in the
+precincts, to drag on a half-starved life."
+
+This story discloses another duty which fell to the lot of the mediĉval
+clerk. He was the parish schoolmaster--at least in some cases. The
+decretals of Gregory IX require that he should have enough learning in
+order to enable him to keep a school, and that the parishioners should
+send their children to him to be taught in the church. There is not much
+evidence of the carrying out of this rule, but here and there we find
+allusions to this part of a clerk's duties. Inasmuch as this may have
+been regarded as an occupation somewhat separate from his ordinary
+duties as regards the church, perhaps we should not expect to find
+constant allusion to it. However, Archbishop Peckham ordered, in 1280,
+that in the church of Bakewell and the chapels annexed to it there
+should be _duos clericos scholasticos_ carefully chosen by the
+parishioners, from whose alms they would have to live, who should carry
+holy water round in the parish and chapels on Lord's Days and
+festivals, and minister _in divinis officiis_, and on weekdays should
+keep school[29]. It is said that Alexander, Bishop of Coventry, in 1237,
+directed that there should be in country villages parish clerks who
+should be schoolmasters.
+
+[Footnote 29: If that is the correct translation of _profestis diebus
+disciplinis scolasticis indulgentes_. Dr. Legg thinks that it may refer
+to their own education.]
+
+It is certain--for the churchwarden accounts bear witness to the
+fact--that in several parishes the clerks performed this duty of
+teaching. Thus in the accounts of the church of St. Giles, Reading,
+occurs the following:
+
+     Pay'd to Whitborne the clerk towards his wages and he to be
+     bound to teach ij children for the choir ... xij s.
+
+At Faversham, in 1506, it was ordered that "the clerks or one of them,
+as much as in them is, shall endeavour themselves to teach children to
+read and sing in the choir, and to do service in the church as of old
+time hath been accustomed, they taking for their teaching as belongeth
+thereto"; and at the church of St. Nicholas, Bristol, in 1481, this duty
+of teaching is implied in the order that the clerk ought not to take any
+book out of the choir for children to learn in without licence of the
+procurators. We may conclude, therefore, that the task of teaching the
+children of the parish not unusually devolved upon the clerk, and that
+some knowledge of Latin formed part of the instruction given, which
+would be essential for those who took part in the services of
+the church.
+
+Nor were his labours yet finished. In John Myrc's _Instructions to
+Parish Priests_, a poem written not later than 1450, a treatise
+containing good sound morality, and a good sight of the ecclesiastical
+customs of the Middle Ages, we find the following lines:
+
+     "When thou shalt to seke[30] _gon_
+     Hye thee fast and _go_ a-non;
+     For if thou tarry thou dost amiss,
+     Thou shalt guyte[31] that soul I wys.
+     When thou shalt to seke gon,
+     A clene surples caste thee on;
+     Take thy stole with thee ry't,[32]
+     And put thy hod ouer thy sy't[33]
+     Bere thyne ost[34] a-nout thy breste
+     In a box that is honeste;
+     Make thy clerk before thee synge,
+     To bere light and belle ringe."
+
+[Footnote 30: Sick.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Quiet.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Right.]
+
+[Footnote 33: Sight.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Host.]
+
+It was customary, therefore, for the clerk to accompany the priest to
+the house of the sick person, when the clergyman went to administer the
+Last Sacrament or to visit the suffering. The clerk was required to
+carry a lighted candle and ring a bell, and an ancient MS. of the
+fourteenth century represents him marching before the priest bearing his
+light and his bell. In some town parishes he was ordered always to be at
+hand ready to accompany the priest on his errands of mercy. It was a
+grievous offence for a clerk to be absent from this duty. In the parish
+of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, the clerks were not allowed "to go or
+ride out of the town without special licence had of the vicar and
+churchwardens, and at no time were they to be out of the way, but one of
+them had always to be ready to minister sacraments and sacramentals, and
+to wait upon the Curate and to give him warning." This custom of the
+clerk accompanying the priest when visiting the sick was not abolished
+at the Reformation. _The Parish Clerk's Guide_, published by the
+Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks in 1731, the history of which it
+will be our privilege to investigate, states that the holders of the
+office "are always conversant in Holy Places and Holy Things, such as
+are the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; yea and in the
+most serious Things too, such as the Visitation of the Sick, when we do
+often attend, and at the Burial of the Dead."
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK ACCOMPANYING THE PRIEST WHEN VISITING THE SICK]
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST, WHO IS ADMINISTERING THE
+LAST SACRAMENT]
+
+Occupied with these numerous duties, engaged in a service which
+delighted him, his time could never have hung heavy on his hands.
+Faithful in his dutiful services to his rector, beloved by the
+parishioners, a welcome guest in cot and hall, and serving God with all
+his heart, according to his lights, he could doubtless exclaim with
+David, _Laetus sorte mea_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE DUTIES OF READING AND SINGING
+
+The clerk's highest privilege in pre-Reformation times was to take his
+part in the great services of the church. His functions were very
+important, and required considerable learning and skill. When the songs
+of praise echoed through the vaulted aisles of the great church, his
+voice was heard loud and clear leading the choirmen and chanting the
+opening words of the Psalm. As early as the time of St. Gregory this
+duty was required of him. In giving directions to St. Augustine of
+Canterbury the Pope ordered that clerks should be diligent in singing
+the Psalms. In the ninth century Pope Leo IV directed that the clerks
+should read the Psalms in divine service, and in 878 Archbishop Hincmar
+of Rheims issued some articles of inquiry to his Rural Deans, asking,
+among other questions, "Whether the presbyter has a clerk who can keep
+school, or read the epistle, or is able to sing as far as may seem
+needful to him?"
+
+A canon of the Council of Nantes, embodied in the Decretals of Pope
+Gregory IX, settled definitely that every presbyter who has charge of a
+parish should have a clerk, who should sing with him and read the
+epistle and lesson, and who should be able to keep school and admonish
+the parishioners to send their children to church to learn the
+faith[35]. This ordinance was binding upon the Church in this country as
+in other parts of Western Christendom, and William Lyndewoode, Official
+Principal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, when laying down the law with
+regard to the marriage of clerks, states that the clerk has "to wait on
+the priest at the altar, to sing with him, and to read the epistle." A
+notable quarrel between two clerks, which is recorded by John of Athon
+writing in the years 1333-1348, gives much information upon various
+points of ecclesiastical usage and custom. The account says:
+
+[Footnote 35: Decr. Greg. IX. Lib. III. tit. i. cap. iii., quoted by Dr.
+Cuthbert Atchley in _Alcuin Club Tracts_, IV.]
+
+"Lately, when two clerks were contending about the carrying of holy
+water, the clerk appointed by the parishioners against the command of
+the priest, wrenched the book from the hands of the clerk who had been
+appointed by the rector, and who had been ordered to read the epistle by
+the priest, and hurled him violently to the ground, drawing blood[36]."
+
+[Footnote 36: John of Athon, _Constit. Dom. Othoboni_, tit. _De
+residentia archipreb. et episc._: cap. _Pastor bonus_: verb _sanctĉ
+obedientiĉ_.]
+
+A very unseemly disturbance truly! Two clerks righting for the book in
+the midst of the sanctuary during the Eucharistic service! Still their
+quarrel teaches us something about the appointment and election of
+clerks in the Middle Ages, and of the duty of the parish clerk with
+regard to the reading of the epistle.
+
+In 1411 the vicar of Elmstead was enjoined by Clifford, Bishop of
+London, to find a clerk to help him at private Masses on weekdays, and
+on holy days to read the epistle.
+
+In the rules laid down for the guidance of clerks at the various
+churches we find many references to the duties of reading and singing.
+At Coventry he is required to sing in the choir at the Mass, and to sing
+Evensong on the south side of the choir; on feast days the first clerk
+was ordered to be _rector chori_ on the south side, while his fellow
+performed a like duty on the north side. On every Sunday and holy day
+the latter had to read the epistle. At Faversham the clerk was required
+to sing at every Mass by note the Grail at the upper desk in the body of
+the choir, and also the epistle, and to be diligent to sing all the
+office of the Mass by note, and at all other services. Very careful
+instructions were laid down for the proper musical arrangements in this
+church. The clerk was ordered "to set the choir not after his own brest
+(= voice) but as every man being a singer may sing conveniently his
+part, and when plain song faileth one of the clerks shall leave
+faburdon[37] and keep plain song unto the time the choir be set again."
+A fine of 2 d. was levied on all clerks as well as priests at St.
+Michael's, Cornhill, who should be absent from the church, and not take
+their places in the choir in their surplices, singing there from the
+beginning of Matins, Mass and Evensong unto the end of the services. At
+St. Nicholas, Bristol, the clerk was ordered "to sing in reading the
+epistle daily under pain of ii d."
+
+[Footnote 37: _Faburdon_ = faux-bourdon, a simple kind of counterpoint
+to the church plain song-, much used in England in the fifteenth
+century. Grove's _Dictionary of Music_.]
+
+These various rules and regulations, drawn up with consummate care,
+together with the occasional glimpses of the mediĉval clerk and his
+duties, which old writers afford, enable us to picture to ourselves what
+kind of person he was, and to see him engaged in his manifold
+occupations within the same walls which we know so well. When the
+daylight is dying, musing within the dim mysterious aisle, we can see
+him folding up the vestments, bearing the books into their place of safe
+keeping in the vestry, singing softly to himself:
+
+     "_Et introibo ad altare Dei; ad Deum qui loetificat
+     juventutem meam_."
+
+The scene changes. The days of sweeping reform set in. The Church of
+England regained her ancient independence and was delivered from a
+foreign yoke. Her children obtained an open Bible, and a liturgy in
+their own mother-tongue. But she was distressed and despoiled by the
+rapacity of the commissioners of the Crown, by such wretches as
+Protector Somerset, Dudley and the rest, private peculation eclipsing
+the greediness of royal officials. Froude draws a sad picture of the
+halls of country houses hung with altar cloths, tables and beds quilted
+with copes, and knights and squires drinking their claret out of
+chalices and watering their horses in marble coffins. No wonder there
+was discontent among the people. No wonder they disliked the despoiling
+of their heritage for the enrichment of the Dudleys and the _nouveaux
+riches_ who fattened on the spoils of the monasteries, and left the
+church bare of brass and ornament, chalice and vestment, the
+accumulation of years of the pious offerings of the faithful. No wonder
+there were risings and riots, quelled only by the stern and powerful
+hand of a Tudor despot.
+
+But in spite of all the changes that were wrought in that tumultuous
+time, the parish clerk remained, and continued to discharge many of the
+functions which had fallen to his lot before the Reformation had begun.
+As I have already stated, his duties with regard to bearing holy water
+and the holy loaf were discontinued, although the collecting of money
+from the parishioners was conducted in much the same way as before, and
+the "holy loaf" corrupted into various forms--such as "holy looff,"
+"holie loffe," "holy cake," etc.--appears in churchwardens' account
+books as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century.
+
+As regards his main duties of reading and singing we find that they were
+by no means discontinued. From a study of the First Prayer Book of
+Edward VI, it is evident that his voice was still to be heard reading in
+reverent tones the sacred words of Holy Scripture, and chanting the
+Psalms in his mother-tongue instead of in that of the Vulgate. The
+rubric in the communion service immediately before the epistle directs
+that "the collectes ended, the priest, or he that is appointed, shall
+read the epistle, in a place assigned for the purpose." Who is the
+person signified by the phrase "he that is appointed"? That question is
+decided for us by _The Clerk's Book_ recently edited by Dr. J. Wickham
+Legg, wherein it is stated that "the priest or clerk" shall read the
+epistle. The injunctions of 1547 interpret for us the meaning of "the
+place assigned for the purpose" as being "the pulpit or such convenient
+place as people may hear." Ability to read the epistle was still
+therefore considered part of the functions of a parish clerk, and the
+whole lesson derived from a study of _The Clerk's Book_ is the very
+important part which he took in the services. As the title of the book
+shows, it contains "All that appertein to the clerkes to say or syng at
+the Ministracion of the Communion, and when there is no Communion. At
+Confirmacion. At Matrimonie. The Visitacion of the Sicke. The Buriall of
+the Dedde. At the Purification of Women. And the first daie of Lent."
+
+He began the service of Holy Communion by singing the Psalm appointed
+for the introit. In the book only the first words of the part taken by
+the priest are given, whereas all the clerk's part is printed in full.
+He leads the responses in the Lesser Litany, the _Gloria in excelsis_,
+the Nicene Creed. He reads the offertory sentences and says the _Ter
+Sanctus_, sings or says the _Agnus Dei_, besides the responses. In the
+Marriage Service he said or sang the Psalm with the priest, and
+responded diligently. As in pre-Reformation times he accompanied the
+priest in the visitation of the sick, and besides making the responses
+sang the anthems, "Remember not, Lord, our iniquities," etc., and "O
+Saviour of the world, save us, which by thy crosse and precious blood
+hast redeemed us, help us, we beseech thee, O God." In the Communion of
+the Sick the epistle is written out in full, showing that it was the
+clerk's privilege to read it. A great part of the service for the Burial
+of the Dead was ordered to be said or sung by the "priest or clerk," and
+"at the communion when there was a burial" he apparently sang the
+introit and read the epistle. In the Communion Service the clerk with
+the priest said the fifty-first Psalm and the anthem, "Turn thou us, O
+good Lord," etc. In Matins and Evensong the clerk sang the Psalms and
+canticles and made responses, and from other sources we gather that he
+used to read either one or both of the lessons. In some churches he was
+called the dekyn or deacon, and at Ludlow, in 1551, he received 3 s. 4
+d. for reading the first lesson.
+
+In the accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, there is an item in the
+year 1553 for the repair of the pulpit where, it is stated, "the curate
+and the clark did read the chapters at service time."
+
+Archbishop Grindal, in 1571, laid down the following injunction for his
+province of York: "That no parish clerk be appointed against the
+goodwill or without the consent of the parson, vicar, or curate of any
+parish, and that he be obedient to the parson, vicar, and curate,
+specially in the time of celebration of divine service or of sacraments,
+or in any preparation thereunto; and that he be able also to read the
+first lesson, the Epistle, and the Psalms, with answers to the suffrages
+as is used, and also that he endeavour himself to teach young children
+to read, if he be able so to do." When this archbishop was translated to
+Canterbury he issued very similar injunctions in the southern province.
+Other bishops followed his example, and issued questions in their
+dioceses relating to clerkly duties, and these injunctions show that to
+read the first lesson and the epistle and to sing the Psalms constituted
+the principal functions of a parish clerk.
+
+Evidences of the continuance of this practice are not wanting[38].
+Indeed, within the memory of living men at one church at least the
+custom was observed. At Keighley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, some
+thirty or forty years ago the parish clerk wore a black gown and bands.
+He read the first lesson and the epistle. To read the latter he left his
+seat below the pulpit and went up to the altar and took down the book:
+after reading the epistle within the altar rails he replaced the book
+and returned to his place. At Wimborne Minster the clerk used to read
+the Lessons.
+
+[Footnote 38: cf. _The Parish Clerk's Book_, edited by Dr. J. Wickham
+Legg, F.S.A., and _The Parish Clerk and his right to read the Liturgical
+Epistle_, by Cuthbert Atchley, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S. _(Alcuin Club
+Tracts_, IV).]
+
+Although it is evident that at the present time the clerk has a right to
+read the epistle and one of the lessons, as well as the Psalms and
+responses when they are not sung, it was perhaps necessary that his
+efforts in this direction should have been curtailed. When we remember
+the extraordinary blunders made by many holders of the office in the
+last century, their lack of education, and strange pronunciation, we
+should hardly care to hear the mutilation of Holy Scripture which must
+have followed the continuance of the practice. Would it not be possible
+to find men qualified to hold the office of parish clerk by education
+and powers of elocution who could revive the ancient practice with
+advantage to the church both to the clergyman and the people?
+
+Complaints about the eccentricities and defective reading and singing of
+clerks have come down to us from Jacobean times. There was one Thomas
+Milborne, clerk of Eastham, who was guilty of several enormities;
+amongst others, "for that he singeth the psalms in the church with such
+a jesticulous tone and altisonant voice, viz: squeaking like a gelded
+pig, which doth not only interrupt the other voices, but is altogether
+dissonant and disagreeing unto any musical harmony, and he hath been
+requested by the minister to leave it, but he doth obstinately persist
+and continue therein." Verily Master Milborne must have been a sore
+trial to his vicar, almost as great as the clerk of Buxted, Sussex, was
+to his rector, who records in the parish register with a sigh of relief
+his death, "whose melody warbled forth as if he had been thumped on the
+back with a stone."
+
+The Puritan regime was not conducive to this improvement of the status
+or education of the clerk or the cultivation of his musical abilities.
+The Protectorate was a period of musical darkness. The organs of the
+cathedrals and colleges were taken down; the choirs were dispersed,
+musical publications ceased, and the gradual twilight of the art, which
+commenced with the accession of the Stuarts, faded into darkness. Many
+clerks, especially in the City of London, deserve the highest honour for
+having endeavoured to preserve the true taste for musical services in a
+dark age. Notable amongst these was John Playford, clerk of the Temple
+Church in 1652. Benjamin Payne, clerk of St. Anne's, Blackfriars, in
+1685, the author of _The Parish Clerk's Guide_, wrote of Playford as
+"one to whose memory all parish clerks owe perpetual thanks for their
+furtherance in the knowledge of psalmody." The _History of Music_, by
+Hawkins, describes him as "an honest and friendly man, a good judge of
+music, with some skill in composition. He contributed not a little to
+the art of printing music from letterpress types. He is looked upon as
+the father of modern psalmody, and it does not appear that the practice
+has much improved." The account which Playford gives of the clerks of
+his day is not very satisfactory, and their sorry condition is
+attributed to "the late wars" and the confusion of the times. He says:
+
+"In and about this great city, in above a hundred parishes there are but
+few parish clerks to be found that have either ear or understanding to
+set one of these tunes musically, as it ought to be, it having been a
+custom during the late wars, and since, to chuse men into such places
+more for their poverty than skill and ability, whereby that part of
+God's service hath been so ridiculously performed in most places, that
+it is now brought into scorn and derision by many people." He goes on to
+tell us that "the ancient practice of singing the psalms in church was
+for the clerk to repeat each line, probably because, at the first
+introduction of psalms into our service great numbers of the common
+people were unable to read." The author of _The Parish Clerk's Guide_
+states that "since faction prevailed in the Church, and troubles in the
+State, Church music has laboured under inevitable prejudices, more
+especially by its being decried by some misguided and peevish sectaries
+as popery and anti-Christ, and so the minds of the common people are
+alienated from Church music, although performed by men of the greatest
+skill and judgment, under whom was wont to be trained up abundance of
+youth in the respective cathedrals, that did stock the whole kingdom at
+one time with good and able songsters." The Company of Parish Clerks of
+London [to the history and records of which we shall have occasion
+frequently to refer] did good service in promoting the musical training
+of the members and in upholding the dignity of their important office.
+In the edition of _The Parish Clerk's Guide_ for 1731, the writer
+laments over the diminished status of his order, and states that "the
+clerk is oftentimes chosen rather for his poverty, to prevent a charge
+to the parish, than either for his virtue or skill; or else for some
+by-end or purpose, more than for the immediate Honour and Service of
+Almighty God and His Church."
+
+If that was the case in rich and populous London parishes, how much more
+was it true in poor village churches? Hence arose the race of country
+clerks who stumbled over and miscalled the hard words as they occurred
+in the Psalms, who sang in a strange and weird fashion, and brought
+discredit on their office. Indeed, the clergy were not always above
+suspicion in the matter of reading, and even now they have their
+detractors, who assert that it is often impossible to hear what they
+say, that they read in a strained unnatural voice, and are generally
+unintelligible. At any rate, modern clergy are not so deficient in
+education as they were in the early years of Queen Elizabeth, when, as
+Fuller states in his _Triple Reconciler_, they were commanded "to read
+the chapters over once or twice by themselves that so they might be the
+better enabled to read them distinctly to the congregation." If the
+clergy were not infallible in the matter of the pronunciation of
+difficult words, it is not surprising that the clerk often puzzled or
+amused his hearers, and mangled or skipped the proper names, after the
+fashion of the mistress of a dame-school, who was wont to say when a
+small pupil paused at such a name as Nebuchadnezzar, "That's a bad word,
+child! go on to the next verse."
+
+Of the mistakes in the clerk's reading of the Psalms there are many
+instances. David Diggs, the hero of J. Hewett's _Parish Clerk_, was
+remonstrated with for reading the proper names in Psalm lxxxiii. 6,
+"Odommities, Osmallities, and Mobbities," and replied: "Yes, no doubt,
+but that's noigh enow. Seatown folk understand oi very well."
+
+He is also reported to have said, "Jeball, Amon, and Almanac, three
+Philistines with them that are tired." The vicar endeavoured to teach
+him the correct mode of pronunciation of difficult words, and for some
+weeks he read well, and then returned to his former method of making a
+shot at the proper names.
+
+On being expostulated with he coolly replied:
+
+"One on us must read better than t'other, or there wouldn't be no
+difference 'twixt parson and clerk; so I gives in to you. Besides, this
+sort of reading as you taught me would not do here. The p'rishioners
+told oi, if oi didn't gi' in and read in th' old style loike, as they
+wouldn't come to hear oi, so oi dropped it!"
+
+An old clerk at Hartlepool, who had been a sailor, used to render Psalm
+civ. 26, as "There go the ships and there is that lieutenant whom Thou
+hast made to take his pastime therein."
+
+"Leviathan" has been responsible for many errors. A shoemaker clerk used
+to call it "that great leather-thing." From various sources comes to me
+the story, to which I have already referred, of the transformation of
+"an alien to my mother's children" into "a lion to my mother's
+children."
+
+A clerk at Bletchley always called caterpillars _saterpillars_, and in
+Psalm lxviii. never read JAH, but spelt it J-A-H. He used to summon the
+children from their places to stand in single file along the pews during
+three Sundays in Lent, and say, "Children, say your catechayse."
+
+Catechising during the service seems to have been not uncommon. The
+clerk at Milverton used to summon the children, calling out, "Children,
+catechise, pray draw near."
+
+The clerk at Sidbury used to read, "Better than a bullock that has horns
+_enough_"; his name was Timothy Karslake, commonly called "Tim," and
+when he made a mistake in the responses some one in the church would
+call out, "You be wrong, Tim."
+
+Sometimes a little emphasis on the wrong word was used to express the
+feelings engendered by private piques and quarrels. There were in one
+parish some differences between the parson and the clerk, who showed his
+independence and proud spirit when he read the verse of the Psalm, "If I
+_be_ hungry, I will not tell _thee_," casting a rather scornful glance
+at the parson.
+
+Another specimen of his class used to read "Ananias, Azarias, and
+Mizzle," and one who was reading a lesson in church (Isaiah liv. 12),
+"And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles,"
+rendered the verse, "Thy window of a gate, and thy gates of
+crab ancles."
+
+Another clerk who was "not much of a scholard" used to allow no
+difficulty to check his fluency. If the right word did not fall to his
+hand he made shift with another of somewhat similar sound, the result
+frequently taxing to the uttermost the self-control of the better
+educated among his hearers. He was ill-mated to a shrewish wife, and one
+was sensible of a thrill of sympathy when, without a thought of
+irreverence, and in all simplicity, he rolled out, instead of "Woe is
+me, that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech!" "Woe is me, that I am
+constrained to dwell with _Missis_!"
+
+Old age at length puts an end to the power of the most stalwart clerks.
+That must have been a very pathetic scene in the church at East Barnet
+which few of those present could have witnessed without emotion. The
+clerk was a man of advanced age. He always conducted the singing, which
+must have been somewhat monotonous, as the 95th and the 100th Psalm (Old
+Version) were invariably sung. On one occasion, after several vain
+attempts to begin the accustomed melody, the poor old man exclaimed,
+"Well, my friends, it's no use. I'm too old. I can't sing any more."
+
+[Illustration: OLD BECKENHAM CHURCH]
+
+It was a bitter day for the old clerks when harmoniums and organs came
+into fashion, and the old orchestras conducted by them were abandoned.
+Dethroned monarchs could not feel more distressed.
+
+The period of the decline and fall of the status of the old parish
+clerks was that of the Commonwealth, from 1640 to 1660. During the
+spacious days of Elizabeth and the early Stuarts they were considered
+most important officials. In pre-Reformation times the incumbents used
+to receive assistance from the chantry priests who were required to help
+the parson when not engaged in their particular duties. After the
+suppression of the chantries they continued their good offices and acted
+as assistant curates. But the race soon died out. Then lecturers and
+special preachers were frequently appointed by corporations or rich
+private individuals. But these lecturers and preachers were a somewhat
+independent race who were not very loyal to the parsons and impatient of
+episcopal control, and proved themselves rather a hindrance than a help.
+In North Devon[39] and doubtless in many other places the experiment was
+tried of making use of the parish clerks and raising them to the
+diaconate. Such a clerk so raised to major orders was Robert Langdon
+(1584-1625), of Barnstaple, to whose history I shall have occasion to
+refer again. His successor, Anthony Baker, was also a clerk-deacon. The
+parish clerk then attained the zenith of his power, dignity, and
+importance.
+
+[Footnote 39: _The Parish Clerks of Barnstaple_, 1500-1900, by Rev. J.F.
+Chanter (Transactions of the Devonshire Association).]
+
+After the disastrous period of the Commonwealth rule he emerges shorn
+of his learning, his rank, and status. His name remained; his office was
+recognised by legal enactments and ecclesiastical usage; but in most
+parishes he was chosen on account of his poverty rather than for his
+fitness for the post. So long as the church rates remained he received
+his salary, but when these were abolished it was found difficult in many
+parishes to provide the funds. Hence as the old race died out, the
+office was allowed to lapse, and the old clerk's place knows him no
+more. Possibly it may be the delectable task of some future historian to
+record the complete revival of the office, which would prove under
+proper conditions an immense advantage to the Church and a valuable
+assistance to the parochial clergy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE CLERK IN LITERATURE
+
+The parish clerk is so notable a character in our ecclesiastical and
+social life, that he has not escaped the attention of many of our great
+writers and poets. Some of them have with gentle satire touched upon his
+idiosyncrasies and peculiarities; others have recorded his many virtues,
+his zeal and faithfulness. Shakespeare alludes to him in his play of
+_Richard II_, in the fourth act, when he makes the monarch face his
+rebellious nobles, reproaching them for their faithlessness, and saying:
+
+     "God save the King! will no man say Amen?
+     Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, Amen.
+     God save the King! although I be not he;
+     And yet, Amen, if Heaven do think him me."
+
+An old ballad, _King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid_, contains an
+interesting allusion to the parish clerk, and shows the truth of that
+which has already been pointed out, viz. that the office of clerk was
+often considered to be a step to higher preferment in the Church. The
+lines of the old ballad run as follows:
+
+     "The proverb old is come to passe,
+     The priest when he begins his masse
+     Forgets that ever clarke he was;
+       He knoweth not his estate."
+
+Christopher Harvey, the friend and imitator of George Herbert, has some
+homely lines on the duties of clerk and sexton in his poem _The
+Synagogue_. Of the clerk he wrote:
+
+     "The Churches Bible-clerk attends
+       Her utensils, and ends
+       Her prayers with Amen,
+     Tunes Psalms, and to her Sacraments
+       Brings in the Elements,
+       And takes them out again;
+     Is humble minded and industrious handed,
+     Doth nothing of himself, but as commanded."
+
+Of the sexton he wrote:
+
+      "The Churches key-keeper opens the door,
+       And shuts it, sweeps the floor,
+     Rings bells, digs graves, and fills them up again;
+       All emblems unto men,
+       Openly owning Christianity
+       To mark and learn many good lessons by."
+
+In that delightful sketch of old-time manners and quaint humour, _Sir
+Roger de Coverley_, the editor of _The Spectator_ gave a life-like
+representation of the old-fashioned service. Nor is the clerk forgotten.
+They tell us that "Sir Roger has likewise added five pounds a year to
+the clerk's place; and that he may encourage the young fellows to make
+themselves perfect in the Church services, has promised, upon the death
+of the present incumbent, who is very old, to bestow it according to
+merit." The details of the exquisite picture of a rural Sunday were
+probably taken from the church of Milston on the Wiltshire downs where
+Addison's father was incumbent, and where the author was born in 1672.
+Doubtless the recollections of his early home enabled Joseph Addison to
+draw such an accurate picture of the ecclesiastical customs of his
+youth. The deference shown by the members of the congregation who did
+not presume to stir till Sir Roger had left the building was practised
+in much more recent times, and instances will be given of the
+observance of this custom within living memory.
+
+Two other references to parish clerks I find in _The Spectator_ which
+are worthy of quotation:
+
+     "_Spectator_, No. 372.
+
+     "In three or four taverns I have, at different times, taken
+     notice of a precise set of people with grave countenances,
+     short wigs, black cloaths, or dark camblet trimmed black,
+     with mourning gloves and hat-bands, who went on certain days
+     at each tavern successively, and keep a sort of moving club.
+     Having often met with their faces, and observed a certain
+     shrinking way in their dropping in one after another, I had
+     the unique curiosity to inquire into their characters, being
+     the rather moved to it by their agreeing in the singularity
+     of their dress; and I find upon due examination they are a
+     knot of parish clerks, who have taken a fancy to one another,
+     and perhaps settle the bills of mortality over their half
+     pints. I have so great a value and veneration for any who
+     have but even an assenting _Amen_ in the service of religion,
+     that I am afraid but these persons should incur some scandal
+     by this practice; and would therefore have them, without
+     raillery, advise to send the florence and pullets home to
+     their own homes, and not to pretend to live as well as the
+     overseers of the poor.
+
+     "HUMPHRY TRANSFER.
+
+     "_Spectator_, No. 338.
+
+     "A great many of our church-musicians being related to the
+     theatre, have in imitation of their epilogues introduced in
+     their favourite voluntaries a sort of music quite foreign to
+     the design of church services, to the great prejudice of
+     well-disposed people. These fingering gentlemen should be
+     informed that they ought to suit their airs to the place and
+     business; and that the musician is obliged to keep to the
+     text as much as the preacher. For want of this, I have found
+     by experience a great deal of mischief; for when the preacher
+     has often, with great piety and art enough, handled his
+     subject, and the judicious clerk has with utmost diligence
+     called out two staves proper to the discourse, and I have
+     found in myself and in the rest of the pew good thoughts and
+     dispositions, they have been all in a moment dissipated by a
+     merry jig from the organ loft."
+
+Dr. Johnson's definition of a parish clerk in his Dictionary does not
+convey the whole truth about him and his historic office. He is defined
+as "the layman who reads the responses to the congregation in church, to
+direct the rest." The great lexicographer had, however, a high
+estimation of this official. Boswell tells us that on one occasion "the
+Rev. Mr. Palmer, Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, dined with us. He
+expressed a wish that a better provision were made for parish clerks.
+Johnson: 'Yes, sir, a parish clerk should be a man who is able to make a
+will or write a letter for anybody in the parish.'" I am afraid that a
+vast number of our good clerks would have been sore puzzled to perform
+the first task, and the caligraphy of the letter would in many cases
+have been curious.
+
+That careful delineator of rural manners as they existed at the end of
+the eighteenth century, George Crabbe, devotes a whole poem to the
+parish clerk in his nineteenth letter of _The Borough_. He tells of the
+fortunes of Jachin, the clerk, a grave and austere man, fully orthodox,
+a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and detecter and opposer of the wiles of
+Satan. Here is his picture:
+
+     "With our late vicar, and his age the same,
+     His clerk, bright Jachin, to his office came;
+     The like slow speech was his, the like tall slender frame:
+     But Jachin was the gravest man on ground,
+     And heard his master's jokes with look profound;
+     For worldly wealth this man of letters sigh'd,
+     And had a sprinkling of the spirit's pride:
+     But he was sober, chaste, devout, and just,
+     One whom his neighbours could believe and trust:
+     Of none suspected, neither man nor maid
+     By him were wronged, or were of him afraid.
+       There was indeed a frown, a trick of state
+     In Jachin: formal was his air and gait:
+     But if he seemed more solemn and less kind
+     Than some light man to light affairs confined,
+     Still 'twas allow'd that he should so behave
+     As in high seat, and be severely grave."
+
+The arch-tempter tries in vain to seduce him from the right path. "The
+house where swings the tempting sign," the smiles of damsels, have no
+power over him. He "shuns a flowing bowl and rosy lip," but he is not
+invulnerable after all. Want and avarice take possession of his soul. He
+begins to take by stealth the money collected in church, putting bran in
+his pockets so that the coin shall not jingle. He offends with terror,
+repeats his offence, grows familiar with crime, and is at last detected
+by a "stern stout churl, an angry overseer." Disgrace, ruin, death soon
+follow; shunned and despised by all, he "turns to the wall and silently
+expired." A woeful story truly, the results of spiritual pride and greed
+of gain! It is to be hoped that few clerks resembled poor lost Jachin.
+
+A companion picture to the disgraced clerk is that of "the noble peasant
+Isaac Ashford[40]," who won from Crabbe's pen a gracious panegyric. He
+says of him:
+
+     "Noble he was, contemning all things mean,
+     His truth unquestioned, and his soul serene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     If pride were his, 'twas not their vulgar pride,
+     Who, in their base contempt, the great deride:
+     Nor pride in learning--though by Clerk agreed,
+     If fate should call him, Ashford might succeed."
+
+[Footnote 40: _The Parish Register_, Part III.]
+
+He paints yet another portrait, that of old Dibble[41], clerk and
+sexton:
+
+     "His eightieth year he reach'd still undecayed,
+     And rectors five to one close vault conveyed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     His masters lost, he'd oft in turn deplore,
+     And kindly add,--'Heaven grant I lose no more!'
+     Yet while he spake, a sly and pleasant glance
+     Appear'd at variance with his complaisance:
+     For as he told their fate and varying worth,
+     He archly looked--'I yet may bear thee forth.'"
+
+[Footnote 41: _The Parish Register_, Part III.]
+
+George Herbert, the saintly Christian poet, who sang on earth such hymns
+and anthems as the angels sing in heaven, was no friend of the
+old-fashioned duet between the minister and clerk in the conduct of
+divine service. He would have no "talking, or sleeping, or gazing, or
+leaning, or half-kneeling, or any undutiful behaviour in them."
+Moreover, "everyone, man and child, should answer aloud both Amen and
+all other answers which are on the clerk's and people's part to answer,
+which answers also are to be done not in a huddling or slubbering
+fashion, gaping, or scratching the head, or spitting even in the midst
+of their answer, but gently and pausably, thinking what they say, so
+that while they answer 'As it was in the beginning, etc.,' they meditate
+as they speak, that God hath ever had his people that have glorified
+Him as well as now, and that He shall have so for ever. And the like in
+other answers."
+
+Cowper's kindliness of heart is abundantly evinced by his treatment of a
+parish clerk, one John Cox, the official of the parish of All Saints,
+Northampton. The poet was living in the little Buckinghamshire village
+of Weston Underwood, having left Olney when mouldering walls and a
+tottering house warned him to depart. He was recovering from his dread
+malady, and beginning to feel the pleasures and inconveniences of
+authorship and fame. The most amusing proof of his celebrity and his
+good nature is thus related to Lady Hesketh:
+
+"On Monday morning last, Sam brought me word that there was a man in the
+kitchen who desired to speak with me. I ordered him in. A plain, decent,
+elderly figure made its appearance, and being desired to sit spoke as
+follows: 'Sir, I am clerk of the parish of All Saints in Northampton,
+brother of Mr. Cox the upholsterer. It is customary for the person in my
+office to annex to a bill of mortality, which he publishes at Christmas,
+a copy of verses. You will do me a great favour, sir, if you will
+furnish me with one.' To this I replied: 'Mr. Cox, you have several men
+of genius in your town, why have you not applied to some of them? There
+is a namesake of yours in particular, Cox, the Statuary, who, everybody
+knows, is a first-rate maker of verses. He surely is the man of all the
+world for your purpose.' 'Alas, sir, I have heretofore borrowed help
+from him, but he is a gentleman of so much reading that the people of
+our town cannot understand him.'
+
+"I confess to you, my dear, I felt all the force of the compliment
+implied in this speech, and was almost ready to answer, Perhaps, my
+good friend, they may find me unintelligible too for the same reason.
+But on asking him whether he had walked over to Weston on purpose to
+implore the assistance of my muse, and on his replying in the
+affirmative, I felt my mortified vanity a little consoled, and pitying
+the poor man's distress, which appeared to be considerable, promised to
+supply him. The waggon has accordingly gone this day to Northampton
+loaded in part with my effusions in the mortuary style. A fig for poets
+who write epitaphs upon individuals! I have written _one_ that serves
+_two hundred_ persons."
+
+Seven successive years did Cowper, in his excellent good nature, supply
+John Cox, the clerk of All Saints in Northampton, with his mortuary
+verses[42], and when Cox died, he bestowed a like kindness on his
+successor, Samuel Wright.
+
+[Footnote 42: Southey's _Works of Cowper_, ii. p. 283.]
+
+These stanzas are published in the complete editions of Cowper's poems,
+and need not be quoted here. They begin with a quotation from some Latin
+author--Horace, or Virgil, or Cicero--these quotations being obligingly
+translated for the benefit of the worthy townsfolk. The first of these
+stanzas begins with the well-known lines:
+
+     "While thirteen moons saw smoothly run
+       The Nen's barge-laden wave,
+     All these, life's rambling journey done,
+       Have found their home, the grave."
+
+Another verse which has attained fame runs thus:
+
+     "Like crowded forest trees we stand,
+       And some are mark'd to fall;
+     The axe will smite at God's command,
+       And soon will smite us all."
+
+And thus does Cowper, in his temporary rôle, point the moral:
+
+     "And O! that humble as my lot,
+       And scorned as is my strain,
+     These truths, though known, too much forgot,
+       I may not teach in vain.
+
+     "So prays your clerk with all his heart,
+       And, ere he quits his pen,
+     Begs you for once to take his part,
+       And answer all--Amen."
+
+Again, in another copy of verses he alludes to his honourable clerkship,
+and sings:
+
+     "So your verse-man I, and clerk,
+       Yearly in my song proclaim
+     Death at hand--yourselves his mark--
+       And the foe's unerring aim.
+
+     "Duly at my time I come,
+       Publishing to all aloud
+     Soon the grave must be our home,
+       And your only suit a shroud."
+
+On one occasion the clerk delayed to send a printed copy of the verses;
+so we find the poet writing to his friend, William Bagot:
+
+"You would long since have received an answer to your last, had not the
+wicked clerk of Northampton delayed to send me the printed copy of my
+annual dirge, which I waited to enclose. Here it is at last, and much
+good may it do the readers!"
+
+Let us hope that at least the clerk was grateful.
+
+Yet again does the poet allude to the occupant of the lowest tier of the
+great "three-decker," when he in the opening lines of _The Sofa_ depicts
+the various seekers after sleep. After telling of the snoring nurse, the
+sleeping traveller in the coach, he continues:
+
+     "Sweet sleep enjoys the curate in his desk,
+     The tedious rector drawling o'er his head;
+     And sweet the clerk below--"
+
+a pretty picture truly of a stirring and impressive service!
+
+Cowper, if he were alive now, would have been no admirer of _Who's Who_,
+and poured scorn upon any
+
+     "Fond attempt to give a deathless lot
+     To names ignoble, born to be forgot."
+
+Beholding some "names of little note" in the _Biographia Britannica_, he
+proceeded to satirise the publication, to laugh at the imaginary
+procession of worthies--the squire, his lady, the vicar, and other local
+celebrities, and chants in his anger:
+
+     "There goes the parson, oh! illustrious spark!
+     And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk."
+
+The poet Gay is not unmindful of the
+
+     "Parish clerk who calls the hymns so clear";
+
+and Tennyson, in his sonnet to J.M.K., wrote:
+
+     "Our dusty velvets have much need of thee:
+     Thou art no sabbath-drawler of old saws,
+     Distill'd from some worm-canker'd homily;
+     But spurr'd at heart with fiercest energy
+     To embattail and to wall about thy cause
+     With iron-worded proof, hating to hark
+     The humming of the drowsy pulpit-drone
+     Half God's good Sabbath, while the worn-out clerk
+     Brow-beats his desk below."
+
+In the gallery of Dickens's characters stands out the immortal Solomon
+Daisy of _Barnaby Rudge_, with his "cricket-like chirrup" as he took his
+part in the social gossip round the Maypole fire. Readers of Dickens
+will remember the timid Solomon's visit to the church at midnight when
+he went to toll the passing bell, and his account of the strange things
+that befell him there, and of the ringing of the mysterious bell that
+told the murder of Reuben Haredale.
+
+In the British Museum I discovered a fragmentary collection of ballads
+and songs, made by Mr. Ballard, and amongst these is a song relating to
+a very unworthy follower of St. Nicholas, whose memory is thus unhappily
+preserved:
+
+     THE PARISH CLERK
+
+     A NEW COMIC SONG
+
+     _Tune_--THE VICAR AND MOSES
+
+     Here rests from his labours, by consent of his neighbours,
+       A peevish, ill-natur'd old clerk;
+     Who never design'd any good to mankind,
+       For of goodness he ne'er had a spark.
+         Tol lol de rol lol de rol lol.
+
+     But greedy as Death, until his last breath,
+       His method he ne'er failed to use;
+     When interr'd a corpse lay, Amen he'd scarce say,
+       Before he cry'd Who pays the dues?
+
+     Not a tear now he's dead, by friend or foe shed;
+       The first they were few, if he'd any;
+     Of the last he had more, than tongue can count o'er,
+       Who'd have hang'd the old churl for a penny.
+
+     In Levi's black train, the clerk did remain
+       Twenty years, squalling o'er a dull stave;
+     Yet his mind was so evil, he'd swear like the devil,
+       Nor repented on this side the grave.
+
+         _Fowler, Printer, Salisbury_.
+
+That extraordinary man Mr. William Hutton, who died in 1813, and whose
+life has been written and his works edited by Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt,
+F.S.A., amongst his other poems wrote a set of verses on _The Way to
+Find Sunday without an Almanack_. It tells the story of a Welsh
+clergyman who kept poultry, and how he told the days of the week and
+marked the Sundays by the regularity with which one of his hens laid her
+eggs. The seventh egg always became his Sunday letter, and thus he
+always remembered to sally forth "with gown and cassock, book and
+band," and perform his accustomed duty. Unfortunately the clerk was
+treacherous, and one week stole an egg, with dire consequences to the
+congregation, which had to wait until the clergyman, who was engaged in
+the unclerical task of "soleing shoes," could be fetched. The poem is a
+poor trifle, but it is perhaps worth mentioning on account of the
+personality of the writer.
+
+There is a charming sketch of an old clerk in the _Essays and Tales_ of
+the late Lady Verney. The story tells of the old clerk's affection for
+his great-grandchild, Benny. He is a delightfully drawn specimen of his
+race. We see him "creeping slowly about the shadows of the aisle, in his
+long blue Sunday coat with huge brass buttons, the tails of which
+reached almost to his heels, shorts and brown leggings, and a
+low-crowned hat in his hand. He was nearly eighty, but wiry still,
+rather blind and somewhat deaf; but the post of clerk is one considered
+to be quite independent and irremovable, _quam diu se bene gesserit_,
+during good behaviour--on a level with Her Majesty's judges for that
+matter. Having been raised to this great eminence some sixty years
+before, when he was the only man in the parish who could read, he would
+have stood out for his rights to remain there as long as he pleased
+against all the powers and principalities in the kingdom--if, indeed, he
+could have conceived the possibility of any one, in or out of the
+parish, being sufficiently irreligious and revolutionary to dispute his
+sovereignty. He was part of the church, and the church was part of
+him--his rights and hers were indissolubly connected in his mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The Psalms that day offered a fine field for his Anglo-Saxon plurals
+and south-country terminations; the 'housen,' 'priestesses,' 'beasteses
+of the field,' came rolling freely forth from his mouth, upon which no
+remonstrances by the curate had had the smallest effect. Was he, Michael
+Major, who had fulfilled the important office 'afore that young
+jackanapes was born, to be teached how 'twere to be done?' he had
+observed more than once in rather a high tone, though in general he
+patronised the successive occupants of the pulpit with much kindness.
+'And this 'un, as cannot spike English nayther,' he added superciliously
+concerning the north-country accent of his pastor and master."
+
+On weekdays he wore a smock-frock, which he called his surplice, with
+wonderful fancy stitches on the breast and back and sleeves. At length
+he had to resign his post and take to his bed, and was not afraid to die
+when his time came. It is a very tender and touching little story, a
+very faithful picture of an old clerk[43].
+
+[Footnote 43: _Essays and Tales_, by Frances Parthenope Lady Verney, p.
+67.]
+
+Passing from grave to gay, we find Tom Hood sketching the clerk
+attending on his vicar, who is about to perform a wedding service and
+make two people for ever happy. He christens the two officials "the
+joiners, no rough mechanics, but a portly full-blown vicar with his
+clerk, both rubicund, a peony paged by a pink. It made me smile to
+observe the droll clerical turn of the clerk's beaver, scrubbed into
+that fashion by his coat at the nape."
+
+Few people know Alexander Pope's _Memoir of P.P., Clerk of this Parish_,
+which was intended to ridicule Burnet's _History of His Own Time_, a
+work characterised by a strong tincture of self-importance and egotism.
+These are abundantly exposed in the _Memoir_, which begins thus:
+
+"In the name of the Lord, Amen. I, P.P., by the Grace of God, Clerk of
+this Parish, writeth this history.
+
+"Ever since I arrived at the age of discretion I had a call to take upon
+me the Function of a Parish Clerk, and to this end it seemed unto me
+meet and profitable to associate myself with the parish clerks of this
+land, such I mean as were right worthy in their calling, men of a clear
+and sweet voice, and of becoming gravity."
+
+He tells how on the day of his birth Squire Bret gave a bell to the ring
+of the parish. Hence that one and the same day did give to their own
+church two rare gifts, its great bell and its clerk.
+
+Leaving the account of P.P.'s youthful amours and bouts at
+quarter-staff, we next find that:
+
+"No sooner was I elected into my office, but I layed aside the
+gallantries of my youth and became a new man. I considered myself as in
+somewise of ecclesiastical dignity, since by wearing of a band, which is
+no small part of the ornaments of our clergy, might not unworthily be
+deemed, as it were, a shred of the linen vestments of Aaron.
+
+"Thou mayest conceive, O reader, with what concern I perceived the eyes
+of the congregation fixed upon me, when I first took my place at the
+feet of the Priest. When I raised the Psalm, how did my voice quiver
+with fear! And when I arrayed the shoulders of the minister with the
+surplice, how did my joints tremble under me! I said within myself,
+'Remember, Paul, thou standest before men of high worship, the wise Mr.
+Justice Freeman, the grave Mr. Justice Tonson, the good Lady Jones.'
+Notwithstanding it was my good hap to acquit myself to the good liking
+of the whole congregation, but the Lord forbid I should glory therein."
+
+He then proceeded to remove "the manifold corruptions and abuses."
+
+1. "I was especially severe in whipping forth dogs from the Temple, all
+except the lap-dog of the good widow Howard, a sober dog which yelped
+not, nor was there offence in his mouth.
+
+2. "I did even proceed to moroseness, though sore against my heart, unto
+poor babes, in tearing from them the half-eaten apple, which they
+privily munched at church. But verily it pitied me, for I remembered the
+days of my youth.
+
+3. "With the sweat of my own hands I did make plain and smooth the dog's
+ears throughout our Great Bible.
+
+4. "I swept the pews, not before swept in the third year. I darned the
+surplice and laid it in lavender."
+
+The good clerk also made shoes, shaved and clipped hair, and practised
+chirurgery also in the worming of dogs.
+
+"Now was the long expected time arrived when the Psalms of King David
+should be hymned unto the same tunes to which he played them upon his
+harp, so I was informed by my singing-master, a man right cunning in
+Psalmody. Now was our over-abundant quaver and trilling done away, and
+in lieu thereof was instituted the sol-fa in such guise as is sung in
+his Majesty's Chapel. We had London singing-masters sent into every
+parish like unto excisemen."
+
+P.P. was accused by his enemies of humming through his nostrils as a
+sackbut, yet he would not forgo the harmony, it having been agreed by
+the worthy clerks of London still to preserve the same. He tutored the
+young men and maidens to tune their voices as it were a psaltery, and
+the church on Sunday was filled with new Hallelujahs.
+
+But the fame of the great is fleeting. Poor Paul Philips passed away,
+and was forgotten. When his biographer went to see him, his place knew
+him no more. No one could tell of his virtues, his career, his
+excellences. Nothing remained but his epitaph:
+
+     "O reader, if that thou canst read,
+       Look down upon this stone;
+     Do all we can, Death is a man
+       That never spareth none."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CLERKS TOO CLERICAL. SMUGGLING DAYS AND SMUGGLING WAYS
+
+It is perhaps not altogether surprising that in times when ordained
+clergymen were scarce, and when much confusion reigned, the clerk should
+occasionally have taken upon himself to discharge duties which scarcely
+pertained to his office. Great diversity of opinion is evident as
+regards the right of the clerk to perform certain ecclesiastical
+services, such as his reading of the Burial Service, the Churching of
+Women, and the reading of the daily services in the absence of the
+incumbent. In the days of Queen Elizabeth, judging from the numerous
+inquiries issued by the bishops at their visitations, one would imagine
+that the parish clerk performed many services which pertained to the
+duties of the parish priest. It is not likely that such inquiries should
+have been made if some reports of clerks and readers exceeding their
+prescribed functions had not reached episcopal ears. They ask if readers
+presume to baptize or marry or celebrate Holy Communion. And the answers
+received in several cases support the surmise of the bishops. Thus we
+read that at Westbere, "When the parson is absent the parish clerk reads
+the service." At Waltham the parish clerk served the parish for the most
+as the vicar seldom came there. At Tenterden the service was read by a
+layman, one John Hopton, and at Fairfield a reader served the church.
+This was the condition of those parishes in 1569, and doubtless many
+others were similarly situated.
+
+The Injunctions of Archbishop Grindal, issued in 1571, are severe and
+outspoken with regard to lay ministration. He wrote as follows:
+
+     "We do enjoin and straitly command, that from henceforth no
+     parish clerk, nor any other person not being ordered, at the
+     least, for a deacon, shall presume to solemnize Matrimony, or
+     to minister the Sacrament of Baptism, or to deliver the
+     communicants the Lord's cup at the celebration of the Holy
+     Communion. And that no person, not being a minister, deacon,
+     or at least, tolerated by the ordinary in writing, do attempt
+     to supply the office of a minister in saying divine service
+     openly in any church or chapel."
+
+In the Lincoln diocese in 1588 the clerk was still allowed to read one
+lesson and the epistle, but he was forbidden from saying the service,
+ministering any sacraments or reading any homily. In some cases greater
+freedom was allowed. In the beautiful Lady Chapel of the Church of St.
+Mary Overy there is preserved a curious record relating to this:
+
+     "Touching the Parish Clerk and Sexton all is well; only our
+     clerk doth sometimes to ease the minister read prayers,
+     church women, christen, bury and marry, being allowed so
+     to do.
+
+     "December 9. 1634."
+
+Bishop Joseph Hall of Exeter asked in 1638 in his visitation articles,
+"Whether in the absence of the minister or at any other time the Parish
+Clerk, or any other lay person, said Common Prayer openly in the church
+or any part of the Divine Service which is proper to the Priest?"
+
+Archdeacon Marsh, of Chichester, in 1640 inquires: "Hath your Parish
+Clerk or Sexton taken upon him to meddle with anything above his office,
+as churching of women, burying of the dead, or such like?"
+
+During the troublous times of the Commonwealth period it is not
+surprising that the clerk often performed functions which were "above
+his office," when clergymen were banished from their livings. We have
+noticed already an example of the burial service being performed by the
+clerk when he was so rudely treated by angry Parliamentarians for using
+the Book of Common Prayer. Here is an instance of the ceremony of
+marriage being performed by the parish clerk:
+
+     "The marriages in the Parish of Dale Abbey were till a few
+     years previous to the Marriage Act, solemnized by the Clerk
+     of the Parish, at one shilling each, there being no
+     minister."
+
+This Marriage Act was that passed by the Little Parliament of 1653, by
+which marriage was pronounced to be merely a civil contract. Banns were
+published in the market-place, and the marriages were performed by
+Cromwell's Justices of the Peace whom, according to a Yorkshire vicar,
+"that impious and rebell appointed out of the basest Hypocrites and
+dissemblers with God and man." The clerks' marriage ceremony was no
+worse than that of the justices.
+
+Dr. Macray, of the Bodleian Library, has discovered the draft of a
+licence granted by Dr. John Mountain, Bishop of London, to Thomas
+Dickenson, parish clerk of Waltham Holy Cross, in the year 1621,
+permitting him to read prayers, church women, and bury the dead. This
+licence states that the parish of Waltham Holy Cross was very spacious,
+many houses being a long distance from the church, and that the curate
+was very much occupied with his various duties of visiting the sick,
+burying the dead, churching women, and other business belonging to his
+office; hence permission is granted to Thomas Dickenson to assist the
+curate in reading prayers in church, burying dead corpses, and to church
+women in the absence of the curate, or when the curate cannot
+conveniently perform the same duty in his own person.
+
+Doubtless this licence was no solitary exception, and it is fairly
+certain that other clerks enjoyed the same privileges which are here
+assigned to Master Thomas Dickenson. He must have been a worthy member
+of his class, a man of education, and of skill and ability in reading,
+or episcopal sanction would not have been given to him to perform these
+important duties.
+
+It is evident that parish clerks occasionally at least performed several
+important clerical functions with the consent of, or in the absence of
+the incumbents, and that in spite of the articles in the visitations of
+some bishops who were opposed to this practice, episcopal sanction was
+not altogether wanting.
+
+The affection with which the parishioners regarded the clerk is
+evidenced in many ways. He received from them many gifts in kind and
+money, such as eggs and cakes and sheaves of corn. Some of them were
+demanded in early times as a right that could not be evaded; but the
+compulsory payment of such goods was abolished, and the parishioners
+willingly gave by courtesy that which had been deemed a right.
+
+Sometimes land has been left to the clerk in order that he may ring the
+curfew-bell, or a bell at night and early morning, so that travellers
+may be warned lest they should lose their way over wild moorland or
+bleak down, and, guided by the sound of the bell, may reach a place
+of safety.
+
+An old lady once lost her way on the Lincolnshire wolds, nigh Boston,
+but was guided to her home by the sound of the church bell tolling at
+night. So grateful was she that she bequeathed a piece of land to the
+parish clerk on condition that he should ring one of the bells from
+seven to eight o'clock each evening during the winter months.
+
+There is a piece of land called "Curfew Land" at St.
+Margaret's-at-Cliffe, Kent, the rent of which was directed to be paid to
+the clerk or other person who should ring the curfew every evening in
+order to warn travellers lest they should fall over the cliff, as the
+unfortunate donor of the land did, for want of the due and constant
+ringing of the bell.
+
+In smuggling days, clerks, like many of their betters, were not
+immaculate. The venerable vicar of Worthing, the Rev. E. K. Elliott,
+records that the clerk of Broadwater was himself a smuggler, and in
+league with those who throve by the illicit trade. When a cargo was
+expected he would go up to the top of the spire, which afforded a
+splendid view of the sea, and when the coast was clear of preventive
+officers he would give the signal by hoisting a flag. Kegs of contraband
+spirits were frequently placed inside two huge tombs which have sliding
+tops, and which stand near the western porch of Worthing church.
+
+The last run of smuggled goods in that neighbourhood was well within the
+recollection of the vicar, and took place in 1855. Some kegs were taken
+to Charman Dean and buried in the ground, and although diligent search
+was made, the smugglers baffled their pursuers.
+
+At Soberton, Hants, there is an old vault near the chancel door. Now the
+flat stone is level with the ground; but in 1800 it rested on three feet
+of brickwork, and could be lifted off by two men. Here many kegs of
+spirit that paid no duty were deposited by an arrangement with the
+clerk, and the stone lifted on again. This secret hiding-place was never
+discovered, neither did the curate find out who requisitioned his horse
+when the nights favoured smugglers.
+
+In the wild days of Cornish wreckers and wrecking, both priest and clerk
+are said to have taken part in the sharing of the tribute of the sea
+cast upon their rockbound coast. The historian of Cornwall, Richard
+Polwhele, tells of a wreck happening one Sunday morning just before
+service. The clerk, eager to be at the fray, announced to the assembled
+parishioners that "Measter would gee them a holiday."
+
+I will not vouch for the truth of that other story told in the
+_Encyclopĉdia of Wit_ (1801), which runs as follows:
+
+"A parson who lived on the coast of Cornwall, where one great business
+of the inhabitants is plundering from ships that are wrecked, being once
+preaching when the alarm was given, found that the sound of the wreck
+was so much more attractive than his sermon, that all his congregation
+were scampering out of church. To check their precipitation, he called
+out, 'My brethren, let me entreat you to stay for five words more'; and
+marching out of the pulpit, till he had got pretty near the door of the
+church, slowly pronounced, 'Let us all start fair,' and ran off with the
+rest of them."
+
+An old parishioner of the famous Rev. R. S. Hawker once told him of a
+very successful run of a cargo of kegs, which the obliging parish clerk
+allowed the smugglers to place underneath the benches and in the tower
+stairs of the church. The old man told the story thus:
+
+     "We bribed Tom Hockaday, the sexton, and we had the goods
+     safe in the seats by Saturday night. The parson did wonder at
+     the large congregation, for divers of them were not regular
+     churchgoers at other times; and if he had known what was
+     going on, he could not have preached a more suitable
+     discourse, for it was, 'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is
+     excess.' It was one of his best sermons; but, there, it did
+     not touch us, you see; for we never tasted anything but
+     brandy and gin."
+
+In such smuggling ways the clerk was no worse than his neighbours, who
+were all more or less involved in the illicit trade.
+
+The old Cornish clerks who used to help the smugglers were a curious
+race of beings, remarkable for their familiar ways with the parson. At
+St. Clements the clergyman one day was reading the verse, "I have seen
+the ungodly flourish like a _green bay_ tree," when the clerk looked up
+with an inquiring glance from the desk below, "How can that be,
+maister?" He was more familiar with the colour of a bay horse than the
+tints of a bay tree.
+
+At Kenwyn two dogs, one of which belonged to the parson, were fighting
+at the west end of the church; the parson, who was then reading the
+second lesson, rushed out of the pew and went down and parted them.
+Returning to his pew, and doubtful where he had left off, he asked the
+clerk, "Roger, where was I?" "Why, down parting the dogs, maister,"
+replied Roger.
+
+Two rocks stand out on the South Devon coast near Dawlish, which are
+known as the Parson and Clerk. A wild, weird legend is told about these
+rocks--of a parson who desired the See of Exeter, and often rode with
+his clerk to Dawlish to hear the latest news of the bishop who was nigh
+unto death. The wanderers lost their way one dark night, and the parson
+exhibited most unclerical anger, telling his clerk that he would rather
+have the devil for a guide than him. Of course, the devil or one of his
+imps obliged, and conducted the wanderers to an old ruined house, where
+there was a large company of disguised demons. They all passed a merry
+night, singing and carousing. Then the news comes that the bishop is
+dead. The parson and clerk determine to set out at once. Their steeds
+are brought, but will not budge a step. The parson cuts savagely at his
+horse. The demons roar with unearthly laughter. The ruined house and all
+the devils vanish. The waves are overwhelming the riders, and in the
+morning the wretches are found clinging to the rocks with the grasp of
+death, which ever afterwards record their villainy and their fate.
+
+Among tales of awe and weird mystery stands out the story of the
+adventures of Peter Priestly, clerk, sexton, and gravestone cutter, of
+Wakefield, who flourished at the end of the eighteenth century. He was
+an old and much respected inhabitant of the town, and not at all given
+to superstitious fears. One Saturday evening he went to the church to
+finish the epitaph on a stone which was to be in readiness for removal
+before Sunday. Arrived at the church, where he had his workshop, he set
+down his lantern and lighted his other candle, which was set in a
+primitive candlestick formed out of a potato. The church clock struck
+eleven, and still some letters remained unfinished, when he heard a
+strange sound, which seemed to say "Hiss!" "Hush!" He resumes his work
+undaunted. Again that awful voice breaks in once more. He lights his
+lantern and searches for its cause. In vain his efforts. He resolves to
+leave the church, but again remembers his promise and returns to his
+work. The mystic hour of midnight strikes. He has nearly finished, and
+bends down to examine the letters on the stone. Again he hears a louder
+"Hiss!" He now stands appalled. Terror seizes him. He has profaned the
+Sabbath, and the sentence of death has gone forth. With tottering steps
+Peter finds his way home and goes to bed. Sleep forsakes him. His wife
+ministers to him in vain. As morning dawns the good woman notices
+Peter's wig suspended on the great chair. "Oh, Peter," she cries, "what
+hast thou been doing to burn all t' hair off one side of thy wig?" "Ah!
+bless thee," says the clerk, "thou hast cured me with that word." The
+mysterious "hiss" and "hush" were sounds from the frizzling of Peter's
+wig by the flame of the candle, which to his imperfect sense of hearing
+imported things horrible and awful. Such is the story which a writer in
+Hone's _Year Book_ tells, and which is said to have afforded Peter
+Priestly and the good people of merry Wakefield many a joke.
+
+The _Year Book_ is always full of interest, and in the same volume I
+find an account of a most worthy representative of the profession, one
+John Kent, the parish clerk of St. Albans, who died in 1798, aged eighty
+years. He was a very venerable and intelligent man, who did service in
+the old abbey church, long before the days when its beauties were
+desecrated by Grimthorpian restoration, or when it was exalted to
+cathedral rank. For fifty-two years Kent was the zealous clerk and
+custodian of the minster, and loved to describe its attractions. He was
+the friend of the learned Browne Willis. His name is mentioned in
+Cough's _Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain_, and his intelligence
+and knowledge noticed, and Newcombe, the historian of the abbey,
+expressed his gratitude to the good clerk for much information imparted
+by him to the author. The monks could not have guarded the shrine of St.
+Alban with greater care than did Kent protect the relics of good Duke
+Humphrey. His veneration for all that the abbey contained was
+remarkable. A story is told of a gentleman who purloined a bone of the
+Duke. The clerk suspected the theft but could never prove it, though he
+sometimes taxed the gentleman with having removed the bone. At last,
+just before his death, the man restored it, saying to the clerk, "I
+could not depart easy with it in my possession."
+
+Kent was a plumber and glazier by trade, in politics a staunch partisan
+of "the Blues," and on account of his sturdy independence was styled
+"Honest John." He performed his duties in the minster with much zeal and
+ability, his knowledge of psalmody was unsurpassed, his voice was strong
+and melodious, and he was a complete master of church music. Unlike many
+of his confrères, he liked to hear the congregation sing; but when
+country choirs came from neighbouring churches to perform in the abbey
+with instruments, contemptuously described by him as "a box of
+whistles," the congregation being unable to join in the melodies, he
+used to give out the anthem thus: "Sing _ye_ to the praise and glory of
+God...." Five years before his death he had an attack of paralysis which
+slightly crippled his power of utterance, though this defect could
+scarcely be detected when he was engaged in the services of the church.
+Two days before his death he sang his "swan-song." Some colours were
+presented to the volunteers of the town, and were consecrated in the
+abbey. During the service he sang the 20th Psalm with all the strength
+and vivacity of youth. When his funeral sermon was preached the rector
+alluded to this dying effort, and said that on the day of the great
+service "Nature seemed to have reassumed her throne; and, as she knew it
+was to be his last effort, was determined it should be his best." The
+body of the good clerk, John Kent, rests in the abbey church which he
+loved so well, in a spot marked by himself, and we hope that the
+"restoration," somewhat drastic and severe, which has fallen upon the
+grand old church, has not obscured his grave or destroyed the memorial
+of this worthy and excellent clerk.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE CLERK IN EPITAPH
+
+The virtues of many a parish clerk are recorded on numerous humble
+tombstones in village churchyards. The gratitude felt by both rector and
+people for many years of faithful service is thus set forth, sometimes
+couched in homely verse, and occasionally marred by the misplaced humour
+and jocular expressions and puns with which our forefathers thought fit
+to honour the dead. In this they were not original, and but followed the
+example of the Greeks and Romans, the Italians, Spaniards, and French.
+This objectionable fashion of punning on gravestones was formerly much
+in vogue in England, and such a prominent official as the clerk did not
+escape the attention of the punsters. Happily the quaint fancies and
+primitive humour, which delighted our grandsires in the production of
+rebuses and such-like pleasantries, no longer find themselves displayed
+upon the fabric of our churches, and the "merry jests" have ceased to
+appear upon the memorials of the dead. We will glance at the clerkly
+epitaphs of some of the worthies who have held the office of parish
+clerk who were deemed deserving of a memorial.
+
+In the southern portion of the churchyard attached to St. Andrew's
+Church, Rugby, is a plain upright stone containing the following
+inscription:
+
+          In memory of
+          Peter Collis
+        33 years Clerk of
+           this Parish
+     who died Feb'y 28th 1818
+         Aged 82 years
+
+[Some lines of poetry follow, but these unfortunately are not now
+discernible.]
+
+At the time Peter held office the incumbent was noted for his
+card-playing propensities, and the clerk was much addicted to
+cock-fighting. The following couplet relating to these worthies is still
+remembered:
+
+     No wonder the people of Rugby are all in the dark,
+     With a card-playing parson and a cock-fighting clerk.
+
+Peter's father was clerk before him, and on a stone to his memory is
+recorded as follows:
+
+               In memory of
+          John Collis Husband of
+          Eliz: Collis who liv'd in
+          Wedlock together 50 years
+      he served as Parish Clerk 41 years
+     And died June 19th 1781 aged 69 years
+
+       Him who covered up the Dead
+       Is himself laid in the same bed
+       Time with his crooked scythe hath made
+       Him lay his mattock down and spade
+       May he and we all rise again
+       To everlasting life AMEN.
+
+The name Collis occurs amongst those who held the office of parish clerk
+at West Haddon. The Rev. John T. Page, to whom I am indebted for the
+above information[44], has gleaned the following particulars from the
+parish registers and other sources. The clerk who reigned in 1903 was
+Thomas Adams, who filled the position for eighteen years. He succeeded
+his father-in-law, William Prestidge, who died 24 March, 1886, after
+holding the office fifty-three years. His predecessor was Thomas Collis,
+who died 30 January, 1833, after holding the office fifty-two years, and
+succeeded John Colledge, who, according to an old weather-beaten stone
+still standing in the churchyard, died 12 September, 1781. How long
+Colledge held office cannot now be ascertained. Here are some remarkable
+examples of long years of service, Collis and Prestidge having held the
+office for 105 years.
+
+[Footnote 44: cf. _Notes and Queries_, Tenth Series, ii., 10 September,
+1904, p. 215.]
+
+In Shenley churchyard the following remarkable epitaph appears to the
+memory of Joseph Rogers, who was a bricklayer as well as parish clerk:
+
+     Silent in dust lies mouldering here
+     A Parish Clerk of voice most clear.
+     None Joseph Rogers could excel
+     In laying bricks or singing well;
+     Though snapp'd his line, laid by his rod,
+     We build for him our hopes in God.
+
+A remarkable instance of longevity is recorded on a tombstone in Cromer
+churchyard. The inscription runs:
+
+     Sacred to the memory of David Vial who departed this life the
+     26th of March, 1873, aged 94 years, for sixty years clerk of
+     this parish.
+
+At the village church of Whittington, near Oswestry, there is a
+well-known epitaph, which is worth recording:
+
+     March 13th 1766 died Thomas Evans, Parish Clerk, aged 72.
+
+     Old Sternhold's lines or "Vicar of Bray"
+     Which he tuned best 'twas hard to say.
+
+Another remarkable instance of longevity is that recorded on a
+tombstone in the cemetery of Eye, Suffolk, erected to the memory of a
+faithful clerk:
+
+     Erected to the memory of
+     George Herbert
+     who was clerk of this parish for more
+     than 71 years
+     and who died on the 17th May 1873
+     aged 81 years.
+
+     This monument
+     Is erected to his memory by his grateful
+     Friend
+     the Rev. W. Page Roberts
+     Vicar of Eye.
+
+Herbert must have commenced his duties very early in life; according to
+the inscription, at the age of ten years.
+
+At Scothorne, in Lincolnshire, there is a sexton-ringer-clerk epitaph on
+John Blackburn's tombstone, dated 1739-40. It reads thus:
+
+     Alas poor John
+     Is dead and gone
+     Who often toll'd the Bell
+     And with a spade
+     Dug many a grave
+     And said Amen as well.
+
+The Roes were a great family of clerks at Bakewell, and the two members
+who occupied that office at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of
+the nineteenth century seem to have been endowed with good voices, and
+with a devoted attachment to the church and its monuments. Samuel Roe
+had the honour of being mentioned in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, and
+receives well-deserved praise for his care of the fabric of Bakewell
+Church, and his epitaph is given, which runs as follows:
+
+     To
+     The memory of
+     SAMUEL ROE
+     Clerk
+     of the Parish Church of Bakewell,
+     which office
+     he filled thirty-five years
+     with credit to himself
+     and satisfaction to the inhabitants.
+     His natural powers of voice,
+     in clearness, strength, and sweetness
+     were altogether unequalled.
+     He died October 31st, 1792
+     Aged 70 years
+
+The correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ wrote thus of this
+faithful clerk:
+
+     "Mr. Urban,
+
+     "It was with much concern that I read the epitaph upon Mr.
+     Roe in your last volume, page 1192. Upon a little tour which
+     I made in Derbyshire in 1789, I met with that worthy and very
+     intelligent man at Bakewell, and in the course of my
+     antiquarian researches there, derived no inconsiderable
+     assistance from his zeal and civility. If he did not possess
+     the learning of his namesake, your old and valuable
+     correspondent[45], I will venture to declare that he was not
+     less influenced by a love and veneration for antiquity, many
+     proofs of which he had given by his care and attention to the
+     monuments of the church which were committed to his charge;
+     for he united the characters of sexton, clerk,
+     singing-master, will-maker, and schoolmaster. Finding that I
+     was quite alone, he requested permission to wait upon me at
+     the inn in the evening, urging as a reason for this request
+     that he must be exceedingly gratified by the conversation of
+     a gentleman who could read the characters upon the monument
+     of Vernon, the founder of Haddon House, a treat he had not
+     met with for many years. After a very pleasant gossip we
+     parted, but not till my honest friend had, after some
+     apparent struggle, begged of me to indulge him with my name."
+
+[Footnote 45: T. Row stands for T_he_ R_ector_ O_f_ W_hittington_, the
+Rev. Samuel Pegge. cf. _Curious Epitaphs_, by W. Andrews, p. 124.]
+
+To this worthy clerk's care is due the preservation of the Vernon and
+other monuments in Bakewell Church. Mr. Andrews tells us that "in some
+instances he placed a wooden framework to keep off the rough hands and
+rougher knives of the boys and young men of the congregation. He also
+watched with special care the Wenderley tomb, and even took careful
+rubbings of the inscriptions[46]."
+
+[Footnote 46: W. Andrews, _Curious Epitaphs_, p. 124.]
+
+The inscription on the tomb of the son of this worthy clerk proves that
+he inherited his father's talents as regards musical ability:
+
+     Erected
+     In remembrance of
+     PHILIP ROE
+     Who died 12th September, 1815,
+     Aged 52 years.
+
+     The vocal Powers here let us mark
+     Of Philip our late Parish Clerk,
+     In church none ever heard a Layman
+     With a clearer voice say 'Amen'!
+     Who now with Hallelujahs sound
+     Like him can make this roof rebound?
+     The Choir lament his Choral Tones
+     The Town--so soon Here lie his Bones.
+     Sleep undisturb'd within thy peaceful shrine
+     Till Angels wake thee with such notes as thine.
+
+The last two lines are a sweet and tender tribute truly to the memory
+of this melodious clerk.
+
+A writer in _All the Year Round_[47], who has been identified as
+Cuthbert Bede, the author of the immortal _Verdant Green_, tells of the
+Osbornes and Worrals, famous families of clerks, quoting instances of
+the hereditary nature of the office. He wrote as follows
+concerning them:
+
+[Footnote 47: No. 624, New Series, p. 83.]
+
+"As a boy I often attended the service at Belbroughton Church,
+Worcestershire, when the clerk was Mr. Osborne, tailor. His family had
+been parish clerks and tailors since the time of Henry VIII, and were
+lineally descended from William Fitz-Osborne, who in the twelfth century
+had been deprived by Ralph Fitz-Herbert of his right to the manor of
+Bellam, in the parish of Bellroughton. Often have I stood in the
+picturesque churchyard of Wolverley, Worcestershire, by the grave of the
+old parish clerk, whom I well remember, old Thomas Worrall, the
+inscription on whose monument is as follows:
+
+          Sacred to the memory of
+          THOMAS WORRALL,
+          parish clerk of Wolverley for a period of
+          forty-seven years.
+          Died A.D. 1854, February 23rd.
+          He served with faithfulness in humble sphere
+          As one who could his talents well employ,
+          Hope that when Christ his Lord shall reappear,
+          He may be bidden to his Master's joy.
+
+     This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceased
+     by a few parishioners in testimony of his worth, April 1855.
+
+          Charles R. Somers Cocks,
+               Vicar.
+
+It may be noted of this worthy clerk that, with the exception of a week
+or two before his death, he was never absent from his Sunday and weekday
+duties in the forty-seven years during which he held office.
+
+He succeeded his father, James Worrall, who died in 1806, aged
+seventy-nine, after being parish clerk of Wolverley for thirty years.
+His tombstone, near to that of his son, was erected "to record his worth
+both in his public and private character, and as a mark of personal
+esteem--p. 1. F.H. and W.C. p.c." I am told that these initials stand
+for F. Hustle, and the Rev. William Callow, and that the latter was the
+author of the following lines inscribed on the monument, which are well
+worth quoting:
+
+     If courtly bards adorn each statesman's bust
+     And strew their laurels o'er each warrior's dust,
+     Alike immortalise, as good and great,
+     Him who enslaved as him who saved the State,
+     Surely the Muse (a rustic minstrel) may
+     Drop one wild flower upon a poor man's clay.
+     This artless tribute to his mem'ry give
+     Whose life was such as heroes seldom live.
+     In worldly knowledge, poor indeed his store--
+     He knew the village, and he scarce knew more.
+     The worth of heavenly truth he justly knew--
+     In faith a Christian, and in practice too.
+     Yes, here lies one, excel him ye who can:
+     Go! imitate the virtues of that man!
+
+The famous "Amen" epitaph at Crayford, Kent, is well known, though the
+name of the clerk who is thus commemorated is sometimes forgotten. It is
+to the memory of one Peter Snell, who repeated his "Amens" diligently
+for a period of thirty years, and runs as follows:
+
+     Here lieth the body of
+     Peter Snell,
+     Thirty years clerk of this Parish.
+     He lived respected as a pious and mirthful man,
+     and died on his way to church to
+     assist at a wedding,
+     on the 31st of March, 1811,
+     Aged seventy years.
+
+     The inhabitants of Crayford have raised this stone to his
+     cheerful memory, and as a tribute to his long and faithful
+     services.
+
+     The life of this clerk was just threescore and ten,
+     Nearly half of which time he had sung out Amen.
+     In his youth he had married like other young men,
+     But his wife died one day--so he chanted Amen.
+     A second he took--she departed--what then?
+     He married and buried a third with Amen.
+     Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but then
+     His voice was deep base, as he sung out Amen.
+     On the horn he could blow as well as most men,
+     So his horn was exalted to blowing Amen.
+     But he lost all his wind after threescore and ten,
+     And here with three wives he waits till again
+     The trumpet shall rouse him to sing out Amen.
+
+[Illustration: OLD SCARLETT]
+
+The duties of sexton and parish clerk were usually performed by one
+person, as we have already frequently noticed, and therefore it is
+fitting that we should record the epitaph of Old Scarlett, most famous
+of grave-diggers, who buried two queens, both the victims of stern
+persecution, ill-usage, and Tudor tyranny--Catherine, the divorced wife
+of Henry VIII, and poor sinning Mary Queen of Scots. His famous picture
+in Peterborough Cathedral, on the wall of the western transept, usually
+attracts the chief attention of the tourist, and has preserved his name
+and fame. He is represented with a spade, pickaxe, keys, and a whip in
+his leathern girdle, and at his feet lies a skull. In the upper
+left-hand corner appear the arms of the see of Peterborough, save that
+the cross-keys are converted into cross-swords. The whip at his girdle
+appears to show that Old Scarlett occupied the position of dog-whipper
+as well as sexton. There is a description of this portrait in the _Book
+of Days_, wherein the writer says:
+
+     "What a lively effigy--short, stout, hardy, self-complacent,
+     perfectly satisfied, and perhaps even proud of his
+     profession, and content to be exhibited with all its insignia
+     about him! Two queens had passed through his hands into that
+     bed which gives a lasting rest to queens and to peasants
+     alike. An officer of death, who had so long defied his
+     principal, could not but have made some impression on the
+     minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and other magnates of the
+     cathedral, and hence, as we may suppose, the erection of this
+     lively portraiture of the old man, which is believed to have
+     been only once renewed since it was first put up. Dr. Dibdin,
+     who last copied it, tells us that 'old Scarlett's jacket and
+     trunkhose are of a brownish red, his stockings blue, his
+     shoes black, tied with blue ribbons, and the soles of his
+     feet red. The cap upon his head is red, and so also is the
+     ground of the coat armour.'" Beneath the portrait are these
+     lines:
+
+          YOU SEE OLD SCARLETTS PICTURE STAND ON HIE
+          BUT AT YOUR FEETE THERE DOTH HIS BODY LYE
+          HIS GRAVESTONE DOTH HIS AGE AND DEATH TIME SHOW
+          HIS OFFICE BY THEIS TOKENS YOU MAY KNOW
+          SECOND TO NONE FOR STRENGTH AND STURDYE LIMM
+          A SCARBABE MIGHTY VOICE WITH VISAGE GRIM
+          HEE HAD INTER'D TWO QUEENES WITHIN THIS PLACE
+          AND THIS TOWNES HOUSEHOLDERS IN HIS LIVES SPACE
+          TWICE OVER: BUT AT LENGTH HIS OWN TURNE CAME
+          WHAT HE FOR OTHERS DID FOR HIM THE SAME
+          WAS DONE: NO DOUBT HIS SOUL DOTH LIVE FOR AYE
+          IN HEAVEN: THOUGH HERE HIS BODY CLAD IN CLAY.
+
+On the floor is a stone inscribed "JULY 2 1594 R.S. ĉtatis 98." This
+painting is not a contemporary portrait of the old sexton, but a copy
+made in 1747.
+
+The sentiment expressed in the penult couplet is not uncommon, the idea
+of retributive justice, of others performing the last offices for the
+clerk who had so often done the like for his neighbours. The same notion
+is expressed in the epitaph of Frank Raw, clerk and monumental mason, of
+Selby, Yorkshire, which runs as follows:
+
+     Here lies the body of poor FRANK RAW
+       Parish clerk and gravestone cutter,
+     And this is writ to let you know
+     What Frank for others used to do
+       Is now for Frank done by another[48].
+
+[Footnote 48: _Curious Epitaphs_, by W. Andrews, p. 120.]
+
+The achievement of Old Scarlett with regard to his interring "the town's
+householders in his life's space twice over," has doubtless been
+equalled by many of the long-lived clerks whose memoirs have been
+recorded, but it is not always recorded on a tombstone. At
+Ratcliffe-on-Soar there is, however, the grave of an old clerk, one
+Robert Smith, who died in 1782, at the advanced age of eighty-two years,
+and his epitaph records the following facts:
+
+     Fifty-five years it was, and something more,
+       Clerk of this parish he the office bore,
+     And in that space, 'tis awful to declare,
+       Two generations buried by him were[49]!
+
+[Footnote 49: _Ibid_. p. 121.]
+
+It is recorded on the tomb of Hezekiah Briggs, who died in 1844 in his
+eightieth year, the clerk and sexton of Bingley, Yorkshire, that "he
+buried seven thousand corpses[50]."
+
+[Footnote 50: _Notes and Queries_, Ninth Series, xii. 453.]
+
+The verses written in his honour are worth quoting:
+
+     Here lies an old ringer beneath the cold clay
+     Who has rung many peals both for serious and gay;
+     Through Grandsire and Trebles with ease he could range,
+     Till death called Bob, which brought round the last change.
+
+       For all the village came to him
+         When they had need to call;
+       His counsel free to all was given,
+         For he was kind to all.
+
+     Ring on, ring' on, sweet Sabbath bell,
+     Still kind to me thy matins swell,
+     And when from earthly things I part,
+     Sigh o'er my grave and lull my heart.
+
+These last four lines strike a sweet note, and are far superior to the
+usual class of monumental poetry. I will not guarantee the correct
+copying of the third and fourth lines. Various copyists have produced
+various versions. One version runs:
+
+     Bob majors and trebles with ease he could bang,
+     Till Death called a bob which brought the last clang.
+
+In Staple-next-Wingham, Kent, there is a stone to the memory of the
+parish clerk who died in 1820, aged eighty-six years, and thus
+inscribed:
+
+     He was honest and just, in friendship sincere,
+     And Clerk of this Parish for sixty-seven years.
+
+At Worth Church, Sussex, near the south entrance is a headstone,
+inscribed thus:
+
+     In memory of John Alcorn, Clerk and Sexton of this parish,
+     who died Dec. 13: 1868 in the 81st year of his age.
+
+          Thine honoured friend for fifty three full years,
+          He saw each bridal's joy, each Burial's tears;
+          Within the walls, by Saxons reared of old,
+          By the stone sculptured font of antique mould,
+          Under the massive arches in the glow,
+          Tinged by dyed sun-beams passing to and fro,
+          A sentient portion of the sacred place,
+          A worthy presence with a well-worn face.
+          The lich-gate's shadow, o'er his pall at last
+          Bids kind adieu as poor old John goes past.
+          Unseen the path, the trees, the old oak door,
+          No more his foot-falls touch the tomb-paved floor,
+          His silvery head is hid, his service done
+          Of all these Sabbaths absent only one.
+          And now amidst the graves he delved around,
+          He rests and sleeps, beneath the hallowed ground.
+
+     Keep Innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right,
+     For that shall bring a man peace at the last. Psalm XXXVII.
+     38.
+
+There is an interesting memorial of an aged parish clerk in Cropthorne
+Church, Worcestershire, an edifice of considerable note. It consists of
+a small painted-glass window in the tower, containing a full-length
+portrait of the deceased official, duly apparelled in a cassock.
+
+There is in the King's Norton parish churchyard an old gravestone the
+existence of which I dare say a good many people had forgotten until
+recently, owing to the inscription having become almost illegible.
+Within the past few weeks it has been renovated, and thus a record has
+been prevented from dropping out of public memory. The stone sets forth
+that it was erected to the memory of Isaac Ford, a shoemaker, who was
+for sixty-two years parish clerk of King's Norton, and who died on 10
+July, 1755, aged eighty-five years. Beneath is another interesting
+inscription to the effect that Henry Ford, son of Isaac, who died on 11
+July, 1795, aged eighty-one, was also parish clerk for forty years. The
+two men thus held continuous office for one hundred and two years. This
+is a famous record of long service, though it has been surpassed by a
+few others, our parish clerks being a long-lived race.
+
+At Stoulton Church a clerk died in 1812, and it is recorded on his
+epitaph that "He was clerk of this parish more 30 years and much
+envied." It was not his office or his salary which was envied, but "a
+worn't much liked by the t'others," and yet followed the verse:
+
+     A loving' husband, father dear,
+     A faithful friend lies buried here.
+
+An epitaph without a "werse" was considered very degrading.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS
+
+The story of the City companies of London has many attractions for the
+historian and antiquary. When we visit the ancient homes of these great
+societies we are impressed by their magnificence and interesting
+associations. Portraits of old City worthies and royal benefactors gaze
+at us from the walls, and link our time with theirs, when they, too,
+strove to uphold the honour of their guild and benefit their generation.
+Many a quaint old-time custom and ceremonial usage linger on within the
+old halls, and there too are enshrined cuirass and targe, helmet, sword
+and buckler, which tell the story of the past, and of the part the
+companies played in national defence or in the protection of civic
+rights. Turning down some dark alley and entering the portals of one of
+their halls, we are transported at once from the busy streets and din of
+modern London into a region of old-world memories which has a
+fascination that is all its own.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+This is not the place to discuss the origin of guilds and City
+companies, which can trace back their descent to Anglo-Saxon times and
+were usually of a religious type. They were the benefit societies of
+ancient days, institutions of self-help, combining care for the needy
+with the practice of religion, justice, and morality. There were guilds
+exclusively religious, guilds of the calendars for the clergy, social
+guilds for the purpose of promoting good fellowship, benevolence, and
+thrift, merchant guilds for the regulation of trade, and frith guilds
+for the promotion of peace and the establishment of law and order.
+
+In this goodly company we find evidences at an early date of the
+existence of the Fraternity of Parish Clerks. Its long and important
+career, though it ranked not with the Livery Companies, and sent not its
+members to take part in the deliberations of the Common Council, is full
+of interest, and reflects the greatest credit on the worthy clerks who
+composed it.
+
+In other cities besides London the clerks seem to have formed their
+guilds. As early as the time of the _Domesday Survey_ there was a
+clerks' guild at Canterbury, wherein it is stated "_In civitate
+Cantuaria habet achiepiscopus_ xii burgesses and xxxii mansuras which
+the clerks of the town, _clerici de villa_, hold within their gild and
+do yield xxxv shillings."
+
+The first mention of the company carries us back to the early days of
+Henry III, when in the seventeenth year of that monarch's reign (A.D.
+1233), according to Stow, they were incorporated and registered in the
+books of the Guildhall. The patron saint of the company was St.
+Nicholas, who also extended his patronage to robbers and mariners.
+Thieves are dubbed by Shakespeare as St. Nicholas's clerks[51], and
+Rowley calls highwaymen by the same title. Possibly this may be
+accounted for by the association of the light-fingered fraternity with
+Nicholas, or Old Nick, a cant name for the devil, or because _The
+Golden Legend_ tells of the conversion of some thieves through the
+saint's agency. At any rate, the good Bishop of Myra was the patron
+saint of scholars, and therefore was naturally selected as tutelary
+guardian of clerks.
+
+[Footnote 51: _Henry IV_, act ii. sc. 1.]
+
+In 1442 Henry VI granted a charter to "the Chief or Parish Clerks of the
+City of London for the honour and glory of Almighty God and of the
+undefiled and most glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother, and on account of
+that special devotion, which they especially bore to Christ's glorious
+confessor, St. Nicholas, on whose day or festival we were first
+presented into this present world, at the hands of a mother of memory
+ever to be revered." The charter states that they had maintained a poor
+brotherhood of themselves, as well as a certain divine service, and
+divine words of charity and piety, devised and exhibited by them year by
+year, for forty years or more by part; and it conferred on them the
+right of a perpetual corporate community, having two roasters and two
+chaplains to celebrate divine offices every day, for the King's welfare
+whether alive or dead, and for the souls of all faithful departed, for
+ever. By special royal grace they were allowed, on petitioning His
+Majesty, to have the charter without paying any fine or fee.
+
+Seven years later a second charter was granted, wherein it is stated
+that their services were held in the Chapel of Mary Magdalene by the
+Guildhall. "Bretherne and Sisterne" were included in the fraternity. Bad
+times and the Wars of the Roses brought distress to the community, and
+they prayed Edward IV to refound their guild, allowing only the
+maintenance of one chaplain instead of two in the chapel nigh the
+Guildhall, together with the support of seven poor persons who daily
+offered up their prayers for the welfare of the King and the repose of
+the souls of the faithful. They provided "a prest, brede, wyne, wex,
+boke, vestments and chalise for their auter of S. Nicholas in the said
+chapel." The King granted their request.
+
+[Illustration: THE MASTER'S CHAIR AT THE PARISH CLERKS HALL.]
+
+The original home of the guild was in Bishopsgate. Brewers' Hall was, in
+1422, lent to them for their meetings. But the old deeds in the
+possession of the company show that as early as 1274 they acquired
+property "near the King's highway in the parish of St. Ethelburga,
+extending from the west side of the garden of the Nuns of St. Helen's to
+near the stone wall of Bishopsgate on the north, in breadth from the
+east side of William the Whit Tawyer's to the King's highway on the
+south." These two highways are now known as Bishopsgate Street and
+Camomile Street. They had property also at Finsbury on the east side of
+Whitecross Street. Inasmuch as the guild did not in those early days
+possess a charter and was not incorporated, it had no power to hold
+property; hence the lands were transmitted to individual members of the
+fraternity[52]. After their incorporation in 1442 the trustees of the
+lands and possessions were all clerks. Another property belonged to them
+at Enfield.
+
+[Footnote 52: The transmission of the property is carefully traced in
+_Some Account of Parish Clerks_, by Mr. James Christie, p. 78. He had
+access to the company's muniments.]
+
+The chief possession of the clerks was the Bishopsgate property. It
+consisted of an inn called "The Wrestlers," another inn which bore the
+sign of "The Angel," and a fair entry or gate near the latter which
+still bears the name Clerks' Place. Wrestlers' Court still marks the
+site of the old inn--so conservative are the old names in the city of
+London. Passing through the entry we should have seen seven modest
+almshouses for the brethren and sisters of the guilds. Beyond these was
+the hall of the company. It consisted of a parlour (36 ft. by 14 ft.),
+with three chambers over it. The east side with fan glasses overlooked
+the garden, 72 ft. in length by 21 ft. wide. The west side was lined
+with wainscot. The actual hall adjoined, a fine room 30 ft. by 25 ft.,
+with a gallery at the nether end, with a little parlour at the west end.
+A room for the Bedell, a kitchen with a vault under it, larder-rooms,
+buttery, and a little house called the Ewery, completed the buildings.
+It must have been a very delightful little home for the company, not so
+palatial as that of some of the greater guilds, but compact, charming,
+and altogether attractive.
+
+But evil days set in for the City companies of London. Spoliation,
+greed, destruction were in the air. Churches, monasteries, charities
+felt the rude hand of the spoiler, and it could scarcely be that the
+rich corporations of the City should fail to attract the covetous eyes
+of the rapacious courtiers. They were forced to surrender all their
+property which had been used for so-called "superstitious" purposes, and
+most of them bought this back with large sums of money, which went into
+the coffers of the King or his ministers. The Parish Clerks' Company
+fared no better than the rest. Their hall was seized by the King, or
+rather by the infamous courtiers of Edward VI, and sold, together with
+the almshouses, to Sir Robert Chester in 1548. He at once took
+possession of the property, but the clerks protested that they had been
+wrongfully despoiled, and again seized their rightful possessions. In
+spite of the sympathy and support of the Lord Mayor, who "communed with
+the wardens of the Great Companies for their gentle aid to be granted to
+the parish clerks towards their charges in defence of their title to
+their Common Hall and lands," the clerks lost their case, and were
+compelled to give up their home or submit to a heavy fine of 1000 marks
+besides imprisonment. The poor dispossessed clerks were defeated, but
+not disheartened. In the days of Queen Mary they renewed their suit, and
+"being likely to have prevailed, Sir Robert Chester pulled down the
+hall, sold the timber, stone and land, and thereupon the suit was
+ended"--very summary conclusion truly!
+
+The Lord Mayor and his colleagues again showed sympathy and compassion
+for the dispossessed clerks, and offered them the church of the Hospital
+of St. Mary of Bethlehem in 1552 for their meetings. They did not lack
+friends. William Roper, whose picture still hangs in the hall of the
+company, the son-in-law of Sir Thomas More, was a great benefactor, who
+bequeathed to them some tenements in Southwark on condition that they
+should distribute £4 among the poor prisoners in Newgate and other
+jails. He was the biographer of Sir Thomas More, and died in 1577.
+
+In 1610 the clerks applied for a new charter, and obtained it from James
+I, under the title of "The Parish Clerks of the Parishes and Parish
+Churches of the City of London, the liberties thereof and seven out of
+nine out-parishes adjoining." They were required to make returns for the
+bills of mortality and of the deaths of freemen. The masters and wardens
+had power granted to them to examine clerks as to whether they could
+sing the Psalms of David according to the usual tunes used in the parish
+churches, and whether they were sufficiently qualified to make their
+weekly returns. In 1636 a new charter was granted by Charles I, and
+again in 1640, this last charter being that by which the company is now
+governed. By this instrument their jurisdiction was extended so as to
+include Hackney and the other fifteen out-parishes, and they gained the
+right of collecting their own wages, and of suing for it in the
+ecclesiastical courts, and of printing the bills of mortality.
+
+Soon after the company lost their hall through the high-handed
+proceedings of Sir Robert Chester, they purchased or leased a new hall,
+which was situated at the north-east corner of Brode Lane, Vintry, where
+they lived from 1562, until the Great Fire in 1666 again made them
+homeless. The Sun Tavern in Leadenhall Street, the Green Dragon,
+Queenhythe, the Quest House, Cripplegate, the Gun, near Aldgate, and the
+Mitre in Fenchurch Street, afforded them temporary accommodation. In
+1669 they began to arrange for a new hall to be built off Wood Street,
+which was completed in 1671, and has since been their home. Various sums
+of money have been voted at different times for its repair or
+embellishment. It has once been damaged by fire, and on another occasion
+severely threatened. In 1825 the entrance into Wood Street was blocked
+up and the entrance into Silver Street opened. The hall has been a
+favourite place of meeting for several other companies--the Fruiterers'
+Company, the Tinplate Workers' Company, the Society of Porters, and
+other private companies have been their tenants.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM ROPER SON-IN-LAW AND BIOGRAPHER OF
+SIR THOMAS MORE, BENEFACTOR OF THE CLERKS' COMPANY]
+
+[Illustration: THE GRANT OF ARMS TO THE COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS.]
+
+I had recently the privilege of visiting the Parish Clerks' Hall, and
+was kindly conducted there by Mr. William John Smith, the "Father" of
+the company, and a liberal benefactor, whose portrait hangs in the
+hall. He has been three times master, and his father and grandfather
+were members of the fraternity.
+
+The premises consist of a ground floor with cellars, which are let for
+private purposes, and a first floor with two rooms of moderate size. The
+old courtyard is now covered with business offices. Over the court-room
+door stands a copy of the Clerks' Arms, which are thus described: "The
+feyld azur, a flower de lice goulde on chieffe gules, a leopard's head
+betwen two pricksonge bookes of the second, the laces that bind the
+books next, and to the creast upon the healme, on a wreathe gules and
+azur, an arm, from the elbow upwards, holding a pricking book, 30th
+March, 1582." These are the arms "purged of superstition" by Robert
+Cook, Clarencieux Herald, on the aforementioned date. The company's
+motto is, _Unitas Societatis Stabilitas_. The arms over the court-room
+door have the motto _Pange lingua gloriosa_, which is accounted for by
+the fact that this copy of the clerks' heraldic achievement formerly
+stood over the organ in the hall. This organ is a small but pleasant
+instrument, and was purchased in 1737 in order to enable the members to
+practise psalmody. Several portraits of worthy clerks adorn the walls.
+Amongst them we notice that of William Roper, a benefactor of the
+company, whose name has been already mentioned.
+
+The portrait of John Clarke shows a firm, dignified old man, who was the
+parish clerk of St. Michael's, Cornhill, in 1805, and wrote extracts
+from the minute-books of the company. The picture was presented to the
+company in 1827. There are other portraits of worthy clerks, of Richard
+Hust, who died in 1835, and was a great benefactor of the company and
+the restorer of the almshouses; of James Mayhew (1896), and of William
+John Smith (1903).
+
+In one of the windows is the portrait, in stained glass, of John Clarke,
+parish clerk of Bartholomew-the-Less, London, master of the company,
+A.D. 1675, _ĉtatis suĉ_ 45. He is represented with a dark skull cap on
+his head, long hair, a moustache, and a large falling band or collar.
+
+There are also portraits in stained glass of Stephen Penckhurst, parish
+clerk of St. Mary Magdalene, Fish Street, London, master in 1685; of
+James Maddox, parish clerk of St. Olive's, Jury, master in 1684; of
+Nicholas Hudles, parish clerk of St. Andrew's, Undershaft, twice master,
+in 1674 and 1682; of Thomas Williams, parish clerk of St. Mary
+Magdalene, Bermondsey, master in 1680; of Robert Seal, parish clerk of
+St. Gregory, master in 1681; of William Disbrow, parish clerk of St.
+Vedast, Foster Lane, and of St. Michael Le Querne, master in 1674; and
+of William Hornbuck, parish clerk of St. James, Clerkenwell, master
+in 1679.
+
+One of the windows has a curious emblematical representation of music
+and its effects, showing King David surrounded by cherubs. The royal
+arms of the time of Charles II, the arms of the company, the arms of the
+Prince of Wales, and a portrait of Queen Anne also appear in
+the windows.
+
+The master's chair was presented by Samuel Andrews, master in 1716,
+which date appears on the back together with the arms of the company,
+the crest being an arm raised bearing a scroll on which is inscribed the
+ninety-fourth Psalm. The seat of the chair is cane webbing. Psalm x. is
+inscribed on the front, and below is the fleur-de-lis.
+
+[Illustration: STAINED GLASS WINDOW AT THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS'
+COMPANY]
+
+There is an interesting warden's or clerk's chair, made of mahogany,
+dating about the middle of the eighteenth century, and some walnut
+chairs fashioned in 1690.
+
+Amongst other treasures I noticed an old Dutch chest, an ancient clock,
+the gift of the master and wardens in 1786, a reprint of Visscher's View
+of London in 1616, the grant of arms to the company, a panel painting of
+the Flight into Egypt, and the Orders and Rules of the company in 1709.
+
+A snuff-box made of the wood of the _Victory_, mounted in silver, is one
+of the clerks' valued possessions, and they have a goodly store of
+plate, in spite of the fact that they, like many of their distinguished
+brethren, the Livery Companies of the City, have been obliged at various
+critical times in their history to dispose of their plate in order to
+meet the heavy demands upon their treasury. They still possess their
+pall, which is used on the occasion of the funeral of deceased members,
+and also "two garlands of crimson velvet embroidered" bearing the date
+1601, which were formerly used at the election of the two masters. The
+master now wears a silver badge, the gift of Richard Perkins in 1879,
+which bears the inscription: _Hoc insigne in usum Magistri D.D.
+Richardus Perkins, SS. Augustini et Fidis Clericus, his Magistri
+1878, 1879_.
+
+By far the most interesting document in the possession of the company is
+the Bede Roll, which contains a list of the members of the fraternity
+from the time of Henry VI. The writing is magnificent, and the lettering
+varies in colours--red, blue, and black ink having been used. Amongst
+the distinguished names of the honorary members I noticed John Mowbray,
+Duke of Norfolk, and Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury.
+
+The company, by the aid of generous benefactors, looks well after the
+poor widows of clerks and the decayed brethren, bestowing upon them
+adequate pensions for their support in their indigence and old age.
+These benefactions entrusted to the care of the company, and the gifts
+by its members of plate and other treasures, show the affectionate
+regard of the parish clerks for their ancient and interesting
+associations, which has done much to preserve the dignity of the office,
+to keep inviolate its traditions, and to improve the status of
+its members.
+
+[Illustration: A PAGE OF THE BEDE ROLL OF THE PARISH CLERKS' COMPANY]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CLERKS OF LONDON: THEIR DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES
+
+A brief study of the history of the Parish Clerks' Company has already
+revealed the important part which its members played in the old City
+life of London. They were intimately connected with the Corporation. The
+clerks held their services in the Guildhall Chapel, and were required on
+Michaelmas Day to sing the Mass before the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and
+commoners before they went to the election of a new Lord Mayor. As early
+as the days of the famous Richard Whittington, on the occasion of his
+first election to the mayoralty, which as the popular rhyme says he held
+three times, we hear of their services being required for this
+great function.
+
+In the year 1406 it was ordered that "a Mass of the Holy Ghost should be
+celebrated with solemn music in the chapel annexed to the Guildhall, to
+the end that the same commonalty by the grace of the Holy Spirit might
+be able peacefully and amicably to nominate two able and proper persons
+to be mayor of the City for the ensuing year, the same Mass, by the
+ordinance of the Chamberlain for the time being, to be solemnly chanted
+by the finest singers, in the chapel aforesaid and upon that feast."
+
+And when the Mass was no longer sung in the chapel of the Guildhall,
+they still chanted the Psalms and anthems before and after divine
+service and sermon, sometimes with the help of "two singing men of
+Paul's," who received twelvepence apiece for their pains; and sometimes
+the singing was done by a convenient number of the Clerks' Company most
+skilful in singing, and deemed most fit by the master and wardens to
+perform that service.
+
+They were in great request at the great and stately funerals of the
+sixteenth century, going before the hearse and singing with their
+surplices hanging on their arms till they came to the church. The
+changes wrought by the Reformation strongly affected their use. In the
+early years of the century we can hear them chanting anthems, dirige,
+and Mass; later on they sing "the Te Deum in English new fashion, Geneva
+wise--men, women and all do sing and boys."
+
+These splendid funerals were a fruitful source of income to the Clerks'
+Company. We see Masters William Holland and John Aungell, clerks of the
+Brotherhood of St. Nicholas, with twenty-four persons and three children
+singing the Masses of Our Lady, the Trinity and Requiem at the interment
+of Sir Thomas Lovell, the sage and witty counsellor of King Henry VIII
+and Constable of the Tower, while sixty-four more clerks met the body on
+its way and conducted it to its last resting-place at Holywell,
+Shoreditch. Perhaps it was not without some satisfaction that the clerks
+took a prominent part in the burial of the Duke of Somerset, the
+iniquitous spoiler of their goods. In the ordinances of the companies
+issued in 1553, very minute regulations are laid down with regard to
+the fees for funerals and the order in which each clerk should serve. At
+the burials of "noble honourable, worshipful men or women or citizens of
+the City of London," the attendance of the clerks was limited to the
+number asked for by the friends of the deceased. No person was to
+receive more than eight-pence. The beadle might charge fourpence for the
+use of the hearse cloth. An extra charge of fourpence could be made if
+the clerks were wanted both in the afternoon and in the forenoon for the
+sermon or other service. The bearers might have twopence more than the
+usual wage. Each clerk was to have his turn in attending funerals, so
+that no one man might be taken for favour or left out for displeasure.
+
+The records of these gorgeous funerals, which are preserved in Machyn's
+diary and other chronicles, reveal the changes wrought by the spread of
+Reformation principles and Puritan notions. In Mary's reign they were
+very magnificent, "priests and clerks chanting in Latin, the priest
+having a cope and the clerk the holy water sprinkle in his hand." The
+accession of Elizabeth seems at first to have wrought little change, and
+the services of the Clerks' Company were in great request. On 21
+October, 1559, "the Countess of Rutland was brought from Halewell to
+Shoreditch Church with thirty priests and clarkes singing," and "Sir
+Thomas Pope was buried at Clerkenwell with two services of pryke
+song[53], and two masses of requiem and all clerkes of London." "Poules
+Choir and the Clarkes of London" united their services on some
+occasions. Funeral sermons began to be considered an important part of
+the function, and Machyn records the names of the preachers. Even though
+such keen Protestants as Coverdale, Bishop Pilkington, Robert Crowley,
+and Veron preached the sermons, twenty clerks of the company were
+usually present singing. Machyn much disliked the innovations made by
+the Puritan party, their singing "Geneva wise" or "the tune of Genevay,"
+men, women, and children all singing together, without any clerk. Here
+is a description of such a funeral on 7 March, 1559: "And there was a
+great company of people two and two together, and neither priest nor
+clarke, the new preachers in their gowns like laymen, neither singing
+nor saying till they came to the grave, and afore she was put in the
+grave, a collect in English, and then put in the grave, and after, took
+some earth and cast it on the corse, and red a thyng ... for the sam,
+and contenent cast the earth into the grave, and contenent read the
+Epistle of St. Paul to the Stesselonyans the ... chapter, and after they
+sang _Pater noster_ in English, bothe preachers and other, and ... of a
+new fashion, and after, one of them went into the pulpit and made a
+sermon." Machyn especially disliked the preacher Veron, rector of St.
+Martin's, Ludgate, a French Protestant, who had been ordained by Bishop
+Ridley, and was "a leader in the change from the old ecclesiastical
+music for the services to the Psalms in metre, versified by Sternhold
+and Hopkins[54]."
+
+[Footnote 53: The notes of the harmony were pricked on the lines of
+music.]
+
+[Footnote 54: _Some Account of Parish Clerks_, by J. Christie, p. 153.]
+
+The clerks indirectly caused the disgrace and suspension of Robert
+Crowley, vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and prebendary of St. Paul's
+Cathedral, a keen Puritan and hater of clerkly ways. He loathed
+surplices as "rags of Popery," and could not bear to see the clerks
+marching in orderly procession singing and chanting. A funeral took
+place at his church on 1 April, 1566. A few days before, the Archbishop
+of Canterbury had issued his Advertisements ordering the use of the
+surplice. The friends of the deceased had engaged the services of the
+parish clerks, who, believing that the order with regard to the use of
+surplices applied to them as well as to the clergy, appeared at the door
+of the church attired according to their ancient usage. A scene
+occurred. The angry Crowley met them at the door and bade them take off
+those "porter's coats." The deputy of the ward supported the vicar and
+threatened to lay them up by the feet if they dared to enter the church
+in such obnoxious robes. There was a mighty disturbance. "Those who took
+their part according to the queen's prosedyngs were fain to give over
+and tarry without the church door." The Lord Mayor's attention was
+called to this disgraceful scene. He complained to the archbishop. The
+deputy of the ward was bound over to keep the peace, and Crowley was
+ordered to stay in his house, and for not wearing a surplice was
+deprived of his living, to which he was again appointed twelve years
+later[55]. The clerks triumphed, but their services at funerals soon
+ceased. Puritan opinions spread; no longer did the clerks lead the
+singing and processions at funereal pageants, and a few boys from
+Christ's Hospital or school children took their places in
+degenerate days.
+
+[Footnote 55: _Some Account of Parish Clerks_, by J. Christie, p. 154.]
+
+The Parish Clerks' Company were not a whit behind other City companies
+in their love of processions and pageantry, and their annual feasts and
+elections were conducted with great ceremony and magnificence. The
+elections took place on Ascension Day, and the feast on the following
+Monday. The clerks in 1529 were ordered to come to the Guildhall College
+on the Sunday before Whit-Sunday to Evensong clad in surplices, and on
+the following day to attend Mass, when each man offered one halfpenny.
+When Mass was over they marched in procession wearing copes from the
+Guildhall to Clerks' Hall, where the feast was held. Fines were levied
+for absence or non-obedience to these observances. Machyn describes the
+accustomed usages in Mary's reign as follows: "The sixth of May was a
+goodly evensong at Yeldhall College with singing and playing as you have
+heard. The morrow after was a great Mass at the same place by the same
+Fraternity, when every clerk offered a halfpenny. The Mass was sung by
+divers of the Queen's Chapel and children. And after Mass was done every
+clerk went their procession, two and two together, each having a
+surplice, a rich cope and a garland. After them fourscore standards,
+streamers and banners, and every one that bare had an albe, or else a
+surplice, and two and two together. Then came the waits playing, and
+then between, thirty Clarkes again singing _Salva festa dies_. So there
+were four quires. Then came a canopy, borne by four of the masters of
+the Clarkes over the Sacrament with a twelve staff torches burning, up
+St. Lawrence Lane and so to the further end of Cheap, then back again by
+Cornhill, and so down to Bishopsgate, into St. Albrose Church, and there
+they did put off their copes, and so to dinner every man, and then
+everyone that bare a streamer had money, as they were of bigness then."
+A very striking procession it must have been, and those who often
+traverse the familiar streets of the City to-day can picture to
+themselves the clerks' pageant of former times, which wended its way
+along the same accustomed thoroughfares.
+
+[Illustration: THE ORGAN AT THE PARISH CLERKS HALL]
+
+But times were changing, and religious ceremonies changed too. Less
+pomp and pageantry characterise the celebrations of the clerks. There is
+the Evensong as usual, and a Communion on the following day, followed by
+a dinner and "a goodly concert of children of Westminster, with viols
+and regals." A little later we read that the clerks marched clad in
+their liveries, gowns, and hoods of white damask. Copes are no longer
+recognised as proper vestments. Standards, banners, and streamers remain
+locked up in the City's treasure-house, and Puritan simplicity is duly
+observed. But the clerks lacked not feasting. Besides the election
+dinner, there were quarterly dinners, and dinners for the wardens and
+assistants. Time has wrought some changes in the mode of celebrating
+election day and other festive occasions. Sometimes "plain living and
+high thinking" were the watchwords that guided the principles of the
+company. Processions and gown-wearing have long been discontinued, but
+in its essential character the election day is still observed, though
+pomp and pageantry no longer form important features of its ceremonial.
+
+We have seen that the parish clerks of London were in great request on
+account of their musical abilities. In 1610 the masters and wardens were
+called upon to examine all those who wished to be admitted into the
+honourable company, as to whether they could read the Psalms of David
+according to the usual tunes used in the parish churches. The finest
+singers chanted Mass in pre-Reformation times in the Guildhall at the
+election of the Lord Mayor. In order to improve themselves in this part
+of their duties, the parish clerks soon after the Restoration of the
+monarchy, in 1660, provided themselves with an organ in order to perfect
+themselves in the art of chanting. The minute book of the company tells
+that it was acquired "the better to enable them to perform a service
+incumbent upon them before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City on
+Michaelmas Day, and also the better to enable them who already are, or
+hereafter shall be, parish clerks of the City in performing their duties
+in the several parishes to which they stand related." Here the clerks
+used to meet on Tuesday afternoons for a regular weekly practice in
+music, and for many years an organist was appointed by the company to
+assist the brethren in their cultivation of psalmody. The selection of
+psalms specially suited for each Sunday in the year was made by the
+company and set forth in _The Parish Clerks' Guide_, in order that the
+special teaching of the Sunday, as set forth in the Collect, Epistle,
+and Gospel, might be duly followed in the Psalms.
+
+Another important duty which the parish clerks of London, and also in
+some provincial towns, discharged was the publishing of the bills of
+mortality for the City. This duty is enjoined in their charter of 1610.
+The corporation required from them returns of the deaths of freemen in
+their respective parishes, and also returns of the number of deaths and
+christenings. The records of the City of London contain a copy of the
+agreement, made in 1545-6 between the Lord Mayor and the Parish Clerks'
+Company, which provides that "They shall cause all clerks of the City to
+present to the common crier the name and surname of any freeman that
+shall die having any children under the age of 21 years." The
+Chamberlain was instructed to pay to the company 13 s. 4 d. yearly for
+their services. The custody of all orphans, with that of their lands and
+goods, had been entrusted to the City by the charter of Richard III, and
+this agreement was made in order to enable the "City Fathers" to
+faithfully discharge their duties in looking after children of deceased
+freemen. In spite of many difficulties, especially after the Great Fire
+which rendered thousands homeless and scattered the population, the
+clerks continued to perform this duty, though not always to the
+satisfaction of their employers, until the beginning of the eighteenth
+century, when the custom seems to have lapsed.
+
+[Illustration: A PAGE OF AN EARLY BILL OF MORTALITY PRESERVED AT THE
+HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS COMPANY]
+
+The earliest bills of mortality now in existence date back to the time
+of Henry VIII, when the clerks were required to furnish information with
+regard to the deaths caused by plague, as well as those resulting from
+other causes. The returns of the victims of plague are occasionally very
+large. In 1562, 20,372 persons died, of which number 17,404 died from
+the plague. The burial grounds of the City became terribly overcrowded,
+and the parish clerks were ordered to report upon the space available in
+the City churchyards. They also were appointed to see to "the shutting
+up of infected houses and putting papers on the doors."
+
+An early "Bill of Mortality" is preserved at the Hall. It tells of "the
+Number of those who dyed in the Citie of London and Liberties of the
+same from the 28th of December 1581 to the 17th of December 1582, with
+the Christenings. And also the number of all those who have died of the
+plague in every parish particularly. Blessed are the Dead." There is
+also preserved a number of the weekly bills of mortality. Referring to
+the year of the Great Plague, 1665, these documents show that at the
+beginning of the pestilence in April, during one week only fifty-seven
+persons died; whereas in September the death-roll had reached the
+enormous number of 6544.
+
+The company seems to have been a useful agency for carrying out all
+kinds of duties connected with gathering the statistics of mortality,
+nor do they seem to have been overpaid for their trouble. In the early
+years of the seventeenth century £ 3. 6 s. 8 d. was all that they
+received. In 1607 the sum was increased to £8, inasmuch as they were
+ordered to furnish a bill to the Queen and the Lord Chancellor as well
+as to the King. Some clerks endeavoured to make illicit gains by
+supplying the public with "false and untrue bills," or distributing some
+bills for each week before they had been sent to the Lord Mayor; and any
+brother who "by any cunning device gave away, dispersed, uttered, or
+declared, or by sinister device cast forth at any window, hole, or
+crevice of a wall any bills or notes" before the due returns had been
+sent to the Lord Mayor, was ordered to pay a fine of 10 s. and other
+divers penalties.
+
+The methods of making out these returns are very curious, and did not
+conduce to infallible accuracy. In each parish there were persons called
+searchers, ancient women who were informed by the sexton of a death, and
+whose duty it was to visit the deceased and state the cause of death.
+They had no medical knowledge, and therefore their diagnosis could only
+have been very conjectural. This they reported to the parish clerk. The
+clerk made out his bill for the week, took it to the Hall of the
+company, and deposited it in a box on the staircase. All the returns
+were then tabulated, arranged, and printed, and when copies had been
+sent to the authorities, others were placed in the hands of the
+clerks for sale.
+
+The system was all very excellent and satisfactory, but its carrying out
+was defective. Negligent clerks did not send their returns in spite of
+admonition, caution, fine, or brotherly persuasion. The searchers'
+information was usually unreliable. Complications arose on account of
+the Act of the Commonwealth Parliament requiring the registration of
+births instead of baptisms, of civil marriages, and banns published in
+the market place; also on account of the vast mortality caused by the
+Great Plague, the burials in the large common pits and public burial
+grounds, and the opposition of the Quakers to inspection and
+registration. All these causes contributed to the issuing of unreliable
+returns. The company did their best to grapple with all these
+difficulties. They did not escape censure, and were blamed on account of
+the faults of individual clerks. The contest went on for years, and was
+only finally settled in 1859, when the last bills of mortality were
+issued, and the Public Registration Act rendered the work of the clerks,
+which they had carried on for three centuries to the best of their skill
+and ability, unnecessary. In the Guildhall Library are preserved a large
+number of the volumes of these bills which the industry of the clerks of
+London had issued with so much perseverance and energy under difficult
+circumstances, and they form a valuable and interesting collection of
+documents illustrative of the old life of the City.
+
+One happy result of the duty laid upon the clerks of issuing bills of
+mortality in the City of London was that they were allowed to set up a
+printing press in the Hall of their company. The licence for this press
+was obtained in 1625, and in the following year it was duly established
+with the consent of the authorities. It was no easy task in the early
+Stuart times to obtain leave to have a printing press, and severe were
+the restrictions laid down, and the penalties for any violation of any
+of them. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London had
+mighty powers over the Press, and the clerks could not choose their
+printer save with the approval of these ecclesiastical dignitaries.
+
+Very strict regulations were laid down by the company in order to
+prevent any improper use being made of the productions of their press.
+The door of the chamber containing their printing machine was provided
+with three locks; the key of the upper lock was placed in the charge of
+the upper master, that of the middle lock was in the custody of the
+upper warden, while the key of the lower lock was kept by the under
+warden. They appointed one Richard Hodgkinson as their printer in 1630,
+with whom they had much disputing. Six years later one of their own
+company, Thomas Cotes, parish clerk of Cripplegate Without, was chosen
+to succeed him. Richard Cotes followed in 1641, and then a female
+printer carried on the work, Mrs. Ellinor Cotes, probably the widow
+of Richard.
+
+The Great Fire caused the destruction of the clerks' press; but a few
+years later a prominent member of the company, whose portrait we see in
+the Hall, Mr. John Clarke, procured for them another press with type,
+and Andrew Clarke was appointed printer. He was succeeded by Benjamin
+Motte, whose widow carried on the work after his death. An intruding
+printer, appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of
+London without the consent of the company, one Humphreys, made his
+appearance, much to the displeasure of the clerks, who objected to be
+dictated to with regard to the choice of their own official. Litigation
+ensued, but in the end Humphreys was appointed. He was not a
+satisfactory printer, and was careless and neglectful. The clerks
+reprimanded him and he promised amendment, but his errors continued,
+and after a petition was presented to the Archbishop and the Bishop of
+London by the company, he was compelled to resign.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS COMPANY]
+
+The increase of newspapers and the publication of the bills of mortality
+in their sheets taken from the records of the clerks materially affected
+the sale of the company's issue of the same, and efforts were made in
+Parliament to obtain a monopoly for the company. This action was costly,
+and no benefit was derived. After the removal of the unsatisfactory
+Humphreys the printing of the company passed into the hands of the
+Rivingtons, a name honoured amongst printers and publishers for many
+generations. Mr. Charles Rivington was printer for the clerks in 1787,
+his brother being a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, to whose son's
+widow, Mrs. Anne Rivington, the office passed in 1790. The printing of
+the bills of mortality was carried on by the company until 1850, having
+been conducted by the Rivington family for over sixty years[56].
+
+[Footnote 56: I am indebted for this list of printers to Mr. James
+Christie's _Some Account of Parish Clerks_.]
+
+In addition to their statistical returns, the Company of Parish Clerks
+are responsible for some other and more important works which reflect
+great credit upon them. Foremost among them is a book entitled:
+
+"_New Remarks of London_; or, a Survey of the Cities of London and
+Westminster, of Southwark and part of Middlesex and Surrey within the
+circumference of the Bills of Mortality." It contains "an account of the
+situation, antiquity, and rebuilding of each church, the value of the
+Rectory or Vicarage, in whose gifts they are, and the names of the
+present incumbents or lecturers. Of the several vestries, Hours of
+Prayer, Parish and Ward Officers, Charity and other schools, the number
+of Charity Children, how maintained, educated and placed out
+apprentices, or put to service. Of the Almshouses, Workhouses and
+Hospitals. The remarkable Places and Things in each Parish, with the
+limits or Bounds, Streets, Lanes, Courts, and numbers of Houses. An
+alphabetical table of all the Streets, Courts, Lanes, Alleys, Yards,
+Rows, Rents, Squares, etc. within the Bills of Mortality, shewing in
+which Liberty or Freedom they are, and an easy method of finding them.
+Of the several Inns of Court, and Inns of Chancery, with their several
+Buildings, Courts, Lanes, etc.
+
+"Collected by the Company of Parish-Clerks to which is added the Places
+to which Penny Post Letters are sent, with proper Directions therein.
+The Wharfs, Keys, Docks, etc. near the River Thames, of water-carriage
+to several Cities, Towns, etc. The Rates of Watermen, Porters of all
+kinds and Carmen. To what Inns Stage Coaches, Flying Coaches, Waggons
+and Carriers come, and the days they go out. The whole being very useful
+for Ladies, Gentlemen, Clergymen, Merchants, Tradesmen, Coachmen,
+Chair-men, Car-men, Porters, Bailiffs and others.
+
+     "London, Printed for E. Midwinter at _the_
+
+          _Looking Glass and three Crowns_ in St Paul's
+
+               Churchyard MDCCXXXII."
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JOHN CLARKE, PARISH CLERK OF THE CHURCH OF
+ST. MICHAEL. CORNHILL]
+
+This is a wonderfully interesting little book. Each clerk compiled the
+information for his own parish and appended his name. Most carefully is
+the information contained in the book arranged, and the volume is a most
+creditable production of the worshipful company.
+
+Amongst the books preserved in the Hall is another volume, entitled
+"_London Parishes_; containing an account of the Rise, Corruption, and
+Reformation of the Church of England." This was published by the parish
+clerks in 1824.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+CLERKENWELL AND CLERKS' PLAYS
+
+Parish clerks are immortalised by having given their name to an
+important part of London. Clerkenwell is the _fons clericorum_ of the
+old chronicler, Fitz-Stephen. It is the Clerks' Well, the syllable _en_
+being the form of the old Saxon plural. Fitz-Stephen wrote in the time
+of King Stephen: "There are also round London on the northern side, in
+the suburbs, excellent springs, the water of which is sweet, clear,
+salubrious, 'mid glistening pebbles gliding playfully; amongst which
+Holywell, Clerkenwell, (_fons clericorum_), and St. Clement's Well are
+of most note, and most frequently visited, as well by the scholars from
+the schools as by the youth of the City when they go out to take air in
+the summer evenings."
+
+It was then, and for centuries later, a rural spot, not far from the
+City, just beyond Smithfield, a place of green sward and gently sloping
+ground, watered by a pleasant stream, far different from the crowded
+streets of the modern Clerkenwell. It was a spot famous for athletic
+contests, for wrestling bouts and archery, and hither came the Lord
+Mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen at Bartholomew Fair time to witness the
+sports, and especially the wrestling.
+
+[Illustration: OLD MAP OF CLERKENWELL]
+
+But that which gave to the place its name and chief glory was the
+fact that once a year at least the parish clerks of London came here to
+perform their mystery plays and moralities. "Their profession," wrote
+Warton[57], "employment and character, naturally dictated to this
+spiritual brotherhood the representation of plays, especially those of
+the scriptural kind, and their constant practice in shows, processions,
+and vocal music easily accounts for their address in detaining the best
+company which England afforded in the fourteenth century at a religious
+farce for more than a week." These plays were no ordinary performances,
+no afternoon or evening entertainment, but a protracted drama lasting
+from three to eight days. In the reign of Richard II, A.D. 1391, the
+clerks were acting before the King, his Queen, and many nobles. The
+performances continued for three days, and the representations were the
+"Passion of Our Lord and the Creation of the World," which so well
+pleased the King that he commanded £10, a very considerable sum of money
+in those days, to be paid to the clerks of the parish churches and to
+divers other clerks of the City of London. Here is the record of
+his gift:
+
+     "_Issue Roll_, Easter, 14 Ric. II.
+
+     "11 July. To the clerks of the parish churches and to divers
+     other clerks of the city of London. In money paid to them in
+     discharge of £10 which the Lord the King commanded to be paid
+     to them of his gift on account of the play of the 'Passion of
+     Our Lord and the Creation of the World' by them performed at
+     Skynnerwell after the feast of St. Bartholomew last past. By
+     writ of Privy Seal amongst the mandates of this term--£10."
+
+[Footnote 57: _English Poetry_, vol. ii. p. 397.]
+
+Skinners' Well was close to the Clerks' Well, and it was so called, so
+Stow informs us, "for that the Skinners of London held there certain
+plays yearly of Holy Scripture,"
+
+A few years later, in the succeeding reign, 10 Henry IV, A.D. 1409, the
+fraternity of clerks were again performing at the same place. Stow says:
+"In the year 1409 was a great play at Skynners' Welle, neere unto
+Clarkenwell, besides London, which lasted eight daies, and was of matter
+from the creation of the world; there were to see the same the most part
+of the nobles and gentles in England"--a mighty audience truly, which
+not even Sir Henry Irving could command in his farewell performances at
+Drury Lane.
+
+[Illustration: A MYSTERY PLAY AT CHESTER (FROM A PRINT AFTER A PAINTING
+BY T. UWINS)]
+
+These religious plays or mysteries were a powerful means for instructing
+the people; and if we had lived in mediĉval times, we should not have
+needed to fly to Ober-Ammergau in order to witness a Passion Play. In
+the streets of Coventry or Chester, York, or Tewkesbury, Witney, or
+Reading, or on the Green at Clerkenwell, we could have seen the
+appealing spectacle; and though sometimes the actors lapsed into
+buffoonery, and the red demons carrying souls to hell's mouth created
+merriment rather than terror, and though realism was carried to such a
+pitch that Adam and Eve appeared in a state of nature, yet many of the
+spectators would carry away with them pious thoughts and some grasp of
+the facts of Scripture history, and of the mysteries of the faith.
+Originally the plays were performed in churches, but owing to the
+gradually increased size of the stage and the more elaborate stage
+effects, the sacred buildings were abandoned as the scenes of mediĉval
+drama. Then the churchyard was utilised for the purpose. The clergy no
+longer took part in the pageants, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth
+centuries the people liked to act their plays in the highways and
+public places as at Clerkenwell. The guilds and fraternities in many
+places provided the chief actors, and in towns where there were many
+guilds and companies, each company performed part of the great drama,
+the movable stage being drawn about from street to street. Thus at York
+the story of the Creation and the Redemption was divided into
+forty-eight parts, each part being acted by a guild, or group of
+companies. The Tanners represented God the Father creating the heavens,
+angels and archangels, and the fall of Lucifer and the disobedient
+angels. Then the Plasterers showed the Creation of the Earth, and the
+work of the first five days. The Card-makers exhibited the Creation of
+Adam of the clay of the earth, and the making of Eve of Adam's rib, thus
+inspiring them with the breath of life. The Fall, the story of Cain and
+Abel, of Noah and the Flood, of Moses, the Annunciation and all Gospel
+history, ending with the Coronation of the Virgin and the
+Final Judgment.
+
+The stage upon which the clerks performed their plays, according to
+Strutt, consisted of three platforms, one above another. On the
+uppermost sat God the Father surrounded by His angels. He was
+represented in a white robe, and until it was discovered how injurious
+the process was, the actor who played the part used to have his face
+gilded. On the second platform were the glorified saints, and on the
+lowest men who had not yet passed from life. On one side of the lowest
+platform was hell's mouth, a dark pitchy cavern, whence issued the
+appearance of fire and flames, and sometimes hideous yellings and noises
+in imitation of the howlings and cries of wretched souls tormented by
+relentless demons. From this yawning cave the devils constantly ascended
+to delight the spectators and afford comic relief to the more serious
+drama. The three stages were not always used. Archdeacon Rogers, who
+died in 1595, left an account of the Chester play which he himself saw,
+and he wrote that the stage was a high scaffold with two rooms, a higher
+and a lower, upon four wheels. In the lower the actors apparelled
+themselves, and in the higher they played. But this was a movable stage
+on wheels. The clerks' stage would, doubtless, be a fixed structure, and
+of a more elaborate construction.
+
+The dresses used by the actors were very gorgeous and splendid, though
+little care was bestowed upon the appropriateness of the costumes. The
+words of the play of the Creation differ in the various versions which
+have come down to us. Strutt thinks that the clerks' play, acted before
+"the most part of the nobles and gentles in England," was very similar
+to the Coventry play, which cannot compare in grandeur and vigour with
+the York play discovered in the library of Lord Ashburnham, and edited
+by Miss Toulmin Smith[58]. But as the north-country dialect of the York
+version would have been difficult for the learned clerks of London to
+pronounce, their version would doubtless resemble more that of Coventry
+than that of York. The first act represents the Deity seated upon His
+throne and speaking as follows:
+
+       _Ego sum Alpha et Omega, principium et finis_.
+     My name is knowyn, God and Kynge;
+       My work to make now wyl I wende;
+     In myselfe resteth my reynenge,
+       It hath no gynnyng, ne no ende,
+     And all that evyr shall have beynge
+       Is closed in my mende;[59]
+     When it is made at my lykynge
+       I may it save, I may it shende[60]
+     After my plesawns."[61]
+
+[Footnote 58: Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1885. A portion of this is
+published in Mr. A.W. Pollard's _English Miracle Plays_.]
+
+[Footnote 59: Mind.]
+
+[Footnote 60: Destroy.]
+
+[Footnote 61: Pleasure.]
+
+At the close of this oration, which consists of forty lines, the angels
+enter upon the upper stage, surround the throne of the Deity, and sing
+from the _Te Deum_:
+
+     _Te Deum laudamus, te dominum confitemur_.
+
+The Father bestows much honour and brightness on Lucifer, who is full of
+pride. He demands of the good angels in whose honour they are singing
+their songs of praise. Are they worshipping God or reverencing him? They
+reply that they are worshipping God, the mighty and most strong, who
+made them and Lucifer. Then Lucifer daringly usurps the seat of the
+Almighty, and receives the homage of the rebellious angels. Then the
+Father orders them and their leader to fall from heaven to hell, and in
+His bliss never more to dwell. Then does Lucifer reply:
+
+     "At thy byddyng y wyl I werke,
+     And pass from joy to peyne and smerte.
+     Now I am a devyl full derke,
+     That was an angel bryght.
+     Now to Helle the way I take,
+     In endless peyn'y to be put;
+     For fere of fyr apart I quake
+     In Helle dongeon my dene is dyth."
+
+Then the Devil and his angels sink into the cavern of hell's mouth.
+
+We cannot follow all the scenes in this strange drama. The final
+representation included the Descent into Hell, or the Harrowing of Hell,
+as it was called, when the soul of Christ goes down into the infernal
+regions and rescues Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the saints of old.
+The _Anima Christi_ says:
+
+     "Come forth, Adam and Eve, with the,
+     And all my fryends that herein be;
+     In Paradyse come forth with me,
+       In blysse for to dwell.
+     The fende of hell that is your foe,
+     He shall be wrappyd and woundyn in woo;
+     Fro wo to welth now shall ye go,
+       With myrth ever mo to melle."
+
+Adam replies:
+
+     "I thank the Lord of thy grete grace,
+     That now is forgiven my great trespase;
+     No shall we dwell in blyssful place."
+
+The accompanying print of the Descent into Hell was engraved by Michael
+Burghers from an ancient drawing for our Berkshire antiquary,
+Thomas Herne.
+
+Modern buildings have obliterated the scene of this ancient drama acted
+by the clerks of London, but some traces of the association of the
+fraternity with the neighbourhood can still be found. The two famous
+conventual houses, for which Clerkenwell was famous, the nunnery of St.
+Mary and the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, founded in 1100, have long
+since disappeared. Clerks' Close is mentioned in numerous documents, and
+formed part of the estate belonging to the Skinners' Company, where
+Skinner Street now runs. Clerks' Well was close to the modern church of
+St. James's, Clerkenwell, which occupies the site of the church and
+nunnery of St. Mary _de fonte clericorum_, which once possessed one of
+the six water-pots in which Jesus turned the water into wine. Vine
+Street formerly delighted in the name Mutton Lane, which is said to be a
+corruption of meeting or moteing lane, referring to the clerks' mote or
+meeting place by the well. When Mr. Pink wrote his history of
+Clerkenwell forty years ago, there was at the east side of Ray Street a
+broken iron pump let into the front wall of a dilapidated house which
+showed the site of Clerks' Well. In 1673 the spring and plot of ground
+were given by the Earl of Northampton to the poor of the parish, but the
+vestry leased the spring to a brewer. Strype, writing in 1720, states
+that "the old well at Clerkenwell, whence the parish had its name, is
+still known among the inhabitants. It is on the right hand of a lane
+that leads from Clerkenwell to Hockley-in-the-Hole, in a bottom. One Mr.
+Crosse, a brewer, hath this well enclosed; but the water runs from him,
+by means of a watercourse above-mentioned, into the said place. It is
+enclosed with a high wall, which was formerly built to bound in
+Clerkenwell Close; the present well (the conduit head) being also
+enclosed by another lower wall from the street. The way to it is through
+a little house, which was the watch-house. You go down a good many steps
+to it. The well had formerly ironwork and brass cocks, which are now cut
+off; the water spins through the old wall. I was there and tasted the
+water, and found it excellently clear, sweet, and well tasted."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+In 1800 a pump was erected on the east side of Ray Street to celebrate
+the parish clerks' ancient performances, which were immortalised in
+raised letters of iron with this inscription:
+
+     A.D. 1800. William Bound, Joseph Bird, Churchwardens. For the
+     better accommodation of the neighbourhood, this pump was
+     removed to the spot where it now stands. The spring by which
+     it is supplied is situated four feet eastward, and round it,
+     as history informs us, the Parish Clerks of London in remote
+     ages commonly performed sacred plays. That custom caused it
+     to be denominated Clerks'-Well, and from which this parish
+     derived its name. The water was greatly esteemed by the Prior
+     and Brethren of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and the
+     Benedictine Nuns in the neighbourhood.
+
+Hone, in his _Ancient Mysteries_, describes this pump, which in his day,
+A.D. 1832, stood between an earthenware shop and the abode of a
+bird-seller, and states that the monument denoting the histrionic fame
+of the place, and alluding to the miraculous powers of the water for
+healing incurable diseases, remains unobserved beneath its living
+attractions. "The present simplicity of the scene powerfully contrasts
+with the recollection of its former splendour. The choral chant of the
+Benedictine Nuns, accompanying the peal of the deep-toned organ through
+their cloisters, and the frankincense curling its perfume from priestly
+censers at the altar, are succeeded by the stunning sounds of numerous
+quickly plied hammers, and the smith's bellows flashing the fires of Mr.
+Bound's ironfoundry, erected upon the unrecognised site of the convent.
+The religious house stood about half-way down the declivity of the hill,
+which commencing near the church on Clerkenwell Green, terminates at the
+River Fleet. The prospect then was uninterrupted by houses, and the
+people upon the rising ground could have had an uninterrupted view of
+the performances at the well."
+
+In the parish there is a vineyard walk, which marks the site of the old
+vineyard attached to the priory of St. John. The cultivation of the vine
+was carried on in many monasteries. In 1859, in front of the old
+Vineyard Inn, a signboard was set up which stated that "This house is
+celebrated from old associations connected with the City of London.
+After the City clerks partook of the water of Clerks' Well, from which
+the parish derives its name, they repaired hither to partake of the
+fruit of the finest English grapes." This was an ingenious contrivance
+on the part of the landlord to solicit custom. It need hardly be stated
+that the information given on this signboard was incorrect. Before the
+Reformation there were few inns, and the old Vineyard Inn can scarcely
+claim such a remote ancestry.
+
+When miracle plays ceased to be performed the clerks did not desert
+their old quarters. It is, indeed, stated that the ancient society of
+parish clerks became divided; some turned their attention to wrestling
+and mimicry at Bartholomew Fair, whilst others, for their better
+administration, formed themselves into the Society of the Mayor,
+Aldermen, and Recorder of Stroud Green, assembling in the Old Crown at
+Islington; but still "saving their right to exhibit at the Old London
+Spaw, formerly Clerks' Well, when they might happen to have learned
+sheriffs and other officers to get up their sacred pieces as usual."
+Even so late as 1774 the members of this ancient society were accustomed
+to meet annually in the summer time at Stroud Green, and to regale
+themselves in the open air, the number of persons assembling on some
+occasions producing a scene similar to that of a country wake or fair.
+These assemblies had no connection with the Worshipful Company of
+Parish Clerks.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE CLERKS AND THE PARISH REGISTERS
+
+A study of an old parish register reveals a remarkable variation in the
+style and character of the handwriting. We see in the old parchment
+pages numerous entries recorded in a careless scribble, and others
+evidently written by the hand of a learned and careful scholar. The
+rector or vicar ever since the days of Henry VIII, when in 1536
+Vicar-General Thomas Cromwell ordered the keeping of registers, was
+usually supposed to have recorded the entries in the register. Cromwell
+derived the notion of ordering the keeping of the registers from his
+observation of the records kept by the Spanish priests in the Low
+Countries where he resided in his youth. Archbishop Ximenes of Toledo
+instituted a system of registration in Spain in 1497, and this was
+carried on by the Spanish priests in the Netherlands, and thus laid the
+foundation of that system which Thomas Cromwell introduced to this
+country and which has continued ever since.
+
+But not all these entries were made by the incumbents. There is good
+evidence that the parish clerks not infrequently kept the registers,
+especially in later times, and from the beginning they were responsible
+for the facts recorded. The entries do not seem to have been made when
+the baptism, marriage, or burial took place. Cromwell's edict required
+that the records of each week should be entered in the register on the
+following Sunday, in the presence of the churchwardens. It seems to have
+been the custom for the clerk or vicar to write down particulars of the
+baptism, marriage, or burial in a private memorandum book or on loose
+sheets of paper at the time of the ceremony. Afterwards these rough
+notes were copied into the register book. Sometimes this was done each
+week; but human nature is fallible; the clerk or his master forgot
+sometimes to make the required entries in the book. Days and weeks
+slipped by; note-books and scraps of paper were mislaid and lost; the
+spelling of the clerk was not always his strongest point; hence
+mistakes, omissions, inaccuracies were not infrequent. Sometimes the
+vicar did not make up his books until a whole year had elapsed. This was
+the case with the poor parson of Carshalton, who was terribly distressed
+because his clerk would not furnish him with the necessary notes, and
+mightily afraid lest he should incur the censure of his parishioners.
+Hence we find the following note in his register, dated 10 March, 1651:
+
+     "Good reader, tread gently:
+
+     "For though these vacant years may seem to make me guilty of
+     thy censure, neither will I excuse myself from all blemishe;
+     yet if thou doe but cast thine eye upon the former pages and
+     see with what care I have kept the Annalls of mine owne time,
+     and rectifyed sundry errors of former times, thou wilt begin
+     to think ther is some reason why he that began to build so
+     well should not be able to make an ende.
+
+     "The truth is that besyde the miserys and distractions of
+     these ptermitted years which it may be God in his owne
+     wisdom would not suffer to be kept uppon record, the special
+     ground of that permission ought to be imputed to Richard
+     Finch, the p'rishe Clarke, whose office it was by long
+     pscrition to gather the ephemeris or dyary by the dayly
+     passages, and to exhibit them once a year to be transcribed
+     into this registry; and though I have often called upon him
+     agayne and agayne to remember his chadge, and he always told
+     me that he had the accompts lying by him, yet at last
+     p'ceaving his excuses, and revolving upon suspicion of his
+     words to put him home to a full tryall I found to my great
+     griefe that all his accompts were written in sand, and his
+     words committed to the empty winds. God is witness to the
+     truth of this apologie, and that I made it knowne at some
+     parish meetings before his own face, who could not deny it,
+     neither do I write it to blemishe him, but to cleere my own
+     integritie as far as I may, and to give accompt of this
+     miscarryage to after ages by the subscription of my
+     hand[62]."
+
+[Footnote 62: _Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, by T.F.
+Thiselton-Dyer, p. 57.]
+
+We may hope that all clerks were not so neglectful as poor Richard
+Finch, whose name is thus handed down as an "awful example" to all
+careless clerks. The same practice of the parish clerks recording the
+particulars of weddings, christenings, and burials seems to have
+prevailed at St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, London, in 1542, as the
+following order shows:
+
+     "They shall every week certify to the curate and the
+     churchwardens all the names and sir-names of them that be
+     wedded, christened, and buried in the same parish that week
+     _sub pena_ of a 1 d. to be paid to the churche."
+
+In this case the curate doubtless entered the items in the register as
+they were delivered to him.
+
+At St. Margaret's, Lothbury, the clerk seems to have kept the register
+himself. Amongst the ordinances made by "the hole consent of the
+parrishiners" in 1571, appears the following:
+
+     "Item the Clarcke shall kepe the register of cristeninge
+     weddinge and burynge perfectlye, and shall present the same
+     everie Sondaie to the churche wardens to be perused by them,
+     and shall have for his paines in this behaufe yearelye 0. 03.
+     4."
+
+It is evident that in some cases in the sixteenth century the clerk kept
+the register. But in far the larger number of parishes the records were
+inserted by the vicar or rector, and in many books the records are made
+in Latin. The "clerk's notes" from which the entries were made are still
+preserved in some parishes.
+
+In times of laxity and confusion wrought by the Civil War and Puritan
+persecution, the clerk would doubtless be the only person capable of
+keeping the registers. In my own parish the earliest book begins in the
+year 1538, and is kept with great accuracy, the entries being written in
+a neat scholarly hand. As time goes on the writing is still very good,
+but it does not seem to be that of the rector, who signs his name at the
+foot of the page. If it be that of the clerk, he is a very clerkly
+clerk. The writing gradually gets worse, especially during the
+Commonwealth period; but it is no careless scribble. The clerk evidently
+took pains and fashioned his letters after the model of the old
+court-hand. An entry appears which tells of the appointment of a Parish
+Registrar, or "Register" as he was called. This is the announcement:
+
+     "Whereas Robt. Williams of the p ish of Barkham in the County
+     of Berks was elected and chosen by the Inhabitants of the
+     same P ish to be their p ish Register, he therefore ye sd Ro:
+     Wms was approved and sworne this sixteenth day of
+     Novemb.. 1653
+
+     Snd R. Bigg."
+
+Judging from the similarity of the writing immediately above and below
+this entry, I imagine that Robert Williams must have been the old clerk
+who was so beloved by the inhabitants that in an era of change, when the
+rector was banished from his parish, they elected him "Parish Register,"
+and thus preserved in some measure the traditions of the place. The
+children are now entered as "borne" and not baptised as formerly.
+
+The writing gradually gets more illiterate and careless, until the
+Restoration takes place. A little space is left, and then the entries
+are recorded in a scholarly handwriting, evidently the work of the new
+rector. Subsequently the register appears to have been usually kept by
+the rector, though occasionally there are lapses and indifferent writing
+appears. Sometimes the clerk has evidently supplied the deficiencies of
+his master, recording a burial or a wedding which the rector had
+omitted. In later times, when pluralism was general, and this living was
+held in conjunction with three or four other parishes, the rector must
+have been very dependent upon the clerk for information concerning the
+functions to be recorded. Moreover, when a former rector who was a noted
+sportsman and one of the best riders and keenest hunters in the county,
+sometimes took a wedding on his way to the meet, he would doubtless be
+so eager for the chase that he had little leisure to record the exact
+details of the names of the "happy pair," and must have trusted much to
+the clerk.
+
+Some of the private registers kept by clerks are still preserved. There
+is one at Pattishall which contains entries of births, marriages, and
+burials, and was probably commenced in 1774, that date being on the
+front page together with the inscription: "John Clark's Register Book."
+The writing is of a good round-hand character, and far superior to the
+caligraphy of many present-day clerks. The book is bound in vellum[63].
+The following entry, taken from the end of the volume, is worth
+recording:
+
+     "London, March 31th
+
+     "Yesterday the Rev'd Mr Hetherington ... transferred. 20,000
+     £. South-Sea Annuities into the Names of S'r Henry Banks
+     Kn't. Thos Burfoot, Joseph Eyre, Thos Coventry, and Samuel
+     Salt. Esqu'rs in Trust to pay always to 50 Blind people,
+     Objects of, Charity, not being Beggars, nor receiving, Alms
+     from the Parish, 10 £. each for their lives, it may be said
+     with great propriety of this truly benevolent Gentleman that
+     'he hath displeased abroad, and given to the poor and is
+     Righteousness remaineth for ever; his Horn shall exalted with
+     Honour.'"
+
+[Footnote 63: By the information of the Rev. B.W. Blyn-Stoyle, who has
+most kindly assisted me in many ways in discovering quaint records of
+old clerks.]
+
+Amongst the register books of Wednesbury there is a volume bound in
+parchment bearing this inscription:
+
+     "This Book seems to be the private register of Alexander
+     Bunn, Parish Clerk, because it corresponds with another
+     bearing the same dates; the private accounts written in this
+     book by the said A. Bunn seem to corroborate my opinion.
+
+     "A.B. Haden
+
+     "Vicar of Wednesbury
+
+     "August 7th 1782."
+
+These accounts appear to be of items incurred by the parish clerk in his
+official capacity, and which were due to him in repayment from the
+churchwardens. The accompanying remarks of this old Wednesbury parish
+clerk are often quaint and interesting.
+
+The following extracts will show the nature of the book and of the
+systematic record the good clerk kept of his expenditure. The only item
+about which there is some uncertainty is the amount "spent at Freeman's
+Coming from Visitation." Is it possible that he was so much excited or
+intoxicated that he could not remember?
+
+"1737. Land tax to hon. Adenbrook 0. 0. 11 Acount
+       What Mary Tunks as ad. Redy money 4/-, for a
+       hapern 2/-, for caps 1/6 and for shoes 2/6, and for
+       ye werk 6 d. Stokins and sues mendering 6 d, and
+       for string 2 d, and for a Gound 3/-, and for ale for
+       Hur father 2 d, for mending Gound 8 d, for stokens
+       10 d, for more Shuse strong 2/6, Shift mending
+       and maken 5 d, for Hur mother 1/6, for a Shift
+       2/7."
+
+To this day old Wednesbury natives say "hapern" for apron, and "sues"
+for shoes.
+
+"Sep. the 10th, 1745, then recd of Alex. Bunn the sum of
+        six pounds for one year's rent due at Midsmar.
+        Last past Ellin Moris. Wm. Selvester and his
+        man the first wick 14/-. Mr. Butler and Gilbut
+        Wrigh, church wardens for the year 1741, due to
+        Alex Bunn as under. Ringing for the Visitation
+        2/-, spent at Roshall, going to the visitation 1/6-,
+        spent at Henery Rutoll 1/-, paid at Litchfield to
+        the Horsbox (?) 6 d, Wm. Aston Had Ale at my
+        House 6 d, for Micklmas Supeles washing and
+        lining 1/8, for Ringing for the 11th of October
+        5/-, for Ringing for the 30th of October 5/-, for
+        half year's wages Due June ye 24 £ 1 12 s. 6.
+        Ringing for the 5th November, for washing the
+        Supelis and Lining and Bread at Chrsmus 1/3,
+        for Easter Supelis washing and Lining and Bread
+        1/8, for Joyle for the Clock and Bells 2/6, for
+        Leader for the 4th Bell Clapper 5 d, Ringing for
+        the 23rd of April 5/-, for making the Levy 2/-,
+        for a hors to Lichfield 11/6, pd John Stack
+        going to Dudley 2 times for the Clockman 1/-.
+        For a monthly (?) meeting to Ralph Momford
+        Sep. the 15th 2/-, Spent at freeman's Coming from
+        the Visitation-----"[64]
+
+[Footnote 64: _Olden Wednesbury_, by F.W. Hackwood, who kindly sent me
+this information.]
+
+But we have grievous things to record with regard to the clerks and the
+registers, not that they were to blame so much as the proper custodians,
+who neglected their duties and left these precious books in the hands of
+ignorant clerks to be preserved in poor overcrowded cottages. But the
+parish clerks sinned grievously. One Phillips, clerk of Lambeth parish,
+ran away with the register book, so Francis Sadler tells us in his
+curious book, _The Exaction and Imposition of Parish Fees Discovered_,
+published in 1738, "whereby the parish became great sufferers; and in
+such a case no person that is fifty years old, and born in the parish,
+can have a transcript of the Register to prove themselves heir to an
+estate." Moreover, Master Sadler, who was very severe on parish clerks,
+tells of the iniquities of the Battersea clerk who used to register boys
+for girls and girls for boys, and not one-half of the register book, in
+his time, was correct and authentic, as it ought to be.
+
+What shall be said of the carelessness of an incumbent who allowed the
+register to be kept by the clerk in his poor cottage? When a gentleman
+called to obtain an extract from the book, the clerk produced the
+valuable tome from a drawer in an old table, where it was reposing with
+a mass of rubbish. Another old parchment register was discovered in a
+cottage in a Northamptonshire parish, some of the pages of which were
+tacked together as a covering for the tester of a bedstead. The clerk in
+another parish followed the calling of a tailor, and found the old
+register book useful for the purpose of providing himself with measures.
+With this object he cut out sixteen leaves of the old book, which he
+regarded in the light of waste paper.
+
+A gentleman on one occasion visited a church in order to examine the
+registers of an Essex parish. He found the record for which he was
+searching, and asked the clerk to make the extract for him.
+Unfortunately this official had no ink or paper at hand with which to
+copy out the entry, and casually observed:
+
+"Oh, you may as well have the leaf as it is," and without any hesitation
+took out his pocket-knife, cut out the leaf and gave the gentleman the
+two entire pages[65].
+
+[Footnote 65: _History of Parish Registers_, by Burn; _Social Life as
+told by Parish Registers_, by T.F. Thiselton-Dyer, p. 2.]
+
+Another scandalous case was that of the clerk who combined his
+ecclesiastical duties with those of the village grocer. The pages of the
+parish register he found most useful for wrapping up his goods for his
+customers. He was, however, no worse than the curate's wife, who ought
+to have known better, and who used the leaves of the registers for
+making her husband's kettle-holders.
+
+What shall be said for the guardians of the church documents of
+Blythburgh, Suffolk? The parish chest preserved in the church was at one
+time full of valuable documents in addition to very complete registers.
+So Suckling, the historian of Suffolk, reported. Alas! these have
+nearly all disappeared. Scarcely anything remains of the earliest volume
+of the register which concludes with the end of the seventeenth century,
+and the old deeds have gone also. How could this terrible loss have
+occurred? It appears that a parish clerk, "in showing this fine old
+church to visitors, presented those curious in old papers and autographs
+with a leaf from the register, or some other document, as a memento of
+their visit[66]."
+
+[Footnote 66: _Social Life as told by Parish Registers_; also
+_Standard_, 8 Jan., 1880.]
+
+Another clerk was extremely popular with the old ladies of the village,
+and used to cut out the parchment leaves of the registers and present
+them to his old lady friends for wrapping their knitting pins. He was
+also the village schoolmaster, as many of his predecessors had been, but
+this wretch used to cover the backs of his pupil's lesson-books with
+leaves of parchment taken from the parish chest. Another clerk found the
+leaves of the registers very useful for "singeing a goose."
+
+The value of old registers for proving titles to estates and other
+property is of course inestimable. Sometimes incomes of thousands of
+pounds depend upon a little entry in one of these old books, and it is
+terrible to think of the jeopardy in which they stand when they rest in
+the custody of a careless clerk or apathetic vicar.
+
+The present writer owes much to the faithful care of a good clerk, who
+guarded well the registers of a defunct City church of London. My father
+was endeavouring to prove his title to an estate in the north country,
+and had to obtain the certificates of the births, deaths, and marriages
+of the family during about a century. One wedding could not be proved.
+Report stated that it had been a runaway marriage, and that the bride
+and bridegroom had fled to London to be married in a City church. My
+father casually heard of the name of some church where it was thought
+that the wedding might have taken place. He wrote to the authorities of
+that church. It had, however, ceased to exist. The church had
+disappeared, but the old clerk was alive and knew where the books were.
+He searched, and found the missing register, and the chain of evidence
+was complete and the title to the property fully established, which was
+confirmed after much troublesome litigation by the Court of Chancery.
+
+Sometimes litigants have sought to remove troublesome entries in those
+invaluable books which record with equal impartiality the entrance into
+the world and the departure from it of peer or peasant. And in such
+dramas the clerk frequently appears. The old man has to be bribed or
+cajoled to allow the books to be tampered with. A stranger arrives one
+evening at Rochester, and demands of the clerk to be shown the
+registers. The stranger finds the entry upon which much depends. In its
+present form it does not support his case. It must be altered in order
+to meet his requirements. The clerk hovers about the vestry, alert,
+vigilant. He must be got rid of. The stranger proposes various
+inducements; the temptation of a comfortable seat in a cosy corner of
+the nearest inn, a stimulating glass, but all in vain. There is
+something suspicious about the stranger's looks and manners; so the
+clerk thinks. He sticks to his elbow like a leech, and nothing can shake
+him off. At length the stranger offers the poor clerk a goodly bribe if
+only he will help him to alter a few words in that all-important
+register. I am not sure whether the clerk yielded to the temptation.
+
+There was a still more dramatic scene in the old vestry of Lainston
+Church, where a few years previously a Miss Chudleigh had been married
+to Lieutenant Hervey. This young lady, who was not remarkable for her
+virtue, arrived one day at the church accompanied by a fascinating
+friend who, while Mrs. Hervey examined the register, exercised her
+blandishments on the clerk. She expressed much interest in the church,
+and asked him endless questions about its architecture, the state of his
+health, his family, his duties; and while this little by-play was
+proceeding Mrs. Hervey was carefully and noiselessly cutting out the
+page in the register which contained the entry of her marriage. Having
+removed the tell-tale page she hastily closed the book, summoned her
+fascinating friend, and hastened back to London. The clerk, still
+thinking of the beautiful lady who had been so friendly and given him
+such a handsome present, locked the safe, and never discovered the
+theft. But time brought its revenge. Lieutenant Hervey succeeded
+unexpectedly to the title of the earldom of Bristol. His wife was
+overcome with remorse. By her foolish scheme she had sacrificed a
+coronet. That missing paper must be restored; and so the lady pays
+another visit to Lainston Church, on this occasion in the company of a
+lawyer. The old clerk unlocks again the parish chest. The books are
+again produced; confession is made of the former theft; the lawyer looks
+threateningly at the clerk, and tells him that if it should ever be
+discovered he will suffer as an accomplice; and then, with the promise
+of a substantial bribe, the clerk consents to give his aid. The missing
+paper is produced and deftly inserted in its former place in the book,
+and Miss Chudleigh becomes the Countess of Bristol. It is a curious
+story, but it has the merit of being true. Many strange romances are
+bound up within the stained and battered parchment covers of an
+old register.
+
+Sometimes the clerk seems to have recorded in the register book some
+entries which scarcely relate to ecclesiastical usages or spiritual
+concerns. Agreements or bargains were inserted occasionally, and the
+fact that it was recorded in the church books testified to the binding
+nature of the transaction. Thus in the book of St. Mary Magdalene,
+Cambridge, in the year 1692, it is announced that Thomas Smith promises
+to supply John Wingate "with hatts for twenty shillings the yeare during
+life." Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, who records this transaction in his book on
+_Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, conjectures with evident
+truth that the aforenamed men made this bargain at an ale-house, and the
+parish clerk, being present, undertook to register the agreement.
+
+A most remarkable clerk lived at Grafton Underwood in the eighteenth
+century, one Thomas Carley, who was born in that village in 1755, having
+no hands and one deformed leg. Notwithstanding that nature seemed to
+have deprived him of all means of manual labour, he rose to the position
+of parish schoolmaster and parish clerk. He contrived a pair of leather
+rings, into which he thrust the stumps of his arms, which ended at the
+elbow, and with the aid of these he held a pen, ruler, knife and fork,
+etc. The register books of the parish show admirable specimens of his
+wonderful writing, and I have in my possession a tracing made by Mr.
+Wise, of Weekley, from the label fixed inside the cover of one of the
+large folio Prayer Books which used to be in the Duke of Buccleuch's
+pew before the church was restored, and were then removed to Boughton
+House. These books contain many beautifully written papers, chiefly
+supplying lost ones from the Psalms. The writing is simply like
+copper-plate engraving. In the British Museum, amongst the "additional
+MSS." is an interleaved edition of Bridge's _History of
+Northamptonshire_, bound in five volumes. In the fourth volume, under
+the account of Grafton Underwood, some particulars have been inserted of
+the life of this extraordinary man, with a water-colour portrait of him
+taken by one of his pupils, E. Bradley. There is also a specimen of his
+writing, the Lord's Prayer inscribed within a circle about the size of a
+shilling. There is also in existence "a mariner's compass," most
+accurately drawn by him. He died in 1823.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE CLERK AS A POET
+
+The parish clerk, skilled in psalmody, has sometimes shown evidences of
+true poetic feeling. The divine afflatus has occasionally inspired in
+him some fine thoughts and graceful fancies. His race has produced many
+writers of terrible doggerel of the monumental class of poetry; but far
+removed from these there have been some who have composed fine hymns and
+sweet verse.
+
+An obscure hymn-writer, whose verses have been sung in all parts of the
+world, was Thomas Bilby, parish clerk of St. Mary's Church, Islington,
+between the years 1842 and 1872. He was the parish schoolmaster also,
+and thus maintained the traditions of his office handed down from
+mediĉval times. Before the days of School Boards it was not unusual for
+the clerk to teach the children of the working classes the three R's and
+religious knowledge, charging a fee of twopence per week for each child.
+Mrs. Mary Strathern has kindly sent me the following account of the
+church wherein Thomas Bilby served as clerk, and of the famous hymn
+which he wrote.
+
+The church of St. Mary's, Islington, was not internally a thing of
+beauty. It was square; it had no chancel; the walls were covered with
+monuments and tablets to the praise and glory of departed parishioners.
+On three sides it had a wide gallery, the west end of which contained
+the organ, with the Royal Arms as large as life in front. On either side
+below the galleries were double rows of high pews, and down the centre
+passage a row of open benches for the poor. Between these benches and
+the altar, completely hiding the altar from the congregation, stood a
+huge "three-decker." The pulpit, on a level with the galleries, was
+reached by a staircase at the back; below that was "the reading desk,"
+from which the curate said the prayers; and below that again, a smaller
+desk, where, Sunday after Sunday, for thirty years, T. Bilby, parish
+clerk and schoolmaster, gave out the hymns, read the notices, and
+published the banns of marriage. He was short and stout; his hair was
+white; he wore a black gown with deep velvet collar, ornamented with
+many tassels and fringes; and he carried a staff of office.
+
+It was a great missionary parish. The vicar, Daniel Wilson, was a son of
+that well-known Daniel Wilson, sometime vicar of Islington, and
+afterwards Bishop of Calcutta. The Church Missionary College, where many
+young missionaries sent out by the Church Missionary Society are
+trained, stood in our midst; and it was within St. Mary's Church the
+writer saw the venerable Bishop Crowther, of the Niger, ordain his own
+son deacon. Mr. Bilby had at one time been a catechist and schoolmaster
+in Sierra Leone, and was full of interesting stories of the mission work
+amongst the freed slaves in that settlement. He had a magic lantern,
+with many views of Africa, and of the churches and schools in the
+mission fields, and often gave missionary lectures to the school
+children. It was on one of these occasions, when he had been telling us
+about his work abroad, and how he soon got to know when a black boy had
+a dirty face, that he said: "While I was in Africa, I composed a hymn,
+and taught the black children to sing it; and now there is not a
+Christian school in any part of the world where my hymn is not known and
+sung. I will begin it now, and you will all sing it with me." Then the
+old man began:
+
+     "Here we suffer grief and pain."
+
+Immediately every child in the room took it up, and sang with might and
+main:
+
+     "Here we meet to part again;
+     In heaven we part no more."
+
+We had always thought the familiar words were as old as the Bible
+itself, and could scarcely believe they had been written by our own
+old friend.
+
+Soon after that memorable night, the old man began to get feeble; his
+place in the church and schools was frequently filled by "Young Bilby,"
+as he was familiarly called; and in 1872, aged seventy-eight, the old
+parish clerk was gathered to his fathers, and his son reigned in
+his stead.
+
+The other day a copy of a Presbyterian hymn-book found its way into my
+house, and there I found "Here we suffer grief and pain." I turned up
+the index which gives the names of authors, wondering if the compilers
+knew anything of the source from whence it came, and found the name
+"Bilby"; but who "Bilby" was, and where he lived, is known to very few
+outside the parish, where the name is a household word, for Mr. Bilby's
+son is still the parish clerk of St. Mary, Islington, and through him we
+learn that his father composed the _tune_ as well as the words of "Here
+we suffer grief and pain."
+
+As the hymn is not included in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ or some other
+well-known collection, perhaps it will be well to print the first two
+verses. It is published in John Curwen's _The Child's Own Hymn Book_:
+
+     "Here we suffer grief and pain;
+     Here we meet to part again:
+     In heaven we part no more.
+
+         O! that will be joyful,
+         Joyful, joyful, joyful,
+         O! that will be joyful!
+         When we meet to part no more!
+
+     "All who love the Lord below,
+     When they die to heaven will go,
+     And sing with saints above.
+         O! that," etc.
+
+A poet of a different school was Robert Story, schoolmaster and parish
+clerk of Gargrave, Yorkshire. He was born at Wark, Northumberland, in
+1795, but migrated to Gargrave in 1820, where he remained twenty years.
+Then he obtained the situation of a clerk in the Audit Office, Somerset
+House, at a salary of £90 a year, which he held till his death in 1860.
+His volume of poems, entitled _Songs and Lyrical Poems_, contains some
+charming verse. He wrote a pathetic poem on the death of the son of a
+gentleman at Malham, killed while bird-nesting on the rocks of Cam Scar.
+Another poem, _The Danish Camp_, tells of the visit of King Alfred to
+the stronghold of his foes, and has some pretty lines. "O, love has a
+favourite scene for roaming," is a tender little poem. The following
+example of his verse is of a humorous and festive type. It is taken from
+a volume of his productions, entitled _The Magic Fountain, and Other
+Poems_, published in 1829:
+
+     "Learn next that I am parish clerk:
+     A noble office, by St. Mark!
+     It brings me in six guineas clear,
+     Besides _et cĉteras_ every year.
+     I waive my Sunday duty, when
+     I give the solemn deep Amen;
+     Exalted then to breathe aloud
+     The heart-devotion of the crowd.
+     But oh, the fun! when Christmas chimes
+     Have ushered in the festal times,
+     And sent the clerk and sexton round
+     To pledge their friends in draughts profound,
+     And keep on foot the good old plan,
+     As only clerk and sexton can!
+     Nor less the sport, when Easter sees
+     The daisy spring to deck her leas;
+     Then, claim'd as dues by Mother Church,
+     I pluck the cackler from the perch;
+     Or, in its place, the shilling clasp
+     From grumbling dame's slow opening grasp.
+     But, Visitation Day! 'tis thine
+     Best to deserve my native line.
+     Great day! the purest, brightest gem
+     That decks the fair year's diadem.
+     Grand day! that sees me costless dine
+     And costless quaff the rosy wine,
+     Till seven churchwardens doubled seem,
+     And doubled every taper's gleam;
+     And I triumphant over time,
+     And over tune, and over rhyme,
+     Call'd by the gay convivial throng,
+     Lead, in full glee, the choral song!"
+
+The writers of doggerel verses have been numerous. The following is a
+somewhat famous composition which has been kindly sent to me by various
+correspondents. My father used to tell us the rhymes when we were
+children, and they have evidently become notorious. The clerk who
+composed them lived in Somersetshire[67], and when the Lord Bishop of
+the Diocese came to visit his church, he thought that such an occasion
+ought not to be passed over without a fitting tribute to the
+distinguished prelate. He therefore composed a new and revised version
+of Tate and Brady's metrical rendering of Psalm lxvii., and announced
+his production after this manner:
+
+"Let us zing to the Praze an' Glory of God part of the zixty-zeventh
+Zalm; zspeshul varshun zspesh'ly 'dapted vur t'cazshun.
+
+     "W'y 'op ye zo ye little 'ills?
+       And what var du 'ee zskip?
+     Is it a'cause ter prach too we
+       Is cum'd me Lord Biship?
+
+     "W'y zskip ye zo ye little 'ills?
+       An' whot var du 'ee 'op?
+     Is it a'cause to prach too we
+       Is cum'd me Lord Bishop?
+
+     "Then let us awl arize an' zing,
+       An' let us awl stric up,
+     An' zing a glawrious zong uv praze;
+       An' bless me Lord Bishup."
+
+[Footnote 67: Another correspondent states that the incident occurred at
+Bradford-on-Avon in 1806. Mr. Francis Bevan remembers hearing a similar
+version at Dover about sixty years ago. Can it be that these various
+clerks were plagiarists?]
+
+A somewhat similar effusion was composed by Eldad Holland, parish clerk
+of Christ Church, Kilbrogan parish, Bandon, County Cork, in Ireland.
+This church was built in 1610, and has the reputation of being the first
+edifice erected in Ireland for the use of the Church of Ireland after
+the Reformation. Bandon was originally colonised by English settlers in
+the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and for a long time was a noted stronghold
+of Protestantism. This fact may throw light upon the opinions and
+sentiments of Master Holland, an original character, whose tombstone
+records that "he departed this life ye 29th day of 7ber 1722." When the
+news of the victory of William III reached Bandon there were great
+rejoicings, and Eldad paraphrased a portion of the morning service in
+honour of the occasion. After the first lesson he gave out the
+following notice:
+
+"Let us sing to the praise and glory of William, a psalm of my own
+composing:
+
+     "William is come home, come home,
+       William home is come,
+     And now let us in his praise
+       Sing a _Te Deum_."
+
+He then continued: "We praise thee, O William! we acknowledge thee to be
+our king!" adding with an impressive shake of the head, "And faith, a
+good right we have, for it was he who saved us from brass money, wooden
+shoes and Popery." He then resumed the old version, and reverently
+continued it to the end[68].
+
+[Footnote 68: This information was kindly sent to me by Mr. Robert
+Clarke, of Castle Eden, Durham, who states that he derived the
+information from _The History of Bandon_, by George Bennett (1869). My
+father used to repeat the following version:
+
+     "King William is come home,
+     Come home King William is come;
+     So let us then together sing
+     A hymn that's called _Te D'um_."
+
+I am not sure which version is the better poetry! The latter corresponds
+with the version composed by Wesley's clerk at Epworth, old John; so
+Clarke in his memoirs of the Wesley family records.]
+
+In a parish in North Devon[69] there was a poetical clerk who had great
+reverence for Bishop Henry Phillpotts, and on giving out the hymn he
+proclaimed his regard in this form: "Let us sing to the glory of God,
+and of the Lord Bishop of Exeter." On one occasion his lordship held a
+confirmation in the church on 5 November, when it is said the clerk
+gave out the Psalm in the usual way, adding, "in a stave of my own
+composing":
+
+     "This is the day that was the night
+       When the Papists did conspire
+     To blow up the King and Parliament House
+       With Gundy-powdy-ire."
+
+[Footnote 69: My kind correspondent, the Rev. J.B. Hughes, abstains from
+mentioning the name of the parish.]
+
+My informant cannot vouch for the truth of this story, but he can for
+the fact that when Bishop Phillpotts on another occasion visited the
+church his lordship was surprised to hear the clerk give out at the end
+of the service, "Let us sing in honour of his lordship, 'God save the
+King.'" The bishop rose somewhat hastily, saying to his chaplain, "Come
+along, Barnes; we shall have 'Rule, Britannia!' next."
+
+Cuthbert Bede tells the story of a poetical clerk who was much aggrieved
+because some disagreeable and naughty folk had maliciously damaged his
+garden fence. On the next Sunday he gave out "a stave of his own
+composing":
+
+     "Oh, Lord, how doth the wicked man;
+       They increases more and more;
+     They break the posts, likewise the rails
+       Around this poor clerk's door."
+
+He almost deserved his fate for barbarously mutilating a metrical Psalm,
+and was evidently a proper victim of poetical justice.
+
+A Devonshire clerk wrote the following noble effort:--
+
+     "Mount Edgcumbe is a pleasant place
+     Right o'er agenst the Ham-o-aze,
+     Where ships do ride at anchor,
+     To guard us agin our foes. Amen."
+
+Besides writing "hymns of his own composing," the parish clerk often
+used to give vent to his poetical talents in the production of epitaphs.
+The occupation of writing epitaphs must have been a lucrative one, and
+the effusions recording the numerous virtues of the deceased are quaint
+and curious. Well might a modern English child ask her mother after
+hearing these records read to her, "Where were all the bad people
+buried?" Learned scholars and abbots applied their talents to the
+production of the Latin verses inscribed on old brass memorials of the
+dead, and clever ladies like Dame Elizabeth Hobby sometimes wrote them
+and appended their names to their compositions. In later times this task
+seems to have been often undertaken by the parish clerk with not
+altogether satisfactory results, though incumbents and great poets,
+among whom may be enumerated Pope and Byron, sometimes wrote memorials
+of their friends. But the clerk was usually responsible for these
+inscriptions. Master John Hopkins, clerk at one of the churches at
+Salisbury at the end of the eighteenth century, issued an advertisement
+of his various accomplishments which ran thus:
+
+     "John Hopkins, parish clerk and undertaker, sells epitaphs of
+     all sorts and prices. Shaves neat, and plays the bassoon.
+     Teeth drawn, and the Salisbury Journal read gratis every
+     Sunday morning at eight. A school for psalmody every Thursday
+     evening, when my son, born blind, will play the fiddle.
+     Specimen epitaph on my wife:
+
+     My wife ten years, not much to my ease,
+     But now she is dead, in cĉlo quies.
+
+     Great variety to be seen within. Your humble servant, John
+     Hopkins."
+
+Poor David Diggs, the hero of Hewett's story of _The Parish Clerk_, used
+to write epitaphs in strange and curious English. Just before his death
+he put a small piece of paper into the hands of the clergyman of the
+parish, and whispered a request that its contents might be attended to.
+When the clergyman afterwards read the paper he found the following
+epitaph, which was duly inscribed on the clerk's grave:
+
+     "Reader Don't stop nor shed no tears
+     For I was parish clerk For 60 years;
+     If I lived on I could not now as Then
+     Say to the Parson's Prases A loud Amen."
+
+A very worthy poetical clerk was John Bennet, shoemaker, of Woodstock. A
+long account of him appears in the _Lives of Illustrious Shoemakers_,
+written by W.E. Winks. He inherited the office of parish clerk from his
+father, and with it some degree of musical taste. In the preface to his
+poems he wrote: "Witness my early acquaintance with the pious strains of
+Sternhold and Hopkins, under that melodious psalmodist my honoured
+Father, and your approved Parish Clerk." This is addressed to the Rev.
+Thomas Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and sometime curate of
+Woodstock, to whose patronage and ready aid John Bennet was greatly
+indebted. Southey, who succeeded Warton in the Professorship, wrote that
+"This Woodstock shoemaker was chiefly indebted for the patronage which
+he received to Thomas Warton's good nature; for my predecessor was the
+best-hearted man that ever wore a great wig." Certainly the list of
+subscribers printed at the beginning of his early work is amazingly
+long. Noblemen, squires, parsons, great ladies, all rushed to secure the
+cobbler-clerk's poems, which were published in 1774. The poems consist
+mainly of simple rhymes or rustic themes, and are not without merit or
+humour. He is very modest and humble about his poetical powers, and
+tells that his reason for publishing his verses was "to enable the
+author to rear an infant offspring and to drive away all anxious
+solicitude from the breast of a most amiable wife." His humour is shown
+in the conclusion of his Dedication, where he wrote:
+
+"I had proceeded thus far when I was called to measure a gentleman of a
+certain college for a pair of fashionable boots, and the gentleman
+having insisted on a perusal of what I was writing, told me that a
+dedication should be as laconic as the boots he had employed me to make;
+and then, taking up my pen, added this scrap of Latin for a Heel-piece,
+as he called it, to my Dedication:
+
+     "_Jam satis est; ne me Crispini scrinia lippi
+     Compilasse putes, vertum non amplius_."
+
+The cobbler poet concludes his verses with the humorous lines:
+
+     "So may our cobler rise by friendly aid,
+     Be happy and successful in his trade;
+     His awl and pen with readiness be found,
+     To make or keep our understandings sound."
+
+Later in life John Bennet published another volume, entitled
+_Redemption_. It was dedicated to Dr. Mavor, rector of Woodstock. It is
+a noble poem, far exceeding in merit his first essay, and it is a
+remarkable and wonderful composition for a self-taught village
+shoemaker. The author-clerk died and was buried at Woodstock in 1803.
+
+A fine character and graceful poet was Richard Furness[70], parish clerk
+of Dore, five miles from Shalfield, a secluded hamlet. He was then
+styled "The Poet of the Peak," of sonorous voice and clear of speech,
+the author of many poems, and factotum supreme of the village and
+neighbourhood. Two volumes of his poems have been published. He
+combined, like many of his order, the office of parish clerk with that
+of schoolmaster, his schoolroom being under the same roof as his house.
+Thither crowds flocked. He was an immense favourite. The teacher of
+children, healer of all the lame and sick folk, the consoler and adviser
+of the troubled, he played an important part in the village life. His
+accomplishments were numerous. He could make a will, survey or convey an
+estate, reduce a dislocation, perform the functions of a parish clerk,
+lead a choir, and write an ode. This remarkable man was born at Eyam in
+1791, the village so famous for the story of its plague, in an old house
+long held by his family. Over the door is carved:
+
+     R. 1615. F
+
+[Footnote 70: _Biographical Sketches of Remarkable People_, by Spencer
+T. Hall.]
+
+When a boy he was very fond of reading, and studied mathematics and
+poetry. _Don Quixote_ was his favourite romance. His father would not
+allow him to read at night, but the student could not be prevented from
+studying his beloved books. In order to prevent the light in his bedroom
+from being seen in other parts of the house, he placed a candle in a
+large box, knelt by its side, and with the lid half closed few rays of
+the glimmering taper could reach the window or door. When he grew to be
+a man he migrated to Dore, and there set up a school, and began that
+active life of which an admirable account is given by Dr. G. Calvert
+Holland in the introduction of _The Poetical Works of Richard Furness_,
+published in 1858. In addition to other duties he sometimes discharged
+clerical functions. The vicar of the parish of Dore, Mr. Parker, was
+somewhat old and infirm, and sometimes found it difficult to tramp over
+the high moors in winter to privately baptize a sick child. So he often
+sent his clerk to perform the duty. On dark and stormy nights Richard
+Furness used to tramp over moor and fell, through snow and rain to some
+lonely farm or moorland cottage in order to baptize some suffering
+infant. On one occasion he omitted to ascertain before commencing the
+service whether the child was a boy or a girl. Turning to the father in
+the midst of a prayer, when the question whether he ought to use _his_
+or _her_ had to be decided, he inquired, "What sex?" The father, an
+ignorant labourer, did not understand the meaning of the question. "Male
+or female?" asked the clerk. Still the father did not comprehend. At
+last the meaning of the query dawned upon his rustic intelligence, and
+he whispered, "It's a mon childt."
+
+Thus does Richard Furness in his poems describe his many duties:
+
+     "I Richard Furness, schoolmaster, Dore,
+     Keep parish books and pay the poor;
+     Draw plans for buildings and indite
+     Letters for those who cannot write;
+     Make wills and recommend a proctor;
+     Cure wounds, let blood with any doctor;
+     Draw teeth, sing psalms, the hautboy play
+     At chapel on each holy day;
+     Paint sign-boards, cast names at command,
+     Survey and plot estates of land:
+     Collect at Easter, one in ten,
+     And on the Sunday say Amen."
+
+He wrote a poem entitled _Medicus Magus, or the Astrologer_, a droll
+story brimming over with quiet humour, folk-lore, philology and archaic
+lore. Also _The Ragbag_, which is dedicated to "John Bull, Esq." The
+style of his poetry was Johnsonian, or after the manner of Erasmus
+Darwin, a bard whom the present generation has forgotten, but whose
+_Botanic Garden_, published in 1825, is full of quaint plant-lore and
+classical allusions, if it does not reach the highest form of poetic
+talent. Here is a poem by our clerkly poet on the Old Year's funeral:
+
+     "The clock in oblivion's mouldering tower
+     By the raven's nest struck the midnight hour,
+     And the ghosts of the seasons wept over the bier
+     Of Old Time's last son--the departing year.
+
+     "Spring showered her daisies and dews on his bed,
+     Summer covered with roses his shelterless head,
+     And as Autumn embalmed his bodiless form,
+     Winter wove his snow shroud in his Jacquard of storm;
+     For his coffin-plate, charged with a common device,
+     Frost figured his arms on a tablet of ice,
+     While a ray from the sun in the interim came,
+     And daguerreotyped neatly his age, death, and name.
+       Then the shadowing months at call
+       Stood up to bear the pall,
+     And three hundred and sixty-five days in gloom
+     Formed a vista that reached from his birth to his tomb.
+     And oh, what a progeny followed in tears--
+     Hours, minutes, and moments--the children of years!
+       Death marshall'd th' array,
+       Slowly leading the way,
+     With his darts newly fashioned for New Year's Day."
+
+Richard Furness died in 1857, and was buried with his ancestors at Eyam.
+He thus sang his own requiem shortly before he passed away:
+
+     "To joys and griefs, to hopes and fears,
+       To all pride would, and power could do,
+     To sorrow's cup, to pity's tears,
+       To mortal life, to death adieu."
+
+I will conclude this chapter on poetical clerks with a sweet carol for
+Advent, written by Mr. Daniel Robinson, ex-parish clerk of Flore,
+Weedon, which is worthy of preservation:
+
+
+
+A CAROL FOR ADVENT
+
+"Behold, thy King cometh unto thee."--MATTHEW xxi. 5.
+
+     Behold, thy King is coming
+       Upon this earth to reign,
+     To take away oppression
+       And break the captive's chain;
+     Then trim your lamps, ye virgins,
+       Your oil of love prepare,
+     To meet the coming Bridegroom
+       Triumphant in the air.
+
+     Behold, thy King is coming,
+       Hark! 'tis the midnight cry,
+     The herald's voice proclaimeth
+       The hour is drawing nigh;
+     Then go ye forth to meet Him,
+       With lamps all burning bright,
+     Let sweet hosannahs greet Him,
+       And welcome Him aright.
+
+     Go decorate your churches
+       With evergreens and flowers,
+     And let the bells' sweet music
+       Resound from all your towers;
+     And sing your sweetest anthems,
+       For lo, your King is nigh,
+     While songs of praise are soaring
+       O'er vale and mountain high.
+
+     Let sounds of heavenly music
+       From sweet-voiced organs peal,
+     While old and young assembling
+       Before God's "Altar" kneel;
+     In humble adoration
+       Let each one praise and pray,
+     And give the King a welcome
+       This coming Christmas Day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CLERK GIVING OUT NOTICES
+
+After the Nicene Creed in the Book of Common Prayer occurs a rubric with
+regard to the giving out of notices, the observance of Holy-days or
+Feasting-days, the publication of Briefs, Citations and
+Ex-communications, which ends with the following words:
+
+"And nothing shall be proclaimed or published in the Church, during the
+time of Divine Service, but by the Minister; nor by him any thing but
+what is prescribed in the Rules of this Book, or enjoined by the King or
+by the Ordinary of the place."
+
+This rubric was added to the Prayer Book in the revision of 1662, and
+doubtless was intended to correct the undesirable practice of publishing
+all kinds of secular notices during the time of divine service. Dr.
+Wickham Legg has unearthed an inquiry made in an archidiaconal
+visitation in 1630, relating to the proclamation of lay businesses made
+in church, when the following question was asked:
+
+"Whether hath your Parish Clerk, or any other in Prayers time, or before
+Prayers or Sermon ended, before the people departed, made proclamation
+in your church touching any goods strayed away or wanting, or of any
+Leet court to be held, or of common-dayes-works to be made, or touching
+any other thing which is not merely ecclesiasticall, or a
+Church-businesse?"
+
+In times of Puritan laxity it was natural that notices sacred and
+profane should be indiscriminately mingled, and the rubric mentioned
+above would be sorely needed when church order and a reverent service
+were revived. But in spite of this direction the practice survived of
+not very strictly confining the notices to the concerns of the Church.
+
+An aged lady, Mrs. Gill, who is now eighty-four years of age, remembers
+that between the years 1825 and 1835, in a parish church near Welbeck
+Abbey, the clerk used to announce the date of the Duke of Rutland's
+rent-day. Another correspondent states that after service the clerk used
+to take his stand on one of the high flat tombstones and announce sales
+by auction, the straying of cattle, etc., and Sir Walter Scott wrote
+that at Hexham cattle-dealers used to carry their business letters to
+the church, "when after service the clerk was accustomed to read them
+aloud and answer them according to circumstances."
+
+Mr. Beresford Hope recollected that in a Surrey town church the notices
+given out by the clerk included the announcement of the meetings at the
+principal inn of the town of the executors of a deceased duke.
+
+In the days of that extraordinary free-and-easy go-as-you-please style
+of service which prevailed at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of
+the nineteenth century, the most extraordinary announcements were
+frequently made by the clerk, and very numerous stories are told of the
+laxity of the times and the quaintness of the remarks of the clerk.
+
+An old Shropshire clerk gave out on Easter Day the following
+extraordinary notice:
+
+"Last Friday was Good Friday, but we've forgotten un; so next Friday
+will be."
+
+Another clerk gave out a strange notice on Quinquagesima Sunday with
+regard to the due observance of Ash Wednesday. He said: "There will be
+no service on Wednesday--'coss why? Mester be going hunting, and so
+beeze I!" with triumphant emphasis. He is not the only sporting clerk of
+whom history speaks, and in the biographies of some worthies of the
+profession we hope to mention the achievements of a clerkly tailor who
+denied himself every luxury of life in order to save enough money to buy
+and keep a horse in order that he might follow the hounds "like a
+gentleman."
+
+Sporting parsons have furnished quite a crop of stories with regard to
+strange notices given out by their clerks. Some of them are well known
+and have often been repeated; but perhaps it is well that they should
+not be omitted here.
+
+About the year 1850 a clerk gave out in his rector's hearing this
+notice: "There'll be no service next Sunday, as the rector's going out
+grouse-shooting."
+
+A Devonshire hunting parson went to help a neighbouring clergyman in the
+old days when all kinds of music made up the village choir.
+Unfortunately some difficulty arose in the tuning of the instruments.
+The fiddles and bass-viol would not accord, and the parson grew
+impatient. At last, leaning over the reading-desk and throwing up his
+arms, he shouted out, "Hark away, Jack! Hark away, Jack! Tally-ho!
+Tally-ho![71]"
+
+[Footnote 71: _Mumpits and Crumpits_, by Sarah Hewitt, p. 175.]
+
+Another clerk caused amusement and consternation in a south-country
+parish and roused the rector's wrath. The young rector, who was of a
+sporting turn of mind, told him that he wanted to get to Worthing on a
+Sunday afternoon in time for the races which began on the following day,
+and that therefore there would be no service. This was explained to the
+clerk in confidence. The rector's horror may be imagined when he heard
+him give out in loud sonorous tones: "This is to give notice, no suvviss
+here this arternoon, becos measter meyans to get to Worthing to-night to
+be in good toime for reayces to-morrow mornin'."
+
+Old Moody, of Redbourn, Herts, was a typical parish clerk, and his
+vicar, Lord Frederick Beauclerk, and the curate, the Rev. W.S. Wade,
+were both hunting parsons of the old school. One Sunday morning Moody
+announced, just before giving out the hymn, that "the vicar was going on
+Friday to the throwing off of the Leicestershire hounds, and could not
+return home until Monday next week; therefore next Sunday there would
+not be any service in the church on that day." Moody was quite one of
+the leading characters of the place, whose words and opinions were law.
+
+No one in those days thought of disputing the right or questioning the
+conduct of a rector closing the church, and abandoning the accustomed
+services on a Sunday, in order to keep a sporting engagement.
+
+That other notice about the fishing parson is well known. The clerk
+announced: "This is to gi notus, there won't be no surviss here this
+arternoon becos parson's going fishing in the next parish." When he was
+remonstrated with after service for giving out such a strange notice,
+he replied:
+
+"Parson told I so 'fore church."
+
+"Surely he said officiating--not fishing?" said his monitor. "The bishop
+would not be pleased to hear of one of his clergy going fishing on a
+Sunday afternoon."
+
+The clerk was not convinced, and made a clever defence, grounded on the
+employment of some of the Apostles. The reader's imagination will supply
+the gist of the argument.
+
+Another rector, who had lost his favourite setter, told his clerk to
+make inquiries about it, but was much astonished to hear him give it out
+as a notice in church, coupled with the offer of a reward of three
+pounds if the dog should be restored to his owner.
+
+The clerk of the sporting parson was often quite as keen as his master
+in following the chase. It was not unusual for rectors to take
+"occasional services," weddings or funerals, on the way to a meet,
+wearing "pink" under their surplices. A wedding was proceeding in a
+Devonshire church, and when the happy pair were united and the Psalm was
+just about to be said, the clerk called out, "Please to make 'aste, sir,
+or he'll be gone afore you have done." The parson nodded and looked
+inquiringly at the clerk, who said, "He's turned into the vuzz bushes
+down in ten acres. Do look sharp, sir[72]."
+
+[Footnote 72: This story is told by Mrs. Hewett in her _Peasant Speech
+of Devon_, but I have ventured to anglicise the broad Devonshire a
+little, and to suggest that the scene could scarcely have taken place on
+a Sunday morning, as Mrs. Hewett suggests in her admirable book.]
+
+The story is told of a rector who, when walking to church across the
+squire's park during a severe winter, found a partridge apparently
+frozen to death. He placed the poor bird in the voluminous pocket of his
+coat. During the service the warmth of the rector's pocket revived the
+bird and thawed it back to life; and when during the sermon the rector
+pulled out his handkerchief, the revived bird flew vigorously away
+towards the west end of the church. The clerk, who sat in his seat
+below, was not unaccustomed to the task of beating for the squire's
+shooting parties, called out lustily:
+
+"It be all right, sir; I've marked him down in the belfry."
+
+The fame of the Rev. John Russell, the sporting parson of Swymbridge, is
+widespread, and his parish clerk, William Chapple, is also entitled to a
+small niche beneath the statue of the great man. The curate had left,
+and Mr. Russell inserted the following advertisement:
+
+"Wanted, a curate for Swymbridge; must be a gentleman of moderate and
+orthodox views."
+
+The word _orthodox_ rather puzzled the inhabitants of Swymbridge, who
+asked Chapple what it meant. The clerk did not know, but was unwilling
+to confess such ignorance, and knowing his master's predilections,
+replied, "I 'spects it be a chap as can ride well to hounds."
+
+The strangest notice ever given out in church that I ever have heard of,
+related to a set of false teeth. The story has been told by many.
+Perhaps Cuthbert Bede's version is the best. An old rector of a small
+country parish had been compelled to send to a dentist his set of false
+teeth, in order that some repairs might be made. The dentist had
+faithfully promised to send them back "by Saturday," but the Saturday's
+post did not bring the box containing the rector's teeth. There was no
+Sunday post, and the village was nine miles from the post town. The
+dentist, it afterwards appeared, had posted the teeth on the Saturday
+afternoon with the full conviction that their owner would receive them
+on Sunday morning in time for service. The old rector bravely tried to
+do that duty which England expects every man to do, more especially if
+he is a parson and if it be Sunday morning; but after he had mumbled
+through the prayers with equal difficulty and incoherency, he decided
+that it would be advisable to abandon any further attempts to address
+his congregation on that day. While the hymn was being sung he summoned
+his clerk to the vestry, and then said to him, "It is quite useless for
+me to attempt to go on. The fact is, that my dentist has not sent me
+back my artificial teeth; and as it is impossible for me to make myself
+understood, you must tell the congregation that the service is ended for
+this morning, and that there will be no service this afternoon." The old
+clerk went back to his desk; the singing of the hymn was brought to an
+end; and the rector, from his retreat in the vestry, heard the clerk
+address the congregation as follows:
+
+"This is to give notice! as there won't be no sarmon, nor no more
+service this mornin', so you'd better all go whum (home); and there
+won't be no sarvice this afternoon, as the rector ain't got his artful
+teeth back from the dentist!"
+
+This story so amused George Cruikshank that he wanted to make an
+illustration of it. But the journal in which it ought to have appeared
+was very short-lived. Hence Cruikshank's drawing was lost to the world.
+
+The clerk is a firm upholder of established custom. "We will now sing
+the evening hymn," said the rector of an East Anglian church in the
+sixties. "No, sir, it's doxology to-night." The preacher again said,
+"We'll sing the evening hymn." The clerk, however, persisted, "It's
+doxology to-night"; and doxology it was, in spite of the
+parson's protests.
+
+In the days when parish notices with reference to the lost, stolen, or
+strayed animals were read out in church at the commencement of the
+service, the clerk of a church [my informant has forgotten the name of
+the parish] rose in his place and said:
+
+"This is to give notice that my Lady ---- has lost her little dog; he
+comes to the name of Shock; he is all white except two patches of black
+on his sides and he has got--eh?--what?--yes--no--upon my soul he has
+got four eyes!" It should have been sore eyes, but the long _s_ had
+misled the clerk.
+
+The clerk does not always shine as an orator, but a correspondent who
+writes from the Charterhouse can vouch for the following effort of one
+who lived in a village not a hundred miles from Harrow about thirty
+years ago.
+
+There was a tea for the school children, at which the clerk, a farm
+labourer, spoke thus: "You know, my friends, that if we wants to get a
+good crop of anything we dungs the ground. Now what I say is, if we
+wants our youngsters to crop properly, we must see that they are
+properly dunged--- put the larning into them like dung, and they'll do
+all right."
+
+The subject of the Disestablishment of the Church was scarcely
+contemplated by a clerk in the diocese of Peterborough, who, after the
+amalgamation of two parishes, stated that he was desired by the vicar to
+announce that the services in each parish would be morning and evening
+to _all eternity_. It is thought that he meant to say _alternately_.
+
+I have often referred to the ancient clerkly method of giving out the
+hymns. It was a terrible blow to the clerk when the parsons began to
+interfere with his prerogative and give out the hymns themselves. All
+clerks did not revenge themselves on the usurpers of their ancient right
+as did one of their number, who was very indignant when a strange
+clergyman insisted on giving out the hymns himself. In due course he
+gave out "the fifty-third hymn," when out popped the old clerk's head
+from under the red curtains which hung round the gallery, and which gave
+him the appearance of wearing a nightcap, and he shouted, "That a baint!
+A be the varty-zeventh."
+
+The following account of a notice, which was scarcely authorised, shows
+the homely manners of former days. It was at Sapiston Church, a small
+village on the Duke of Grafton's estate. The grandfather of the present
+Duke was returning from a shooting expedition, and was passing the
+church on Sunday afternoon while service was going on. The Duke quietly
+entered the vestry, and signed to the clerk to come to him. The Duke
+gave the man a hare, and told him to put it into the parson's trap, and
+give a complimentary message about it at the end of the service. But the
+clerk, knowing his master would be pleased at the little attention,
+could not refrain from delivering both hare and message at once before
+the whole congregation. At the close of the hymn before the sermon he
+marched into a prominent position holding up the gift, and shouted out,
+"His Grace's compliments, and, please sir, he's sent ye a hare."
+
+In giving out the hymns or Psalms many difficulties of pronunciation
+would often arise. One clerk had many struggles over the line, "Awed by
+Thy gracious word." He could not manage that tiresome first word, and
+always called it "a wed." The old metrical version of the Psalm, "Like
+as the hart desireth the water-brooks," etc. is still with us, and a
+beautiful hymn it is:
+
+     "As pants the hart for cooling streams
+       When heated in the chase."
+
+A Northumbrian clerk used to give out the words thus:
+
+     "As pants the 'art for coolin' streams
+       When 'eated in the chaise,"
+
+which seems to foreshadow the triumph of modern civilisation, the carted
+deer, a mode of stag-hunting that was scarcely contemplated by Tate
+and Brady.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SLEEPY CHURCH AND SLEEPY CLERKS
+
+There was a time when the Church of England seemed to be asleep. Perhaps
+it may have been that "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," was
+only preparing her exhausted energies for the unwonted activities of the
+last half-century; or was it the sleep that presaged death? Her enemies
+told her so in plain and unvarnished language. Her friends, too, said
+that she was folding her robes to die with what dignity she could.
+Lethargy, sloth, sleep--a dead, dull, dreary sleep--fell like a leaden
+pall upon her spiritual life, darkening the light that shone but vaguely
+through the storied panes of her mediĉval windows, while a paralysing
+numbness crippled her limbs and quenched her activity.
+
+Such scenes as Archbishop Benson describes as his early recollection of
+Upton, near Droitwich, were not uncommon. The church was aisleless, and
+the middle passage, with high pews on each side, led up to the
+chancel-arch, in which was a "three-decker," fifteen feet high. The
+clerk wore a wig and immense horn spectacles. He was a shoemaker,
+dressed in black, with a white tie. In the gallery sat "the music"--a
+clarionet, flute, violin, and 'cello. The clerk gave out the "Twentieth
+Psalm of David," and the fiddlers tuned for a moment and then played at
+once. Then they struck up, and the clerk, absolutely alone, in a
+majestic voice which swayed up and down without regard to time or tune,
+sang it through like the braying of an ass; not a soul else joined in;
+the farmers amused and smiling at each other. Such scenes were
+quite usual.
+
+In Cornwall affairs were worse. In one church the curate-in-charge had
+to be chained to the altar rails while he read the service, as he had a
+harmless mania, which made him suddenly flee from the church if his own
+activities were for an instant suspended, as, for example, by a
+response. The churchwarden, a farmer, kept the padlock-key in his pocket
+till the service was safely over, and then released the imprisoned
+cleric. At another Cornish church the vicar's sister used to read the
+lessons in a deep bass voice.
+
+Congregations were often very sparse. Few people attended, and perhaps
+none on weekdays, unless the clerk was in his place. On such occasions
+the parson was tempted to emulate the humour of Dean Swift, who at the
+first weekday service that he held after his appointment to the living
+of Laracor, in the diocese of Meath, after waiting for some time in vain
+for a congregation, began the service, addressing his clerk, "Dearly
+beloved Roger, the scripture moveth you and me in sundry places," etc.
+
+When the Psalms were read, you heard the first verse read in a
+mellifluous and cultured voice. Perhaps it was the evening of the
+twenty-eighth day of the month, and you listened to the sacred words of
+Psalm cxxxvii., "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we
+remembered thee, O Sion." Then followed a bellow from a raucous throat:
+"Has fur ur 'arp, we 'anged 'em hup hupon the trees that hare thurin."
+And then at the end of the Lord's Prayer, after every one had finished,
+the same voice came drowsily cantering in: "For hever and hever,
+Haymen." Sometimes we heard, "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God
+the 'undred and sixtieth Psalm--_'Ymn 'ooever."_ The numbers of the
+hymns or Psalms were scored on the two sides of a slate. Sometimes the
+functionary in the gallery forgot to turn the slate after the first
+hymn. "Let us sing," began the clerk--(pause)--"Turn the slate, will
+you, if you please, Master Scroomes?" he continued, addressing the
+neglectful person.
+
+The singing was no mechanical affair of official routine--it was a
+drama. "As the moment of psalmody approached a slate appeared in front
+of the gallery, advertising in bold characters the Psalm about to be
+sung. The clerk gave out the Psalm, and then migrated to the gallery,
+where in company with a bassoon and two key-bugles, a carpenter
+understood to have an amazing power of singing 'counter,' and two lesser
+musical stars, formed the choir. Hymns were not known. The New Version
+was regarded with melancholy tolerance. 'Sternhold and Hopkins' formed
+the main source of musical tastes. On great occasions the choir sang an
+anthem, in which the key-bugles always ran away at a great pace, while
+the bassoon every now and then boomed a flying shot after them." It was
+all very curious, very quaint, very primitive. The Church was asleep,
+and cared not to disturb the relics of old crumbling inefficiency. The
+Church was asleep, the congregation slept, and the clerk often
+slept too.
+
+Hogarth's engraving of _The Sleeping Congregation_ is a parable of the
+state of the Church of England in his day. It is a striking picture
+truly. The parson is delivering a long and drowsy discourse on the text:
+"Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and I will give you rest." The
+congregation is certainly resting, and the pulpit bears the appropriate
+verse: "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in
+vain." The clerk is attired in his cassock and bands, contrives to keep
+one eye awake during the sermon, and this wakeful eye rests upon a
+comely fat matron, who is fast asleep, and has evidently been meditating
+"on matrimony," as her open book declares. A sleepy church, sleepy
+congregation, sleepy times!
+
+Many stories are told of dull and sleepy clerks.
+
+A canon of a northern cathedral tells me of one such clerk, whose duty
+it was, when the rector finished his sermon, to say "Amen." On a summer
+afternoon, this aged official was overtaken with drowsiness, and as soon
+as the clergyman had given out his text, slept the sleep of the just.
+Sermons in former years were remarkable for their length and many
+divisions.
+
+After the "firstly" was concluded, the preacher paused. The clerk,
+suddenly awaking, thought that the discourse was concluded, and
+pronounced his usual "Arummen." The congregation rose, and the service
+came to a close. As the gathering dispersed, the squire slipped half a
+crown into the clerk's hand, and whispered: "Thomas, you managed that
+very well, and deserve a little present. I will give you the same
+next time."
+
+[Illustration: THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION BY HOGARTH]
+
+At Eccleshall, near Sheffield, the clerk, named Thompson, had been, in
+the days of his youth, a good cricketer, and always acted as umpire for
+the village team. One hot Sunday morning, the sermon being very long,
+old Thompson fell asleep. His dream was of his favourite game; for when
+the parson finished his discourse and waited for the clerk's "Amen," old
+Thompson awoke, and, to the amazement of the congregation, shouted out
+"Over!" After all, he was no worse than the cricketing curate who, after
+reading the first lesson, announced: "Here endeth the first innings."
+
+Every one has heard of that Irish clerk who used to snore so loudly
+during the sermon that he drowned the parson's voice. The old vicar,
+being of a good-natured as well as a somewhat humorous turn of mind,
+devised a plan for arousing his lethargic clerk. He provided himself
+with a box of hard peas, and when the well-known snore echoed through
+the church, he quietly dropped one of the peas on the head of the
+offender, who was at once aroused to the sense of his duties, and
+uttered a loud "Amen."
+
+This plan acted admirably for a time, but unfortunately the parson was
+one day carried away by his eloquence, gesticulated wildly, and dropped
+the whole box of peas on the head of the unfortunate clerk. The result
+was such a strenuous chorus of "Amens," that the laughter of the
+congregation could not be restrained, and the peas were abolished and
+consigned to the limbo of impractical inventions. Possibly the story may
+be an invention too.
+
+One of the causes which tended to the unpopularity of the Church was the
+accession of George IV to the throne of England. "Church and King" were
+so closely connected in the mind of the people that the sins of the
+monarch were visited on the former, and deemed to have brought some
+discredit on it. Moreover, the King by his first act placed the loyal
+members of the Church in some difficulty, and that was the order to
+expunge the name of the ill-used, if erring, Queen Caroline from the
+Prayers for the Royal Family in the Book of Common Prayer.
+
+One good clergyman, Dr. Parr, vicar of Hatton, placed an interesting
+record in his Prayer Book after the required erasure: "It is my duty as
+a subject and as an ecclesiastic to read what is prescribed by my
+Sovereign as head of the Church, but it is not my duty to express my
+approbation." The sympathy of the people was with the injured Queen, and
+they knew not how much the clergy agreed with them. During the trial
+popular excitement ran high. In a Berkshire village the parish clerk
+"improved the occasion" by giving out in church "the first, fourth,
+eleventh, and twelfth verses of the thirty-fifth Psalm" in Tate and
+Brady's New Version:
+
+     "False witnesses with forged complaints
+       Against my truth combined,
+     And to my charge such things they laid
+       As I had ne'er designed."
+
+These words he sang most lustily.
+
+Cowper mentions a similar application of psalmody to political affairs
+in his _Task_:
+
+     "So in the chapel of old Ely House
+     When wandering Charles who meant to be the third,
+     Had fled from William, and the news was fresh,
+     The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce,
+     And eke did rear right merrily, two staves
+     Sung to the praise and glory of King George."
+
+It was not an unusual thing for a parish clerk to select a psalm suited
+to the occasion when any special excitement gave him an opportunity.
+Branston, the satirist, in his _Art of Politicks_ published in 1729,
+alluded to this misapplication of psalmody occasionally made by parish
+clerks in the lines:
+
+     "Not long since parish clerks with saucy airs
+     Apply'd King David's psalms to State affairs."
+
+In order to avoid this unfortunate habit, a country rector in Devonshire
+compiled in 1725 "Twenty-six Psalms of Thanksgiving, Praise, Love, and
+Glory, for the use of a parish church, with the omission of all the
+imprecatory psalms, lest a parish clerk or any other should be whetting
+his spleen, or obliging his spite, when he should be entertaining his
+devotion."
+
+Sometimes the clerks ventured to apply the verses of the Psalms to their
+own private needs and requirements, so as to convey gentle hints and
+suggestions to the ears of those who could supply their needs. Canon
+Ridgeway tells of the old clerk of the Church of King Charles the Martyr
+at Tunbridge Wells. His name was Jenner. He was a well-known character;
+he used to have a pipe and pitch the tune, and also select the hymns. It
+was commonly said that the congregation always knew when the lodgings in
+his house on Mount Sion were unlet; for when this was the case he was
+wont to give out the Psalm:
+
+     "Mount Sion is a pleasant place to dwell."
+
+At Great Yarmouth, until about the year 1850, the parish clerk was
+always invited to the banquets or "feasts" given by the corporation of
+the borough; and he was honoured annually with a card of invitation to
+the "mayor's feast" on Michaelmas Day. On one occasion the mayor-elect
+had omitted to send a card to the clerk, Mr. David Absolon, who was
+clerk from 1811 to 1831, and had been a member of the corporation and
+common councillor previous to his appointment to his ecclesiastical
+office. On the following Sunday, Master David Absolon reminded his
+worship of his remissness by giving out the following verse, directing
+his voice at the same time to the mayor-elect:
+
+     Let David his accustomed place
+       In thy remembrance find."
+
+The words in Tate and Brady's metrical version of Psalm cxxxii. run
+thus:
+
+     "Let David, Lord, a constant place
+       In Thy remembrance find[73]."
+
+[Footnote 73: _History of St. Nicholas' Church, Great Yarmouth_, by the
+present Clerk, Mr. Edward J. Lupson, p. 24.]
+
+In the same town great excitement used to attend the election of the
+mayor on 29 August in each year. Before the election the corporation
+attended service in the parish church, and the clerk on these occasions
+gave out for singing "the first two staves of the fifteenth Psalm:
+
+     "Lord, who's the happy man," etc.
+
+The passing of the Municipal Act changed the manner and time of the
+election, but it did not take away the interest felt in the event. As
+long as Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms was used in the church,
+that is until the year 1840, these "two staves" were annually sung on
+the Sunday preceding the election[74].
+
+[Footnote 74: _Ibid._, p. 23.]
+
+In these days of reverent worship it seems hardly possible that the
+beautiful expressions in the psalms of praise to Almighty God should
+ever have been prostituted to the baser purposes of private gain or
+municipal elections.
+
+Sleepy times and sleepy clerks--and yet these were not always sleepy; in
+fact, far too lively, riotous, and unruly. At least, so the poor rector
+of Hayes found them in the middle of the eighteenth century. Such
+conduct in church is scarcely credible as that which was witnessed in
+this not very remote parish church in not very remote times. The
+registers of the parish of Hayes tell the story in plain language. On 18
+March, 1749, "the clerk gave out the 100th Psalm, and the singers
+immediately opposed him, and sung the 15th, and bred a disturbance. _The
+clerk then ceased_." Poor man, what else could he have done, with a
+company of brawling, bawling singers shouting at him from the gallery!
+On another occasion affairs were worse, the ringers and others
+disturbing the service, from the beginning of the service to the end of
+the sermon, by ringing the bells and going into the gallery to spit
+below. On another occasion a fellow came into church with a pot of beer
+and a pipe, and remained smoking in his pew until the end of the
+sermon[75]. _O tempora! O mores!_ as some disconsolate clergymen wrote
+in their registers when the depravity of the times was worse than usual.
+The slumbering congregation of Hogarth's picture would have been a
+comfort to the distracted parson.
+
+[Footnote 75: _Antiquary_, vol. xviii, p. 65. Quoted in _Social Life as
+told by Parish Registers_, p. 54.]
+
+To prevent people from sleeping during the long sermons a special
+officer was appointed, in order to banish slumber when the parson was
+long in preaching. This official was called a sluggard-waker, and was
+usually our old friend the parish clerk with a new title. Several
+persons, perhaps reflecting in their last moments on all the good advice
+which they had missed through slumbering during sermon time, have
+bequeathed money for the support of an officer who should perambulate
+the church, and call to attention any one who, through sleep, was
+missing the preacher's timely admonition. Richard Dovey, of Farmcote, in
+1659 left property at Claverley, Shropshire, with the condition that
+eight shillings should be paid to, and a room provided for, a poor man,
+who should undertake to awaken sleepers, and to whip out dogs from the
+church of Claverley during divine service[76].
+
+[Footnote 76: _Old English Customs and Curious Bequests_, S.H. Edwards
+(1842), p. 220.]
+
+John Rudge, of Trysull, Staffordshire, left a like bequest to a poor man
+to go about the parish church of Trysull during sermon to keep people
+awake, and to keep dogs out of church[77]. Ten shillings a year is paid
+by a tenant of Sir John Bridges, at Chislett, Kent, as a charge on lands
+called Dog-whipper's Marsh, to a person for keeping order in the church
+during service[78], and from time immemorial an acre of land at
+Peterchurch, Herefordshire, was appropriated to the use of a person for
+keeping dogs out of church, such person being appointed by the minister
+and churchwardens.
+
+[Footnote 77: _Ibid._, p. 221.]
+
+[Footnote 78: _Ibid._, p. 222.]
+
+Mr. W. Andrews, Librarian of the Hull Institute, has collected in his
+_Curiosities of the Church_ much information concerning sluggard-wakers
+and dog-whippers. The clerk in one church used a long staff, at one end
+of which was a fox's brush for gently arousing a somnolent female, while
+at the other end was a knob for a more forcible awakening of a male
+sleeper. The Dunchurch sluggard-waker used a stout wand with a fork at
+the end of it. During the sermon he stepped stealthily up and down the
+nave and aisles and into the gallery marking down his prey. And no one
+resented his forcible awakenings.
+
+The sluggard-waker and dog-whipper appear in many old churchwardens'
+account-books. Thus in the accounts of Barton-on-Humber there is an
+entry for the year 1740: "Paid Brocklebank for waking sleepers 2 s. 0."
+At Castleton the officer in 1722 received 10 s. 0[79]. The clerk in his
+capacity of dog-whipper had often arduous duties to perform in the old
+dale churches of Yorkshire when farmers and shepherds frequently brought
+their dogs to church. The animals usually lay very quietly beneath their
+masters' seat, but occasionally there would be a scrimmage and fight,
+and the clerk's staff was called into play to beat the dogs and
+produce order.
+
+[Footnote 79: The reader will find numerous entries relating to this
+subject in the work of Mr. W. Andrews to which I have referred.]
+
+Why dogs should have been ruthlessly and relentlessly whipped out of
+churches I can scarcely tell. The Highland shepherd's dog usually lies
+contentedly under his master's seat during a long service, and even an
+archbishop's collie, named Watch, used to be very still and well-behaved
+during the daily service, only once being roused to attention and a
+stately progress to the lectern by the sound of his master's voice
+reading the verse "I say unto all, Watch." But our ancestors made war
+against dogs entering churches. In mediĉval and Elizabethan times such
+does not seem to have been the case, as one of the duties of the clerks
+in those days was to make the church clean from the "shomeryng of dogs."
+The nave of the church was often used for secular purposes, and dogs
+followed their masters. Mastiffs were sometimes let loose in the church
+to guard the treasures, and I believe that I am right in stating that
+chancel rails owe their origin to the presence of dogs in churches, and
+were erected to prevent them from entering the sanctuary. Old Scarlett
+bears a dog-whip as a badge of his office, and the numerous bequests to
+dog-whippers show the importance of the office.
+
+Nor were dogs the only creatures who were accustomed to receive
+chastisement in church. The clerk was usually armed with a cane or rod,
+and woe betide the luckless child who talked or misbehaved himself
+during service. Frequently during the course of a long sermon the sound
+of a cane (the Tottenham clerk had a split cane which made no little
+noise when used vigorously) striking a boy's back was heard and startled
+a sleepy congregation. It was all quite usual. No one objected, or
+thought anything about it, and the sermon proceeded as if nothing had
+happened. Paul Wootton, clerk at Bromham, Wilts, seventy years ago
+performed various duties during the service, taking his part in the
+gallery among the performers as bass, flute serpent, an instrument
+unknown now, etc., pronouncing his Amen _ore rotundo_ and during the
+sermon armed with a long stick sitting among the children to preserve
+order. If any one of the small creatures felt that _opere in longo fas
+est obrepere somnum_, the long stick fell with unerring whack upon the
+urchin's head. When Mr. Stracey Clitherow went to his first curacy at
+Skeyton, Norfolk, in 1845, he found the clerk sweeping the whole chancel
+clear of snow which had fallen through the roof. The font was of wood
+painted orange and red. The singers sat within the altar rails with a
+desk for their books inside the rails. There was a famous old clerk,
+named Bird, who died only a year or two ago, aged ninety, and, as Mr.
+Clitherow informed Bishop Stanley, was the best man in the parish, and
+was well worthy of that character.
+
+Even in London churches unfortunate events happened, and somnolent
+clerks were not confined to the country. A correspondent remembers that
+in 1860, when St. Martin's-in-the-Fields was closed for the purpose of
+redecorating, his family migrated to St. Matthew's Chapel, Spring
+Gardens (recently demolished), where one hot Sunday evening one of the
+curates of St. Martin's was preaching, and in the course of his sermon
+said that it was the duty of the laity to pray that God would "endue His
+ministers with righteousness." The clerk was at the moment sound asleep,
+but suddenly aroused by the familiar words, which acted like a bugle
+call to a slumbering soldier, he at once slid down on the hassock at his
+feet and uttered the response "And make Thy chosen people joyful." My
+informant remarks that the "chosen people" who were present became
+"joyful" to an unseemly degree, in spite of strenuous efforts to
+restrain their feelings.
+
+Sometimes the clerk was not the only sleeper. A tenor soloist of
+Wednesbury Old Church eighty years ago used to tell the story of the
+vicar of Wednesbury, who one very sultry afternoon retired into the
+vestry, which was under the western tower, to don his black gown while a
+hymn was being sung by the expectant congregation. The hymn having been
+sung through, and the preacher not having returned to ascend the pulpit,
+the clerk gave out the last verse again. Still no parson. Then he
+started the hymn, directing it to be sung all through again; but still
+the vicar returned not. At last in desperation he gave out that they
+"would now sing," etc. etc., the 119th Psalm. Mercifully before they had
+all sunk back into their seats exhausted the long-lost parson made his
+hurried reappearance. The poor old gentleman had dropped into an
+arm-chair in the vestry, and overcome by the heat had fallen soundly
+asleep. As to the clerk, he could not leave his seat to go in search of
+him; there was no precedent for both vicar and clerk to be away from the
+three-decker before the service was brought to a close.
+
+The old clerk is usually intensely loyal to the Church and to his
+clergyman, but there have been some exceptions. An example of a disloyal
+clerk comes from the neighbourhood of Barnstaple.
+
+A parish clerk, apparently religious and venerable, held his position in
+a village church in that district for thirty years. He carried out his
+duties with regularity and thoroughness equalled only by the parish
+priest. This old clerk would frequently make remarks--not altogether
+pleasing--about Nonconformists, whom he summed up as a lot of "mithudy
+nüzenses" (methodist nuisances).
+
+A new rector came and brought with him new ideas. The parish clerk would
+not be required for the future. As soon as the old clerk heard this he
+attached himself to a local dissenting body and joined with them to
+worship in their small chapel. This, after thirty years' service in the
+Church and a bitter feeling against Nonconformists, is rather
+remarkable.
+
+In the forties there was a sleepy clerk at Hampstead, a very portly man,
+who did ample justice to his bright red waistcoat and brass buttons. The
+church had a model old-time three-decker. The lower deck was occupied by
+the clerk, the upper deck by the reader, and the quarter-deck by the
+preacher. The clerk, during the sermon, would often fall asleep and make
+known his state by a snore. Then the reader would tap his bald head with
+a hymn-book, whereupon he would wake up and startle the congregation by
+a loud and prolonged "Ah-men."
+
+We are accustomed now to have our churches beautifully decorated with
+flowers and fruits and holly and evergreens at the great festivals and
+harvest thanksgiving services. Sometimes on the latter occasions our
+decorations are perhaps a little too elaborate, and remind one of a
+horticultural show. No such charge could be brought against the
+old-fashioned method of church decoration. Christmas was the only season
+when it was attempted, and sprigs of holly stuck at the corners of the
+old square pews in little holes made for the purpose were always deemed
+sufficient. This was always the duty of the clerk. Later on, when a
+country church was found to be elaborately decorated for Christmas and
+the clerk was questioned on the subject, he replied, shaking his head,
+"Ah! we're getting a little High Church now." At Langport, Somerset, the
+pews were similarly adorned on Palm Sunday with sprigs of the catkins
+from willow trees to represent palms.
+
+I have already mentioned some instances of clerks who were sometimes
+elated by the dignity of the office and full of conceit. Wesley enjoyed
+the experience of having a conceited clerk at Epworth, who not only was
+proud of his singing and other accomplishments, but also of his personal
+appearance. He delighted to wear Wesley's old clerical clothes and
+especially his wig, which was much too big for the insignificant clerk's
+head. John Wesley must have had a sense of humour, though perhaps it
+might have been exhibited in a more appropriate place. However, he was
+determined to humble his conceited clerk, and said to him one Sunday
+morning, "John, I shall preach on a particular subject this morning, and
+shall choose my own psalm, of which I will give out the first line, and
+you will proceed and repeat the next as usual." When the time for
+psalmody arrived Wesley gave out, "Like to an owl in ivy bush," and the
+clerk immediately responded, "That rueful thing am I." The members of
+the congregation looked up and saw his small head half-buried in his
+large wig, and could not restrain their smiles. The clerk was mortified
+and the rector gratified that he should have been taught a lesson and
+learned to be less vain.
+
+Old-fashioned ways die hard. Only seven years ago the incumbent of a
+small Somerset parish found when in the pulpit that he had left his
+spectacles at home. Casting a shrewd glance around, he perceived just
+below him, well within reach, one of his parishioners who was wearing a
+large pair of what in rustic circles are termed "barnacles" tied behind
+his head. Stretching down, the parson plucked them from the astonished
+owner's brow, and, fitting them on his clerical nose, proceeded to
+deliver his discourse. Thenceforward the clerk, doubtless fearing for
+his own glasses, never failed to carry to church a second pair wherewith
+to supply, if need be, his coadjutor's shortcomings.
+
+Another and final story of sleepy manners comes to us from the north
+country. A short-sighted clergyman of what is known as the "old school"
+was preaching one winter afternoon to a slumberous congregation. Dusk
+was falling, the church was badly lighted, and his manuscript difficult
+to decipher. He managed to stumble along until he reached a passage
+which he rendered as follows: "Enthusiasm, my brethren, enthusiasm in a
+good cause is an excellent--excellent quality, but unless it is tempered
+with judgment, it is apt to lead us--apt to lead us--Here, Thomas,"
+handing the sermon to the clerk, "go to the window and see what it is
+apt to lead us into."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE CLERK IN ART
+
+The finest portrait ever painted of a parish clerk is that of Orpin,
+clerk of Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts, whose interesting old house still
+stands near the grand parish church and the beautiful little Saxon
+ecclesiastical structure. This picture is the work of Thomas
+Gainsborough, R.A., and is now happily preserved in the National
+Gallery. Orpin has a fine and noble face upon which the sunlight is
+shining through a window as he turns from the Divine Book to see the
+glories of the blue sky.
+
+     "Some word of life e'en now has met
+       His calm benignant eye;
+     Some ancient promise breathing yet
+       Of immortality.
+     Some heart's deep language which the glow
+       Of faith unwavering gives;
+     And every feature says 'I know
+       That my Redeemer lives.'"
+
+The size of this canvas is four feet by three feet two inches. Orpin is
+wearing a blue coat, black vest, white neck-cloth, and dark breeches.
+His hair is grey and curly, and falls upon his shoulders. He sits on a
+gilt-nailed chair at a round wooden table, on which is a reading-easel,
+supporting a large volume bound in dark green, and labelled "Bible, Vol.
+I." The background is warm brown.
+
+Of this picture a critic states: "The very noble character of the
+worthy old clerk's head was probably an additional inducement to
+Gainsborough to paint the picture, Seldom does so fine a subject present
+itself to the portrait painter, and Gainsborough evidently sought to do
+justice to his venerable model by unusual and striking effect of
+lighting, and by more than ordinary care in execution. It might almost
+seem like impertinence to eulogise such painting, as this canvas
+contains painting which, unlike the works of Reynolds, seems fresh and
+pure as the day it left the easel; and it would be still more futile to
+attempt to define the master's method."
+
+The history of the portrait is interesting. It was painted at
+Shockerwick, near Bradford, where Wiltshire, the Bath carrier, lived,
+who loved art so much that he conveyed to London Gainsborough's pictures
+from the year 1761 to 1774 entirely free of charge. The artist rewarded
+him by presenting him with some of his paintings, _The Return from
+Harvest, The Gipsies' Repast_, and probably this portrait of Orpin was
+one of his gifts. It was sold at Christie's in 1868 by a descendant of
+the art-loving carrier, and purchased for the nation by Mr. Boxall for
+the low sum of £325.
+
+The mediĉval clerk appears in many ancient manuscripts and
+illuminations, which show us, better than words can describe, the actual
+duties which he was called upon to perform. The British Museum possesses
+a number of pontificals and other illustrated manuscripts containing
+artistic representations of clerks. We see him accompanying the priest
+who is taking the last sacrament to the sick. He is carrying a taper and
+a bell, which he is evidently ringing as he goes, its tones asking for
+the prayers of the faithful for the sick man's soul. This picture
+occurs in a fourteenth-century MS. [6 E. VI, f. 427], and in the same
+MS. we see another illustration of the priest administering the last
+sacrament attended by the clerk [6 E. VII, f. 70].
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST AT HOLY BAPTISM]
+
+[Illustration 2: THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST AT HOLY BAPTISM]
+
+Another illustration shows the priest baptizing an infant which the male
+sponsor holds over the font, while the priest pours water over its head
+from a shallow vessel. The faithful parish clerk stands by the priest.
+This appears in the fifteenth-century MS. Egerton, 2019, f. 135.
+
+In the MS. of Froissart's Chronicle there is an illustration of the
+coronation procession of Charles V of France. The clerk goes before the
+cross-bearer and the bishop bearing his holy-water vessel and his
+sprinkler for the purpose of aspersing the spectators. We have already
+given two illustrations taken from a fourteenth-century MS. in the
+British Museum, which depict the clerk, as the _aquĉbajalus_, entering
+the lord's house and going first into the kitchen to sprinkle the cook
+with holy water, and then into the hall to perform a like duty to the
+lord and lady as they sit at dinner.
+
+There is a fine picture in a French pontifical of the fifteenth century,
+which is in the British Museum (Tiberius, B. VIII, f. 43), of the
+anointing and coronation of a king of France. An ecclesiastical
+procession is represented meeting the king and his courtiers at the door
+of the cathedral of Rheims, and amongst the dignitaries we see the clerk
+bearing the holy-water vessel, the cross-bearer, and the thurifer
+swinging his censer. The clerk wears a surplice over a red tunic.
+
+One other of these mediĉval representations of the clerk's duties may be
+mentioned. It is a fifteenth-century French MS. in the British Museum
+(Egerton, 2019, f. 142), and represents the last scenes of this mortal
+life. The absolution of the penitent, the administration of the last
+sacrament, the woman mourning for her husband and arranging the
+grave-clothes, the singing of the dirige, the burial, and the reception
+of the soul of the departed by our Lord in glory. The clerk appears in
+several of these scenes. He is kneeling behind the priest in the
+administration of the last sacrament. Robed in surplice and cope he is
+chanting the Psalms for the departed, and at the burial he is holding
+the holy-water vessel for the asperging of the corpse.
+
+There are several paintings by English artists which represent the
+old-fashioned clerk in all his glory in his throne in the lowest seat of
+the "three-decker." Perhaps the most striking is the satirical sketch of
+the pompous eighteenth-century clerk as shown in Hogarth's engraving of
+_The Sleeping Congregation_, to which I have already referred. As a
+contrast to Hogarth's _Sleeping Congregation_ we may place Webster's
+famous painting of a village choir, which is thoroughly life-like and
+inspiring. The old clerk with enrapt countenance is singing lustily. The
+musicians are performing on the 'cello, clarionet, and hautboy, and the
+singers are chanting very earnestly and very vigorously the strains of
+some familiar melody. The picture is a very exact presentment of an old
+village choir of the better sort.
+
+[Illustration: THE DUTIES OF A CLERK AT A DEATH AND FUNERAL]
+
+[Illustration: THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD BY W.P. FRITH]
+
+It was perhaps such a choir as this that an aged friend remembers in a
+remote Cornish village. It was a mixed choir, led by a 'cello, flute,
+and clarionet. Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms was used
+alternately with a favourite anthem arranged by some of the members.
+"We'll wash our hands," the basses led off in stentorian tones. Then the
+tenors followed. Then the trebles in shrill voices--"washed hands."
+Finally, after a pause, the whole choir shouted triumphantly, "in
+innocenc_ee_"; and the congregation bore it, my friend naïvely remarks.
+The orchestra on one occasion struck work. Only the clerk, who played
+his 'cello, remained faithful. To prove his loyalty he appeared as
+usual, gave out a hymn of many verses, and sang it through in his clear
+bass voice, to the accompaniment of his instrument.
+
+It was not an unusual thing for the clerk to be the only chorister in a
+village church, and then sometimes strange things happened. There was a
+favourite tune which required the first half of one of the lines to be
+repeated thrice. This led to such curious utterances as "My own sal,"
+called out lustily three times, and then finished with "My own
+salvation's rock to praise." The thrice-repeated "My poor poll" was no
+less striking, but it was only a prelude to "My poor polluted heart." A
+chorus of women and girls in the west gallery sang lustily, "Oh for a
+man," _bis, bis_--a pause--"A mansion in the skies." Another clerk sang
+"And in the pie" three times, supplementing it with "And in the pious He
+delights." Another bade his hearers "Stir up this stew," but he was only
+referring to "This stupid heart of mine." Yet another sang lustily "Take
+Thy pill," but when the line was completed it was heard to be "Take Thy
+pilgrim home."
+
+Returning to the artistic presentment of clerks, there is a fine sketch
+of one in Frith's famous painting of the Vicar of Wakefield, whose
+gentle manners and loving character as conceived by Goldsmith are
+admirably depicted by the artist. Near the vicar stands the faithful
+clerk, a dear old man, who is scarcely less reverend than his vicar.
+
+There is an old print of a portion of the church of St. Margaret,
+Westminster, which shows the Carolian "three-decker," a very elaborate
+structure, crowned by a huge sounding-board. The clergyman is
+officiating in the reading desk, and a very nice-looking old clerk, clad
+in his black gown with bands, sits below. There is a pompous beadle with
+his flowing wig and a mace in an adjoining pew, and some members of the
+congregation appear at the foot of the "three-decker," and in the
+gallery. It is a very correct representation of the better sort of
+old-fashioned service.
+
+The hall of the Parish Clerks' Company possesses several portraits of
+distinguished members of the profession, which have already been
+mentioned in the chapter relating to the history of the fraternity. By
+the courtesy of the company we are enabled to reproduce some of the
+paintings, and to record some of the treasures of art which the
+fraternity possesses.
+
+[Illustration (upside down, by the way): PORTRAIT OF RICHARD HUNT THE
+RESTORER OF THE CLERKS' ALMSHOUSES]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WOMEN AS PARISH CLERKS
+
+A woman cannot legally be elected to the office of parish clerk, though
+she may be a sexton. There was the famous case of _Olive_ v. _Ingram_
+(12 George I) which determined this. One Sarah Bly was elected sexton of
+the parish of St. Botolph without Aldersgate by 169 indisputable votes
+and 40 which were given by women who were householders and paid to the
+church and poor, against 174 indisputable votes and 20 given by women
+for her male rival. Sarah Bly was declared elected, and the Court upheld
+the appointment and decreed that women could vote on such elections.
+
+Cuthbert Bede states that in 1857 there were at least three female
+sextons, or "sextonesses," in the City of London, viz.: Mrs. Crook at
+St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury; Mrs. E. Worley at St. Laurence,
+Jewry, King Street; and Mrs. Stapleton at St. Michael's, Wood Street. In
+1867 Mrs. Noble was sextoness of St. John the Baptist, Peterborough. The
+_Annual Register_ for 1759 mentions an extraordinary centenarian
+sextoness:
+
+     Died, April 30th, Mary Hall, sexton of Bishop Hill, York
+     City, aged one hundred and five; she walked about and
+     retained her senses till within three days of her death.
+
+Evidently the duties of her office had not worn out the stalwart old
+dame.
+
+Although legally a woman may not perform the duties of a parish clerk,
+there have been numerous instances of female holders of the office. In
+the census returns it is not quite unusual to see the names of women
+returned as parish clerks, and we have many who discharge the duties of
+churchwarden, overseer, rate-collector, and other parochial offices.
+
+One Ann Hopps was parish clerk of Linton about the year 1770, but
+nothing is known of her by her descendants except her name. Madame
+D'Arblay speaks in her diary of that "poor, wretched, ragged woman, a
+female clerk" who showed her the church of Collumpton, Devon. This good
+woman inherited her office from her deceased husband and received the
+salary, but she did not take the clerk's place in the services on
+Sunday, but paid a man to perform that part of her functions.
+
+The parish register of Totteridge tells of the fame of Elizabeth King,
+who was clerk of that place for forty-six years. The following extract
+tells its own story:
+
+     March 2nd, 1802, buried Elizabeth King, widow, for 46 years
+     clerk of this parish, in the 91st year of her age, who died
+     at Whetstone in the Parish of Finchley, Feb. 24th.
+
+     N.B.--This old woman, as long as she was able to attend, did
+     constantly, and read on the prayer-days, with great strength
+     and pleasure to the hearers, though not in the clerk's place;
+     the desk being filled on the Sunday by her son-in-law,
+     Benjamin Withall, who did his best[80].
+
+[Footnote 80: Burn's _History of Parish Registers_, p. 129.]
+
+Under the shade of the episcopal palace at Cuddesdon, at Wheatley, near
+Oxford, about sixty-five years ago, a female clerk, Mrs. Sheddon,
+performed the duties of the office which had been previously discharged
+by her husband. At Avington, near Hungerford, Berks, Mrs. Poffley was
+parish clerk for a period of twenty-five years at the beginning of the
+last century. About the same time Mary Mountford was parish clerk of
+Misterton, near Crewkerne, Somersetshire, for upwards of thirty years. A
+female clerk was acting at Igburgh, Norfolk, in 1853; and at Sudbrook,
+near Lincoln, in 1830, a woman also officiated and died in the service
+of the Church. Nor was the office confined to rural women of the working
+class. Mr. Ellacombe remembered to have seen "a gentle-woman acting as
+parish clerk of some church in London."
+
+There are doubtless many other instances of women serving as parish
+clerks, and one of my correspondents remembers a very remarkable
+example.
+
+In the village of Willoughton, Lincolnshire, more than seventy years
+ago, there lived an old dame named Betty Wells, who officiated as parish
+clerk. For many years Betty sat in the lowest compartment of the
+three-decker pulpit, reading the lessons and leading the responses, and,
+with the exception of ringing the church bell, fulfilling all the
+duties of clerk.
+
+But Betty was also looked upon as a witch, and several stories are told
+of how she made things very unpleasant for those who offended her.
+
+One day there had been a christening at which Betty had done her share;
+but by some unfortunate oversight she was not invited to the feast which
+took place afterwards. No sooner had the guests seated themselves at the
+table than a great cloud of soot fell down the chimney smothering all
+the good things, so that nothing could be eaten. Then, too late, they
+remembered that Betty Wells had not been invited, and perfectly
+confident were they that she had had her revenge by spoiling the feast.
+
+One of the farmers let Betty have straw for bedding her pig in return
+for manure. When one of his men came to fetch the manure away, she
+thought he had taken too much. So she warned him that he would not go
+far--neither did he, for the cart tipped right over. And that was
+Betty again!
+
+We know Betty had a husband, for we hear that one evening when he came
+home from his work his wife had ever so many tailors sitting on the
+table all busily stitching. When John came in they vanished.
+
+A few people still remember Betty Wells, and they shake their heads as
+they say, "Well, you see, the old woman had a very queer-looking eye,"
+giving you to understand that it was with that particular eye she worked
+all these wonders.
+
+The story of Betty Wells has been gleaned from scraps supplied by
+various old people and collected by Miss Frances A. Hill, of
+Willoughton. The unfortunate christening feast took place after the
+baptism of her father, and the story was told to her by an old aunt, now
+dead, who was grown up at the time (1830) and could remember it all
+distinctly. The people who told Miss Hill about Betty and her weird
+witch-like ways fully believed in her supernatural powers.
+
+Another Betty, whose surname was Finch, was employed at the beginning of
+the last century at Holy Trinity Church, Warrington, as a "bobber," or
+sluggard-waker[81]. She was the wife of the clerk, and was well fitted
+on account of her masculine form to perform this duty which usually fell
+to the lot of the parish clerk. She used to perambulate the church armed
+with a long rod, like a fishing-rod, which had a "bob" fastened to the
+end of it. With this instrument she effectually disturbed the peaceful
+slumbers of any one who was overcome with drowsiness. The whole family
+of Betty was ecclesiastically employed, as her son used to sing:
+
+     "My father's a clerk,
+       My sister's a singer,
+     My mother's a bobber,
+       And I am a ringer."
+
+[Footnote 81: W. Andrews, _Curiosities of the Church_, p. 176.]
+
+One of my correspondents tells of another female clerk who officiated in
+a dilapidated old church with a defective roof, and who held an umbrella
+over the unfortunate clergyman when he was reading the service, in order
+to protect him from the drops of rain that poured down upon him.
+
+Doubtless in country places there are many other churches where female
+clerks have discharged the duties of the office, but history has not, as
+far as I am aware, recorded their names or their services. Perhaps in an
+age in which women have taken upon themselves to perform all kinds of
+work and professional duties formerly confined to men alone, we may
+expect an increase in the number of female parish clerks, in spite of
+legal enactments and other absurd restrictions. Since women can be
+churchwardens, and have been so long ago as 1672, sextons, overseers and
+registrars of births, and much else, and even at one time were parish
+constables, it seems that the pleasant duties of a parish clerk might
+not be uncongenial to them, though they be debarred by law from
+receiving the title and rank of the office.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SOME YORKSHIRE CLERKS
+
+During many years of the time that the Rev. John Torre occupied the
+rectory of Catwick, Thomas Dixon[82] was associated with him as parish
+clerk. He is described as a little man, old-looking for his age, and in
+the later years of his life able to walk only with difficulty. These
+peculiarities, however, did not prevent his winning a young woman for
+his wife. Possibly she saw the sterling character of the man, and
+admired and loved him for it.
+
+[Footnote 82: This account of the clerks Dixon and Fewson was sent by
+the Rev. J. Gaskell Exton, and is published by the permission of the
+editor of the _Yorkshire Weekly Post_.]
+
+Dixon was strongly attached to the rector, so much so, that to him
+neither the rector nor the things belonging to the rector, whether
+animate or inanimate, could do wrong. He had a watch, and even though it
+might not be one of the best, a watch was no small acquisition to a
+working man of his time. He did not live in the days of the
+three-and-sixpenny marvel, or of the half-crown wonder, now to be found
+in the pocket of almost every schoolboy. Dixon's watch was of the kind
+worn by the well-known Captain Cuttle, which Dickens describes as being
+"a silver watch, which was so big and so tight in the pocket that it
+came out like a bung" when its owner drew it from the depths to see the
+time. It must, consequently, have cost many half-crowns, but yet as
+timekeeper it was somewhat of a failure. In this, too, it resembled that
+of the famous captain of which its proud possessor, as everybody knows,
+used to say, "Put you back half-an-hour every morning, and about another
+quarter towards the afternoon, and you've a watch that can be equalled
+by a few and excelled by none." Dixon, therefore, when asked the time of
+day, was usually obliged to go through an arithmetical calculation
+before he could reply.
+
+On Sunday, however, all was different; he then had no hesitation
+whatever in at once declaring the correct time. For every Sunday morning
+he put his watch by the rector's clock, and it mattered not how far the
+rector's clock might be fast or slow, what that clock said was the true
+time for Dixon. And though the remonstrances of the parishioners might
+be loud and long, they were all in vain, for according to the rector's
+clock he rang the church bells, and so the services commenced. He loved
+the rector, therefore the rector's clock could not be wrong. Evidently
+Dixon was capable of strong affection, a quality of no mean moral order.
+
+Before the enclosure of parishes was common, and their various fields
+separated by hedges or other fences; before, too, the ordnance survey
+with its many calculations was an accomplished fact, much more measuring
+of land in connection with work done each year was required than at
+present. It was a necessity, therefore, that each village should have in
+or near it a man skilled in the science of calculation. Consequently,
+the acquirement of figures was fostered, and so in the earlier part of
+the nineteenth century almost every parish could produce a man supposed
+to be, and who probably was, great in arithmetic. Catwick's calculator
+was Dixon, and he was generally thought by his co-villagers to be as
+learned a one as any other, if not more so.
+
+He had, however, a great rival at Long Riston. This was one Richard
+Fewson, who, like Dixon, was clerk of his parish; but while Dixon was a
+shopkeeper Fewson kept the village school.
+
+Fewson's modes of punishing refractory scholars were somewhat peculiar.
+Either a culprit was hoisted on the back of another scholar, or made to
+stoop till his nose entered a hole in the desk, and when in one or other
+of these positions was made to feel the singular sensation caused by a
+sound caning on that particular part of his anatomy which it is said
+"nature intends for correction." Sometimes, too, an offender was made to
+sit in a small basket, to the cross handle of which a rope had been
+tied, and by this means he was hoisted to a beam near the roof of the
+school. Here he was compelled to stay for a longer or shorter period,
+according to the offence, knowing that, if he moved to ease his crippled
+position, the basket would tilt and he would fall to the floor.
+
+On one occasion, with an exceptionally refractory pupil, his mode of
+punishment was even more peculiar still. Having told all the girls to
+turn their faces to the wall--and not one of them, so my informant, one
+of the boys, said, would dare to disobey the order--he chalked the shape
+of a grave on the floor of the schoolroom. He then made the boy, an
+incorrigible truant, strip off all his clothes, and when he stood
+covered only in nature's dress, told him in solemn tones that he was
+going to bury him alive and under the floor. One scholar was then sent
+for a pick, and when this was fetched, another was sent for a shovel. By
+the time they were both brought, the truant was in a panic of fear, the
+end hoped for. The master then sternly asked the boy if he would play
+truant again, to which the boy quickly answered no. On this, he was
+allowed to dress, being assured as he did so that if ever again he
+stopped from school without leave he should certainly be buried alive,
+and so great was the dread produced, the boy from that time was
+regularly found at school.
+
+If parents objected to these punishments, they were simply told to take
+their children from school, which, as Fewson was the only master for
+miles around, he knew they would be loath to do. Fewson taught nearly
+all the children of the district whose parents felt it necessary that
+they should have any education. He is said to have turned out good
+scholars in the three R's, his curriculum being limited to these
+subjects, with, for an extra fee, mensuration added.
+
+But Fewson, if he did not teach it, felt himself to be well up in
+astronomy. One summer, an old boy of his told me, he got the
+children--my informant amongst the number--to collect from their parents
+and others for a trip to Hornsea. When the money was all in he
+complained that the amount was insufficient for a trip, and suggested
+that a telescope he had seen advertised should be bought with the money.
+If this were done, he promised that those who had subscribed should have
+the telescope in turn to look through from Saturday to Monday. The
+telescope was purchased, and each subscriber had it once, and then it
+was no more seen. From that time it became the entire property of the
+master. The children never again collected for a trip, and small wonder.
+
+Fewson was a good singer and musician generally, so in addition to his
+office as clerk he held the position of choirmaster. At church on
+Sunday he sat at the west end, the boys of the village sitting behind
+him, and it was part of his duty to see that they behaved themselves
+decorously. Should a boy make any disturbance Fewson's hand fell heavily
+on the offender's ears, and so sharply that the sound of the blows could
+be heard throughout the church. Such incidents as this were by no means
+uncommon in churches in the days when Fewson and Dixon flourished, and
+they were looked upon as nothing extraordinary, for small compunction
+was felt in the punishment of unruly urchins.
+
+I have been told of another clerk, for instance, who dealt such severe
+blows on the heads of boys, who behaved in the least badly, with a by no
+means small stick, that, like Fewson's, they, too, resounded all over
+the church. This clerk was known as "Old Crack Skull," and there were
+many others who might as appropriately have borne the name.
+
+As parish clerk, Fewson attended the Archdeacon's visitation with the
+churchwardens, whose custom it was on each such occasion to spend about
+£3 in eating and drinking. On the appointment of a new and reforming
+churchwarden this expenditure was stopped, and for the first time Fewson
+returned to Riston sober. Here he looked at the churchwarden and
+sorrowfully said, "For thirty years I have been to the visitation and
+always got home drunk; Sally will think I haven't been." He then turned
+into the public-house, and afterwards reached home in the condition
+Sally, his wife, would expect.
+
+[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF ST. MARGARET, WESTMINSTER]
+
+Insobriety was the normal condition of Fewson after school hours. It was
+his invariable custom to visit the public-house each evening, where he
+always found a clean pipe and an ounce of tobacco ready for him. Here
+he acted as president of those who forgathered, being by virtue of his
+wisdom readily conceded this position. His favourite drink was gin, and
+of this he imbibed freely; leaving for home about ten o'clock, which he
+found usually only after many a stumble and sometimes a fall. He,
+however, managed to save money, with which he built himself a house at
+Arnold, adorning it, as still to be seen, with the carved heads of
+saints and others, begged from the owners of the various ancient
+ecclesiastical piles of the neighbourhood. He died about seventy years
+ago, and was buried at Riston.
+
+Between Dixon and Fewson there was much friendly strife with regard to
+the solving of hard arithmetical problems. This contest was no mere
+private matter. It was entered into with great zest by the men of both
+the villages concerned; the Catwickians and the Ristonians each backing
+their man to win. "A straw shows which way the wind blows," we say, and
+herein we may feel a breathing of the Holderness man's love of his clan,
+an affection which has done much to develop and to strengthen his
+character.
+
+Dixon was employed by the harvesters and others to measure the land
+which they had reaped, or on which they had otherwise worked. When the
+different measurements had been taken, he, of course, had to find the
+result. For this, he needed no pen, ink, or paper, nor yet a slate and
+pencil. He made his calculations by a much more economic method than
+these would supply. He sat down in the field he had measured, took off
+his beaver hat, and, using it as a kind of blackboard, with a piece of
+chalk worked out the result of his measurements on its crown.
+
+Dixon must have been a man of resources, as are most Holderness men
+where the saving of money is concerned. I have heard it said that the
+spirit of economy has so permeated their character that it has
+influenced even their speech. "So saving are they," say some, "that the
+definite article, _the_, is never used by them in their talk." But this
+is a libel; another and a truer reason may be found for the omission in
+their Scandinavian origin.
+
+Another parish clerk who held office at a church about five miles from
+Catwick, by trade a tailor, was a noted character and remarkable for his
+parsimonious habits. He is described as having been a very little man
+and of an extremely attenuated appearance. The story of his economy
+during his honeymoon, when the happy pair stayed in some cheap town
+lodgings, is not pleasing.
+
+His great effort in saving, however, resulted from his sporting
+proclivities. Tailor though he was, he conceived a great desire to be a
+mighty hunter. So strong did this passion burn within him that he made
+up his mind, sooner or later, to hunt, and with the best, in a red coat,
+too. He therefore began to save with this object in view. Denying
+himself every luxury and most other things which are usually counted
+necessaries, for long he lived, it is said, on half a salt herring a day
+with a little bread or a few vegetables in addition. By doing so, he was
+able to put almost all he earned to the furtherance of the purpose of
+his heart. This went on till he had saved £200. Then he felt his day was
+come. He bought a horse, made himself the scarlet coat, and went to the
+hunt as he thought a gentleman should. His hunting lasted for two
+seasons, when, the money he had saved being spent, he went back to his
+trade, at which he worked as energetically as ever.
+
+At the west end of the nave of Catwick Church formerly was erected a
+gallery. In this loft, as it was commonly called, the musicians of the
+parish sang or played. Various instruments, bassoon, trombone,
+violoncello, cornet, cornopean, and clarionet, flute, fiddle, and
+flageolet, or some of their number, were employed, calling to mind the
+band of Nebuchadnezzar of old. The noise made in the tuning of the
+instruments to the proper pitch may be readily imagined. Now, the church
+possesses an organ, and the choirmen and boys have their places in the
+chancel, while the musicians of the parish occupy the front seats of the
+nave. This arrangement is eminently suitable for effectually leading the
+praises of the people, but not perhaps more so, its noise
+notwithstanding, than the former style; indeed, I am somewhat doubtful
+if the new equals the old. The old certainly had the merit of engaging
+most, if not all, the musicians of the village in the worship of
+the church.
+
+At the east end of the nave, in the days of the loft, stood a kind of
+triple pulpit, commonly called a three-decker. It was composed of three
+compartments, the second above and behind the first, and the third
+similarly placed with regard to the second. The lowest, resting on the
+floor, was the place for the clerk, the middle was for the parson when
+reading the prayers and Scriptures, and the highest for the parson when
+preaching. Such pulpits are now almost as completely things of the past
+as the old warships from which, in derision, they got their name. Once
+only have I read the service and preached from a three-decker, and then
+the clerk did not occupy the position assigned to him. Dixon, however,
+always used the little desk at the foot of the Catwick pulpit, and from
+it took his share of the service.
+
+It was part of his duty, as clerk, to choose and to give out the number
+of the hymns. Now Dixon, like Fewson, was a singer, and felt that the
+choir could not get on without the help of his voice in the gallery when
+the hymns were sung. Consequently, he then left his box and went to the
+singing loft; but, to save time, as he marched down the aisle from east
+to west, and as he mounted the steps of the gallery, he slowly and
+solemnly announced the number of the hymn and read the lines of the
+first verse. When the hymn was sung, our bird-like clerk came down again
+from the heights of the loft and returned to his perch at the base of
+the pulpit.
+
+Nowadays, we should consider such proceedings very unseemly, but it
+would have been thought nothing of in the days of Dixon. Scenes,
+according to our ideas, much more grotesque were then of frequent
+occurrence. We have already looked on at least one; here is another
+which took place in the neighbouring church of Skipsea one Sunday
+afternoon some sixty years ago, and in connection with singing. The
+account was given to me by a parishioner of about eighty years of age,
+who was one of the choirmen on the occasion.
+
+The leading singer, he said, there being no instrument, started a tune
+for the hymn. It would not fit the words, and he soon came to a full
+stop, and choir and congregation with him. At this, one of the
+congregation, in a voice that could be heard the whole church over,
+called out, "Give it up, George! Give it up!" "No, no," said the vicar
+in answer, leaning over his desk, "No, no, George, try again! try
+again!" George tried again, and again failed. But the vicar still
+encouraged him with "Have another try, George! Have another try! You may
+get it yet!" George tried the third time, and now hit upon a right tune;
+and to the general delight the hymn was sung through.
+
+Without doubt, in the days of our forefathers the services of the Church
+were conducted with the greatest freedom. But we may not judge those who
+preceded us by our own standard, nor yet apart from the time in which
+they lived.
+
+When two young people of Catwick or its neighbourhood feel they can live
+no longer without each other, they in local phrase "put in the banns."
+They then, of course, expect to have them published, or again in local
+idiom "thrown over the pulpit." On all such occasions, according to a
+very old custom, after the rector had read out the names, with the usual
+injunction following, from the middle compartment of the three-decker,
+Dixon would rise from his seat below, and slowly and clearly cry out,
+"God speed 'em weel" (God speed them well). By this pious wish he prayed
+for a blessing on those about to be wed, and in this the congregation
+joined, for they responded with Amen.
+
+Dixon was the last of the Catwick clerks to keep this custom. Much more
+recently, however, than the time he held office, members of the
+congregation, usually those seated in the loft, on the publication of
+the banns of some well-known people, have called out the time-honoured
+phrase. But it is now heard no more. The custom has gone into a like
+oblivion to that of the parish clerk himself, once so important a
+person, in his own estimation if in that of no other, both in church and
+parish. "The old order changeth."
+
+Thomas Dixon died at Catwick when sixty-seven years of age. He was
+buried in the churchyard on January 2, 1833, and by the Rev. John Torre,
+the rector he served so faithfully.
+
+When Sydney Smith went to see the out-of-the-way Yorkshire village of
+Foston-le-Clay, to which benefice he had been presented, his arrival
+occasioned great excitement. The parish clerk came forward to welcome
+him, a man eighty years of age, with long grey hair, thread-bare coat,
+deep wrinkles, stooping gait, and a crutch stick. He looked at the new
+parson for some time from under his grey shaggy eyebrows, and talked,
+and showed that age had not quenched the natural shrewdness of the
+Yorkshireman.
+
+At last, after a pause, he said, striking his crutch stick on the
+ground:
+
+"Master Smith, it often stroikes moy moind that folks as come frae
+London be such fools. But you," he added, giving Sydney Smith a nudge
+with his stick, "I see you be no fool." The new vicar was gratified.
+
+Yorkshiremen are keen songsters, and _fortissimo_ is their favourite
+note of expression. "Straack up a bit, Jock! straack up a bit," a
+Yorkshire parson used to shout to his clerk, when he wanted the Old
+Hundredth to be sung. Well do I remember a delightful old clerk in the
+Craven district, who used to give out the hymn in the accustomed form
+with charming manner. He liked not itinerant choirs, which were not
+uncommon forty or fifty years ago, and used to migrate from church to
+church, and sometimes to chapel, in the district where the members
+lived. One of these choirs visited the church where the Rev. ----
+Morris was rector, and he was directed to give out the anthem which the
+itinerant strangers were prepared to sing. He neither knew nor cared
+what an anthem was; and he gave the following somewhat confused notice:
+
+"Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the fiftieth Psalm, _while
+you folks sing th' anthem_," casting a scornful glance at the wandering
+musicians in the opposite gallery.
+
+Missionary meetings and sermons were somewhat rare in those days, but
+the special preacher for missions, commonly called the deputation, who
+performs for lazy clerics the task of instructing the people about work
+in the mission field--a duty which could well be performed by the vicar
+himself--had already begun his itinerant course. The congregation were
+waiting in the churchyard for his arrival, when the old Yorkshire vicar,
+mentioned above, said to his clerk, "Jock, ye maunt let 'em into th'
+church; the dippitation a'n't coom." Presently two clergymen arrived,
+when the clerk called out, "Ye maunt gang hoame; t' deppitation's coom."
+The old vicar made an excellent chairman, his introductory remarks being
+models of brevity: "T' furst deppitation will speak!" "T' second
+deppitation will speak!" after which the clerk lighted some candles in
+the singing gallery, and gave out for an appropriate hymn, "Vital spark
+of heavenly flame."
+
+A writer in _Chambers's Journal_ tells of a curious class of clergymen
+who existed forty years ago, and were known as "Northern Lights," the
+light from a spiritual point of view being somewhat dim and flickering.
+The writer, who was the vicar for twenty-five years of a moorland
+parish, tells of several clerks who were associated with these clerics,
+and who were as quaint and curious in their ways as their masters[83].
+The village was a hamlet on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, near the
+confines of Derbyshire. Beside the church was a public-house kept by the
+parish clerk, Jerry, a dapper little man, who on Sundays and funeral
+days always wore a wig, an old-fashioned tailed coat, black stockings,
+and shoes with buckles. His house was known as "Heaven's Gate," where
+the farmers from the neighbouring farms used to drink and stay a week at
+a time. Jerry used to direct the funerals, make the clerkly responses,
+and then provide the funeral party with good cheer at his inn. His
+invitation was always given at the graveside in a high-pitched falsetto
+voice, and the formula ran in these words, and was never varied:
+
+"Friends of the corpse is respectfully requested to call at my house,
+and partake then and there of such refreshments as is provided
+for them."
+
+[Footnote 83: By the kindness of the editor of _Chambers's Journal_ I am
+permitted to retell some of the stories of the manners of these clerks
+and parsons.]
+
+Much intemperance and disorder often followed these funeral feastings.
+An old song long preserved in the district depicts one of these
+funerals, which was by no means a one-day affair, but sometimes lasted
+several days, during which the drinking went on. The inn was perhaps a
+necessity in this out-of-the-world place, but it was unfortunately a
+great temptation to the inhabitants, and to the old Northern Light
+parson who preceded the vicar whose reminiscences we are recording. Here
+in the inn the old parson sat between morning and afternoon service with
+a long clay pipe in his mouth and a glass of whisky by his side. When
+the bells began to settle and the time of service approached, he would
+send Jerry to the church to see if many people had arrived. When
+Jerry replied:
+
+"There's not many comed yet, Mr. Nowton," the parson would say:
+
+"Then tell them to ring another peal, Jerry, and just fill up my glass
+again."
+
+The communion plate was kept at the inn under Jerry's charge. Three
+times a year it was used, and the circumstances were disgraceful. Four
+bottles of port wine were deemed the proper allowance on communion days,
+and after a fractional quantity had been consumed in the church, the
+rest was finished by the churchwardens at the inn. One of these
+churchwardens drank himself to death after the communion service. He was
+a big man with a red face, and was always present when a bear was baited
+at the top of the hill above the village. One day the bear escaped and
+ran on to the moor; everybody scattered in all directions, and several
+dogs were killed before the bear was caught.
+
+The successor of Jerry as clerk, but not as publican, was a rough,
+honest individual who was called Dick. When excited he had two oaths,
+"By'r Lady!" and "By the mass!" but as he always pronounced this last
+word _mess_, it was evident he did not understand the nature of the oath
+he used. He had a rough-and-ready way of doing things, and when handing
+out hymn-books during service he used to throw a book up to an applicant
+in the gallery to save the trouble of walking up the stairs in proper
+fashion. He talked the broadest Yorkshire dialect, and it was not always
+easy to understand him. This was particularly the case when, in his
+capacity as clerk, he repeated the responses at the funeral service.
+
+A tremendous snowfall happened one winter, and the roads were all
+blocked. It was impossible for any one to go to church on the Sunday
+morning following the fall, as the snow had not been cleared away. It
+was necessary for the vicar, however, to get there, as he had to read
+out the banns of marriage which were being published; so, putting on
+fishing-waders to protect himself from the wet snow, he succeeded with
+some difficulty in getting through the drifts. In the churchyard,
+standing before the church clock, he found Dick intently gazing at it,
+so he asked him if it was going. His reply was laconic: "Noa; shoo's
+froz." He and the vicar then went into the church, and the necessary
+publication of banns was read in the presence of the clerk alone.
+
+In those days it was necessary that the wedding service should be all
+over by twelve o'clock, and it was most important that due notice should
+be given of the date of the wedding, a matter about which Dick was
+sometimes rather careless.
+
+The vicar had gone into Derbyshire for a few days to fish the River
+Derwent. He was fishing a long distance up the stream when he heard his
+name called, and saw his servant running towards him, who said that a
+wedding was waiting for him at the church. Dick had forgotten to give
+due notice of this event. The vicarage trap was in readiness, but the
+road over the Derbyshire Peak was rough and steep, the pony small, the
+distance ten miles, and the vicar encumbered with wet clothes. The
+chance of getting to the church before twelve o'clock seemed remote. But
+the vicar and pony did their best; it was, however, half an hour after
+the appointed time when they reached the church. Glancing at the clock
+in the tower, the vicar, to his astonishment, found the hands pointing
+to half-past eleven. The situation was saved, and the service was
+concluded within the prescribed time. The vicar turned to the clerk for
+an explanation. "I seed yer coming over the hill," he said, "and I just
+stopped the clock a bit." Dick was an ingenious man.
+
+There was another character in the parish quite as peculiar as Dick, and
+he was one of the principal singers, who sat in the west gallery. He had
+formerly played the clarionet, before an organ was put into the church.
+During service he always kept a red cotton handkerchief over his bald
+head, which gave him a decidedly comic appearance.
+
+On one occasion the clergyman gave out a hymn in the old-fashioned way:
+"Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the twenty-first hymn,
+second version." Up jumped the old singer and shouted, "You're wrang,
+maister; it's first version." The clergyman corrected himself, when the
+singer again rose: "You're wrang agearn; it's twenty-second hymn."
+Without any remark the clergyman corrected the number, and the man again
+jumped up: "That's reet, mon, that's reet." When the old singer died his
+widow was very anxious there should be some record on his tombstone of
+his having played the clarionet in church; so above his name a
+trumpet-shaped instrument was carved on the stone, and some doggerel
+lines were to be added below. The vicar had great difficulty in
+persuading the family to abandon the lines for the text, "The trumpet
+shall sound, and the dead shall be raised."
+
+A neighbouring vicar was on one occasion taking the duty of an old man
+with failing eyesight, and Dick reminded him before the afternoon
+service that there was a funeral at four o'clock. "You must come into
+the church and tell me when it arrives," he told the clerk, "and I will
+stop my sermon." It was the habit of the old clergyman to relapse into a
+strong Yorkshire dialect when speaking familiarly, and this will account
+for the brief dialogue which passed between him and Dick as he stood at
+the lectern. In due course the funeral arrived at the church gates, and
+the first intimation the congregation inside the church had of this fact
+was the appearance of Dick, who noisily threw open the big doors of the
+south porch. He then stood and beckoned to the clergyman, but his poor
+blind eyes could not see so far. Dick then came nearer and waved his hat
+before him. This again met with no response. Then he got near enough to
+pluck him by the arm, which he did rather vigorously, shouting at the
+same time, "Shoo's coomed." "Wha's coomed?" replied the clergyman,
+relapsing into his Yorkshire speech. "Funeral's coomed," retorted Dick.
+"Then tell her to wait a bit while I finish my sermon"; and the old man
+went quietly on with his discourse.
+
+Another instance of Dick's failing to give proper notice of a service
+was as follows; but on this occasion it was not really his fault. Some
+large reservoirs were being made in the parish, and nearly a thousand
+navvies were employed on the works. These men were constantly coming and
+going, and very often they brought some infectious disorder which spread
+among the huts where they lived. One day a navvy arrived who broke out
+in smallpox of a very severe kind, and in a couple of days the man died,
+and the doctor ordered the body to be buried the moment a coffin could
+be got. It was winter-time, and the vicar had ridden over to see some
+friends about ten miles away. As the afternoon advanced it began to rain
+very heavily, and he decided not to ride back home, but to sleep at his
+friend's house. About five o'clock a messenger arrived to say a funeral
+was waiting in the church, and he was to come at once. He started in
+drenching rain, which turned to sleet and snow as he approached the moor
+edges. It was pitch-dark when he got off his horse at the church gates,
+and with some difficulty he found his way into the vestry and put a
+surplice over his wet garments. He could see nothing in the church, but
+he asked when he got into the reading-desk if any one was there. A deep
+voice answered, "Yes, sir; we are here"; and he began the service, which
+long practice had taught him to repeat by heart. When about half-way
+through the lesson he saw a glimmer of light, and Dick entered the
+church with a lantern, which he placed on the top of the coffin. It was
+a gruesome scene which the lantern brought into view. There was the
+coffin, and before it, in a seat, four figures of the navvy-bearers, and
+Dick himself covered with snow and as white as if he wore a surplice.
+They filed out into the churchyard, but the wind had blown the snow into
+the grave, and this had to be got out before they could lower the body
+into it. The navvies, who were kind-hearted fellows, explained that they
+could give no notice of the funeral beforehand, and they quite
+understood the delay was no fault of the vicar's or Dick's.
+
+Dick was, in spite of his faults, an honest and kind-hearted man, and
+his death, caused by a fall from a ladder, was much regretted by his
+good vicar. On his death-bed the old clerk sent for his favourite
+grandson, who succeeded him in his office, and made this pathetic
+request: "Thou'lt dig my grave, Jont, lad."
+
+With Dick the last of the "Northern Lights" flickered out. Nothing now
+remains in the village recalling those old times. The village inn has
+been suppressed, and the drinking bouts are over. The old church has
+been entirely restored, and there is order and decency in the services.
+The strange thing is that it should have been possible that only forty
+years ago matters were in such a state of chaos and disorder, and in
+such need of drastic reformation.
+
+Another Yorkshire clerk flourished in the thirties at Bolton-on-Dearne
+named Thomas Rollin, commonly called Tommy. He used to render Psalm cii.
+6: "I am become a _pee-li-can_ in the wilderness, and an owl in the
+_dee-sert_." Tommy was a tailor by trade, and made use of a
+ready-reckoner to assist him in making up his accounts, and his
+familiarity with that useful book was shown when reading the second
+verse of the forty-fifth Psalm, which Tommy invariably read: "My tongue
+is the pen of a _ready-reckoner_," to the immense delight of the
+youthful members of the congregation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+AN OLD CHESHIRE CLERK AND SOME OTHER WORTHIES
+
+It is nearly fifty years since I used to attend the quaint old parish
+church at Lawton, Cheshire, situate half-way between Congleton and
+Crewe. It is a lonely spot, "miles from anywhere," having not the
+vestige of a village, and the congregation was formed of well-to-do
+farmers, who came from the scattered farmsteads. How well I remember the
+old parish clerk and the numerous duties which fell to his lot! He
+united in his person the offices of clerk, sexton, beadle,
+church-keeper, organist, and ringer. The organ was of the barrel kind,
+and no one knew how to manipulate the instrument or to change the
+barrels, except the clerk. He had also to place ten decent loaves in a
+row on the communion table every Sunday morning, which were provided by
+a charitable bequest for the benefit of the poor widows of the parish.
+If the widows did not attend service to curtsy for them, the loaves were
+given to any one who liked to take them. Old Clerk Briscall baked them
+himself. He kept a small village shop about two miles from the church.
+He was also the village shoemaker. A curious system prevailed. As you
+entered the church, near the large stove you would see a long bench, and
+under this bench a row of boots and shoes. If any one wanted his boots
+to be mended, he would take them to church with him and put them under
+the bench. These were collected by the cobbler-clerk, carried home in a
+sack, and brought back on the following Sunday neatly and carefully
+soled and heeled. It would seem strange now if on entering a church our
+eyes should light upon a row of farmers' dirty old boots and the
+freshly-mended evidences of the clerk's skill. All this took place in
+the fifties. In the sixties a new vicar came. The old organ wheezed its
+last phlegmatic tune; it was replaced by a modern instrument with six
+stops, and a player who did his best, but occasioned not a little
+laughter on account of his numerous breakdowns. The old high pews have
+disappeared, nice open benches erected, the floor relaid, a good choir
+enlisted, and everything changed for the better.
+
+The poor old clerk must have been almost overwhelmed by his numerous
+duties, and was often much embarrassed and exasperated by the old
+squire, Mr. C.B. Lawton, who was somewhat whimsical in his ways. This
+gentleman used to enter the church by his own private door, and go to
+his large, square, high-panelled family pew, and when the vicar gave out
+the hymn, he used often to shout out, "Here, hold on! I don't like that
+one; let's have hymn Number 25," or some such effort of psalmody. This
+request, or command, used to upset the organ arrangement, and the poor
+old clerk had to rummage among his barrels to get a suitable tune, and
+the operation, even if successful, took at least ten minutes, during
+which time a large amount of squeaking and the sounds of the writhing of
+woodwork and snapping of sundry catches were heard in the church. But
+the congregation was accustomed to the performance and thought little
+of it. (John Smallwood, 2 Mount Pleasant, Strangeways, Manchester.)
+
+Caistor Church, Lincolnshire, famous for the curious old ceremony of the
+gad-whip, was also celebrated for its clerk, old Joshua Foster, who was
+officiating there in 1884 at the time of the advent of a new vicar.
+Trinity Sunday was the first Sunday of the new clergyman, who sorely
+puzzled the clerk by reading the Athanasian Creed. The old man peered
+down into the vicar's family pew from his desk, casting a despairing
+glance at the wife of the vicar, who handed him a Prayer Book with the
+place found, so that he could make the responses. He was very economical
+in the use of handkerchiefs, and used the small pieces of paper on which
+the numbers of the metrical psalm were written. In vain did the wife of
+the vicar present him with red-and-white-spotted handkerchiefs, which
+were used as comforters. The church was lighted with tallow
+candles--"dips" they were called--and at intervals during the service
+Joshua would go round and snuff them. The snuffers soon became full, and
+it was a matter of deep interest to the congregation to see on whose
+head the snuff would fall, and to dodge it if it came their way.
+
+The Psalms of Tate and Brady's version were sung and were given out with
+the usual preface, "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the 1st,
+2nd, 5th, 8th, and 20th verses of the ---- Psalm with the Doxology."
+How that Doxology bothered the congregation! The Doxologies were all at
+the end of the Prayer Book, and it was not always easy to hit the right
+metre; but that was of little consequence. A word added if the line was
+too short, or omitted if too long, required skill, and made all feel
+that they had done their best when it was successfully over. After the
+old clerk's death, he was succeeded by his son Joshua, or Jos-a-way, as
+the name was pronounced, whose son, also named Joshua the third, became
+clerk, and still holds the office.
+
+The predecessor of the vicar was a pluralist, who held Caistor with its
+two chapelries of Holton and Clixby and the living of Rothwell. He was
+non-resident, and the numerous churches were served by a curate. This
+man was a great smoker, and used to retire to the vestry to don the
+black gown and smoke a pipe before the sermon, the congregation singing
+a Psalm meanwhile. One Sunday he had an extra pipe, and Joshua told him
+that the people were getting impatient.
+
+"Let them sing another Psalm," said the curate.
+
+"They have, sir," replied the clerk.
+
+"Then let them sing the 119th," replied the curate.
+
+At last he finished his pipe, and began to put on the black gown, but
+its folds were troublesome, and he could not get it on.
+
+"I think the devil's in the gown," muttered the curate.
+
+"I think he be," dryly replied old Joshua.
+
+That the clerk was often a person of dignity and importance is shown by
+the recollections of an old parishioner of the rector of Fornham All
+Saints, near Bury St. Edmunds. "Mr. Baker, the clerk," of Westley, who
+flourished seventy years ago, used to hear the children their catechism
+in church on Sunday afternoons. "Ah, sir, I often think of what he told
+us, that the world would not come to an end till people were killed
+_wholesale_, and now think how often that happens!" She was probably not
+alluding to the South African or the Japanese war, but to railway
+accidents, as she at once told her favourite story of her solitary
+journey to Newmarket, when on her return she remarked, "If I live to set
+foot on firm ground, never no more for me."
+
+The old clerk used to escort the boys and girls to their confirmation at
+Bury, and superintended their meal of bread, beer, and cheese after the
+rite. There was no music at Westley, except when Mr. Humm, the clerk of
+Fornham, "brought up his fiddle and some of the Fornham girls."
+Nowadays, adds the rector, the Rev. C.L. Feltoe, the clerks are much
+more illiterate than their predecessors, and, unlike them,
+non-communicants.
+
+Another East Anglian clerk was a quaint character, who had a great
+respect for all the old familiar residents in his town of S----, and a
+corresponding contempt for all new-comers. The family of my informant
+had resided there for nearly a century, and had, therefore, the approval
+of the clerk. On one occasion some of the family found their seat
+occupied by some new people who had recently settled in the town. The
+clerk rushed up, and in a loud voice, audible all over the church,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Never you mind that air muck in your pew. I'll soon turn 'em out. The
+imperent muck, takin' your seats!"
+
+The family insisted upon "the muck" being left in peace, and forbade the
+eviction.
+
+The old clerk used vigorously a long stick to keep the school children
+in order. He was much respected, and his death universally regretted.
+
+Fifty years ago there was a dear, good old clerk, named Bamford, at
+Mangotsfield Church, who used to give out the hymns, verse by verse. The
+vicar always impressed upon him to read out the words in a loud voice,
+and at the last word in each verse to pitch his voice. The hymn, "This
+world's a dream," was rendered in this fashion:
+
+     "This world's a _drame_, an empty shoe,
+      But this bright world to which I goo
+      Hath jaays substantial an' sincere,
+      When shall I wack and find me THEER?"
+
+William Smart, the parish clerk of Windermere in the sixties, was a rare
+specimen. By trade an auctioneer and purveyor of Westmorland hams, he
+was known all round the countryside. He was very patronising to the
+assistant curates, and a favourite expression of his was "me and my
+curate." When one of his curates first took a wedding he was commanded
+by the clerk, "When you get to 'hold his peace,' do you stop, for I have
+something to say." The curate was obedient, and stopped at the end of
+his prescribed words, when William shouted out, "God speed them well!"
+
+This unauthorised but excellent clerkly custom was not confined to
+Windermere, but was common in several Norfolk churches, and at Hope
+Church, Derbyshire, the clerk used to express the good wish after the
+publication of the banns.
+
+The old-fashioned clerk was usually much impressed by the importance of
+his office. Crowhurst, the old clerk at Allington, Kent, in 1852, just
+before a wedding took place, marched up to the rector, the Rev. E.B.
+Heawood, and said:
+
+"If you please, sir, the ceremony can't proceed."
+
+"Why not? What do you mean?" asked the surprised rector.
+
+"The marriage can't take place, sir," he answered solemnly, "'cos I've
+lost my specs."
+
+Fortunately a pupil of the rector's came forward and confessed that he
+had hidden the old man's spectacles in a hole in the wall, and the
+ceremony was no longer delayed.
+
+At Bromley College the same clergyman had a curious experience, when the
+clerk was called to assist at a service for the Churching of Women. As
+it was very unusually performed there, he was totally at a loss what
+service to find, and asked in great perturbation:
+
+"Please, sir, be I to read the responses in the services for the Queen's
+Accession?"
+
+The same service sadly puzzled the clerk at Haddington, who was in the
+employment of the then Earl of W----. One Sunday Lady W---- came to be
+churched, when in response to the clergyman's prayer, "O Lord, save this
+woman, Thy servant," the clerk said, "Who putteth her ladyship's
+trust in Thee."
+
+The Rev. W.H. Langhorne tells me some amusing anecdotes of old clerks.
+Once he was preaching in a village church for home missions, and just as
+he was reaching the pulpit he observed that the clerk was preparing to
+take round the plate. He whispered to him to wait till he had finished
+his sermon. "It won't make a ha'porth o' difference," was the
+encouraging reply. But at the close of the sermon there was another
+invitation to give additional offerings, which were not withheld.
+
+In the old days when _Bell's Life_ was the chief sporting paper, a
+hunting parson was taking the service one Sunday morning and gave out
+the day of the month and the Psalm. The clerk corrected him, but the
+rector again gave out the same day and was again corrected. The rector,
+in order to decide the controversy, produced a copy of _Bell's Life_ and
+handed it to the clerk, who then submitted. It is not often, I imagine,
+that a sporting paper has been appealed to for the purpose of deciding
+what Psalms should be read in church.
+
+One very wet Sunday Mr. Langhorne was summoned to take an afternoon
+service several miles distant from his residence. The congregation
+consisted of only half a dozen people. After service he said to the
+clerk that it was hardly worth while coming so far. "We might have done
+with a worse 'un," was his reply.
+
+That reminds me of another clerk who apologised to a church dignitary
+who had been summoned to take a service at a small country church. The
+form of the apology was not quite happily expressed. He said, "I am
+sorry, sir, to have brought such a gentleman as you to this poor place.
+A worse would have done, if we had only known where to find him!"
+
+The new vicar of D---- was calling upon an old parishioner, who said to
+him: "Ah! I've seen mony changes. I've seen four vicars of D----. First
+there was Canon G----, then there was Mr. T----, who's now a bishop, and
+then Mr. F---- came, and now you've coom, and we've wossened (worsened)
+every toime."
+
+A clerk named Turner, who officiated at Alnwick, was a great character,
+and in spite of his odd ways was esteemed for his genuine worth and
+fidelity to the three vicars under whom he served. He looked upon the
+church and parish as his own, and used to say that he had trained many
+"kewrats" in their duties. His responses in the Psalms were often
+startling. Instead of "The Lord setteth up the meek," he would say,
+"The Lord sitteth upon the meek." "The great leviathan" he rendered "the
+great live thing." "Caterpillars innumerable" he pronounced
+"caterpilliars innumerabble." When a funeral was late he scolded the
+bearers at the churchyard gate.
+
+At Wimborne Minster, Dorset, there used to be three priest vicars, and
+each of them had a clerk. It was the custom for each of the priest
+vicars to take the services for a week in rotation, and the first lesson
+was always read by "the clerk of the week," as he was called. On
+Sundays, when there was a celebration of the Holy Communion, the "clerk
+of the week" advanced to the lectern after the sermon was finished, and
+said, "All who wish to receive the Holy Communion, draw near." These
+words, in the case of one worthy, named David Butler, were always spoken
+in a high-pitched, drawling voice, and finished off with a kick to the
+rearwards of the right leg.
+
+The old clerk at Woodmancote, near Henfield, Sussex, was a very
+important person. There was never any committee meeting but he attended.
+So much so, that one day in church leading the singing and music with
+voice and flute, when it came to the "Gloria" he sang loudly, "As it was
+in the committee meeting, is now, and ever shall be ..."
+
+An acquaintance remarked to him afterwards that the last meeting he
+attended must have been a rather long one!
+
+A story is told of the clerk at West Dean, near Alfriston, Sussex.
+Starting the first line of the Psalm or hymn, he found that he could not
+see owing to the failing light on a dark wintry afternoon. So he said,
+"My eyes are dim, I canna see," at which the congregation, composed of
+ignorant labourers, sang after him the _same_ words. The clerk was
+wroth, and cried out, "Tarnation fools you all must be." Here again the
+congregation sang the same words after the clerk.
+
+Strange times, strange manners!
+
+A writer in the _Spectator_ tells of a clerk who, like many of his
+fellows, used to convert "leviathan" into "that girt livin' thing," thus
+letting loose before his hearers' imagination a whole travelling
+menagerie, from which each could select the beast which most struck his
+fancy. This clerk was a picturesque personality, although, unlike his
+predecessor, he had discarded top-boots and cords for Sunday wear in
+favour of black broadcloth. When not engaged in marrying or burying one
+of his flock, he fetched and carried for the neighbours from the
+adjacent country town, or sold herrings and oranges (what mysterious
+affinity is there between these two dissimilar edibles that they are
+invariably hawked in company?) from door to door. During harvest he rang
+the morning "leazing bell" to start the gleaners to the fields, and
+every night he tolled the curfew, by which the villagers set their
+clocks. He it was who, when the sermon was ended, strode with dignity
+from his box on the "lower deck" down the aisle to the belfry, and
+pulled the "dishing-up bell" to let home-keeping mothers know that
+hungry husbands and sons were set free. Folks in those days were less
+easily fatigued than they are now. Services were longer, the preacher's
+"leanings to mercy" were less marked, and congregations counted
+themselves ill-used if they broke up under the two hours. The boys stood
+in wholesome awe of the clerk, as well they might, for his eye was keen
+and his stick far-reaching. Moreover, no fear of man prevented him from
+applying the latter with effect to the heads of slumberers during divine
+service. By way of retaliation the youths, when opportunity occurred,
+would tie the cord of the "tinkler" to the weathercock, and the parish
+on a stormy night would be startled by the sound of ghostly, fitful
+ting-tangs. To Sunday blows the clerk, who was afflicted with
+rheumatism, added weekday anathemas as he climbed the steep ascent to
+the bell-chamber and the yet steeper ladder that gave access to the
+leads of the tower. The perpetual hostility that reigned between
+discipliner and disciplined bred no ill will on either side. "Boys must
+be boys" and "He's paid for lookin' arter things" were the arguments
+whereby the antagonists testified their mutual respect, in both of which
+the parents concurred; and his severity did not cost the old man a penny
+when he made his Easter rounds to collect the "sweepings." It may,
+perhaps, be well to explain that the "sweepings" consisted of an annual
+sum of threepence which every householder contributed towards the
+cleaning of the church, and which represented a large part of the
+clerk's salary[84].
+
+[Footnote 84: _Spectator_, 14 October, 1905.]
+
+The Rev. C.C. Prichard recollects a curious old character at Churchdown,
+near Gloucester, commonly pronounced "Chosen" in those days.
+
+This old clerk was only absent one Sunday from "Chosen" Church, and then
+he was lent to the neighbouring church of Leckhampton. Instead of the
+response "And make Thy chosen people joyful," mindful of his change of
+locality he gave out with a strong nasal twang, "And make Thy
+Leck'ampton people joyful." The Psalms were somewhat a trouble to him,
+and to the congregation too. One verse he rendered "Like a paycock in a
+wild-dook's nest, and a howl in the dessert, even so be I." He was a
+thoroughly good old man, and brought up a large family very respectably.
+
+I remember the old clerk, James Ingham, of Whalley Church, Lancashire.
+It is a grand old church, full of old dark oak square pews, and the
+clerk was in keeping with his surroundings. He was a humorous character,
+and had a splendid deep bass voice. He used to show people over the
+ruined abbey, and his imagination supplied the place of accurate
+historical information. Some American visitors asked him what a certain
+path was used for. "Well, marm," said James, "it's onsartin: but they do
+say the monks and nuns used to walk up and down this 'ere path,
+arm-in-arm, of a summer arternoon."
+
+It is recorded of one Thomas Atkins, clerk of Chillenden Church, Kent,
+that he used to leave his reading-desk at the commencement of the
+General Thanksgiving and proceed to the west gallery, where he gave out
+the hymn and sang a duet with the village cobbler, in which the
+congregation joined as best they could. He walked very slowly down the
+church, and said the Amen at the end of the Thanksgiving wherever he
+happened to be, and that was generally half-way up the gallery stairs,
+whence his feeble voice, with a good _tremolo_, used to sound like the
+distant baaing of a sheep. It was a strange and curious performance.
+
+Miss Rawnsley, of Raithby Hall, Spilsby, gives some delightful
+reminiscences of a most original specimen of the race of clerks, old
+Haw, who officiated at Halton Holgate, Lincolnshire. He was a curious
+mixture of worldly wisdom and strong religious feeling. The former was
+exemplified by his greeting to a cousin of my correspondent, just
+returned from his ordination.
+
+He said, "Now, Mr. Hardwick, remember thou must creep an' crawl along
+the 'edge bottoms, and then tha'ill make thee a bishop."
+
+He was a strong advocate of Fasting Communion. No one ever knew whence
+he derived his strong views on the subject. The rector never taught it.
+Probably his ideas were derived from some long lingering tradition. When
+over seventy years of age he set out fasting to walk six miles to attend
+a late celebration at a distant church on the occasion of its
+consecration. Nothing would ever induce him to break his fast before
+communicating; and on this occasion he was picked up in a dead faint,
+his journey being only half completed.
+
+On Wednesdays and Fridays he always went into the church at eleven
+o'clock and said the Litany aloud. When asked his reason, he said, "I've
+gotten an ungodly wife and two ungodly bairns to pray for, sir." He once
+asked one of the rector's daughters to help him in the _Parody_ of the
+Psalms he was making; and on another occasion requested to have the old
+altar-cloth, which had just been replaced by a new one, "to make a slop
+to dig the graves in, and no sacrilege neither."
+
+At Sutton Maddock, Shropshire, there was a clerk who used to read
+"_Pe_-li-_can_ in the wilderness," and the usual "_Howl_ in the
+_De_sart," and "Teach the _Se_nators wisdom," and when the Litany was
+said on Wednesdays and Fridays declared that it was not in his Prayer
+Book though he took part in it every Sunday. When a kind lady, Miss
+Barnfield, expressed a wish that his wife would get better, he replied,
+"I hope her will or _summat_."
+
+At Claverley, in the same county, on one Sunday, the rector told the
+clerk to give notice that there would be no service that afternoon,
+adding _sotto voce_, "I am going to dine at the Paper Mill." He was
+rather disgusted when the clerk announced, "There will be no Diving
+Service this arternoon, the Parson is going to dine at the Peaper Mill."
+The clerk was no respecter of persons, and once marched up to the
+rector's wife in church and told her to keep her eyes from
+beholding vanity.
+
+The Rev. F.A. Davis tells me of a story of an illiterate clerk who
+served in a Wiltshire church, where a cousin of my informant was vicar.
+A London clergyman, who had never preached or been in a country church
+before, came to take the duty. He was anxious to find out if the people
+listened or understood sermons. His Sunday morning discourse was based
+on the text St. Mark v. 1-17, containing the account of the healing of
+the demoniacally possessed persons at Gadara, and the destruction of the
+herd of swine. On the Monday he asked the clerk if he understood the
+sermon. The clerk replied somewhat doubtfully, "Yes." "But is there
+anything you do not quite understand?" said the clergyman; "I shall be
+only too glad to explain anything I can, so as to help you." After a
+good deal of scratching the back of his head and much hesitating, the
+clerk replied, "Who paid for them pigs?"
+
+[Illustration: WILLIAM HINTON, A WILTSHIRE WORTHY DRAWN BY THE REV.
+JULIAN CHARLES YOUNG]
+
+Many examples I have given of the dry humour of old clerks, which is
+sometimes rather disconcerting. A stranger was taking the duty in a
+church, and after service made a few remarks about the weather,
+asserting that it promised to be a fine day for the haymaking to-morrow.
+"Ah, sir," replied the clerk, "they do say that the hypocrites can
+discern the face of the sky."
+
+The Rev. Julian Charles Young, rector of Ilmington, in his _Memoir of
+Charles Mayne Young, Tragedian_, published in 1871, speaks of the race
+of parish clerks who flourished in Wiltshire in the first half of the
+last century. Instead of a nice discrimination being exercised in the
+choice of a clerk, it seems to have been the rule to select the sorriest
+driveller that could be found--some "lean and slippered pantaloon, with
+spectacles on nose and pouch at side,"
+
+     "triumphant over time,
+     And over tune, and over rhyme"--
+
+who by his snivelling enunciation of the responses and his nasal
+drawlings of the A--mens, was sure to provoke the risibility of his
+hearers. Mr. Young's own clerk was, however, a very worthy man, of such
+lofty aspirations and of such blameless purity of life, that in making
+him Nature made the very ideal of a village clerk and schoolmaster, and
+then "broke the mould." His grave yet kindly countenance, his
+well-proportioned limbs encased in breeches and gaiters of corded
+kerseymere, and the natural dignity of his carriage, combined "to give
+the world assurance of" a bishop rather than a clerk. It needed
+familiarity with his inner life to know how much simpleness of purpose
+and simplicity of mind and contentment and piety lay hid under a pompous
+exterior and a phraseology somewhat stilted.
+
+His name was William Hinton, and he dwelt in a small whitewashed cottage
+which, by virtue of his situation as schoolmaster, he enjoyed rent free.
+It stood in the heart of a small but well-stocked kitchen garden. His
+salary was £40 per annum, and on this, with perhaps £5 a year more
+derived from church fees, he brought up five children in the greatest
+respectability, all of whom did well in life. They regarded their
+father with absolute veneration. By the side of the labourer who only
+knew what he had taught him, or of the farmer who knew less, he was a
+giant among pygmies--a Triton among minnows.
+
+When Mr. Young went to the village, with the exception of a Bible, a
+Prayer Book, a random tract or two, and a _Moore's Almanac_, there was
+scarcely a book to be found in it. The rector kindly allowed his clerk
+the run of his well-stocked library. Hinton devoured the books greedily.
+So receptive and imitative was his intellect that his conversation, his
+deportment, even his spirit, became imbued with the individuality of the
+author whose writings he had been studying. After reading Dr. Johnson's
+works his conversation became sententious and dogmatic. _Lord
+Chesterfield's Letters_ produced an airiness and jauntiness that were
+quite foreign to his nature. His favourite authors were Jeremy Taylor,
+Bacon, and Milton. After many months reverential communion with these
+Goliaths of literature he became pensive and contemplative, and his
+manner more chastened and severe. The secluded village in which he dwelt
+had been his birthplace, and there he remained to the day of his death.
+He knew nothing of the outer world, and the rector found his intercourse
+with a man so original, fresh, and untainted a real pleasure. He was
+physically timid, and the account of a voyage across the Channel or a
+journey by coach filled him with dread. One day he said to Mr. Young,
+"Am I, reverend sir, to understand that you voluntarily trust your
+perishable body to the outside of a vehicle, of the soundness of which
+you know nothing, and suffer yourself to be drawn to and fro by four
+strange animals, of whose temper you are ignorant, and are willing to
+be driven by a coachman of whose capacity and sobriety you are
+uninformed?" On being assured that such was the case, he concluded that
+"the love of risk and adventure must be a very widely-spread instinct,
+seeing that so many people are ready to expose themselves to such
+fearful casualties." He was grateful to think that he had never been
+exposed to such terrific hazards. What the worthy clerk would have said
+concerning the risks of motoring somewhat baffles imagination.
+
+When just before the opening of the Great Western Railway line the
+Company ran a coach through the village from Bath to Swindon, the clerk
+witnessed with his own eyes the dangers of travelling. The school
+children were marshalled in line to welcome the coach, bouquets of
+laurestina and chrysanthema were ready to be bestowed on the passengers,
+the church bells rang gaily, when after long waiting the cheery notes of
+the key-bugle sounded the familiar strains of "Sodger Laddie," and the
+steaming steeds hove in sight, an accident occurred. At a sharp turn
+just opposite the clerk's house the swaying coach overturned, and the
+outside passengers were thrown into the midst of his much-prized
+ash-leaf kidneys. The clerk fled precipitately to the extreme borders of
+his domain, and afterwards said to the rector, "Ah, sir, was I right in
+saying I would never enter such a dangerous carriage as a four-horse
+coach? I assure you I was not the least surprised. It was just what I
+expected."
+
+When the first railway train passed through the village he was
+overwhelmed with emotion at the sight. He fell prostrate on the bank as
+if struck by a thunder-bolt. When he stood up his brain reeled, he was
+speechless, and stood aghast, unutterable amazement stamped upon his
+face. In the tone of a Jeremiah he at length gasped out, "Well, sir,
+what a sight to have seen: but one I never care to see again! How awful!
+I tremble to think of it! I don't know what to compare it to, unless it
+be to a messenger despatched from the infernal regions with a commission
+to spread desolation and destruction over the fair land. How much longer
+shall knowledge be allowed to go on increasing?"
+
+The rector taught the clerk how to play chess, to which game he took
+eagerly, and taught it to the village youths. They played it on
+half-holidays in winter and became engrossed in it, manufacturing
+chess-boards out of old book-covers and carving very creditable chessmen
+out of bits of wood. When he was playing with his rector one evening he
+lost his queen and at once resigned, saying, "I consider, reverend sir,
+that chess without a queen is like life without a female."
+
+Hinton knew not a word of Latin, but he had a pedantic pleasure in
+introducing it whenever he could. Genders were ever a mystery to him,
+though with the help of a dictionary he would often substitute a Latin
+for an English word. Thus he used the signatures "Gulielmus
+Hintoniensis, Rusticus Sacrista," and when writing to Mrs. Young he
+always addressed her as "Charus Domina." On this lady's return after a
+long absence, the clerk wrote in large letters, "Gratus, gratus,
+optatus," and dated his greeting, "Martius quinta, 1842." A funeral
+notice was usually sent in doggerel.
+
+The following letter was sent to the rector's unmarried sister:
+
+     "_Januarius Prima_, 1840.
+
+     "CHARUS DOMINA,
+
+"That the humble Sacrista should be still retained on the tablets of
+your memory is an unexpected pleasure. Your gift, as a criterion of your
+esteem, will be often looked at with delight, and be carefully
+preserved, as a memorial of your friendship; and for which I beg to
+return my sincere thanks. May the meridian sunshine of happiness
+brighten your days through the voyage of life; and may your soul be
+borne on the wings of seraphic angels to the realms of bliss eternal in
+the world to come is the sincere wish and fervent prayer of Charus
+Domina, your most obedient, most respectful, most obliged servant,
+
+     "GULIELMUS HINTONIENSIS,
+
+     "_Rusticus Sacrista_.
+
+     "GRATITUDE
+
+     "A gift from the virtuous, the fair, and the good,
+       From the affluent to the humble and low,
+     Is a favour so great, so obliging and kind,
+       To acknowledge I scarcely know how.
+     I fain would express the sensations I feel,
+       By imploring the blessing of Heaven
+     May be showered on the lovely, the amiable maid,
+       Who this gift to Sacrista has given.
+     May the choicest of husbands, the best of his kind,
+       Be hers by the appointment of Heaven!
+     And may sweet smiling infants as pledges of love
+       To crown her connubium be given."
+
+The following is a characteristic note of this worthy clerk, which
+differs somewhat from the notices usually sent to vicars as reminders of
+approaching weddings:
+
+"REV. SIR,
+
+"I hope it has not escaped your memory that the young couple at Clack
+are hoping to offer incense at the shrine of Venus this morning at the
+hour of ten. I anticipate the bridegrooms's anxiety.
+
+"RUSTICUS SACRISTA."
+
+He was somewhat curious on the subject of fashionable ladies' dresses,
+and once asked the rector "in what guise feminine respectability usually
+appeared at an evening party?" When a low dress was described to him, he
+blushed and shivered and exclaimed, "Then methinks, sir, there must be
+revelations of much which modesty would gladly veil." He was terribly
+overcome on one occasion when he met in the rector's drawing-room one
+evening some ladies who were attired, as any other gentlewomen would be,
+in low gowns.
+
+William Hinton was, in spite of his air of importance and his inflated
+phraseology, a simple, single-minded, humble soul. When the rector
+visited him on his death-bed, he greeted Mr. Young with as much serenity
+of manner as if he had been only going on a journey to a far country for
+which he had long been preparing. "Well, reverend and dear sir. Here we
+are, you see! come to the nightcap scene at last! Doubtless you can
+discern that I am dying. I am not afraid to die. I wish your prayers....
+I say I am not afraid to die, and you know why. Because I know in whom I
+have believed; and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I
+have committed unto Him against that day." A little later he said,
+"Thanks, reverend sir! Thanks for much goodwill! Thanks for much happy
+intercourse! For nearly seven years we have been friends here. I trust
+we shall be still better friends hereafter. I shall not see you again on
+this side Jordan. I fear not to cross over. Good-bye. My Joshua beckons
+me. The Promised Land is in sight."
+
+This worthy and much-mourned clerk was buried on 5 July, 1843.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE CLERK AND THE LAW
+
+The parish clerk is so important a person that divers laws have been
+framed relating to his office. His appointment, his rights, his
+dismissal are so closely regulated by law that incumbents and
+churchwardens have to be very careful lest they in any way transgress
+the legal enactments and judgments of the courts. It is not an easy
+matter to dismiss an undesirable clerk: it is almost as difficult as to
+disturb the parson's freehold; and unless the clerk be found guilty of
+grievous faults, he may laugh to scorn the malice of his enemies and
+retain his office while life lasts.
+
+It may be useful, therefore, to devote a chapter to the laws relating to
+parish clerks--a chapter which some of my readers who have no liking for
+legal technicalities can well afford to skip.
+
+As regards his qualifications the clerk must be at least twenty years of
+age, and known to the parson as a man of honest conversation, and
+sufficient for his reading, writing, and for his competent skill in
+singing, "if it may be[85]." The visitation articles of the seventeenth
+century frequently inquire whether the clerk be of the age of twenty
+years at least.
+
+[Footnote 85: Canon 91 (1603).]
+
+The method of his appointment has caused much disputing. With whom does
+the appointment rest? In former times the parish clerk was always
+nominated by the incumbent both by common law and the custom of the
+realm. This is borne out by the constitution of Archbishop Boniface and
+the 91st Canon, which states that "No parish clerk upon any vacation
+shall be chosen within the city of London or elsewhere, but by the
+parson or vicar: or where there is no parson or vicar, by the minister
+of that place for the time being; which choice shall be signified by the
+said minister, vicar or parson, to the parishioners the next Sunday
+following, in the time of Divine Service."
+
+But this arrangement has often been the subject of dispute between the
+parson and his flock as to the right of the former to appoint the clerk.
+In pre-Reformation times there was a diversity of practice, some
+parishioners claiming the right to elect the clerk, as they provided the
+offerings by which he lived. A terrible scene occurred in the fourteenth
+century at one church. The parishioners appointed a clerk, and the
+rector selected another. The rector was celebrating Mass, assisted by
+his clerk, when the people's candidate approached the altar and nearly
+murdered his rival, so that blood was shed in the sanctuary.
+
+Custom in many churches sanctioned the right of the parishioners, who
+sometimes neglected to exercise it, and the choice of clerk was left to
+the vicar. The visitations in the time of Elizabeth show that the people
+were expected to appoint to the office, but the episcopal inquiries also
+demonstrate that the parson or vicar could exercise a veto, and that no
+one could be chosen without his goodwill and consent.
+
+The canon of 1603 was an attempt to change this variety of usage, but
+such is the force of custom that many decisions of the spiritual courts
+have been against the canon and in favour of accustomed usage when such
+could be proved. It was so in the case of _Cundict_ v. _Plomer_ (8 Jac.
+I)[86], and in _Jermyn's Case_ (21 Jac. I).
+
+[Footnote 86: _Ecclesiastical Law_, Sir R. Phillimore, p. 1901.]
+
+At the present time such disputes with regard to the appointment of
+clerks are unlikely to arise. They are usually elected to their office
+by the vestry, and the person recommended by the vicar is generally
+appointed. Indeed, by the Act 7 & 8 Victoria, c. 49, "for better
+regulating the office of Lecturers and Parish Clerks," it is provided
+that when the appointment is by others than the parson, it is to be
+subject to the approval of the parson. Owing to the difficulty of
+dismissing a clerk, to which I shall presently refer, it is not unusual
+to appoint a gentleman or farmer to the office, and to nominate a deputy
+to discharge the actual duties. If we may look forward to a revival of
+the office and to a restoration of its ancient dignity and importance,
+it might be possible for the more highly educated man to perform the
+chief functions, the reading the lessons and epistle, serving at the
+altar, and other like duties, while his deputy could perform the more
+menial functions, opening the church, ringing the bell, digging graves,
+if there be no sexton, and the like.
+
+It is not absolutely necessary that the clerk, after having been chosen
+and appointed, should be licensed by the ordinary, but this is not
+unusual; and when licensed he is sworn to obey the incumbent of the
+parish[87].
+
+[Footnote 87: _Ibid._, 1902.]
+
+We have recorded some of the perquisites, fees and wages, which the
+clerk of ancient times was accustomed to receive when he had been duly
+appointed. No longer does he receive accustomed alms by reason of his
+office of _aquĉbajalus_. No longer does he derive profit from bearing
+the holy loaf; and the cakes and eggs at Easter, and certain sheaves at
+harvest-tide, are perquisites of the past.
+
+The following were the accustomed wages of the clerk at Rempstone in the
+year 1629[88]:
+
+[Footnote 88: _The Clerks' Book_, Dr. Wickham Legg, lv.]
+
+     "22nd November, 1629.
+
+     "The wages of the Clarke of the Parish Church of Rempstone.
+     At Easter yearely he is to have of every Husbandman one
+     pennie for every yard land he hath in occupation. And of
+     every Cottager two pence.
+
+     "Furthermore he is to have for every yard land one peche of
+     Barley of the Husbandman yearely.
+
+     "Egges at Easter by Courtesie.
+
+     "For every marriage two pence. And at the churching of a
+     woman his dinner.
+
+     "The said Barley is to be payed between Christmasse and the
+     Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary."
+
+Clerk's Ales have vanished, too, together with the cakes and eggs, but
+his fees remain, and marriage bells and funeral knells, christenings and
+churchings bring to him the accustomed dues and offerings. Tables of
+Fees hang in most churches. It is important to have them in order that
+no dispute may arise. The following table appears in the parish books of
+Salehurst, Sussex, and is curious and interesting:
+
+     "April 18, 1597.
+
+     "Memorandum that the duties for Churchinge of women in the
+     parishe of Salehurst is unto the minister ix d. b. and unto
+     the Clarke ij d.
+
+     "Item the due unto the minister for a marriadge is xxj d.
+     And unto the Clarke ij d. the Banes, and iiij d. the
+     marriadge.
+
+     "Item due for burialls as followeth
+        To the Minister in the Chancell . .      xiii s.   iiij d.
+        To the Clarke in the Chancell . .          vi s.  viiij d.
+        To the Parish in the Church . . .          vi s.   viii d.
+        To the Clarke in the Church . . .           v s.      o d.
+        To the Clarke in the churchyard for great
+          coffins . . . . . . .                    ii s.     vi d.
+        For great Corses uncoffined . . .          ii s.      o d.
+        For Chrisomers and such like coffined .     i s.   iiii d.
+        And uncoffined . . . . .                            xij d.
+        For tolling the passing bell and houre .    i s.
+        For ringing the sermon bell an houre .      i s.      0 d.
+        To the Clarke for carrying the beere .             iiij d.
+        If it be fetched . . . . .                           ij d.
+
+     "Item for funerals the Minister is to have the mourning
+     pullpit Cloth and the Clarke the herst Cloth.
+
+     "Item the Minister hathe ever chosen the parishe Clarke and
+     one of the Churchwardens and bothe the Sydemen.
+
+     "Item if they bring a beere or poles with the corps the
+     Clarke is to have them.
+
+     "If any Corps goe out of the parish they are to pay double
+     dutyes and to have leave.
+
+     "If any Corps come out of another parish to be buryed here,
+     they are to pay double dutyes besides breakinge the ground;
+     which is xiij s. 4 d. in the church, and vi s. viii d. in the
+     churchyard.
+
+     "For marryage by licence double fees both to the Minister and
+     Clarke[89]."
+
+[Footnote 89: _Sussex Archĉological Collections_, 1873, vol. xxv. p.
+154.]
+
+In addition to the fees to which the clerk is entitled by
+long-established custom, he receives wages, which he can recover by law
+if he be unjustly deprived of them. Churchwardens who in the old days
+neglected to levy a church rate in order to pay the expenses of the
+parish and the salary of the clerk, have been compelled by law to do so,
+in order to satisfy the clerk's claims.
+
+The wages which he received varied considerably. The churchwardens'
+accounts reveal the amounts paid the holders of the office at different
+periods. At St. Mary's, Reading, there are the items in 1557:
+
+     "Imprimis the Rent of the Clerke's
+     howse . . . . . .                             vi s. viii d."
+
+     "Paid to Marshall (the clerk) for parcell of
+     his wages that he was unpaide . .             v s."
+
+In 1561 the clerk's wages were 40 s., in 1586 only 20 s. At St. Giles's,
+Reading, in 1520, he received 26 s. 8 d., as the following entry shows:
+
+     "Paid to Harry Water Clerk for his
+     wage for a yere ended at thannacon
+     (the Annunciation) of Our Lady. xxvi s. viii."
+
+The clerk at St. Lawrence, Reading, received 20 s. for his services in
+1547. Owing to the decrease in the value of money the wages gradually
+rose in town churches, but in the eighteenth century in many country
+places 10 s. was deemed sufficient. The sum of £10 is not an unusual
+wage at the present time for a village clerk.
+
+The dismissal of a parish clerk was a somewhat difficult and dangerous
+task. In the eyes of the law he is no menial servant--no labourer who
+can be discharged if he fail to please his master. The law regards him
+as an officer for life, and one who has a freehold in his place. Sixty
+years ago no ecclesiastical court could deprive him of his office, but
+he could be censured for his faults and misdemeanours, though not
+discharged. Several cases have appeared in the law courts which have
+decided that as long as a clerk behaves himself well, he has a good
+right and title to continue in his office. Thus in _Rex_ v. _Erasmus
+Warren_ (16 Geo. III) it was shown that the clerk became bankrupt, had
+been guilty of many omissions in his office, was actually in prison at
+the time of his amoval, and had appointed a deputy who was totally unfit
+for the office. Against which it was insisted that the office of parish
+clerk was a temporal office during life, that the parson could not
+remove him, and that he had a right to appoint a deputy. One of the
+judges stated that though the minister might have power of removing the
+clerk on a good and sufficient cause, he could never be the sole judge
+and remove him at pleasure, without being subject to the control of the
+court. No misbehaviour of consequence was proved against him, and the
+clerk was restored to his office.
+
+In a more recent case the clerk had conducted himself on several
+occasions by designedly irreverent and ridiculous behaviour in his
+performance of his duty. He had appeared in church drunk, and had
+indecently disturbed the congregation during the administration of Holy
+Communion. He had been repeatedly reproved by the vicar, and finally
+removed from his office. But the court decided that because the clerk
+had not been summoned to answer for his conduct before his removal, a
+mandamus should be issued for his restoration to his office[90].
+
+[Footnote 90: _Ecclesiastical Law_, Sir R. Phillimore, p. 1907.]
+
+No deputy clerk when removed can claim to be restored. It will be
+gathered, therefore, that an incumbent is compelled by law to restore a
+clerk removed by him without just cause, that the justice of the cause
+is not determined in the law courts by an _ex-parte_ statement of the
+incumbent, and that an accused clerk must have an opportunity of
+answering the charges made against him. If a man performs the duties of
+the office for one year he gains a settlement, and cannot afterwards be
+removed without just cause.
+
+An important Act was passed in 1844, to which I have already referred,
+for the better regulating the office of lecturers and parish clerks.
+Sections 5 and 6 of this Act bear directly on the method of removal of a
+clerk who may be guilty of neglect or misbehaviour. I will endeavour to
+divest the wording of the Act from legal technicalities, and write it in
+"plain English."
+
+If a complaint is made to the archdeacon, or other ordinary, with regard
+to the misconduct of a clerk, stating that he is an unfit and improper
+person to hold that office, the archdeacon may summon the clerk and call
+witnesses who shall be able to give evidence or information with regard
+to the charges made. He can examine these witnesses upon oath, and hear
+and determine the truth of the accusations which have been made against
+the clerk. If he should find these charges proved he may suspend or
+remove the offender from his office, and give a certificate under his
+hand and seal to the incumbent, declaring the office vacant, which
+certificate should be affixed to the door of the church. Then another
+person may be elected or appointed to the vacant office: "Provided
+always, that the exercise of such office by a sufficient deputy who
+shall duly and faithfully perform the duties thereof, and in all
+respects well and properly demean himself, shall not be deemed a wilful
+neglect of his office on the part of such church clerk, chapel clerk, or
+parish clerk, so as to render him liable, for such cause alone, to be
+suspended or removed therefrom."
+
+A special section of the Act deals with such possessions as clerks'
+houses, buildings, lands or premises, held by a clerk by virtue of his
+office. If, when deprived of his office, he should refuse to give up
+such buildings or possessions, the matter must be brought before the
+bishop of the diocese, who shall summon the clerk to appear before him.
+If he fail to appear, or if the bishop should decide against him, the
+bishop shall grant a certificate of the facts to the person or persons
+entitled to the possession of the land or premises, who may thereupon go
+before a justice of the peace. The magistrate shall then issue his
+warrant to the constables to expel the clerk from the premises, and to
+hand them over to the rightful owners, the cost of executing the warrant
+being levied upon the goods and chattels of the expelled clerk. If this
+cost should be disputed, it shall be determined by the magistrate.
+Happily few cases arise, but perhaps it is well to know the procedure
+which the law lays down for the carrying out of such troublesome
+matters.
+
+The law also takes cognizance of the humbler office of sexton, the
+duties of which are usually combined in country places with those of the
+parish clerk. The sexton is, of course, the sacristan, the keeper of the
+holy things relating to divine worship, and seems to correspond with the
+_ostarius_ in the Roman Church. His duties consist in the care of the
+church, the vestments and vessels, in keeping the church clean, in
+ringing the bells, in opening and closing the doors for divine service,
+and to these the task of digging graves and the care of the churchyard
+are also added. He is appointed by the churchwardens if his duties be
+confined to the church, but if he is employed in the churchyard the
+appointment is vested in the rector. If his duties embrace the care of
+both church and churchyard, he should be appointed by the churchwardens
+and incumbent jointly[91].
+
+[Footnote 91: _Ecclesiastical Law_, p. 1914.]
+
+Many cases have come before the law courts relating to sextons and their
+election and appointment. He does not usually hold the same fixity of
+tenure as the parish clerk, he being a servant of the parish rather than
+an officer or one that has a freehold in his place; but in some cases a
+sexton has determined his right to hold the office for life, and gained
+a mandamus from the court to be restored to his position after having
+been removed by the churchwardens.
+
+The law has also decided that women may be appointed sextons.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD CLERKS AND THEIR WAYS
+
+Personal recollections of the manners and curious ways of old village
+clerks are valuable, and several writers have kindly favoured me with
+the descriptions of these quaint personages, who were well known to them
+in the days of their youth.
+
+The clerk of a Midland village was an old man who combined with his
+sacred functions the secular calling of the keeper of the village inn.
+He was very deaf, and consequently spoke in a loud, harsh voice, and
+scraps of conversation which were heard in the squire's high square box
+pew occasioned much amusement among the squire's sons. The Rev. W.V.
+Vickers records the following incidents:
+
+It was "Sacrament Sunday," and part of the clerk's duty was to prepare
+the Elements in the vestry, which was under the western tower.
+Apparently the wine was not forthcoming when wanted, and we heard the
+following stage-aside in broad Staffordshire: "Weir's the bottle? Oh!
+'ere it is, under the teeble (table) all the whoile."
+
+Another part of his duty was to sing in the choir, for which purpose he
+used to leave the lower deck of the three-decker and hobble with his
+heavy oak stick to the chancel for the canticles and hymns, and having
+swelled the volume of praise, hobble back again, a pause being made for
+his journey both to and fro. Not only did he sing in the choir but he
+gave out the hymns. This he did in a peculiar sing-song voice with
+up-and-down cadences: "Let us sing (low) to the praise (high) and glory
+(low) of God (high) the hundredth (low) psalm (high)." Very much the
+same intonation accompanied his reading of the alternate verses of
+the Psalms.
+
+On one occasion a locum tenens, who officiated for a few weeks, was
+_stone_ deaf. Hence a difficulty arose in his knowing when our worthy,
+and the congregation, had finished each response or verse. This the
+clerk got over by keeping one hand well forward upon his book and
+raising the fingers as he came to the close. This was the signal to the
+deaf man above him that it was _his_ turn! The old man, by half sitting
+upon a table in the belfry, could chime the four bells. It was his
+habit, instead of going by his watch, to look out for the first
+appearance of my father's carriage (an old-fashioned "britska," I
+believe it was called, with yellow body and wheels and large black hood,
+and so very conspicuous) at a certain part of the road, and then, and
+not till then, commence chiming. It was a compliment to my father's
+punctuality; but what happened when, by chance, he failed to attend
+church I know not--but such occasions were rare[92].
+
+[Footnote 92: In olden days it seems to have been the usual practice in
+many churches to delay service until the advent of the squire. Every one
+knows the old story of how, through some inadvertence, the minister had
+not looked out to see that the great man was in his accustomed pew. He
+began, "When the wicked man--" The parish clerk tugged him by his coat,
+saying, "Please, sir, he hasn't come yet!" As to whether the clergyman
+took the hint and waited for "the wicked man" history sayeth not.
+Another clerk told a young deacon, who was impatient to begin the
+service, "You must wait a bit, sir, we ain't ready." He then clambered
+on the Communion table, and peered through the east window, which
+commanded a view of the door in the wall of the squire's garden. "Come
+down!" shouted the curate. "I can see best where I be," replied the
+imperturbable clerk; "I'm watching the garden door. Here she be, and the
+squire." Whereupon he clambered down again, and without much further
+delay the service proceeded.]
+
+Our _parish_ church we seldom attended, for the simple reason that the
+aged vicar was scarcely audible; but there the clerk, after robing the
+vicar, mounted to the gallery above the vestry, where, taking a front
+seat, he watched for the exit of the vicar (whose habit it was to wait
+for the young men, who also waited in the church porch for him to begin
+the service!), and then, taking his seat at the organ, commenced the
+voluntary. It was his duty also to give out the hymns. I have known him
+play an eight-line tune to a four-line verse (or psalm--we used Tate and
+Brady), repeating the words of each verse twice!
+
+The organ produced the most curious sounds. In course of time the mice
+got into it, and the churchwardens, of whom the clerk was one,
+approached the vicar with the information, at the same time venturing a
+hint that the organ was quite worn out and that a harmonium would be
+more acceptable to the congregation than the present music. His reply
+was that a harmonium was not a sufficiently sacred instrument, and
+added, "Let a mouse-trap be set at once."
+
+Robert Dicker, quondam cabinet-maker in the town of Crediton, Devon,
+reigned for many years as parish clerk to the, at one time, collegiate
+church of the same town. He appears to have fulfilled his office
+satisfactorily up to about 1870, when his mind became somewhat feeble.
+Nevertheless, no desire was apparent to shorten the days of his office,
+as he was regular in his attendance and musically inclined; but when he
+began to play pranks upon the vicar it became necessary to consider the
+advisability of finding a substitute who should do the work and receive
+half the pay. One of his escapades was to stand up in the middle of
+service and call the vicar a liar; at another time he announced that a
+wedding was to take place on a certain day. The vicar, therefore,
+attended and waited for an hour, when the clerk affirmed that he must
+have dreamed it! Dicker was given to the study of astronomy, and it is
+related that he once gave a lecture on this subject in the Public Rooms.
+There is close to the town a small park in memory of one of the Duller
+family. A man one night was much alarmed when walking therein to
+discover a bright light in one of the trees, and, later, to hear the
+voice of the worthy clerk, who addressed him in these words: "Fear not,
+my friend, and do not be affrighted. I am Robert Dicker, clerk of the
+parish. I am examining the stars." Another account alleges that he
+affirmed himself to be "counting the stars." Whichever account is the
+true one, it will be gathered that he was already "far gone."
+
+Another of his achievements was the conversion of a barrel organ,
+purchased from a neighbouring church, into a manual, obtaining the wind
+therefor by a pedal arrangement which worked a large wheel attached to a
+crank working the bellows. On all great festivals and especially on
+Christmas Day he was wont to rouse the neighbourhood as early as three
+and four o'clock, remarking of the ungrateful, complaining neighbours
+that they had no heart for music or religion.
+
+The wheel mentioned above was part of one of his tricycle schemes. His
+first attempt in cycle-making resulted in the construction of a bicycle
+the wheels of which resembled the top of a round deal table; this soon
+came to grief. His second endeavour was more successful and became a
+tricycle, the wheels of which were made of wrought iron and the base of
+a triangular shape. Upon the large end he placed an arm-chair, averring
+that it would be useful to rest in whenever he should grow weary! Then,
+making another attempt, he succeeded in turning out (being aided by
+another person) a very respectable and useful tricycle upon which he
+made many journeys to Barnstaple and elsewhere.
+
+However, just as an end comes to everything that is mortal, so did an
+end come to our friend the clerk; for, as so many stories finish, he
+died in a good old age, and his substitute reigned in his stead.
+
+The following reminiscences of a parish clerk were sent by the Rev.
+Augustus G. Legge, who has since died.
+
+It is reported of an enthusiastic archĉologian that he blessed the day
+of the Commonwealth because, he said, if Cromwell and all his
+destructive followers had never lived, there would have been no ruins in
+the country to repay the antiquary's researches. And the converse of
+this is true of a race of men who before long will be "improved" off the
+face of the earth, if the restoration of our parish churches is to go on
+at the present rate. I allude to the old parish clerks of our boy-hood
+days. Who does not remember their quaint figures and quainter, though
+somewhat irreverent, manner of leading the responses of the
+congregation? It is well indeed that our churches, sadly given over to
+the laxity and carelessness of a bygone age, should be renovated and
+beautified, the tone of the services raised, and the "bray" of the old
+clerks, unsuited to the devotional feelings of a more enlightened day,
+silenced, but still a shade of regret will be mingled with their
+dismissal, if only for the sake of the large stock of amusing anecdotes
+which their names recall.
+
+My earliest recollections are connected with old Russell[93], my
+father's clerk. He was a little man but possessed of a consequential
+manner sufficient for a giant. A shoemaker by trade, his real element
+was in the church. His conversation was embellished by high-flown
+grandiloquence, and he invariably walked upon the heels of his boots.
+This latter peculiarity, as may well be imagined, was the cause of a
+most comical effect whenever he had occasion to leave his seat and
+clatter down the aisle of the church. How often when a boy did I make my
+old nurse's sides shake with laughter by imitating old Russell's walk!
+His manner of reading the responses in the service can only be compared
+to a kind of bellow--as my father used to say, "he bellowed like a
+calf"--and his rendering of parts of it was calculated to raise a smile
+upon the lips of the most devout. The following are a few instances of
+his perversions of the text. "Leviathan" under his quaint manipulation
+became "leather thing," his trade of shoemaker helping him, no doubt, to
+his interpretation. Whether he had ever attended a fish-dinner at
+Greenwich and his mind had thus become impressed with the number and
+variety of the inhabitants of the deep, history does not record, but, be
+that as it may, "Bring hither the tabret" was invariably read as "Bring
+hither the turbot." "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego" did service for
+"Ananias, Azarias, and Misael" in the "Benedicite," and "Destructions
+are come to a perpetual end" was transmogrified into "_parental_ end" in
+the ninth Psalm. My father once took the trouble to point out and try to
+correct some of his inaccuracies, but he never attempted it again. Old
+Russell listened attentively and respectfully, but when the lecture was
+over he dismissed the subject with a superior shake of the head and the
+disdainful remark, "Well, sir, I have heerd tell of people who think
+with you." Never a bit though did he make any change in his own peculiar
+rendering of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer.
+
+[Footnote 93: Old Russell, for many years clerk of the parish of East
+Lavant in the county of Sussex.]
+
+There was one occasion on which he especially distinguished himself, and
+I shall never forget it. A farmyard of six outbuildings abutted upon the
+church burial ground, and it was but natural that all the fowls should
+stray into it to feed and enjoy themselves in the grass. Amongst these
+was a goodly flock of guinea-fowls, which oftentimes no little disturbed
+the congregation by their peculiar cry of "Come back! come back! come
+back!" One Sunday the climax of annoyance was reached when the whole
+flock gathered around the west door just as my father was beginning to
+read the first lesson. His voice, never at any time very strong, was
+completely drowned. Whereupon old Russell hastily left his seat, book in
+hand, and clattering as usual on his heels down the aisle disappeared
+through the door on vengeance bent. The discomfiture of the offending
+fowls was instantly apparent by the change in their cry to one more
+piercing still as they fled away in terror. Then all was still, and
+back comes old Russell, a gleam of triumph on his face and somewhat out
+of breath, but nevertheless able without much difficulty to take up the
+responses in the canticle which followed the lesson. Scarcely, however,
+had the congregation resumed their seats for the reading of the second
+lesson when the offending flock again gathered round the west door, and
+again, as if in defiant derision of Russell, raised their mocking cry of
+"Come back! come back! come back!" And back accordingly he went clatter,
+clatter down the aisle, a stern resolution flashing from his eye, and
+causing the little boys as he passed to quail before him. Now it so
+happened that the lesson was a short one, and, moreover, Russell took
+more time, making a farther excursion into the churchyard than before,
+in order if possible to be rid entirely of the noisy intruders. Just as
+he returned to the church door, this time completely breathless, the
+first verse of the canticle which followed was being read, but Russell
+was equal to the occasion. All breathless as he was, without a moment's
+hesitation, he opened his book at the place and bellowed forth the
+responses as he proceeded up the church to his seat. The scene may be
+imagined, but scarcely described: Russell's quaint little figure, the
+broad-rimmed spectacles on his nose, the ponderous book in his hands,
+the clatter of his heels, the choking gasps with which he bellowed out
+the words as he laboured for breath, and finally the sudden
+disappearance of the congregation beneath the shelter of their high pews
+with a view to giving vent to their feelings unobserved--all this
+requires to have been witnessed to be fully appreciated.
+
+It chanced one Sunday that a parishioner coming into church after the
+service had begun omitted to close the door, causing thereby an
+unseemly draught. My father directed Russell to shut it. Accordingly,
+book in hand and with a thumb between the leaves to keep the place, he
+sallied forth. But, alas! in shutting the door the thumb fell out and
+the place was lost, and after floundering about awhile to find, if
+possible, the proper response, he at length made known to the
+congregation the misfortune which had befallen him by exclaiming aloud,
+"I've lost my place or _summut_."
+
+A very amusing incident once took place at a baptism. The service
+proceeded with due decorum and regularity till my father demanded of the
+godfather the child's name. The answer was so indistinctly given that he
+had to repeat the question more than once, and even then the name
+remained a mystery. All he could make out was something which sounded
+like "Harmun," the godfather indignantly asserting the while that it was
+a "Scriptur" name. In his perplexity my father turned to Russell with
+the query: "Clerk, do you know what the name is?" "No, sir. I'm sure I
+don't know, unless it be he at the end of the prayer," meaning "Amen."
+The result was that the child was otherwise christened, and after the
+ceremony was over my father, placing a Bible in the godfather's hands,
+requested him to find the "Scriptur" name, as he called it, when, having
+turned over the leaves for some time, he drew his attention to _wicked
+Haman_. The child's escape, therefore, was most fortunate. Old Russell
+has now slept with his fathers for many years, and the few stories which
+I have related about him do not by any means exhaust the list of his
+oddities. Many of the parishioners to this day, no doubt, will call to
+mind the quaint way in which, if he thought any one was misbehaving
+himself in church, he would rise slowly from his seat with such majesty
+as his diminutive stature could command, and shading his spectacles with
+his hand, gaze sternly in the offending quarter; how on a certain
+Communion Sunday he forgot the wine to be used in the sacred office, and
+when my father directed his attention to the omission, after sundry
+dives under the altar-cloth he at last produced a common rush basket,
+and from it a black bottle; how on another Sunday, being desirous to
+free the church from smoke which had escaped from a refractory stove, he
+deliberately mounted upon the altar and remained standing there while he
+opened a small lattice in the east window. All these circumstances will,
+no doubt, be recalled by some one or other in the parish. But, gentle
+reader, be not overharsh in passing judgment upon him. I verily believe
+that he had no more desire to be irreverent than you or I have. The
+fault lay rather in the religious coldness and carelessness of those
+days than in him. He was liked and respected by every one as a harmless,
+inoffensive, good-hearted old fellow, and I cannot better close this
+brief account of some of his peculiarities than by saying--as I do with
+all my heart--Peace to his ashes!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Legge's baptismal story reminds me of a friend who was christening
+the child of a gipsy, when the name given was "Neptin." This puzzled him
+sorely, but suddenly recollecting that he had baptized another gipsy
+child "Britannia," without any hesitation he at once named the infant
+"Neptune." Mr. Eagles was once puzzled when the sponsor gave the name
+"Acts." "'Acts!' said I. 'What do you mean?' Thinks I to myself, I will
+_ax_ the clerk to spell it. He did: A-C-T-S. So Acts was the babe, and
+will be while in this life, and will be doubly, trebly so registered if
+ever he marries or dies. Afterwards, in the vestry, I asked the good
+woman what made her choose such a name. Her answer _verbatim_: 'Why,
+sir, we be religious people; we've got your on 'em already, and they be
+caal'd Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and so my husband thought we'd
+compliment the apostles a bit.'"
+
+Mr. Legge adds the following stories:
+
+My first curacy was in Norfolk in the year 1858, a period when the old
+style of parish clerk had not disappeared. On one occasion I was asked
+by a friend in a neighbouring parish to take a funeral service for him.
+On arriving at the church I was received by a very eccentric clerk. It
+seemed as if his legs were hung upon wires, and before the service began
+he danced about the church in a most peculiar and laughable manner, and
+in addition to this he had a hideous squint, one eye looking north and
+the other south. The service proceeded with due decorum until we arrived
+at the grave, when those who were preparing to lower the coffin in it
+discovered that it had not been dug large enough to receive it. This of
+course created a very awkward pause while it was made larger, and the
+chief mourner utilised it by gently remonstrating with the clerk for his
+carelessness. In reply he gave a solemn shake of his head, cast one eye
+into the grave and the other at the chief mourner, and merely remarked,
+"Putty (pretty) nigh though," meaning that the offence after all was not
+so very great, as he had almost accomplished his task. Obliged to keep
+my countenance, I had, as may be imagined, some difficulty.
+
+A very amusing incident once took place when I had a couple before me
+to be married. All went well until I asked the question, "Who giveth
+this woman to be married to this man?" when an individual stepped
+forward, and snatching the ring out of the bride-groom's hand, began
+placing it on a finger of the bride. As all was confusion I signed to
+the old clerk to put matters straight. Attired in a brown coat and
+leather gaiters, with spectacles on his nose, and a large Prayer Book in
+his hands, he came shuffling forward from the background, exclaiming out
+loud, "Bless me, bless me! never knew such a thing happen afore in all
+my life!" The service was completed without any further interruption,
+but again I had a sore difficulty in keeping my countenance.
+
+Many years ago ecclesiastical matters in Norfolk were in a very slack
+state--rectors and vicars lived away from their parishes, subscribing
+amongst them to pay the salary of a curate to undertake the church
+services. As his duties were consequently manifold some parishes were
+without his presence on Sunday for a month and sometimes longer. The
+parish clerk would stand outside the church and watch for the coming
+parson, and if he saw him in the distance would immediately begin to
+toll the bell; if not, the parish was without a service on that day.
+
+It happened on one of these monthly occasions that on the arrival of the
+parson at the church he was met by the clerk at the door, who, pulling
+his forelock, addressed him as follows: "Sir, do yew mind a prachin in
+the readin' desk to-day?" "Yes," was the reply; "the pulpit is the
+proper place." "Well, sir, you see we fare to have an old guse a-sittin'
+in the pulpit. She'll be arf her eggs to-morrow; 'twould be a shame to
+take her arf to-day."
+
+The pulpit was considered as convenient a place as any for the "old
+guse" to hatch her young in.
+
+Canon Venables contributes the following:
+
+The first parish clerk I can in the least degree remember was certainly
+entitled to be regarded as a "character," albeit not in all moral
+respects what would be called a moral character. Shrewd, clever, and
+better informed than the inhabitants of his little village of some
+eighty folk, he was not "looked up to," but was regarded with suspicion,
+and, in short, was not popular, while treated with a certain amount of
+deference, being a man of some knowledge and ability. The clergyman was
+a man of excellent character, learned, a fluent _ex-tempore_ preacher,
+and one who liked the services to be nicely conducted. He came over
+every Sunday and ministered two services. In those days the only organ
+was a good long pitch-pipe constructed principally of wood and, I
+imagine, about twelve inches in length. But upon the parish clerk
+devolved the onerous (and it may be added in this case sonorous) duty of
+starting the hymn and the singing. In those days few could read, and the
+method was adopted (and I know successfully adopted a few years later)
+of announcing two lines of the verse to be sung, and sometimes the whole
+verse. But Mr. W.M. was unpopular, and people did not always manifest a
+willingness to sing with him.
+
+At last a crisis came. The hymn and psalm were announced. The pitch-pipe
+rightly adjusted gave the proper keynote, and the clerk essayed to sing.
+But from some cause matters were not harmonious and none attempted to
+help the clerk.
+
+With a scowl not worthy of a saint, the offended official turned round
+upon the congregation and closed all further attempts at psalm-singing
+by stating clearly and distinctly, "I shan't sing if nobody don't
+foller." This man was deposed ere long, and deservedly, if village
+suspicions were truthful.
+
+After which, I think, he usually came just inside the church once every
+Sunday, but never to get further than to take a seat close to the door.
+He died at a great age. Two or three of his successors were worthy men.
+One of them would carefully recite the Psalms for the coming Sunday
+within church or elsewhere during the week, and he read with proper
+feeling and good sense.
+
+Another of the same little parish, well up in his Bible, once helped the
+very excellent clergyman at a baptism in a critical moment. "Name this
+child." "Zulphur." This was not a correct name. Another effort,
+"Sulphur." The clergyman was in difficulty. The clerk was equal to the
+occasion, for the parson was well up in his Bible too.
+
+"Leah's handmaid," suggested the clerk. "Zilpah, I baptize thee," said
+the priest, and all was well.
+
+In that church the few farmers who met to levy a poor-rate and do other
+parochial work insisted on doing so within the chancel rails, using the
+holy table as the writing-desk, and the assigned reason for so doing was
+that, being apt to quarrel and dispute over parish matters, there would
+be no danger _at such a place_ as this of using profane language. All in
+the diocese of Oxford.
+
+It was in the twenties that I must have seen old P.W. (the parish clerk)
+and two other men in the desk singing to "Hanover," with a certain
+apparent self-complacency in nice smock-frocks, "My soul, praise the
+Lord, speak good of His Name," etc. The little congregation listened
+with seeming contentment, and it is worth recording that the parson
+always preached in the surplice. I suppose Pusey was a boy at that time,
+but the custom in this church was not a novelty, whether right or wrong.
+
+It was not the clerk's fault that the hour of service was hastened by
+some seventy minutes one afternoon, so that one or two invariably late
+worshippers were astounded to be driven backwards from the church by the
+congregation returning from service. But so it was. The really
+well-meaning kind-hearted parson was withal a keen sportsman and a
+worthy gentleman, and with his "long dogs" and man was on his horse and
+away for Illsley Downs race course to come off next day, and his dogs
+(they won) must not be fatigued. Old P.W., the clerk, reached a good
+age, an inoffensive man.
+
+I was rather interested when residing in my parish in grand old
+Yorkshire to observe two steady-looking and rather elderly men, each
+aided by a strong walking-stick, coming to church with praiseworthy
+regularity and reverence. I found, on making their acquaintance, that
+they were brothers who had recently come into the parish, natives of
+"the Peak," or of the locality near the Peak, which was not many miles
+distant from my parish.
+
+Since I heard from their lips the story which I am about to relate, I
+have heard it told, _mutatis mutandis_, as happening in sundry other
+parishes, until one rather doubts the genuineness of the record at all.
+But as they recounted it it ran as follows, and I am sure they believed
+what they told me.
+
+Some malicious person or persons unknown entered the church, and having
+seized the rather large typed Prayer Book used by the clerk, who was
+somewhat advanced in years, they observed that the words "the righteous
+shall flourish like" were the last words at the bottom of the page,
+whereupon they altered the next words on the top of the following page,
+and which were "the palm tree," into "a green bay horse"; and, the
+change being carefully made, the result on the Sunday following was that
+the well-meaning clerk, studiously uttering each word of his Prayer
+Book, found himself declaring very erroneous doctrine. "Hulloa," cried
+he; "I must hearken back. This'll never do." Now I cannot call to mind
+the name of the parish. It was not Chapel-in-the-Frith. Was it
+Mottram-in-Longdendale? I really cannot remember. But these two old men
+asserted that thenceforward it became a saying, "I must hearken back,
+like the clerk of--."
+
+I recollect preaching one weekday night (and people would crowd the
+churches on weekday evenings fifty years ago far more readily than they
+do now) at some wild place in Lancashire or Yorkshire, I think
+Lancashire. I was taken to see and stand upon a stepping stone outside
+the church, and close against the south wall of the sacred edifice, upon
+which almost every Sunday the clerk, as the people were leaving church,
+ascended and in a loud voice announced any matters concerning the parish
+which it appeared desirable to proclaim. In this way any intended sales
+were made known, the loss of sheep or cattle on the moors was announced,
+and almost anything appertaining to the secular welfare of the
+parishioners was made public. I do not state this to criticise it. It
+was in some degree a recognition of the charity which ought to realise
+the sympathy in each other's welfare which we ought all to display. It
+was in those primitive times and localities a specimen of the
+simplicity and well-meant interest in the welfare of the neighbour as
+well as of oneself, although perhaps the secular sometimes did much to
+extinguish the spiritual.
+
+[Illustration: SUNDAY MORNING]
+
+Few people now realise what a business it was to light up a church, say,
+eighty years ago. But the worthy old clerk, in a wig bestowed on him by
+the pious and aged patron, is hastening to illuminate his church with
+old-fashioned candles, in which he is aided not a little by his faithful
+wife, who, like Abraham's wife, regarded her husband as her lord and
+responded to the name of Sarah. The good old man--and he was a good old
+man--was perhaps a little bit "flustered and flurried," for the folk
+were gathering within the sacred temple, and W.L. was anxious to
+complete his task of lighting the loft, or gallery. "I say, Sally, hand
+us up a little taste of candle," cried her lord, and Sarah obeyed, and
+the illumination was soon complete.
+
+But, really, few men "gave out" or announced a hymn with truer and more
+touching and devout feeling than did that old clerk. I am one of those
+who do not think that all the changes in the ministration of Church
+services are, after experience had, desirable. I think that in many
+instances the lay clerk ought to have been instructed in the performance
+of his duties, to the profit of all concerned. And I deem that this
+proceeding would have been a far wiser proceeding than any substitution
+of the man or his function. There is ancient authority for a clerk or
+clerks. It is wise to secure work to be attended to in the functions of
+divine service for as many laymen as possible, consistent with principle
+and propriety. W.L. was an old man when I saw him, but I can hear him
+now as with a pathos quite touching and teaching, because done so
+simply and naturally, he announced, singing:
+
+     "Salvation, what a glorious theme,
+       How suited to our need.
+     The grace that rescues fallen man
+       Is wonderful indeed."
+
+And though he pronounced the last word but one as if spelt "woonderful,"
+I venture to say that the "giving out" of that verse by that aged clerk
+with his venerable wig and with a voice trembling a little by age, but
+more by natural emotion, was preferable to many modern modes of
+announcing a hymn.
+
+It was common to say "Let us sing, to the praise and glory of God." It
+is common to be shocked, nowadays, by such an invitation. Are we as
+reverent now as then? Do we sing praises with understanding better? I
+think it is not so.
+
+I knew a very respectable man, W.K., a tailor by trade, a well-conducted
+man, but who felt the importance of his office to an extent that made
+him nervous, or (what is as bad) made him fancy he was nervous. The
+church was capacious, and the population over two thousand.
+
+A large three-decker, though the pulpit was at a right angle with the
+huge prayer-desk and the clerk's citadel below, well stained and
+varnished, formed an important portion of the furniture of the church,
+the whole structure, as we were reminded by large letters above the
+chancel arch, having been "Adorn'd and beautified 1814," the names of
+the churchwardens being also recorded. This clerk was observed
+frequently, during the service, to stoop down within his little "pew" as
+if to imbibe something. He was inquired of as to his strange proceeding,
+when he frankly stated that he felt the trials of his duties to be so
+great, that he always fortified himself with a little bottle containing
+some gin and some water, to which bottle he made frequent appeals during
+the often rather lengthy services. He had to proclaim the notices of
+vestry meetings of all kinds, as well as to give out the hymns; but what
+astonishes me is that he baptized many infants at their homes instead of
+the most excellent vicar, when circumstances made it difficult for the
+really good vicar to attend.
+
+I saw him, one first Sunday in Lent, stand up on the edge of his square
+box or pew, and conduct a rather long consultation with the vicar, a
+very spiritually minded, excellent man, upon which we were put through
+the whole Commination Service which, though appointed for Ash Wednesday,
+was wholly neglected until it lengthened out the Sunday morning of the
+first _in_ but not _of_ Lent, and having nothing to do with the forty
+days of Lent.
+
+The well-conducted man lived to a good age, and after his death a rather
+costly stained glass window was erected to his memory under the active
+influence of a new vicar. When privately engaged in church he wore his
+usual silk hat, though not approving of any one so behaving.
+
+I recollect, in a large church in a large town, the clerk, arrayed
+(properly, I think) in a suitable black gown, giving out the hymn, in a
+tone to be regretted, but where the obvious remedy was not to dethrone
+the clerk, but rather to have just suggested the propriety of reading
+the entire verse, as well as of avoiding a tone lugubrious on
+the occasion.
+
+It was Easter Day, and the hymn quite appropriate, but not so
+_rendered_ as the clerk heavily and drearily announced:
+
+     "The Lord is risen indeed,
+       And are the tidings true?"
+
+as if there might exist a doubt about this glorious fact.
+
+Pity that he did not enter into the spirit of the verse and add:
+
+     "Yes! we beheld the Saviour bleed,
+       And saw Him rising too."
+
+Within about ten miles nearer to Windsor Castle the clerk of a church in
+which not a few nobility usually worshipped, was altogether at fault in
+his "H's," as he exhorted the people to sing, "The Heaster Im with the
+Allelujer, _h_et the _h_end of _h_every line." Other clerks may have
+done the same. He did it, I know well.
+
+Throughout the whole of my very imperfect ministry I have sought to
+practise catechising in church every Sunday afternoon, and very strongly
+desire to urge the practice of it in every church every Sunday.
+
+It is one of the most difficult parts of the glorious ministry since the
+time of St. Luke that can engage the attention of the ordained ministers
+of Christ's Church. It needs to be done well. It ought not to be a very
+nice, simple sermonette. This, though very beautiful, is not
+catechising. Perhaps, if at once followed by questions upon the
+sermonette, it might thus become very useful. But a catechesis in which
+the catechist simply tells a simple story or gives an amusing anecdote,
+or when questioning, so puts his inquiries that "yes" and "no" are the
+listless replies that are drawn forth from the lads and girls, is not
+interesting or profitable. Whenever I have the opportunity I go to an
+afternoon catechetical service. Some failed by being made into the time
+of a small preachment; some because in a few minutes the catechist
+easily asked questions and then answered them himself. Others were
+really magnificent, securing the attention and drawing forth answers
+admirably. Was it the great bishop Samuel Wilberforce who said, "A boy
+may preach, but it takes a man to catechise"?
+
+I cannot boast of being a good catechist; but I know that catechising
+costs me more mental exhaustion (alas! with sad depression under a sense
+of trial of temper and failure) than any sermon. But I will say to any
+clergyman, _My dear brother, catechise; try, persevere, keep on. It will
+not be in vain. But secure an answer_. If need be, become a
+cross-examining advocate for Christ, and don't give up until you have
+made the catechumens, by dint of a variety of ways of putting the
+question, give the answer you desired. You have made them think and call
+memory into play, and made them feel that they "knew it all the time,"
+if only they had reflected. And you have given them a "power of good."
+
+But what has all this to do with a clerk? Well, I want to tell what made
+me _try_ to be a good catechist, and what makes me, over eighty-three
+years of age, _still wish_ to become such, though the incident must have
+happened some seventy years ago, for I recollect that on the very Sunday
+we crossed the Greta my father whispered to me as we were on the bridge
+that it was the poet Southey who was close to us, as he as well as our
+little family and a goodly congregation were returning from Crosthwaite
+Church in the afternoon. For "oncers" were unknown in those times,
+neither by poets and historians like Southey, nor by travellers such as
+we were. We had attended morning service. A stranger officiated. His
+name was _Bush_, and this is important. A family "riddle" impressed the
+name upon me. "Why were we all like Moses to-day?" "We had heard the
+word out of a Bush," was the reply. But at the afternoon service I was
+deeply impressed. The Rev. M. Bush having read the lessons, came out of
+the prayer-desk, and to my amazement and great interest catechised the
+children and others.
+
+I thought to myself that the practice was excellent, and felt that if
+ever I became a clergyman (of which honour there was very small
+probability), I would obey the Prayer Book and catechise. Since then I
+have catechised ten, twenty, fifty young people, and not infrequently
+five hundred to one thousand, and rarely two to three thousand on a
+Sunday afternoon, often, however, much exhausted (having to preach in
+the evening) and dreadfully cast down at my own failure in not
+catechising better.
+
+Decades rolled on. A lovely effigy of Southey occupied his place in
+Crosthwaite Church, and I found myself again amidst the enchanting views
+of and about Derwentwater. The morning was wet, but I resolved to go as
+soon as it cleared up in order to find "th' ould clerk," and inquire of
+him touching the catechising of perhaps forty years ago. I was told that
+he had resigned, that he lived still at no very great distance. I think
+he was succeeded by his son as clerk. After some trouble I found my aged
+friend, and told him that very many years ago I was at the church when
+Southey, the poet, was there, and I wanted to know if the catechising
+was continued. "There never has been any catechising here," said the
+worthy old sacristan. "Forgive me, I heard it myself." "I tell thee
+there never was no catechising here. I lived here all these years, and
+was clerk for nearly all the time." "I cannot help that," I said; "I am
+sure there was catechising in your church on a Sunday when I, a boy, was
+here." The old Churchman became testy, and my pertinacity made him
+irate, as he thundered out that "never had there been catechising in
+that church in all his day." I rose to leave him, telling him that I was
+very disappointed, but that I was _confident_ that I did not invent this
+story, and, I added, the name of the parson was Bush. "_Bush, Bush,
+Bush!_ Well, there was a clergyman of that name come here four Sundays,
+many a year ago, when the vicar was from home; and now I come to think
+of it, he did catechise on the Sunday afternoon. But he is the only man
+that ever did so here. There's been no catechising in this church,
+except then." We parted good friends after what I felt to be a most
+singular interview, far more interesting, I fear, to me than to any who
+may read this unadorned tale, and especially the many folks who probably
+but for this I should never have catechised.
+
+But I hope the old clerk of Crosthwaite's declaration will not long be
+true of any church of the Anglican Communion, "There's been no
+catechising here." My success as a preacher, or catechist, or parish
+priest has not been great, but this does not greatly surprise me, while
+sorrowing that so it has been. But I think it likely that the incident
+at Crosthwaite Church was a chief cause of my trying to be a catechist,
+and I conclude by saying to any one in holy orders, or preparing to
+receive them. Make catechising an important effort in your ministry.
+
+It was a small parish. The vicar was a learned man, and an authority as
+an antiquary, and a man of high character. On a certain Sunday morning
+I was detailed to perform all the "duties" of Morning Prayer. Doubtless
+I was too energetic in my efforts at preaching, for my "action" proved,
+almost to an alarming extent, that the huge pulpit cushion had not been
+"dusted" for a lengthy period. But it was at the very commencement of
+divine service that the clerk demonstrated his originality in the proper
+discharge of his duties. "I stands up in yonder corner to ring the
+bells, and as soon as you be ready you gives me a kind of nod like, and
+then I leaves off ringing and comes to my place as clerk." Nothing could
+work better, and the clerk of B----- d and I parted at the close of
+divine service on very amicable terms.
+
+Mr. F.S. Gill, aged 86, has many recollections of old clerks and their
+ways. In a parish in Nottinghamshire there was an old clerk who was
+nearly blind. There were two services on Sunday in summer, and only
+morning service in winter. The clerk knew the morning Psalms quite well
+by heart, but not so the evening Psalms. On one occasion when his verse
+should have been read, he was unable to recollect it. After a pause the
+clergyman began to read it, when the clerk, who occupied the box below
+that of the vicar, looked up, saying, "Nay, nay, master, I've got
+it now."
+
+Another time, when an absent-minded curate omitted the ante-Communion
+service and appeared in his black gown in the pulpit, the clerk was
+indignant, and went up to remonstrate. Knocking at the pulpit door and
+no notice being taken of him, he proceeded to pull the black gown, and
+made the curate come down, change his robes, and complete the service in
+the orthodox fashion.
+
+In another Notts church, during service, there was an encounter between
+two clerks. The regular clerk having been taken ill was unequal to his
+duties for some weeks, and appointed a man to carry them out for him. On
+the restoration to health of the real clerk he came into church to
+resume his duties, but found the man he had appointed occupying the
+box--the so-called desk. Whereupon they had a scuffle in the aisle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rev. William Selwyn recollects the following incidents in the parish
+of F-----, near Cambridge:
+
+Here up to the end of the sixties and well into the seventies a most
+quaint service was in fashion. The morning service began with a metrical
+Psalm--Tate and Brady--led by the clerk (of these more hereafter). This
+being ended, the vicar commenced the service always with the sentence "O
+Lord, correct me"--never any other. Then all things went on in the
+regular course till the end of the Litany, when the clerk would be heard
+stamping down the church and ascending the gallery in order to be ready
+for the second metrical Psalm. That ended, the vicar would commence with
+the ante-Communion service from the _reading-desk_. This went on in due
+course till the end of the Nicene Creed, when without sermon, prayers,
+or blessing, the morning service came to an abrupt termination. The
+afternoon service was identical, save that it ended with a sermon and
+the blessing.
+
+But the chief peculiarity was the clerk and the singing. The metrical
+Psalm chosen was invariably one for the day of the month whatever it
+might be. The clerk would give it out, "Let's sing to the praise and
+glory of God," and then would read the first two lines. The usual
+village band--fiddle, trombone, etc. etc.--would accompany him, which
+thing done, the next two lines would follow, and so on. Usually the
+number of verses was four, but sometimes the clerk would go on to six,
+or even seven. Once, I remember, this led to a somewhat ludicrous
+result. It was the seventh day of the month, consequently the
+thirty-fifth was the metrical Psalm to be sung. I think my late revered
+relative, Canon Selwyn, learnt then with astonishment, as I did myself,
+of the existence of the following lines within the folds of the
+Prayer Book:
+
+     "And when through dark and slippery ways
+       They strive His rage to shun,
+     His vengeful ministers of wrath
+       Shall goad them as they run."
+
+It is hard to think that such a service could have been possible within
+seven miles of a University town, and I need hardly say it was very
+trying to the younger ones.
+
+In the afternoon the band migrated to the dissenting chapel. On one
+occasion the band failed to appear, and the clerk was left alone.
+However, he made the best of it, with scant support from the
+congregation, so turning to them at the end, said in a loud voice,
+"Thank you for your help!"
+
+THE PARISH OF BROMFIELD, SALOP.
+
+From these ludicrous scenes it is refreshing to turn to a service which,
+though primitive, was conducted with the utmost reverence and decency.
+When I was instituted in 1866 all the singing was conducted, and most
+reverently conducted, under the auspices of the clerk. He was a handsome
+man, with a flowing beard, magnificent bass voice, and a wooden leg.
+With two or three sons, daughters, and others in the village he
+carried on the choir, and though there were only hymns, nothing could be
+better. Of its kind I have seldom heard anything better. They had to
+yield to the inexorable march of time, but I parted from them with
+regret. Though we now have a surpliced choir of men and boys, with a
+trained organist and choirmaster, I always look back to my good old
+friend with his daughters and their companions, who were the leaders of
+the singing in the early days of my incumbency.
+
+[Illustration: THE PARISH CLERK OF QUEDGELEY]
+
+The Rev. Canon Hemmans tell his reminiscences of Thomas Evison, parish
+clerk of Wragby, Lincolnshire, who died in 1865, aged eighty-two years.
+He speaks of him as "a dear old friend, for whom I had a profound
+regard, and to whom I was grateful for much help during my noviciate at
+my first and only curacy."
+
+Thomas Evison was a shoemaker, and in his early years a great pot-house
+orator. Settled on his well-known corner seat in the "Red Lion," he
+would be seen each evening smoking his pipe and laying down the law in
+the character of the village oracle. He must have had some determination
+and force of character, as one evening he laid down his pipe on the hob
+and said, "I'll smoke no more." He also retired from his corner seat at
+the inn, but he was true to his political opinions, and remained an
+ardent Radical to the last. This action showed some courage, as almost
+all the parish belonged to the squire, who was a strong Tory of the old
+school. Canon Hemmans was curate of Wragby with the Rev. G.B. Yard from
+1851 to 1860, succeeding the present Dean of St. Paul's. Mr. Yard was a
+High Churchman, a personal friend of Manning, the Wilberforces, R.
+Sibthorpe, and Keble, and when expounding then unaccustomed and
+forgotten truths, he found the clerk a most intelligent and attentive
+hearer. Evison used to attend the daily services, except the Wednesday
+and Friday Litany, which service was too short for him. During the
+vicar's absence Canon Hemmans, who was then a deacon, found the clerk a
+most reliable adviser and instructor in Lincolnshire customs and words
+and ways of thought. When he was baptizing a child privately, the name
+Thirza was given to the child, which he did not recognise as a Bible
+name. He consulted Evison, who said, "Oh, yes, it is so; it's the name
+of Abel's wife." On the next day Evison bought a book, Gesner's _Death
+of Abel_, a translation of some Swedish or German work, in which the
+tragedy of the early chapters of Genesis is woven into a story with
+pious reflections. This is not an uncommon book, and the clerk said
+these people believed it was as true as the Bible, because it claimed to
+be about Bible characters.
+
+Evison was a diligent reader of newspapers, which were much fewer in his
+day, and studied diligently the sermons reported in the local Press. He
+was much puzzled by the reference to "the leg end" of the story of the
+raising of Lazarus in a sermon preached by the Bishop of London,
+afterwards Archbishop Tait. A reference to Bailey's Dictionary and the
+finding of the word _legend_ made matters clear. Of course he miscalled
+words. During the Russian War he told Mr. Hemmans that we were not
+fighting for "territororial possessions," and he always read "Moabites
+and Hungarians" in his rendering of the sixth verse of the 83rd Psalm.
+
+After the resignation of Mr. Yard in 1859 a Low Churchman was
+appointed, who restored the use of the black gown. Mr. Hemmans had to
+preach in the evening of the first Sunday, and was undecided as to
+whether he ought to continue to use the surplice. He consulted Evison,
+whose brave advice was, "Stick to your colours."
+
+The clerk stuck stoutly to his Radical principles, and one day went to
+Lincoln to take part in a contested election. On the following Sunday
+the vicar spoke of "the filthy stream of politics." The old man was
+rather moved by this, and said afterwards, "Well, I am not too old to
+learn." Though staunch to his own principles, he was evidently
+considerate towards the opinions of others. He used to keep a pony and
+gig, and his foreman, one Solomon Bingham, was a local preacher. When
+there came a rough Sunday morning the kind old clerk would say: "Well,
+Solomon, where are you going to seminate your schism to-day? You may
+have my trap." Canon Hemmans retains a very affectionate regard for the
+memory of the old clerk.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Ellen M. Burrows sends me a charming description of an
+old-fashioned service, and some clerkly manners which are worth
+recording.
+
+From twenty-five to thirty years ago the small Bedfordshire village of
+Tingrith had quaint customs and ceremonies which to-day exist only in
+the memory of the few.
+
+The lady of the manor was perhaps best described by a neighbouring
+squire as a "potentate in petticoats."
+
+Being sole owner of the village, she found employment for all the men,
+enforced cleanliness on all the women, greatly encouraged the industry
+of lace-making and hat-sewing, paid for the schooling of the children,
+and looked after the morals of everybody generally.
+
+Legend has it that one ancient schoolmaster whom this good lady
+appointed was not overgood at spelling, and would allow a pupil to
+laboriously spell out a word and wait for him to explain. If the master
+could not do this he would pretend to be preoccupied, and advise the
+pupil to "say 'wheelbarrow' and go on."
+
+On a Sunday each and every cottager was expected at church. The women
+sat on one side of the centre aisle and the men on the other, the former
+attired in clean cotton gowns and the latter in their Sunday smocks.
+
+The three bells were clanged inharmoniously until a boy who was
+stationed at a point of vantage told the ringer "she's a-comin'." Then
+one bell only was rung to announce the near arrival of the lady of
+the manor.
+
+The rector would take his place at the desk, and the occupants of the
+centre aisle would rise respectfully to their feet in anticipation.
+
+A white-haired butler and a younger footman--with many brass buttons on
+their coat-tails--would fling wide the double doors and stand one on
+either side until the old lady swept in; then one door was closed and
+the other only left open for less-important worshippers to enter. As she
+passed between the men and women to the big pew joining the chancel
+screen, they all touched their forelocks or dropped curtsies before
+resuming their seats. Before this aristocratic personage began her
+devotions she would face round and with the aid of a large monocle,
+which hung round her neck on a broad black ribbon, would make a silent
+call over, and for the tardy, or non-arrivals, there was a lecture in
+store. The servants of her household had the whole of one side aisle
+allotted to their use. The farmers had the other. There were two
+"strangers' pews," two "christening pews," and the rest were for the
+children. When a hymn was given out the schoolmaster would vigorously
+apply a tuning-fork to his knee, and having thus got the key would start
+the tune, which was taken up lustily by the children round him. This was
+all the singing they had in the service. The clerk said all the amens
+except when he was asleep. The rector was never known to preach more
+than ten minutes at a time, and this was always so simple an exposition
+of the Scripture that the most illiterate could understand.
+
+But no pen can pay tribute enough to the sweet earnestness of those
+little sermons, or, having heard them, ever go away unimpressed.
+
+At the end of the service no one of the congregation moved until the
+lady of the manor sailed out of the great square pew. Then the men and
+women rose as before and bowed and bobbed as she passed down the aisle.
+The two menservants again flung wide the double doors and stood stiffly
+on either side as she passed out; then sedately walked home behind her
+at a respectful distance.
+
+On each Good Friday the male community of the villagers were given a
+holiday from their work, and a shilling was the reward for every man who
+made his appearance at the eleven o'clock service; needless to say, it
+was well attended.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another church (Newport Pagnell, Bucks) in an adjoining county--probably
+some years previous to this date--was lighted by tallow candles stuck in
+tin sconces on the walls, and twice during the service the clerk went
+round with a pair of long-handled snuffers to "smitch," as he called
+it, the wicks of these evil-smelling lights.
+
+For his own better accommodation he had a candle all to himself stuck in
+a bottle, which he lighted when about to sing a hymn, and with candle in
+one hand and book in the other, and both held at arm's length, he would
+bellow most lustily and with reason, for he was supposed to lead the
+singing. This finished he would blow out his candle with most audible
+vigour, and every one in his neighbourhood would have their
+handkerchiefs ready to drop their noses into.
+
+This same clerk also took up his stand by the chancel steps with a black
+rod in his hand, and with tremendous importance marched in front of the
+rector down the aisle to the vestry under the belfry, and waited outside
+while the clergyman changed his surplice for a black cassock, then
+escorted him again to the pulpit stairs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rev. E.H.L. Reeve, rector of Stondon Massey, Essex, contributes the
+following excellent stories of old-time services.
+
+The Rev. Thomas Wallace was rector of Listen, in Essex, from 1783, the
+date of his father's death, onward. The following story is well
+authenticated in the annals of the family, and must belong to the latter
+part of the eighteenth century or the commencement of the
+nineteenth century.
+
+It was, of course, a well-established custom in those old times for the
+church clerk to give out the number of the hymn to be sung, which he did
+with much unction and long preamble. The moments thus employed would be
+turned to account in the afternoon by the officiating clergyman, who
+would take the opportunity of retiring to the vestry to exchange his
+surplice for his academic gown wherein to preach.
+
+On one occasion Mr. Wallace left his sermon, through inadvertence, at
+home; and, finding himself in the vestry, considered, perhaps, that the
+chance of escape was too good to be lost. At any rate, he let himself
+out into the churchyard, and returned no more! He may possibly have been
+unable to find a discourse, but these are details with which we are not
+concerned. The clerk and congregation with becoming loyalty lengthened
+out the already dreary hymn by sundry additions and doxologies to give
+their pastor time to don his robes, and it was long ere they perceived
+the true cause of his delay. They were somewhat nettled, as one may
+suppose, at being thus befooled, and here lies the gist of our story.
+Next Sunday the clerk did not give out the second hymn at the usual
+time, but waited in solemn silence till Mr. Wallace had returned in his
+black gown from the vestry and ascended the pulpit stairs. Then, and not
+till then, he closed the pulpit door with a slam; and, _keeping his back
+against it_, called out significantly, and with a tone of exultation in
+his voice, "We've got him, my boys; _now_ let us sing to the praise and
+glory of God," etc.
+
+William Wren held the office of church clerk at Stondon Massey in Essex
+for thirty-six years, from 1853 to 1889. He was a rough, uneducated man,
+but with a certain amount of native talent which raised him above the
+level of the majority of his class. I can see him now in his place
+Sunday after Sunday, rigged out in a suit of my father's cast-off
+clerical garments--a kind of "set-off" to him at the lower end of the
+church. In his earlier days Wren had played a flute in the village
+instrumental choir, and to the last he might be heard whiling away
+spare moments on a Sunday in the church (for he brought his dinner early
+in the morning and bivouacked there all day!) recalling to himself the
+departed glories of ancient time. He turned the handle of the barrel
+organ in the west gallery from the time of its purchase in 1850 to that
+of its disappearance in 1873, but I do not think that he ever
+appreciated this rude substitution of mechanical art for cornet,
+dulcimer, and pipe.
+
+He led the hymns and read the Psalms, and repeated the responses with
+much fervour; perpetuating (long after it had ceased to be correct) the
+idea that he alone could be relied upon. Should the preacher
+inadvertently close his discourse with the sacred name either as part of
+a text or otherwise, a fervent "Amun" was certain to resound through the
+building, either because long custom had led him to regard the appendage
+as indispensable to it, or because like an old soldier suddenly roused
+to "attention," he awoke from a stolen slumber to jerk himself into the
+mental attitude most familiar to him. This last supposition, however, is
+a libel upon his fair character. I cannot believe that Wren ever slept
+on duty. He kept near to him a long hazel stick, wherewith to overawe
+any of the younger members of the congregation who were inclined either
+to speak or titter. On Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, when the school
+attended morning service, and, in the absence of older people, occupied
+the principal seats instead of their Sunday places in the gallery,
+Wren's rod was frequently called into active play, and I have heard the
+stick resound on the luckless head of many an offending culprit.
+
+Let me give one closing story of him on one of those weekday mornings.
+
+It was St. John the Evangelist's Day, and a few of us met at church for
+matins. It was thought well to introduce a hymn for the festival (our
+hymn book in those days was Mercer's Church Psalter and Hymn Book) and
+Wren was to take charge, as usual, of the barrel-organ. My father gave
+out hymn 292 at the appointed place, but only silence followed. Again
+"292," and then came a voice from the west gallery, "The 283rd!" My
+father did not take the hint, and again, rather unfortunately, hazarded
+"Hymn 292." This was too much for our organist, who called in still
+louder tones, "'Tis the 283rd I tell you!" Fortunately, we were a small
+company, but matters would have been the same, I dare say, on a Sunday.
+
+In the vestry subsequently Wren explained to my father, "You know there
+are _two Johns_; the 292nd hymn belongs to John the _Baptist's_ Day;
+_this_ is John the _Evangelist's_."
+
+The confusion once over my father was much amused with the incident, and
+frequently entertained friends with it afterwards, when I am bound to
+say it did not lose its richness of detail. "Don't I keep a-telling on
+you?" was the fully developed question, as I last remember hearing the
+story told. The above, however, I can vouch for as strictly correct,
+being one of the select party privileged to witness the occurrence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Frederick W. Hackwood, the historian of Wednesbury, has kindly sent
+the following description of the famous clerks of that place:
+
+The office of parish clerk in Wednesbury has been held by at least two
+remarkable characters. "Old George Court," as he was called--and by some
+who are still alive--held the post in succession to his grandfather for
+a great number of years. His grandfather was George Watkins, in his time
+one of the principal tradesmen in the town. His hospitable house was the
+place of entertainment for a long succession of curates-in-charge and
+other officiating ministers for all the long years that the vicar (Rev.
+A. Bunn Haden) was a non-resident pluralist. But the position created by
+this state of things was remarkable. Watkins and the small coterie who
+acted with him became the absolute and dominant authority in all
+parochial matters. One curate complained of him and his nominee wardens
+(in 1806) that "these men had been so long in office, and had become so
+cruel and oppressive," that some of the parishioners resolved at last to
+dismiss them. The little oligarchy, however, was too strong to be ousted
+at any vestry that ever was called. As to the elected officials, the
+same curate records in a pamphlet which he published in his indignation,
+that "on Christmas Day, during divine service, the churchwardens entered
+the workhouse with constables and bailiffs, and a multitude of men
+equally pious with themselves, and turned the governor and his wife into
+the snow-covered streets." Another measure of iniquity laid to their
+charge was their "cruelty to Mr. Foster," the master of the charity
+school held in the old Market Cross, "a man of amiable disposition, and
+a teacher of considerable merit." These aggressive wardens grazed the
+churchyard for profit, looked coldly upon a proposal to put up Tables of
+Benefactions in the church, and altogether acted in a manner so
+high-handed as to call forth this historic protest. Although the fabric
+of the church was in so ruinous a condition that the rain streamed
+through the roof upon the head of our clerical pamphleteer as he was
+preaching, all these complaints were to no purpose. When the absentee
+vicar was appealed to he declared his helplessness, and one sentence in
+his reply is significant; it was thus: "It is as much as my life is
+worth to come among them!" Allowance must be made for party rancour. It
+is probable that Watkins was but the official figure-head of this
+dominant party, and he is said to have been a man of real piety; and
+after holding the office of parish clerk for sixty years, he at last
+died in the vestry of the church he loved so much.
+
+As a certified clerk George Court held the office as long as his
+grandfather before him. He was a man of the bluff and hearty sort,
+thoroughly typical of old Wednesbury, of Dutch build, yet commanding
+presence, in language more forcible than polite, and not restrained in
+the use of his strong language even by the presence of an austere and
+iron-willed vicar. The tales told of him are numerous enough, but are
+scarcely of the kind that look well in cold print. Although fond of the
+good things of this world himself, he could occasionally be very severe
+on the high feeding and deep drinking proclivities of "You--singers and
+ringers"! He was never known to fail in scolding any funeral procession
+that had kept him waiting at the church gates too long, and that in
+language as loud as it was vigorous. He, like his predecessor, was the
+autocrat of the parish.
+
+The last of the long line of parish clerks who occupied the bottom desk
+of the fine old Jacobean three-decker was Thomas Parkes. He died in
+1884. The peculiar resonant nasal twang with which he sang out the
+"Amens" gave rise to a sharp newspaper correspondence in the _Wednesbury
+Observer_ of 1857. Another controversy provoked by him was at the
+opening of the cemetery in 1868, when as vestry clerk he claimed a fee
+of 9 d. on every interment. The resistance of the Nonconformists led to
+an amicable compromise.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Wise, of Weekley, the author of several works on Kettering and the
+neighbourhood, tells me of an extraordinary incident which happened in a
+Sussex parish church when he was a boy about seventy years ago. The
+clerk was a decayed farmer who had a fine voice, but who was noted for
+his intemperate habits. He went up as usual to the singers' gallery just
+before the sermon and gave out the metrical Psalm. The Psalm was sung,
+the sermon commenced, when suddenly from the gallery rose the words of a
+popular song, given by a splendid tenor voice:
+
+     "Oh, give my back my Arab steed,
+     My Prince defends his right,
+     And I will  ..."
+
+"Some one, please, remove that drunken man from the gallery," the
+clergyman quietly said. It was afterwards found that some mischievous
+persons had promised the clerk a gallon of ale if he would sing a song
+during the sermon.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Elton, of Bath, tells me of the clerk of Bierton, near Aylesbury,
+of which her father had sole charge for a time at the end of the
+forties. His predecessor had been a Mr. Stephens. The place had been
+neglected, and church matters were at a low ebb. Mr. Elton instituted a
+service on Saints' Days, which was quite an innovation at that time, and
+the first of these was held on St. Stephen's Day. The old clerk came
+into the vestry after the service and said, "I be sorry, sir, to hear
+the unkid (= awful) tale of poor Mussar (Mister) Stephens. He be come
+to a sad end surely." He had evidently confounded the first martyr, St.
+Stephen, with the late curate of the parish, having apparently never
+heard of the former.
+
+A new vicar had been appointed to a parish about eight miles from
+Oxford, who had been for many years a Fellow of his college, and in
+consequence knew little of village folk or parochial matters. Dr. A. was
+much disturbed to find that so few of the villagers attended church, and
+consulted the clerk on the subject, who suggested that it might
+encourage the people to attend if Dr. A. was to offer to give sixpence a
+Sunday to all who came to church. The plan was tried and found to
+succeed; the congregations improved rapidly, and the church was well
+filled, to Dr. A.'s satisfaction. But after a while the numbers fell
+off, and to Dr. A.'s chagrin people left off attending church. He again
+called the clerk into his counsels, and asked what could be the reason
+of the falling off of the congregation, as he had always given sixpence
+every Sunday, as he promised, to all who came to the service. "Well,
+sir," said the clerk, "it is like this: they tells me as how they finds
+they _can't do it for the money_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following reminiscences are supplied by the Rev. W. Frederick Green,
+and are worthy of record:
+
+I well remember the parish clerk of Woburn, in Bedfordshire, more than
+sixty years ago. His name was Joe Brewer--a bald-headed, short, stumpy
+man, who wore black knee-breeches, grey stockings, and shoes. He was
+also the town crier. He always gave out the hymns from the front of the
+west gallery. "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God, hymn--" Once
+I heard him call out instead, "O yes! O yes! O yes! This is to give
+notice," and then, recollecting he was in church, with a loud "O
+crikey!" he began "Let us sing," etc.
+
+Collections in church were made by him in a china soup plate from each
+pew. Ours was a large square family pew. One Sunday my brother put into
+the plate a new coin (I think a florin), which Brewer had never seen
+before, and which he thought was a token or medal, and thinking my
+brother was playing a trick upon him, said in a loud voice, "Now, Master
+Charles, none of them larks here."
+
+I have also seen him at afternoon service (there was no evening service
+in those days), when it unexpectedly came on too dark for the clergyman
+to see his MS. in the pulpit, go to the altar--an ordinary table with
+drawers--throw up the cloth, open a drawer, take out two candles and a
+box of matches, go up the pulpit stairs, fix them in the candlesticks,
+and light them.
+
+During the winter months part of his duty was to tend the fire during
+service in the Duke of Bedford's large curtained, carpeted pew in
+the chancel.
+
+When I was a boy I was staying in Northamptonshire, and went one Sunday
+morning into a village church for service (I think it was Fotheringhay).
+There was a three-decker, and the clerk from his desk led the singing of
+the congregation, which he faced. There was no musical instrument of any
+kind. The hymn, which of course was from Tate and Brady, was the
+metrical version of Psalm xlii. The clerk gave out the Psalm, then read
+the first line to the congregation, then sang it solo, and then the
+congregation sang it altogether; and so on line after line for the whole
+eleven verses.
+
+More attention must have been paid in those days to the requirement of
+the ninety-first Canon, that the clerk should be known, if may be, "for
+his competent skill in singing."
+
+In 1873 I was curate-in-charge of an out-of-the-way Norfolk village. On
+my first Sunday I had an early celebration at 8 a.m. I arrived in church
+about 7.45, and to my amazement saw five old men sitting round the stove
+in the nave with their hats on, smoking their pipes. I expostulated with
+them quite gently, but they left the church before service and never
+came again. I discovered afterwards that they had been regular
+communicants, and that my predecessor always distributed the offertory
+to the poor present immediately after the service. When these men in the
+course of my remonstrance found that I was not going to continue the
+custom, they no longer cared to be communicants.
+
+In 1870, in Norfolk, I went round with the rural dean visiting the
+churches. At one church the only person to receive the rural dean was
+the parish clerk, who was ready with the funeral pall to put over the
+rural dean's horse whilst waiting outside the church.
+
+It was this same church which, in preparation for the rural dean's
+visit, had been recently and completely whitewashed throughout. Not only
+the walls and pillars, but also the pews, the school forms, the pulpit,
+and also the altar itself, a very small four-legged deal table without
+any covering. I suppose this was done by the churchwardens to conceal
+the dilapidated condition of everything; but they had omitted to remove
+the grass which was growing in the crevices of the floor paving.
+
+Mr. Moxon (deceased), formerly rector of Hethersett, in Norfolk, told me
+that he had once preached for a friend in a Norfolk village church with
+the woman clerk holding an umbrella over his head in the pulpit
+throughout the sermon, because of the "dreep."
+
+Miss E. Lloyd, of Woodburn, Crowborough, writes:
+
+About the year 1833 a gentleman bought an estate in North Yorkshire,
+seven miles from any town, and built a house there. The parish was
+small, having a population of about a hundred souls, the church old and
+tumbledown, reeking with damp; the rain came through the roof; the seats
+were worm-eaten, and centipedes, with other like vermin, roamed about
+them near the wall. The vicar was non-resident, and an elderly
+curate-in-charge ministered to this parish and another in the
+neighbourhood. The customs of the church were much the same as those
+described by Canon Atkinson in his _Forty Years in a Moorland Parish_ as
+existing on his arrival at Danby. There was no vestry. The surplice
+(washed twice a year) was hung over the altar rails, within which the
+curate robed, his hat or any parcel he happened to have in his hand
+being put down for the time on the Holy Table. The men sat for the most
+part together, the farmers and young men in the singing-loft, the
+labourers below, and the women in front. The wife of the chief yeoman
+farmer--an excellent and superior woman--still kept up the habit of
+"making a reverence" to the altar before she entered her pew. The
+surplice, which hung in the church all through the week, was apt to get
+very damp. On one occasion, when a strange clergyman staying at the Hall
+took the service, he declined to wear it, as it was so wet.
+
+"He wadn't pit it on," said the old clerk Christopher (commonly called
+"Kitty") Hill. "I reckon he was afeard o' t' smittle" (infection).
+
+The same clergyman, when he went up to the altar for the Communion
+Service, knelt down, as his habit was, at the north end for private
+prayer whilst the congregation were singing a metrical Psalm (Old or New
+Version). On looking up he saw that Kitty Hill had followed him within
+the rails and was kneeling at the opposite end of the Holy Table staring
+at him with round eyes full of amazement at this unusual act of
+devotion. Both the curate and the clerk spoke the broadest Yorkshire.
+Psalm xxxii. 4 was thus rendered by Kitty: "Ma-maasture is like t' doong
+i' summer." He was an old man and quite bald, and used to sit in his
+desk with a blue-spotted pocket-handkerchief spread over his head,
+occasionally drawing down a corner of it for use, and then pulling it
+straight again. If the squire happened to come late to church--a thing
+which did not often happen--the curate would pause in his reading and
+apologise: "Good morning, Mr. ----. I am sorry, sir, that I began the
+service. I thought you were not coming this morning." One sentence of
+the sermon preached on the death of King William IV long remained in the
+memory of some of his young hearers: "Behold the King in all his pomp
+and glory, soodenly toombled from his high elevation, and mingled wi'
+the doost!"
+
+In 1845 a new church was built on the old site, a new curate came, Kitty
+Hill died, and was succeeded in his office by his widow, who did all
+that she could do of the clerk's work, and showed remarkable taste in
+decorating the church at Christmas. No clerk was needed for the
+responses, as the congregation joined heartily in the service, and there
+was a much better attendance than there is now. She died in the
+early fifties.
+
+Amongst other varied readings of the Psalms that of an old parish clerk
+at Hartlepool may be given. He had been a sailor, and used to render
+Psalm civ. 26 as "There go the ships, and there is that lieutenant whom
+Thou hast made to take his pastime therein."
+
+The late Dr. Gatty, in his record of _A Life at One Living_, mentions
+that at Ecclesfield, as in many other places, the office of parish clerk
+was hereditary. The last holder of the office, who used to sit in his
+desk clad in a black bombazine gown, was a publican by trade, a decent,
+honest man, who during the fifty-one years he was clerk was only twice
+absent from service. He died in 1868, and the offices of clerk and
+sexton were then united and held by one person.
+
+The register books of Weybridge, Surrey, were kept for a great part of
+the eighteenth century by the parish clerks, the son succeeding his
+father in office for three or four generations.
+
+Now probably the clerks are no more clerks but vergers; and as a
+Yorkshireman remarked, "_Verging_ is a very honourable profession."
+
+The portrait of John Gray, sometime clerk in Eton College Chapel, taken
+in his gown as he stood in his desk, has been engraved, and is well
+known to old Etonians.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Few people possess the gift of humour in the same degree as the late
+Bishop Walsham How, and his stories of the race of parish clerks and
+vergers must not be omitted, and are here published by permission of his
+son, Mr. F.D. How, editor of _Lighter Moments_.
+
+When I was a deacon, and naturally shy, I was visiting my aunts at
+Workington, where my grandfather had been rector, and was asked to
+preach on Sunday evening in St. John's, a wretched modern church--a
+plain oblong with galleries, and a pulpit like a very tall wineglass,
+with a very narrow little straight staircase leading up to it, in the
+middle of the east part of the church. When the hymn before the sermon
+was given out I went as usual to the vestry to put on the black gown.
+Not knowing that the clergyman generally stayed there till the end of
+the hymn, I emerged as soon as I had vested myself and walked to the
+pulpit and ascended the stairs. When nearly at the summit, to my horror
+I discovered a very fat beadle in the pulpit lighting the candles. We
+could not possibly pass on the stairs, and the eyes of the whole
+congregation were upon me. It would be ignominious to retreat. So after
+a few minutes' reflection I saw my way out of the difficulty, which I
+overcame by a very simple mechanical contrivance. I entered the pulpit,
+which exactly fitted the beadle and myself, and then face to face we
+executed a rotary movement to the extent of a semicircle, when the
+beadle finding himself next the door of the pulpit was enabled to
+descend, and I remained master of the situation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Uffington, near Shrewsbury, during the incumbency of the Rev. J.
+Hopkins, the choir and organist, having been dissatisfied with some
+arrangement, determined not to take part in the service. So when the
+clerk, according to the usual custom of those days, gave out the hymn,
+there was a dead silence. This lasted a little while, and then the
+clerk, unable to bear it, rose up and appealed to the congregation,
+saying most imploringly, "Them as _can_ sing _do_ ye sing: it's misery
+to be a this'n" (Shropshire for "in this way").
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Wolstanton, in the Potteries, there was a somewhat fussy verger
+called Oakes. On one occasion, just at the time of the year when it was
+doubtful whether lights would be wanted or no, and when they had not yet
+been lighted for evening service, a stranger, who was a very smart young
+clergyman, was reading the lessons and had some difficulty in seeing. He
+had on a pair of delicate lavender kid gloves. The verger, perceiving
+his difficulty, went to the vestry, got two candles, lighted them, and
+walked to the lectern, before which he stood solemnly holding the
+candles (without candlesticks) in his hands. This was sufficiently
+trying to the congregation, but suddenly some one rattled the latch of
+the west door, when Oakes, feeling that it was absolutely necessary to
+go and see what was the matter, thrust the two candles into the poor
+young clergyman's delicately gloved hands, and left him!
+
+At the church of Stratfieldsaye, where the Duke of Wellington was a
+regular attendant, a stranger was preaching, and the verger when he
+ended came up the stairs, opened the pulpit door a little way, slammed
+it to, and then opened it wide for the preacher to go out. He asked in
+the vestry why he had shut the door again while opening it, and the
+verger said, "We always do that, sir, to wake the duke."
+
+A former young curate of Stoke being very anxious to do things
+rubrically, insisted on the ring being put on the "fourth finger" at a
+wedding he took. The woman resisted and said, "I would sooner die than
+be married on my little finger." The curate said, "But the rubric says
+so," whereupon the _deus ex machinâ_ appeared in the shape of the parish
+clerk, who stepped forward and said, "In these cases, sir, the thoomb
+counts as a digit."
+
+A gentleman going to see a ritualistic church in London was walking
+into the chancel when an official stepped forward and said, "You mustn't
+go in there." "Why not?" said the gentleman. "I'm put here to stop you,"
+said the man. "Oh! I see," said the gentleman; "you're what they call
+the _rude_ screen, aren't you?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A clergyman in the diocese of Wakefield told me that when first he came
+to the parish he found things in a very neglected state, and among other
+changes he introduced an early celebration of the Holy Communion. An old
+clerk collected the offertory, and when he brought it up to the
+clergyman he said, "There's eight on 'em, but two 'asn't paid."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A verger was showing a lady over a church when she asked him if the
+vicar was a married man. "No, ma'am," he answered, "he's a chalybeate."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A verger showing a large church to a stranger, pointed out another man
+and said, "That is the other verger." The gentleman said, "I did not
+know there were two of you," and the verger replied, "Oh, yes, sir, he
+werges up one side of the church and I werges up the other."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On my first visit to Almondbury to preach, the verger came to me in the
+vestry and said, "A've put a platform in t' pulpit for ye; you'll excuse
+me, but a little man looks as if he was in a toob." (N.B. To prevent
+undue inferences I am five feet nine inches in height.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the speakers at the meeting of the Catholic Truth Society at
+Bristol (Sept., 1895) told a story of a pious Catholic visiting
+Westminster Abbey, and kneeling in a quiet corner for private devotion,
+when he was summoned in stentorian tones to come and view the royal
+tombs and chapels. "But I have seen them," said the stranger, "and I
+only wish to say my prayers." "Prayers is over," said the verger.
+"Still, I suppose," said the stranger, "there can be no objection to my
+saying my prayers quietly here?" "No objection, sir!" said the irate
+verger. "Why, it would be an insult to the Dean and Chapter."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rev. M.E. Jenkins writes his remembrances of several old clerks.
+
+There was dear old Robert Livesay, of Blackburn parish church, whom
+every one knew, his large rubicund face beaming with good nature and
+humour--a very kindly old soul. In 1870 I was appointed to an old-world
+Dale's parish, which had one of the real old Yorkshire clerks, Frank
+Hutchinson. He was lame and blind in one eye, and well do I recall his
+sonorous and tremulous response, his love for the Psalms (Tate and
+Brady's); he "reckoned nought o' _Hymns Ancient and Modern_." I used
+generally to find him with a long pipe in the vestry on my return from
+afternoon service. He was a great authority on the ancient history of
+the parish, and was formerly schoolmaster. He had brought up most
+respectably a large family of sons and daughters on the smallest means,
+many of whom still survive. I had a great respect for the old man, and
+so he had for me. He was very great at leading that peculiarly
+dirge-like wail at the huge Yorkshire funerals. I never could quite make
+out any words, but as a singularly effective and musical cadence in a
+minor key, it was no doubt a survival, as I once heard Canon Atkinson
+say, the famous vicar of Danby, my immediate neighbour on the moors. At
+last I attended Frank Hutchinson daily in his prolonged decay, and
+received his solemn blessing and commendation on my work; and he
+received at my hand a few hours before his death his last communion,
+surrounded by all his children and grandchildren, in his small bedroom,
+by the light of a single candle. I can still see his thin face uplifted.
+It is thirty-five years ago, and I can still hear the striking of his
+lucifer match in the midst of the afternoon service, and see him holding
+up close to his own eye the candle and the book, and can hear his
+tremulous "Amen," quite independent of the choral one sung by a small
+choir in the chancel. He was great in epitaphs. A favourite one, which
+he would recite _ore rotunda_, was:
+
+     "Let this record, what few vain marbles can,
+     Here lies an honest man."
+
+Another, which, by the way, is in Egton churchyard, ran as follows:
+
+     "Life is but a winter's day;
+     Some breakfast and away,
+     Others to dinner stop and are full fed,
+     The oldest man but sups and goes to bed."
+
+He was a genuine old Dalesman of a type passed away. His spirits really
+never survived the abolition of the stringed instruments in the western
+gallery with its galaxy of village musicians. "I hugged bass fiddle for
+many a year," he once told me. Peace be to his memory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Canon Atkinson tells of his good and harmless but "feckless" parish
+clerk and schoolmaster at Danby, whom, when about to take a funeral, he
+discovered sitting in the sunny embrasure of the west window, with his
+hat on, of course, and comfortably smoking his pipe. The clerk was a
+brother of the old vicar of Danby, and they seem to have been a curious
+and irreverent pair. The historian of Danby, in his _Forty Years in a
+Moorland Parish_, fully describes his first visit to the clerk's school,
+and the strange custom of weird singing at funerals to which Mr.
+Jenkins alludes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another north-country clerk-schoolmaster was obliged to relinquish his
+scholastic duties and make way for a certified teacher. One day he heard
+the new master tell his pupils: "'A' is an indefinite article. 'A' is
+one, and can only be applied to one thing. You cannot say a cats or a
+dogs; but only a cat, a dog." The clerk at once reported the matter to
+his rector. "Here's a pretty fellow you've got to keep school! He says
+that you can only apply the article 'a' to nouns of the singular number;
+and here have I been singing 'A--men' all my life, and your reverence
+has never once corrected me."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Communicated by Mrs. Williamson, Lydgate Vicarage:
+
+The old parish clerk of Radcliffe was secretary of the races committee,
+and would hurry out of church to attend these meetings. Mr. Foxley, the
+rector, was told of this weakness of his clerk, so one Wednesday
+evening, when the rector knew there was a meeting, he got into the
+pulpit (a three-decker was then in the church), and began his sermon.
+Half an hour went by, then the clerk began to be restless. Another
+half-hour passed; the clerk looked up from his seat under the pulpit,
+but still the rector went on preaching. It was too late then for the
+race-course meeting. So when the sermon was at length finished, the
+clerk got up and gave out "the 'undred and nineteenth Psalm from yend
+to yend. He's preached all day, and we'll sing all neet" (night).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Westhoughton Church, Lancashire, there was a clerk of the old school,
+one Platt, who just before the sermon would stretch his long arm and
+offer his snuff-box to his old friend Betty, and to other cronies who
+happened to be in his immediate neighbourhood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The clerk at Stratfieldsaye, who was a character, once astonished a
+strange clergyman who was taking the duty. The choir sat in the gallery,
+and the numbers were few on that Sunday. "Mon I 'elp them chaps? they be
+terrible few," said the clerk. The clergyman quite agreed that he should
+render them his valuable assistance, and sit in the gallery. Presently a
+man came in late, and was kneeling down to say his private prayer, when
+the clergyman was horrified to see the clerk deliberately rise in the
+gallery and throw a book at the man's head. When remonstrated with after
+service the clerk replied carelessly, "Oh, it were only my way o'
+telling him to sing up, as we were terrible short this marning."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+CURIOUS STORIES
+
+The old clerk of Clapham, Bedford, Mr. Thomas Maddams, always used to
+read his own version of Psalm xxxix. 12: "Like as it were a moth
+fretting in a garment." Apparently his idea was of a moth annoyed at
+being in a garment from which it could not escape.
+
+A parish clerk (who prided himself upon being well read) occupied his
+seat below the old "three-decker" pulpit, and whenever a quotation or an
+extract from the classics was introduced into the sermon he, in an
+undertone, muttered its source, much to the annoyance of the preacher
+and amusement of the congregation. Despite all protests in private, the
+thing continued, until one day, the vicar's patience being exhausted, he
+leant over the pulpit side and immediately exclaimed, "Drat you; shut
+up!" Immediately, in the clerk's usual sententious tone, came the reply,
+"His own." (William Haggard, _Liverpool Daily Post_.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+N.B. I have heard this story before, and in a different key:
+
+The preacher was a young, bumptious fellow, fond of quoting the
+classics, etc. One day a learned classic scholar attended his service,
+and was heard to say, after each quotation, "That's Horace," "That's
+Plato," and such-like, until the preacher was at his "wits' ends" how
+to quiet the man. At last, leaning over the pulpit, he looked the man in
+the face, and is reported to have said, "Who the devil are you?" "That's
+his own!" was the prompt response.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In one of the village churches near Honiton, in 1864, the usual duet
+between the parson and clerk had been the custom, when the vicar
+appealed to the congregation to take their part. In a little while they
+took courage, and did so. This annoyed the clerk, and he could not make
+the responses, and made so many mistakes that the vicar drew his
+attention to the matter. He replied, with much irritation, "How can _I_
+do the service with a lot of men and women a-buzzing and a-fizzing
+about me?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A somewhat similar story is told of another church:
+
+An old gentleman, now in his eightieth year, remembers attending Romford
+Church when a youth, and says that at that time (1840) the parish clerk
+was a person who greatly magnified his office. On one occasion he
+checked the young man for audibly responding, on the ground that he, the
+clerk, was the person to respond audibly, and that other people were to
+respond inaudibly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Communicated by Miss Emily J. Heaton, of Sitting-bourne:
+
+My father lived and worked as the clergyman of a parish until he was
+eighty-nine years of age. He remembered a clerk in a Yorkshire parish in
+the time of one of the Georges. The clergyman said the versicle, "O
+Lord, save the King," and the clerk made no reply. The prayer was
+repeated, but still no answer. He then touched the clerk, who sat in
+the desk below, and who replied:
+
+"A we'ant! He won't tak tax off 'bacca!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Communicated by Mr. Frederick Sherlock:
+
+I remember as a lad attending a church which owned a magnificent
+specimen of the parish clerk. He used to wear a dress-coat, and it was
+his practice to follow the clergy from the vestry, and while the vicar
+and curate were saying their private prayers in the reading-desk in
+which they both sat together, the venerable clerk with measured tread
+passed down the centre of the church affably smiling and bowing right
+and left to such of the parishioners as were in his favour. In due
+course he arrived in the singers' gallery, where he had the place of
+honour under the organ: the good old man was leading soloist, which we
+well knew when Jackson's _Te Deum_ was sung on the greater festivals,
+for there was always a solemn pause before the venerable worthy quavered
+forth his solo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a pew-rented church, and once a quarter strangers were startled,
+when the vicar from his place in the reading-desk had announced the
+various engagements of the week, to hear the clerk's majestic voice from
+his place in the gallery add, "And _I_ beg to announce" (with a marked
+emphasis on the _I_) "that the churchwardens will attend in the vestry
+on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next, at eight o'clock, for the
+purpose of receiving pew rents and letting seats for the
+ensuing quarter."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As touching parish clerks, it is of interest to recall that William
+Maybrick was clerk of St. Peter's, Liverpool, from 1813-48. He had two
+sons, William, who became clerk, and Michael, who was organist at St.
+Peter's for many years. William Maybrick, junior, had also two sons,
+James, whose name was so much before the public owing to the
+circumstances surrounding his death, and Michael, better known as
+"Stephen Adams," the famous composer and singer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following is a curious letter from a parish clerk to his vicar after
+giving notice to quit the latter's service. He was clerk of the parish
+of Maldon, Essex.
+
+DEAR AND REV. SIR,
+
+I avail myself of the opportunity of troubling your honour with these
+lines, which I hope you will excuse, which is the very sentiments of
+your humble servant's heart. Ignorantly, rashly, but reluctantly, I gave
+you warning to leave your highly respected office and most amiable duty,
+as being your servant, and clerk of this your most well wished parish,
+and place of my succour and support.
+
+But, dear Sir, I well know it was no fault of yours nor from any of my
+most worthy parishioners. It were because I thought I were not
+sufficiently paid for the interments of the silent dead. But will I be a
+Judas and leave the house of my God, the place where His Honour dwelleth
+for a few pieces of money? No. Will I be a Peter and deny myself of an
+office in His Sanctuary and cause me to weep bitterly? No. Can I be so
+unreasonable as to deny, if I like and am well, to ring that solemn bell
+that speaks the departure of a soul? No. Can I leave digging the tombs
+of my neighbours and acquaintances which have many a time made me
+shudder and think of my mortality, when I have dug up the mortal remains
+of some perhaps as I well knew? No. And can I so abruptly forsake the
+service of my beloved Church of which I have not failed to attend every
+Sunday for these seven and a half years? No. Can I leave waiting upon
+you a minister of that Being that sitteth between the Cherubim and
+flieth upon the wings of the wind? No. Can I leave the place where our
+most holy services nobly calls forth and says, "Those whom God have
+joined together" (and being as I am a married man) "let no man put
+asunder"? No. And can I leave that ordinance where you say then and
+there "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
+the Holy Ghost," and he becomes regenerate and is grafted into the body
+of Christ's Church? No. And can I think of leaving off cleaning at
+Easter the House of God in which I take such delight, in looking down
+her aisles and beholding her sanctuaries and the table of the Lord? No.
+And can I forsake taking part in the service of Thanksgiving of women
+after childbirth when mine own wife has been delivered ten times? No.
+And can I leave off waiting on the congregation of the Lord which you
+well know, Sir, is my delight? No. And can I forsake the Table of the
+Lord at which I have feasted I suppose some thirty times? No. And, dear
+Sir, can I ever forsake you who have been so kind to me? No. And I well
+know you will not entreat me to leave, neither to return from following
+after you, for where you pray there will I pray, where you worship there
+will I worship. Your Church shall be my Church, your people shall be my
+people and your God my God. By the waters of Babylon am I to sit down
+and weep and leave thee, O my Church! and hang my harp upon the trees
+that grow therein? No. One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will
+require even that I may dwell in the House of the Lord and to visit His
+temple. More to be desired of me, O my Church, than gold, yea than fine
+gold, sweeter to me than honey and the honeycomb.
+
+Now, kind Sir, the very desire of my heart is still to wait upon you.
+Please tell the Churchwardens all is reconciled, and if not, I will get
+me away into the wilderness, and hide me in the desert, in the cleft of
+the rock. But I hope still to be your Gehazi and when I meet my
+Shunamite to say "All, all is well." And I will conclude my blunders
+with my oft-repeated prayer, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and
+to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall
+be, world without end. Amen."
+
+P.S. Now, Sir, I shall go on with my fees the same as I found them, and
+will make no more trouble about them, but I will not, I cannot leave
+you, nor your delightful duties.
+
+Your most obedient servant,
+
+GEORGE G---- G.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Rev. E. G----, Vicar of Maldon._
+
+Communicated by the Rev. D. C. Moore:
+
+In the parish of Belton, Suffolk, there died in 1837 a man named Noah
+Pole. He had been clerk for sixty years. He wore a smock-frock; gave out
+all notices--strayed horse, a found sheep, etc. He was known by the
+nickname of "_Never, never_ shall be," for in this way he had for sixty
+years perverted the last part of the "Gloria," "now and ever shall be."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the parish of Lowestoft, Suffolk, in the forties the parish clerk's
+name was Newson (would-be wits called him "Nuisance"). He was arrayed in
+a velvet-trimmed robe and bore himself bravely. The way in which he
+mouthed "Let us sing to the glory of God" was wonderful. But the chief
+amusement he afforded was the habit of hiding his face in his hands
+during each prayer, then towards the ending his head would rise till it
+rested on his thumbs, and then came out sonorously, "Awl-men."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At St. Mary's, Southtown (near Great Yarmouth), in the late thirties,
+etc., a man named Nolloth was clerk. He was celebrated for the
+uncertainty of his "H's." For example: "Let us sing to the praise and
+glory of God the Heighty-heighth ymn."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Gorleston (the mother church of St. Mary's, named above) a tailor
+named Bristow was clerk. He was a very small man, and he had a son he
+wished to succeed him. The clerk's desk was pretty wide and they sat
+together. I can see them (sixty years after), one leaning on his right
+arm, the other on his left; and when the time came, the duet was
+_Ah_-men from the elder and A-men from the younger, one in "tenor" the
+other "treble." We schoolboys used to say "Big pig, little pig."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nicholson, the clerk of St. Bees, if any student was called away in
+term, invariably gave out Psalm cvii., fourth part, "They that in ships
+with courage bold." In those days there were no trains and no hymns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Barkham there is an old clerk who succeeded his father half a century
+ago.
+
+During the rebuilding of the church his sire, whose name was Elijah,
+once visited a neighbouring parish church, and arrived rather late, just
+when the rector was giving out the text: "What doest thou here,
+Elijah?" Elijah gave a respectful salute, and replied: "Please, sur,
+Barkham Church is undergoing repair, so I be cumed 'ere!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Canon Rawnsley tells a pathetic little story of an old clerk who begged
+him not to read the service so fast: "For you moòst gie me toime, Mr.
+Rawnsley, you moòst i'deed. You moòst gie me toime, for I've a
+graaceless wife an' two godless soons to praày for."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hawker tells a story of the parish clerk at Morwenstow whose wife used
+to wash the parson's surplices. He came home one night from a prolonged
+visit at the village inn, the "Bush," and finding his wife's scolding
+not to his mind and depressing, he said, "Look yere, my dear, if you
+doan't stop, I'll go straight back again." She did not stop, so he left
+the house; but the wife donned one of the surplices and, making a short
+cut, stood in front of her approaching husband. He was terrified; but at
+last he remembered his official position, and the thought gave
+him courage.
+
+"Avide, Satan!" he said in a thick, slow voice.
+
+The figure made no answer.
+
+"Avide, Satan!" he shouted again. "Doan't 'e knaw I be clerk of the
+parish, bass-viol player, and taicher of the singers?"
+
+When the apparition failed to be impressed the clerk turned tail and
+fled. The ghost returned by a short cut, and the clerk found his wife
+calmly ironing the parson's surplice. He did not return to the "Bush"
+that night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The old parish clerk of Dagenham had a habit when stating the names to
+be entered into the register of saying, _Plain_ Robert or John, etc.,
+meaning that Robert, etc., was the only Christian name. On one occasion
+a strange clergyman baptized a child there, and being unable to hear the
+name as given by the parents, looked inquiringly at the clerk. "Plain
+Jane, sir," he called out in a stentorian voice. "What a pity to label
+the child thus," the clergyman rejoined; "she might grow up to be a
+beautiful girl." "Jane _only_, I mean," explained the clerk.
+
+All clergymen know the difficulty of changing the names of the sovereign
+and the Royal Family at the commencement of the reign of a new monarch.
+
+In a certain parish in the south of England (the name of which I do not
+know, or have forgotten), at the time of the accession of Her late
+Majesty Queen Victoria, the rector charged his clerk to make the
+necessary alterations in the Book of Common Prayer required by the sex
+of the new sovereign. The clerk made all the needed alterations with the
+greatest care as regards both titles and pronouns; but not only this, he
+carried on the changes throughout the Psalter. Consequently, on the
+morning of the fourth day of the month, for instance, the rector found
+Psalm xxi. rendered thus: "The Queen shall rejoice in Thy strength, O
+Lord: exceeding glad shall She be of Thy salvation," and so on
+throughout the course of the Psalms and the whole of the Psalter. Also
+in the prayer for the Church Militant, when prayer is made for all
+Christian kings, princes, etc., the distracted vicar found the words
+changed into "Queen, Princesses, etc." After all, the clerk showed his
+thoroughness, but nothing short of a new Prayer Book could satisfy the
+needs of the vicar[94].
+
+[Footnote 94: From the information of Miss Marion Stirling, who heard
+the story from Prebendary Thornton.]
+
+Canon Gregory Smith tells the following story of a clerk in
+Herefordshire, who flourished half a century ago:
+
+In the west-end gallery of the old-fashioned little church were
+musicians with fifes, etc. etc. Sometimes, if they started badly in a
+hymn, the clerk would say to the congregation, "Beg pardon, gents; we'll
+try again."
+
+As I left home one day, the clerk ran after me. "But, sir, who'll take
+the duty on St. Swithin's Day?"
+
+Once or twice, being somnolent, on a hot afternoon he woke up suddenly
+with a loud "Amen" in the middle of the sermon.
+
+When I said good-bye to him, having resigned the benefice, he said, very
+gravely, "God will give us another comforter."
+
+An old country clerk in showing visitors round the churchyard used to
+stop at a certain tombstone and say:
+
+"This 'ere is the tomb of Thomas 'Ooper and 'is eleven wives."
+
+One day a lady remarked: "Eleven? Dear me, that's rather a lot, isn't
+it?"
+
+The old man looked at her gravely and replied: "Well, mum, yer see it
+wus an' 'obby of 'is'n."
+
+The Rev. W.D. Parish, in his _Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect_, tells
+of a friend of his who had been remonstrating with one of his
+parishioners for abusing the parish clerk beyond the bounds of
+neighbourly expression, and who received the following answer: "You be
+quite right, sir; you be quite right. I'd no ought to have said what I
+did; but I döant mind telling you to your head what I've said so many
+times behind your back. We've got a good shepherd, I says, an excellent
+shepherd, but he's got an unaccountable bad dog."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some seventy or eighty years ago at Thame Church, Buckinghamshire, the
+old-fashioned clerk had a much-worn Prayer Book, and the parson and he
+made a duet of the responses, the congregation not considering it
+necessary or even proper to interfere. When the clerk happened to come
+to a verse of the Psalms with words missing he said "riven out"
+(pronounced oot), and the parson finished the verse; this was taken
+quite as a matter of course by the congregation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a Lancashire church, when the rector was about to publish the banns
+of marriage, the book was not in its usual place. However, he began: "I
+publish the banns of marriage ... I publish ... the banns"--when the
+clerk looked up from the lowest box of the "three-decker," and said in a
+tone not _sotto voce_, "'Twixt th' cushion and th' desk, sur."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Prayer Book words are sometimes a puzzle to illiterate clerks. At the
+present time in a Berkshire church the clerk always speaks of
+"Athanasian's Creed," and of "the Anthony-Communion hymn."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His views of art are occasionally curious. An odd specimen of his race
+was showing to some strangers a stained-glass window recently erected in
+memory of a gentleman and lady who had just died. It was a two-light
+window with figures of Moses and Aaron. "There they be, sir, but they
+don't much feature the old couple," said the clerk, who regarded them as
+likenesses of the deceased.
+
+A clergyman on one occasion had some trouble with his dog. This dog
+emulated the achievements of Newton's "Fido," and tore and devoured some
+leaves of the parson's sermon. The parson was taking the duty of a
+neighbour, and feared lest his mutilated discourse would be too short
+for the edification of the congregation. So after the service he
+consulted the clerk. "Was my sermon too long to-day?" "No," replied the
+clerk. "Then was it too short?" "Nay, you was jist about right." Much
+relieved, the parson then told the clerk the story of the dog's
+misdemeanours, and of his fear lest the sermon should prove too short.
+The old clerk scratched his head and then exclaimed, with a very solemn
+face, "Ah! maister ----, our parson be a grade sight too long to plaise
+us. Would you just give him a pup?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A writer in _Notes and Queries_ tells a story of an old-fashioned
+service, and with this we will conclude our collection of curious tales.
+
+A lady friend of the writer still living, and the daughter of a
+clergyman, assured him that in a country parish, where the church
+service was conducted in a very free-and-easy, go-as-you-please sort of
+way, the clerk, looking up at the parson, asked, "What shall we do
+next, zurr?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+LONGEVITY AND HEREDITY--THE DEACON-CLERKS OF BARNSTAPLE
+
+There are numerous instances of the hereditary nature of the clerk's
+office, which has frequently been passed on from father to son through
+several generations. I have already mentioned the Osbornes of
+Belbroughton, Worcestershire, who were parish clerks and tailors in the
+village from the time of Henry VIII, and the Worralls of Wolverley in
+the same county, whose reign extended over a century.
+
+David Clarkson, the parish clerk of Feckenham, died in 1854, and his
+ancestors occupied the same office for two centuries. King's Norton had
+a famous race of clerks, of the name of Ford, who also served for the
+same period. The Fords were a long-lived family, as two of them held the
+office for 102 years. Cuthbert Bede mentions also the following
+remarkable instances of heredity:
+
+The Roses were parish clerks at Bromsgrove from "time out of mind." The
+Bonds were parish clerks at St. Michael's, Worcester, for a century.
+John Tustin had in 1856 been clerk of Broadway for fifty-two years, his
+father and grandfather having previously held the office. Charles Orford
+died at Oldswinford December 28th, 1855, aged seventy-three years,
+having been parish clerk from his youth, and having succeeded his
+father in that capacity: he was succeeded by his son Thomas Orford, who
+was again succeeded by his own son William, one of the present vergers
+in this church, aged seventy years. All these examples are taken from
+parishes in Worcestershire. An extraordinary instance of longevity and
+heredity occurs in the annals of the parish of Chapel-en-le-Frith,
+Derbyshire. Peter Bramwell, clerk of the parish, died in 1854, after
+having held the office for forty-three years. His father Peter Bramwell
+was clerk for fifty years, his grandfather George Bramwell for
+thirty-eight years, his great-great-grandfather George Bramwell for
+forty years, and his great-great-great-grandfather Peter Bramwell for
+fifty-two years. The total number of years during which the parish was
+served by this family of clerks was 223, and by only five members of it,
+giving an average of forty-four years and nine months for each--a
+wonderful record truly!
+
+Nor are these instances of the hereditary nature of the office, and of
+the fact that the duties of the position seem to contribute to the
+lengthened days of the holders of it, entirely passed away. The
+riverside town of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, furnishes an example of this.
+Mr. H.W. Badger has occupied the position of parish clerk for half a
+century, and a few months ago was presented by the townspeople with an
+illuminated address, together with a purse of fifty-five sovereigns, in
+recognition of his long term of service and of the esteem in which he is
+held. He was appointed in 1855 in succession to his father, Henry
+Badger, appointed in 1832, who succeeded his grandfather, Wildsmith
+Badger, who became parish clerk in 1789.
+
+The oldest parish clerk living is James Carne, who serves in the parish
+of St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, and has held the office for fifty-eight
+years. He is now in his hundred and first year, and still is unremitting
+in attention to duty, and regularly attends church. He followed in the
+wake of his father and grandfather, who filled the same position for
+fifty-four years and fifty years respectively.
+
+Mr. Edward J. Lupson is the much-respected parish clerk of Great
+Yarmouth, who is a great authority on the history of the important
+church in which he officiates, and is the author of several books. He
+has written an excellent guide to the church of St. Nicholas, and a
+volume entitled _Cupid's Pupils_, compiled from the personal
+"recollections of a parish clerk who assisted at ten thousand four
+hundred marriages and gave away eleven hundred and thirty brides"--a
+wonderful record, which, as the book was published seven years ago, has
+now been largely exceeded. The book is brightly written, and abounds in
+the records of amusing instances of nervous and forgetful brides and
+bride-grooms, of extraordinary blunders, of the failings of
+inexperienced clergy, and is a full and complete guide to those who
+contemplate matrimony. His guide to the church he loves so well is
+admirable. It appears there is a clerks' book at Great Yarmouth, which
+contains a number of interesting notes and memoranda. The clerks of this
+church were men of importance and position in the town. In 1760 John
+Marsh, who succeeded Sampson Winn, was a town councillor. He was
+succeeded in 1785 by Mr. Richard Pitt, the son of a former mayor, and he
+and his wife and sixteen children were interred in the north chancel
+aisle, where a mural monument records their memories. The clerks at this
+period, until 1831, were appointed by the corporation and paid by the
+borough. In 1800 Mr. Richard Miller resigned his aldermanic gown to
+accept the office. Mr. David Absolon (1811-31) was a member of the
+corporation before receiving the appointment. Mr. John Seaman reigned
+from 1831 to 1841, and was followed by Mr. James Burman, who was the
+last clerk who took part in that curious duet with the vicar, to which
+we have often referred. He was an accomplished campanologist and
+composed several peals. In 1863 Mr. Lupson was appointed, who has so
+much honoured his office and earned the respect of all who know him. The
+old fashion of the clerk wearing gown and bands is continued at
+Great Yarmouth.
+
+[Illustration: JAMES CARNE, PARISH CLERK OF ST. COLUMB-MINOR, CORNWALL.
+THE OLDEST LIVING CLERK.]
+
+Mr. Lupson tells of his strange experiences when conducting visitors
+round the church, and explaining to them the varied objects of interest.
+What our clerks have to put up with may be news to many. I will give it
+in his own words:
+
+Although a congenial and profitable engagement, it was often felt to be
+weary work, talking about the same things many times each day week after
+week: and anything but easy to exhibit the freshness and retain the
+vivacity that was desirable. Fortunately the monotony of the recital
+found considerable relief from the varied receptions it met with. Among
+the many thousand individuals, of all grades and classes, from the
+highest to the lowest, thus come in contact with, a diversified and wide
+range of characters was inevitable. The vast majority happily consisted
+of persons with whom it was pleasant to spend half an hour within the
+sacred walls, so gratified were they with what they saw and heard: some
+proving so enthusiastic, and showing such absorbing interest, that at
+every convenient halting-place they would take a seat, and comfortably
+adjust themselves as if preparing to hear an address from a favourite
+preacher. Occasionally, however, we had to endure the presence of
+persons who appeared to be suffering from disordered livers, or had
+nettles in their boots, so restless and dissatisfied were they. Scarcely
+anything pleased them. Undesirable individuals would sometimes be
+discovered in the midst of otherwise pleasant parties. Of such may be
+mentioned those who knew of much finer churches they could really
+admire. Whenever we heard the preface--"There's one thing strikes me in
+this church"--we were prepared to hear a depreciatory remark of some
+kind. Some would take pleasure in breaking the sequence of the story by
+anticipating matters not then reached, and causing divers interruptions.
+Others would annoy by preferring persistent speaking to listening. It
+was trying work going round with, and explaining to, persons from whom
+nothing but mono-syllables could be drawn, either through nervousness,
+or from realising their exalted status to be miles above the person who
+was supposing himself able to interest them. Anything but desirable
+persons were they who, after going round the church, returned with other
+friends, and then posed as men whose knowledge of the building was
+equal, if not a shade superior, to that of the guide. Some parties would
+waste the time, and try one's patience by having amongst them laggards,
+to whom explanations already given had to be repeated. But we must pass
+by others, and proceed. The mind would sometimes find diversion by
+observing the idiosyncrasies, and detecting the pretensions of
+individuals. Gradually gaining acquaintance as we proceeded, we
+occasionally discovered some were aping gentility: some assuming
+positions that knew them not, and some claiming talents they did not
+possess. We will unmask a specimen of the latter class. A man, who was
+unaccompanied by friends, wished to see the church he had heard so much
+of. He seemed about thirty years of age; was a made-up exquisite,
+looking very imposing, peering as he did through gold-rimmed spectacles.
+His talents were of such an order he could not think of hiding them. He
+had learned Hebrew, not from printed books, as ordinary scholars are
+wont to do, but from MSS., and found it so easy a matter, it "only took
+two hours," and it was simply "out of curiosity" that he undertook it.
+Before mentally placing this paragon among the classics, we showed him
+our MS. Roll (exquisitely written, as many visitors are aware, in
+unpointed Hebrew), and asked him to read a few words. This was indeed
+pricking the bubble. Tell it not in Gath, but publish we will, the
+discovery we instantly made. Our Hebrew scholar had forgotten that
+Hebrew ran from right to left! and worse still, he even shook his
+intellectual head, and gravely confessed that he "wasn't quite sure but
+that the Roll was written in Greek."
+
+Other sources of relief to the mind jaded with constant repetition arose
+from the peculiar remarks that were made, and the strange questions that
+were often asked.
+
+The organ has been a source of wonderment to multitudes who had never
+seen or heard of a divided organ. Wonderful stories had reached the ears
+of some respecting it.
+
+"Is this the organ that was wrecked?" "Is this the organ that was dug
+out of the sea?" "Is this the organ that was taken out of the Spanish
+galleon?" "Wasn't this organ smuggled out of some ship?" "Didn't it
+belong to Handel?" "Wasn't this organ made for St. Peter's at Rome?"
+With confidence says one, "This organ really belongs to the continent;
+it was confiscated in some war." Whilst another as confidently asserts
+that "it was built in Holland for one of the English cathedrals, and the
+vessel that conveyed it was caught in a storm and wrecked upon Yarmouth
+beach; it was then taken possession of by the inhabitants and erected in
+this church." Others, wishing to show their intimate knowledge of this
+instrument, have told their friends that the trumpet, which is a solid
+piece of wood, held by the angel at the summit of the northern
+organ-case, is only blown at the death of a royal person. And a lady,
+instead of informing her friend that it was a _vox humana_ stop, called
+it a _vox populi_.
+
+We were asked by one, "Did this organ break the windows? I was told a
+festival service was going on, the organist blew the trumpet stop, and
+broke the windows." Another inquiry was, "Who invented the pedals of
+this organ? We were told that quite a youth believed that pedals would
+improve it. He added them, and to the day of his death, whenever he was
+within a few miles of Yarmouth, he would come and hear them." In our
+hearing one man informed another that "this organ has miles of piping
+running somewhere about the town underground." The queries we have had
+to answer have been exceedingly numerous. Looking at the enclosure
+containing the console of the organ, a visitor wished to know whether
+the organist sat inside there. Another asked whether it was the vestry.
+One who saw great possibilities in such an organ inquired, "Can he play
+this organ in any other place beside the key-board?" The pulpit being of
+so unique a character has had a full share of attention, and no lack of
+admirers. Gazing at it with eyes filled with wonderment, a woman said to
+her daughter, "Maria, you're not to touch not even the pews." Everything
+within sight of such a structure she held sacred. Astonished at its
+internal capacity, another asked, "Do all the clergy sit in it?" Not
+realising its true character and intent, a lady wished to know, "By whom
+was this monument erected?" As we had long since ascertained how
+impossible it was to please everybody, we were not surprised to find
+dissatisfied critics presenting themselves. One of this class said, "It
+looks like a tomb, and smells like a coffin." Another, with sarcastic
+wit, said, "Moses looks like some churchwarden who would have to be
+careful how he ate his soup." We append a few more questions we have had
+to answer:
+
+"Was this church built by St. Nicholas?"
+
+"Does this church stand in four parishes?"
+
+"How many miles is it round the walls of this church?"
+
+"How many does this hold? We were told it holds 12,000."
+
+A clergyman asked, "Where are the bells? Are they in the tower?"
+
+"Haven't you a Bible 3000 years old?"
+
+"Haven't you a Bible that turns over its own leaves?"
+
+"Who had the missing leaves of this (Cranmer's) Bible?"
+
+"Is this the Bible that was chained in Brentwood Church?"
+
+A lady pointing to the font asked, "Is that the Communion Table?"
+
+An elderly lady at the brass lectern inquired, "Is this the clerk's
+seat?"
+
+A man standing looking over the Communion rails wished to know, "What
+part of the church do you call this?"
+
+"Was one of the giants buried in the churchyard?"
+
+"Where is the gravestone where a man, his wife, and twenty-five children
+were buried? I saw it when I was here some years ago, and forget on
+which side of the church it is."
+
+A young man gazing at the top of the lofty flagstaff just inside the
+churchyard gates, asked, "Was that erected to the memory of a
+shipwrecked crew?"
+
+With such extraordinary exhibitions of blatant ignorance can a worthy
+clerk regale himself, but they must be very trying at times.
+
+Mr. Lupson has also written _The Friendly Guide to the Parish Church and
+other places of interest in the neighbourhood, The Rows of Great
+Yarmouth; why so constructed_, and some devotional works.
+
+He is also the author of the following additional verse to the National
+Anthem, sung on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria:
+
+     "Long life our Queen has seen:
+     Glorious her reign has been:
+       Secure her throne!
+     Her subjects' joy and pride,
+     God's Word be still her guide:
+     Long may she yet abide
+       Empress and Queen!"
+
+The sons of parish clerks have sometimes attained to high dignity in the
+Church. The clerk of Totnes, Devonshire, had a son who was born in 1718,
+and who became the distinguished author and theologian, Dr. Kennicott.
+On one occasion he went to preach at the church in his native village,
+where his father was still acting as clerk. The old man insisted upon
+performing his accustomed duties, placing the surplice or black gown on
+his son's shoulders, and sitting below him in the clerk's lowly desk.
+The mother of the scholar was so overcome with joy at hearing him
+preach, that she fainted and was carried out of the church insensible.
+Cuthbert Bede records that he was acquainted with two eminent clergymen
+who were the sons of parish clerks. One of them was a learned professor
+of a college and an author of repute, and the other was attended by his
+father in the same manner as Dr. Kennicott was by his.
+
+Sometimes our failures are the stepping-stones to success in life. The
+celebrated Dr. Prideaux, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and
+Bishop of Worcester in 1641, was the son of poor parents at Harford,
+near Totnes. He applied for the post of parish clerk at Ugborough, but
+failed to obtain the appointment. He was much disappointed, and in
+despair wandered to Oxford, where he became a servitor at Exeter
+College, and ultimately attained to the position of rector or head of
+his college. When he became bishop, he was accustomed to say, "If I
+could have been clerk of Ugborough, I had never been bishop of
+Worcester."
+
+The history of the clerks of Barnstaple (1500-1900) has been traced by
+the Rev. J.F. Chanter[95], and the record is remarkable as showing their
+important status, and how some were raised to the diaconate, and in
+difficult times rendered good service to the Church and the incumbents.
+The first clerk of whom any trace can be found was Thomas Hunt
+(1540-68). He appears in the register books as _clericus de hoc opido_,
+and in the churchwardens' accounts for 1564 there is an entry, "Item to
+Hunt the clerke paid for lights 2 s. 8 d." He was succeeded by his son,
+John Hunt (1564-84). Robert Langdon flourished as clerk from 1584 to
+1625, when spiritual matters were at a low ebb in the parish. The vicar
+was excommunicated in 1589. His successor quickly resigned, and the next
+vicar was soon involved in feuds with some of his puritanically inclined
+parishioners. The quarrel was increased by the unworthy conduct of
+Robert Smyth, a preacher and lecturer who was appointed and paid by the
+corporation, and cared little for vicar or bishop. He was an extreme
+Puritan, and had a considerable following in the parish. His refusal to
+wear a surplice, though ordered to do so by the bishop, brought the
+dispute to a head. He was inhibited, but his followers retorted by
+accusing the vicar of being a companion of tipplers and fooling away his
+time with pipe and tabor, and finally bringing an accusation against
+him, on account of which the poor man was cited before the High
+Commission Court. The charge came to nothing, and Smyth for a time
+conformed and wore his surplice. Then some of the Puritan faction
+refused to accept the vicar's ministrations, and two of them were tried
+at the assizes and sent to gaol. "If they would rather go to gaol than
+church," said the town clerk, "much good may it do them. I am not of
+their mind." Passive resisters were not encouraged in those days. But
+the relations between vicar and lecturer continued strained, and the
+former bethought him of his faithful clerk, Robert Langdon, as a helper
+in the ministry. He applied to the bishop to raise him to the diaconate,
+and this was done, Langdon being ordained deacon on 21 September, 1606,
+by William Cotton, Bishop of Exeter. The record of this notable event,
+the ordination of a parish clerk, thus appears in the ordination
+register of the diocese:
+
+     "In festo Matthĉi Apostoli Dominus Episcopus in ecclesia
+     parochiali de Silfertone xxi mo die Septembris 1606 ordines
+     sacros celebrando ordinavit, sequuntur Diaconi tunc et
+     ibidinem ordinati videlicet Robertus Langdon de Barnestapli."
+
+[Footnote 95: _Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the
+Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art_, 1904, xxxvi. pp. 390-414.]
+
+Langdon remained parish clerk and deacon nineteen years, and the
+register contained the record of his burial, "Robert Langdon deacon 5th
+July 1625." He seems to have brought peace to the troubled mind of his
+vicar, whose tombstone declares:
+
+     "Many are the troubles of the Righteous
+     But the Lord delivereth out of all."
+
+Langdon used to keep the registers, and he began to record in them a
+series of notes on passing events which add greatly to the interest of
+such volumes. Thus we find an account of a grievous fire at Tiverton in
+1595, a violent storm at Barnstaple in 1606, and a great frost in the
+same year; another fire at Tiverton in 1612, and the scraps of Latin
+which appear show that he was a man of some education.
+
+Anthony Baker reigned from 1625 to 1646, who had also been ordained
+deacon prior to his appointment to Barnstaple, and belonged to an old
+yeoman family. He was popular with the people, who presented him with a
+new gown. He saw the suspension of his vicar by the Standing Committee,
+and probably died of the plague in 1646, when the town found itself
+without vicar, deacon, or clerk. The plague was raging, people dying,
+and no one to minister to them. No clergyman would come save the old
+vicar, Martyn Blake, who was at length allowed by the Puritan rulers to
+return, to the great joy of the inhabitants. He appointed Symon Sloby
+(1647-81), but could not get him ordained deacon, as bishops and
+ordination were abhorred and abolished by the Puritan rulers. Sloby was
+appointed "Register of Barnestapell" during the Commonwealth period. He
+saw his vicar ejected and carried off to Exeter by some of the
+Parliamentary troopers and subsequently restored to the living, and
+records with much joy and loyalty the restoration of the monarchy. He
+served three successive vicars, records many items of interest,
+including certain gifts to himself with a pious wish for others to go
+and do likewise, and died in a good old age.
+
+Richard Sleeper succeeded him in 1682, and reigned till 1698. He
+conformed to the more modern style of clerk of an important parish, a
+dignified official who attended the vicar and performed his duties on
+Sunday, occupying the clerk's desk. Of his successors history records
+little save their names. William Bawden, a weaver, was clerk from 1708
+to 1726, William Evans 1726 to 1741, John Taylor 1741 to 1760, John
+Comer 1760 to 1786, John Shapcote 1786 to 1795, Joseph Kimpland 1795 to
+1798, who was a member of an old Barnstaple family and was succeeded by
+his son John (1798-1832), John Thorne (1832-1859), John Hartnoll
+(1859-1883), and William Youings 1883 to 1901.
+
+This is a remarkable record, and it would be well if in all parishes a
+list of clerks, with as much information as the industrious inquirer can
+collect, could be so satisfactorily drawn up and recorded, as Mr.
+Chanter has so successfully done for Barnstaple. The quaint notes in the
+registers written by the clerk give some sort of key to his character,
+and the recollections of the oldest inhabitants might be set down who
+can tell us something of the life and character of those who have lived
+in more modern times. We sometimes record in our churches the names of
+the bishops of the see, and of the incumbents of the parish; perhaps a
+list of the humbler but no less faithful servants of the Church, the
+parish clerks, might be added.
+
+Often can we learn much from them of old-world manners, superstitions,
+folk-lore, and the curious form of worship practised in the days of our
+forefathers. My own clerk is a great authority on the lore of ancient
+days, of bygone hard winters, of weather-lore, of the Russian war time,
+and of the ways of the itinerant choir and orchestra, of which he was
+the noted leader. Strange and curious carols did he and his sons and
+friends sing for us on Christmas Eve, the words and music of which have
+been handed down from father to son for several generations, and have
+somewhat suffered in their course. His grandson still performs for us
+the Christmas Mumming Play. The clerk is seventy years of age, and
+succeeded his father some forty years ago. Save for "bad legs," the
+curse of the rustic, he is still hale and hearty, and in spite of an
+organ and surpliced choir, his powerful voice still sounds with a
+resonant "Amen." Never does he miss a Sunday service.
+
+We owe much to our faithful clerks. Let us revere their memories. They
+are a most interesting race, and your "Amen clerk" is often more
+celebrated and better known than the rector, vicar, patron or squire.
+The irreverence, of which we have given many alarming instances, was
+the irreverence of the times in which they lived, of the bad old days of
+pluralist rectors and itinerant clerics, when the Church was asleep and
+preparing to die with what dignity she could. We may not blame the
+humble servitor for the faults and failings of his masters and for the
+carelessness and depravity of his age. We cannot judge his homely ways
+by the higher standard of ceremonial and worship to which we have become
+accustomed. Charity shall hide from us his defects, while we continue to
+admire the virtues, faithfulness and devotion to duty of the old parish
+clerk, who retains a warm place in our hearts and is tenderly and
+affectionately remembered by the elder generation of English
+Churchpeople.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+The passing of the parish clerk causes many reflections. For a thousand
+years he has held an important position in our churches. We have seen
+him robed in his ancient dignity, a zealous and honoured official,
+without whose aid the services of the Church could scarcely have been
+carried on. In post-Reformation times he continued his career without
+losing his rank or status, his dignity or usefulness. We have seen him
+the life and mainstay of the village music, the instructor of young
+clerics, the upholder of ancient customs and old-established usages. We
+have regretted the decay in his education, his irreverence and
+absurdities, and have amused ourselves with the stories of his quaint
+ways and strange eccentricities. His unseemly conduct was the fault of
+the dullness, deadness, and irreverence of the age in which he lived,
+rather than of his own personal defects. In spite of all that can be
+said against him, he was often a very faithful, loyal, pious, and
+worthy man.
+
+His place knows him no more in many churches. We have a black-gowned
+verger in our towns; a humble temple-sweeper in our villages. The only
+civil right which he retains is that the prospectors of new railways are
+obliged to deposit their plans and maps with him, and well do I
+remember the indignation of my own parish clerk when the plans of a
+proposed railway, addressed to "the Parish Clerk," were delivered by the
+postman to the clerk of the Parish Council. It was a wrong that could
+scarcely be righted.
+
+I would venture to suggest, in conclusion, that it might be worth while
+for the authorities of the Church to consider the possibility of a
+revival of the office. It would be a great advantage to the Church to
+restore the parish clerk to his former important position, and to
+endeavour to obtain more learned and able men for the discharge of the
+duties. The office might be made again a sphere of training for those
+who wish to take Holy Orders, wherein a young man might be thoroughly
+educated in the duties of the clerical profession. It would be an
+immense assistance to an incumbent to have an active and educated layman
+associated with him in the work of the parish, in teaching, in reading
+and serving in church, and in visiting the sick. Like the clerk of old,
+he would be studying and preparing for ordination, and there could be no
+better school for training than actual parish work under the supervision
+of an earnest and wise rector.
+
+The Church has witnessed vast changes and improvements during the last
+fifty years. The poor clerk has been left to look after himself. The
+revival of the office and an improvement in the position and education
+of the holders of it would, I fully believe, be of an immense advantage
+to the Church and a most valuable assistance to the clergy.
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+Absolon, Chaucer's portrait of, 26
+  David, clerk of Great Yarmouth, 185
+"Acts," a Christian name, 264
+Addison, on clerks, 64
+Advent, a carol for, 168
+"Ales," clerk's, 42
+Allington, Kent, 230
+Alnwick, Turner, clerk of, 232
+"Amen" epitaph, 97
+_Ancient Mysteries_, 137
+Andrews, W., _Curious Epitaphs_, 100
+  _Curiosities of the Church_, 188
+Antiquity of clerk's office, 16, etc.
+Apostles, complimenting the, 265
+Appointment, the right of, 246
+_Aquĉbajalus_, 27
+Arms of the Company of Clerks, 111
+_Art of Politicks_, 184
+Art, the clerk in, 195, etc.
+Ashford, Isaac, the story of, 68
+Aston, Yorks, 5
+Astronomical clerks, 209, 258
+Atchley, Dr. Cuthbert, 49
+Atkinson, Rev. Canon, 302, 303
+Atkins, Thomas of Chillenden, 236
+Augustine of Canterbury, St., 16, 35
+Avington, female clerk at, 202
+
+Badger, H.W., of Mallow, 319
+Baker, Anthony, deacon-clerk, 329
+Bakewell, the Roe family of, 93
+Barkham, 143, 312, 331
+Barnet, East, clerk of, 60
+Barnstaple, clerks of, 61, 327
+Barrel-organs, 5
+Barton Turf, Norfolk, dog-whippers land at, 34
+Beating the bounds at Ringmer, 34
+Bede Roll of the Company, 113
+Bede, Cuthbert, 91, 161, 201, 317, 327
+Bells to warn travellers, 83
+Belbroughton, 96
+_Belts Life_, in the pulpit, 231
+Belton, Suffolk, Noah Pole, clerk of, 311
+Bennet, John, of Woodstock, 163
+Beresford Hope on old services, 8, 170
+Besant, Sir W., description of old clerk, 21
+Bilby, Thomas, author of hymn, 154
+Bills of Mortality, 123
+Bingley, Hezekiah Briggs, of, 100
+Bletchley, clerk of, 59
+Bly, Sarah, sexton, 201
+"Bobber," or sluggard-waker, 204
+Bond family of Worcester, 318
+Boniface, Archbishop, constitutions of, 30
+Borne, Hooker's parish, 24
+_Borough, The_, by G. Crabbe, 66
+Bradford-on-Avon, 158, 194
+Bramwells of Chapel-en-le-Frith, 319
+Bristol, St. Nicholas, 28, 50
+Broadway, the Tustins of, 318
+Bromfield, Salop, 280
+Bromham, the clerk of, 190
+Bromsgrove, Rose family of, 318
+Burrows, Mrs., recollections of, 283
+Buxted, clerk of, 55
+
+Caistor, Lincolnshire, 227
+Calculating clerk, a, 211
+Cambridgeshire curate, a, 15
+Canes in churches, 190
+Canterbury, Guild of Clerks at, 105
+Carley, Thomas, of Grafton Underwood, 152
+Carne, James, oldest living parish clerk, 319
+Carshalton, register of, 141
+Catechising, 228
+Catechising in church by the clerk, 59, 274
+Catwick, Thomas Dixon, of, 206
+Celibacy of clerks, 18
+Chanter, Rev. J.F., on clerks of Barnstaple, 327
+Chapel-en-le-Frith, 319
+Chapple, William, of Swymbridge, 174
+Charman Dean, smuggling at, 84
+Charters of Company of Clerks, 106, 109
+Chaucer's portrait of frivolous clerk, 26
+Cheshire clerk, an old, 225
+Chess in a village, 242
+Chester, plays at, 134
+  Sir Robert, spoliator of Clerks' Company, 108
+Chillenden, Kent, 236
+Choirs, old-time, 1, 3, 4, 198, 213
+"Chosen people," 235
+Church, description of an old, 1
+Churching of women, 231
+Churchwardens' Account books, 19
+Clark, John, the register book of, 145
+Clarke, John, 111
+Clarkson, David, of Feckenham, 318
+Claverley, Shropshire, 188
+Clergy, defective readers, 58
+Clerk's ale, 42
+  house, 33
+_Clerks Book, The_, 52, 248
+Clerks, too clerical, 79, etc.
+Clerk's Latin, 242
+Clerkenwell and clerks' plays, 130, etc.
+Clerkship, stepping-stone to higher preferment, 32
+Coaching days, 241
+Collis family of clerks, 91
+Collumpton, female clerk at, 202
+Company of parish clerks, 104, etc.
+Cornish parsons, 180
+Cornish wreckers, 84
+Coronation changes in the Prayer Book, 314
+Council of Merida, 17
+  Toledo, 17
+Court, George, of Wednesbury, 289
+Coventry, Trinity Church, 28, 36, 50
+Coventry, plays at, 134
+Cowper's mortuary verses, 69
+  _The Sofa_, 71
+  _The Task_, 184
+Crabbe's sketch of old clerics, 13
+Crabbe's sketch of old clerks, 66
+Crayford, Kent, "Amen" epitaph at, 97
+Cromer, David Vial of, 92
+Cropthorne, Worcestershire, 102
+Crosthwaite and catechising, 277
+Curious stories, 307, etc.
+
+Dagenham and its clerk, 313
+Dean, West, Sussex, 233
+Decline of clerks, 61
+Decorating the church, 193
+Deputations, 217
+Descent into Hell, 136
+Dickenson, Thomas, licensed to officiate, 81
+Dicker, Robert, of Crediton, 257
+Diggs, David, 6, 58, 162
+Dismissing a clerk, 247, 250
+Dixon, Thomas, a curious character, 206
+Dog, an archbishop's, 189
+Dogs fighting in church, 85
+Dog-whippers, 34, 188
+Dogs lost, notices of, 176
+Dogs in churches, 189
+Duke's present of game, a, 177
+Dunstable, 20
+Dunstan, St., 16
+
+Easter cakes, 41
+Eastham, clerk of, 55
+Ecclesfield, clerks at, 298
+Eccleshall's cricketing clerk, 182
+_Ecclesiastical Law_, by Sir R. Phillimore, 247
+Edgar, King, canons of, 16
+Elliott, Rev. E.K., recollections of, 83
+Elmstead, 49
+Elton, Miss, recollections of, 292
+Epitaphs of clerks, 90, etc.
+Epworth and John Wesley, 193
+Ethelbert, King, 16
+Evison, Thomas, of Wragsby, 281
+Exeter, Synod of, 17
+
+Faithfulness of clerks, 23
+Fairfield, 80
+Fasting Communion, a tradition, 237
+Faversham, 28, 45, 50
+Feckenham, 318
+Feudal customs, 284
+Fewson, Richard, a curious clerk, 208
+Fielding's clerics, 11
+Fighting in church, 49, 279
+Finch, Betty, "bobber," 204
+Flore, carol by the clerk of, 167
+Ford family of King's Norton, 102, 318
+Foster, Joshua, of Caistor, 227
+Foston-le-Clay and Sydney Smith, 216
+Fressingfield, clerk's house at, 34
+Frith's Vicar of Wakefield, 199
+Funerals, London clerks at, 116
+Funerals, old time, 218, 222
+Furness, Richard, clerk of Dore, 164
+
+Gadara, swine of, 238
+Gainsborough's portrait of Orpin, 195
+Gargrave, York, 157
+Gay's allusion to clerks, 72
+George IV and Queen Caroline, 183
+Ghost story, 313
+Gill, Mrs., recollections of, 170, 278
+"God speed 'em well," 215, 230
+Goldsmith's _Vicar of Wakefield_, 12
+Goose in the pulpit, 266
+Grafton Underwood, 152
+Gray, John, clerk at Eton College,
+Green, Rev. W.F., recollections of, 293
+Gregory IX, decretals of, 17
+Gregory Smith, Rev. Canon, recollections of, 315
+Grindal, Archbishop, injunctions of, 54, 80
+Grosseteste, Bishop, 17
+Guild of Clerks, 18, 104, etc.
+Guinea-fowls, disturbing congregation, 261
+Gunpowder Plot, 161
+
+Haddon, West, 91
+Halls of the Clerks' Company, 107, 110, etc.
+"Harmun," a Christian name, 263
+Hartlepool, clerk of, 59
+Harvey, Christopher, 63
+Haw of Halton Holgate, 236
+Hawker, Rev. R.S., recollections of, 85, 313
+Hayes, disgraceful scenes at, 187
+Hebrew scholar, a, 323
+Hemmans, Rev. Canon, recollections of, 281
+Herbert, George, on responding, 68
+Herbert, George, clerk of Eye, 93
+Heredity of the clerk's office, 318
+Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, 17
+Hinton, William, a Wilts clerk, 239
+Hobbes, William, clerk at Plymouth, 25
+Hobby, a matrimonial, 315
+Hogarth's _Sleeping Congregation_, 131
+Holy loaf, 38, etc.
+Holy water, 27
+Hone's _Year Book_ and _Book of Days_, 87, 99
+Hooker, the Judicious, 24
+Hopkins, John, clerk at Salisbury, 162
+Houses for clerks, 33
+How, Bishop Walsham, recollections of, 298
+Hust, Richard, portrait of, 111
+Hutchinson, F., a Yorkshire clerk, 302
+Hutton, William, verses by, 73
+Huyk, John, of Hull, 35
+Hymn in praise of William III, 160
+
+Illuminated MSS., 197
+Ingenious clerk, an, 259
+Ingham, James, of Whalley, 236
+
+Jachin, the story of, 66
+Jenkins, Rev. M.E., recollections of, 302
+Jenner's "Mount Sion," 185
+Jerry and the "Northern Lights," 218
+John of Althon, 32, 49
+Johnson's definition and opinion of clerks, 66
+
+Kennicott, Dr., a clerk's son, 326
+Kent, John, clerk of St. Albans, 87
+Kenwyn, dogs fighting in church, 85
+Kilbrogan, Ireland, 159
+King's Norton, the Fords of, 102, 318
+
+Lainston, romance of parish register of, 151
+Langdon, Robert, deacon-clerk, 329
+Langhorne, Rev. W.H., recollections of, 231
+Langport, Somerset, 41
+Laracor, Meath, 180
+Latin, a clerk's, 242
+Lavant, East, Russell of, 260
+Law and the clerk, the, 245, etc.
+Lawton, Cheshire, 225
+Leckhampton, 235
+"Leg end, the," 282
+Legg, Dr. J. Wickham, 52, 169, 248
+Legge, Rev. A.G., recollections of, 259, 265
+Lessons, right of reading, 53
+Licence granted to clerk to officiate, 81
+Liston, Essex, 286
+Literature, the clerk in, 63, etc.
+London, St. Peter-the-Less, 35
+London, St. Stephen, Coleman Street, 46, 142
+London, St. Michael, Cornhill, 50, 111
+London, St. Margaret, Westminster, 53, 200
+London, the clerks of, 115, etc.
+London, Guildhall chapel, 115
+London, St. Margaret, Lothbury, 142
+London, Lambeth parish, 147
+London, Battersea, 147
+London, St. Mary's, Islington, 154
+London, St. Matthew's Chapel, Spring Gardens, 191
+London, parishes, 129
+Longevity of clerks, 318
+Lowestoft, Suffolk, Newson of, 311
+Lupson, E.J. of Great Yarmouth, 320
+Lyndewoode, William, on married clerks, 18, 35, 49
+
+Machyn's Diary, 117
+Maldon, Essex, a curious letter, 309
+Mangotsfield, Bamford, clerk of, 230
+Marlow, Bucks, 319
+Marriage Act of 1653, 81
+Marriages by clerks, 81
+Matthew Paris, 43
+Maundy Thursday, 37
+Maybrick, William, and his sons, 308
+Mediĉval clerk, 31, etc.
+Milston, clerk at, 64
+Milverton, Somerset, 41, 59
+Moody, clerk at Redbourn, 172
+More, Sir Thomas, 32, 109
+Morebath, dispute at, 29
+Mortality, Bills of, 123
+Morwenstow and its ghost story, 313
+Myre, John, instructions to parish priests, 45
+
+_New Remarks of London_, 127
+Newport Pagnell, Bucks, 285
+Northampton, All Saints, 69
+"Northern Lights," 217
+Notices, the clerk giving out, 169, etc.
+  curious, 270
+
+Oldswinford, the Orfords of, 318
+Orchestra, village, 4, 213
+Orpin, portrait by Gainsborough, 195
+Osbornes of Belbroughton, 96
+Overy, St. Mary, 80
+
+Pageantry of clerks, 119
+Pall used as horsecloth, 295
+_The Parish Clerk_, a new comic song, 73
+_Parish Clerk's Guide, The_, 46, 57
+_Parish Clerk_, by Hewett, 6, 58, 162
+_Parish Clerks, Some Account of_, by J. Christie, 107
+_Parish Register, The_, by Crabbe, 67
+Parish registers and the clerks, 140, etc.
+_Parish Registers, History of_, 148
+Parsons, old-time, 1, 10-15
+Parson and Clerk, rocks so named, 86
+Pattishall, clerk's register of, 145
+Perquisites of clerks, 41
+Pews, old-fashioned, 2
+Pierce, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 43
+Plague in London, 125
+Playford, John, 56
+Plays performed by clerks, 131, etc.
+Pluralism, evil effects of, 14
+Plymouth, St. Andrew, 25
+Poet, the clerk as a, 154, etc.
+Poor rates levied on the altar, 268
+Pope, Alexander, _Memoir of P.P._, 75
+Portraits in the hall of the Company, 112
+Prideaux, Dr., 327
+Priestly, Peter, clerk of Wakefield, 86
+Printing press, the clerks', 125
+Pup wanted, a, 317
+Puritanism, effects of, 7
+
+Radcliffe, Lancashire, 304
+Radcliffe-on-Sour, 100
+Railways, the advent of, 242
+Raw, Frank, of Selby, epitaph of, 100
+Rawsley, Miss, recollections of, 236
+Rawsley, Canon, story told by, 313
+Reading, duty of, 48, etc.
+Reading, St. Giles, 19, 33, 45
+Reading, St. Lawrence, 21, 39
+Reading, St. Mary, 33, 39
+_Rectores chori_, 36
+Recollections of old clerks, 255, etc.
+Redbourn, Herts, 172
+Reeve, Rev. E.H.L., recollections of, 286
+Reformation changes, 51
+Rempstone, wages of clerk at, 248
+"Responding inaudibly," 307
+Revival of office of clerk, 334
+Rex _v._ Erasmus Warren, 251
+Richard I as _rector chori_, 32
+Ringmer, 34
+Rival clerks, 49, 211, 279
+Rivington family, 127
+Robinson, Daniel, of Flore, 167
+Rochester and its parish register, 150
+Rochester, Earl of, epigram by, 3
+Roe family at Bakewell, 93
+Romford, 307
+Roper, William, of Clerks' Company, 109
+Rose family of Bromsgrove, 318
+Rugby, St. Andrew, 91
+Russell, Rev. J., of Swymbridge, 174
+Russell, clerk of East Lavant, 260
+
+St. Albans, clerk of, 87
+St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, 320
+St. Nicholas, patron saint of clerks, 105
+Salehurst, wages of clerk, 249
+Salisbury, St. Edmund, clerk's house at, 34
+Salisbury, John Hopkins of, 162
+Saltwood, Kent, clerk's house at, 34
+Sapiston and the Duke's hare, 177
+Scarlett, Old, of Peterborough, 98
+Schoolmaster, clerk as, 44
+Scothorne, Blackburn's epitaph, 103
+Selwyn, Rev. W., recollections of, 279
+Sermon forgotten, 287
+Sexton and clerk, 22, 64, 253
+Shakespeare's allusion to clerks, 63
+Shenley, Rogers of, 92
+Sherlock, F., recollections of, 308
+Shoes in church, 226
+Sidbury, clerk of, 59
+Singing, duty of, 48, etc.
+Singing, efforts to improve, 121
+Skinners' Well, 131
+_Sleeping Congregation_, by  Hogarth 181
+Sleepy church and sleepy clerks, 179, etc.
+Sluggard-waker, 187
+Smuggling days and smuggling ways, 79, 83, etc.
+Smoking in church, 228, 295, 303
+Snell, Peter, of Crayford, 97
+Soberton, Hants, smuggling at, 84
+_Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, 142, 148
+Solomon Daisy of _Barnaby Rudge_, 72
+Song during the sermon, a, 292
+_Spectator, The_, 64, 65
+Spoliation of Clerks' Company, 108
+Sporting parsons, 171, 269
+Sporting clerks, 211
+Squire's pew, the, 2
+Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berks, 40
+Staple-next-Wingham, 101
+Sternhold and Hopkins's Psalter, 3
+Stoke, 300
+Story, Robert, poet, 157
+Stoulton, epitaph at, 103
+Stratfieldsaye, 300, 305
+Surplices objected to, 118
+Swanscombe, Kent, 8
+Swift on old pews, 2
+Swift and his clerk Roger, 180
+Syntax, Dr., 14
+
+Tait, Archbishop, on old services, 8
+Teeth, story of "artful," 174
+Tennyson's allusion to clerks, 72
+Tenterden, John Hopton of, 80
+Thame, curious banns at, 316
+Thirza, a Christian name, 282
+Tingrith and its potentate, 283
+Totnes, Devon, 326
+Tourists' queries, 321
+Town crier as clerk, 293
+Tunbridge Wells, Jenner's "Mount Sion," 185
+
+Uffington, Salop, 299
+Upton, near Droitwich, 179
+
+Venables, Rev. Canon, recollections of, 267
+Verney, Lady, _Essays and Tales_, 74
+Vickers, Rev. W.V., recollections of, 255
+Visitation of the sick, 46
+
+Wages of clerks, 248
+Wakefield, 87
+Walker, Rev. Robert, the "Wonderful," 11
+Waltham, 79
+  Holy Cross, 81
+Walton, Isaac, story of faithful clerk, 24
+Warrington and its "bobber," 204
+_Way to find Sunday without an Almanack, The_, 73
+Webster's _Village Choir_, 198
+Wednesbury, 145, 191, 289
+Wesley and his clerk, 193
+Westbere, 79
+Westhoughton, 305
+Westley, 228
+Whalley, clerk at, 236
+Wheatley, female clerk at, 202
+Whitewashed church, a, 295
+Whittingdon, Thomas Evans of, 92
+"Wicked man, the," 256
+Wilberforce, Bishop, on squire's pew, 2
+Willoughton, Betty Wells of, 203
+Wills containing bequests to clerks, 31
+Wimborne Minster, 55, 233
+Windermere, clerk of, 230
+Wise, Mr., of Weekley, recollections of, 292
+Witch as parish clerk, 203
+Woburn, J. Brewer of, 293
+Wolstanton, 299
+Wolverley, Worcestershire, 96
+Women as parish clerks, 200, etc.
+  as sextons, 254
+Woodmancote, old clerk at, 233
+Woodstock, J. Bennet, clerk of, 163
+Wootton, Paul, clerk at Bromham, 190
+Worcester, St. Michael, clerk's house at, 34
+Worcester, St. Michael, the Bond family of, 318
+Wordsworth, on the "Wonderful Walker," 11
+Workington and its beadle, 299
+Worrall family of Wolverley, 96
+Worthing, smuggling at, 83
+Worth, John Alcorn of, 101
+Wragby, clerk of, 281
+Wren, William, of Stondon Massey, 287
+
+Yarmouth, Great, the clerk of, 320
+York, mystery plays at, 133
+Yorkshire clerks, 206, etc., 302
+Young, Rev. J.C., recollections of, 239
+
+"Zulphur," a Christian name, 258
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Parish Clerk (1907)
+by Peter Hampson Ditchfield
+
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Parish Clerk, by P.H.
+Ditchfield.</title>
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Parish Clerk (1907), by Peter Hampson Ditchfield
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Parish Clerk (1907)
+
+Author: Peter Hampson Ditchfield
+
+Release Date: September 3, 2004 [EBook #13363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PARISH CLERK (1907) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<br>
+<a name="image01.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image01.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image01.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>THE PARISH CLERK. By Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>THE PARISH CLERK</h1>
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h2>P.H. DITCHFIELD</h2>
+<h4>M.A., F.S.A.</h4>
+<h4>WITH THIRTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS</h4>
+<h4><i>First Published in 1907</i>.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<blockquote>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>CHAPTER</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I. OLD-TIME CHOIRS AND PARSONS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II. THE ANTIQUITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE
+OFFICE OF CLERK</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-16">16</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III. THE MEDI&AElig;VAL CLERK</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-31">31</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV. HIS DUTIES OF READING AND
+SINGING</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-48">48</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V. THE CLERK IN LITERATURE</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-63">63</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI. CLERKS TOO CLERICAL--SMUGGLING DAYS
+AND SMUGGLING WAYS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-79">79</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII. THE CLERK IN EPITAPH</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-90">90</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII. THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF PARISH
+CLERKS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-104">104</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX. THE CLERKS OF LONDON: THEIR DUTIES
+AND PRIVILEGES</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-115">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X. CLERKENWELL AND CLERKS' PLAYS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-130">130</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI. THE CLERKS AND THE PARISH
+REGISTERS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-140">140</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII. THE CLERK AS A POET</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-154">154</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII. THE CLERK GIVING OUT
+NOTICES</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-169">169</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV. SLEEPY CHURCH AND SLEEPY
+CLERKS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-179">179</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV. THE CLERK IN ART</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-195">195</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI. WOMEN AS PARISH CLERKS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-201">201</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII. SOME YORKSHIRE CLERKS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-206">206</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII. AN OLD CHESHIRE CLERK AND SOME
+OTHER WORTHIES</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-225">225</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX. THE CLERK AND THE LAW</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-245">245</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX. RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD CLERKS AND THEIR
+WAYS</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-255">255</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI. CURIOUS STORIES</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-306">306</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII. LONGEVITY AND HEREDITY--THE
+DEACON-CLERKS OF BARNSTAPLE</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-318">318</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII. CONCLUSION</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-333">333</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page-335">335</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-vii"></a>[pg vii]</span>
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+<blockquote>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image01.jpg">The Parish Clerk.</a> By Thomas
+Gainsborough, R.A.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><i><a href=
+"#image01.jpg">Frontispiece</a></i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From the original in the National
+Gallery</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image02.jpg">The Village Choir.</a> By Thomas
+Webster</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image02.jpg">8</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From the original in the Victoria and
+Albert Museum</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image03.jpg">The Medi&aelig;val Clerk: The Clerk In
+Procession</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image03.jpg">18</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From old engravings</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image05.jpg">The Clerk Bearing Holy Water And
+Asperging The Cook, And Others</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image05.jpg">28</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From old engravings</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image07.jpg">The Old Church-Houses At Hurst And
+Uffington, Berks</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image07.jpg">42</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of Messrs. G.J. Palmer and
+Sons</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image09.jpg">The Clerk And Priest Visiting The Sick
+And Administering The Last Sacrament</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image09.jpg">46</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of the S.P.C.K.</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image11.jpg">Old Beckenham Church.</a> By David
+Cox</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image11.jpg">60</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From the drawing at the Tate
+Gallery</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image12.jpg">Old Scarlett</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image12.jpg">98</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From</i> "<i>The Book of Days</i>"</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of Messrs. W. and R.
+Chambers, Ltd</i>.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image13.jpg">Entrance To The Hall Of The Company Of
+Parish Clerks.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image13.jpg">104</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image14.jpg">The Master's Chair At The Parish Clerks'
+Hall</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image14.jpg">106</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image15.jpg">Portrait Of William Roper, Son-In-Law
+And Biographer Of</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#image15.jpg">Sir Thomas More,
+Benefactor Of The Clerks' Company</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image15.jpg">110</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image16.jpg">The Grant Of Arms To The Company Of
+Parish Clerks</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image16.jpg">111</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image17.jpg">Stained Glass Window At The Hall Of The
+Parish Clerks'</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#image17.jpg">Company, Showing
+Portraits Of John Clarke And Stephen Penckhurst</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image17.jpg">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image18.jpg">A Page Of The Bede Roll Of The Parish
+Clerks' Company.</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image18.jpg">114</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image19.jpg">The Organ At The Parish Clerks'
+Hall</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image19.jpg">121</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image20.jpg">A Page Of An Early Bill Of Mortality
+Preserved At The</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#image20.jpg">Hall Of The Parish
+Clerks' Company</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image20.jpg">122</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image21.jpg">Interior Of The Hall Of The Parish
+Clerks' Company</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image21.jpg">126</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image22.jpg">Portrait Of John Clarke, Parish Clerk Of
+The Church Of St. Michael, Cornhill</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image22.jpg">128</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image23.jpg">Old Map Of Clerkenwell</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image23.jpg">130</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image24.jpg">A Mystery Play At Chester</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image24.jpg">132</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From a print after a painting by T.
+Uwins</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image25.jpg">The Descent Into Hell</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image25.jpg">136</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From William Hone's "Ancient
+Mysteries</i>"</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image26.jpg">The Sleeping Congregation.</a> By W.
+Hogarth</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image26.jpg">182</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From an engraving at the British
+Museum</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image27.jpg">The Clerk Attending The Priest At Holy
+Baptism</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image27.jpg">196</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of the S.P.C.K.</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image29.jpg">The Duties Of A Clerk At A Death And
+Funeral</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image29.jpg">198</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of the S.P.C.K.</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image30.jpg">The Vicar Of Wakefield.</a> By W.P.
+Frith</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image30.jpg">199</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell
+and Co</i>.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image31.jpg">Portrait Of Richard Hust, The Restorer
+Of The Clerks' Almshouses</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image31.jpg">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image32.jpg">The Church Of St. Margaret,
+Westminster</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image32.jpg">210</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>After an engraving from a photograph by
+Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co</i>.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image33.jpg">William Hinton, A Wiltshire Worthy.</a>
+Drawn by the Rev. Julian Charles Young</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image33.jpg">239</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of Messrs. Macmillan and
+Co</i>.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image34.jpg">Sunday Morning.</a> By John Absolon</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image34.jpg">270</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell
+and Co</i>.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image35.jpg">The Parish Clerk Of Quedgeley</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image35.jpg">280</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>By permission of Miss Isabel
+Barnett</i></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image36.jpg">James Carne, Parish Clerk Of St. Columb
+Minor, Cornwall, The Oldest Living Clerk</a></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image36.jpg">32</a>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>From a photograph by Mr. R.P. Griffith,
+Newquay</i></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-ix"></a>[pg ix]</span>
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The race of parish clerks is gradually becoming extinct. Before
+the recollection of their quaint ways, their curious manners and
+customs, has quite passed away, it has been thought advisable to
+collect all that can be gathered together concerning them. Much
+light has in recent years been thrown upon the history of the
+office. The learned notes appended to Dr. Wickham Legg's edition of
+<i>The Parish Clerk's Book</i>, published by the Henry Bradshaw
+Society, Dr. Atchley's <i>Parish Clerk and his Right to Read the
+Liturgical Epistle</i> (Alcuin Club Tracts), and other works, give
+much information with regard to the antiquity of the office, and to
+the duties of the clerk of medi&aelig;val times; and from these
+books I have derived much information. By the kindness of many
+friends and of many correspondents who are personally unknown to
+me, I have been enabled to collect a large number of anecdotes,
+recollections, facts, and biographical sketches of many clerks in
+different parts of England, and I am greatly indebted to those who
+have so kindly supplied me with so much valuable information. Many
+of the writers are far advanced in years, when the labour of
+putting pen to paper is a sore burden. I am deeply grateful to them
+for the trouble which they kindly took in recording their
+recollections <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-x"></a>[pg
+x]</span> of the scenes of their youth. I have been much amused by
+the humorous stories of old clerkly ways, by the
+<i>faceti&aelig;</i> which have been sent to me, and I have been
+much impressed by the records of faithful service and devotion to
+duty shown by many holders of the office who won the esteem and
+affectionate regard of both priest and people. It is impossible for
+me to publish the names of all those who have kindly written to me,
+but I wish especially to thank the Rev. Canon Venables, who first
+suggested the idea of this work, and to whom it owes its conception
+and initiation <a name="FNanchor1"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_1">[1]</a>; to the Rev. B.D. Blyn-Stoyle, to Mr. F.W.
+Hackwood, the Rev. W.V. Vickers, the Rev. W. Selwyn, the Rev. E.H.
+L. Reeve, the Rev. W.H. Langhorne, Mr. E.J. Lupson, Mr. Charles
+Wise, and many others, who have taken a kindly interest in the
+writing of this book. I have also to express my thanks to the
+editors of the <i>Treasury</i> and of <i>Pearson's Magazine</i> for
+permission to reproduce portions of some of the articles which I
+contributed to their periodicals, to the editor of <i>Chambers's
+Journal</i> for the use of an article on some north-country clerics
+and their clerks by a writer whose name is unknown to me, and to
+the Rev. J. Gaskell Exton for sending to me an account of a
+Yorkshire clerk which, by the kindness of the editor of the
+<i>Yorkshire Weekly Post</i>, I am enabled to reproduce.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a>
+Since the above was written, and while this book has been passing
+through the press, the venerable clergyman, Canon Venables, has
+been called away from earth. A zealous parish priest, a voluminous
+writer, a true friend, he will be much missed by all who knew him.
+Some months ago he sent me some recollections of his early days, of
+the clerks he had known, and his reflections on his long ministry,
+and these have been recorded in this book, and will now have a
+pathetic interest for his many friends and for all who admired his
+noble, earnest, and strenuous life.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-1"></a>[pg 1]</span>
+<h2>THE PARISH CLERK</h2>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3>OLD-TIME CHOIRS AND PARSONS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>A remarkable feature in the conduct of our modern ecclesiastical
+services is the disappearance and painless extinction of the old
+parish clerk who figured so prominently in the old-fashioned ritual
+dear to the hearts of our forefathers. The Oxford Movement has much
+to answer for! People who have scarcely passed the rubicon of
+middle life can recall the curious scene which greeted their eyes
+each Sunday morning when life was young, and perhaps retain a
+tenderness for old abuses, and, like George Eliot, have a lingering
+liking for nasal clerks and top-booted clerics, and sigh for the
+departed shades of vulgar errors.</p>
+<p>Then and now--the contrast is great. Then the hideous Georgian
+"three-decker" reared its monstrous form, blocking out the sight of
+the sanctuary; immense pews like cattle-pens filled the nave. The
+woodwork was high and panelled, sometimes richly carved, as at
+Whalley Church, Lancashire, where some pews have posts at the
+corners like an old-fashioned four-posted bed. Sometimes two feet
+above the top of the woodwork there were brass rods on which
+slender curtains <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-2"></a>[pg
+2]</span> ran, and were usually drawn during sermon time in order
+that the attention of the occupants of the pew might not be
+distracted from devout meditations on the preacher's discourse--or
+was it to woo slumber? A Berkshire dame rather admired these
+old-fashioned pews, wherein, as she naively expressed it, "a body
+might sleep comfortable without all the parish knowin' on it."</p>
+<p>It was of such pews that Swift wrote in his <i>Baucis and
+Philemon</i>:</p>
+<blockquote>"A bedstead of the antique mode,<br>
+Compact of timber many a load,<br>
+Such as our ancestors did use<br>
+Was metamorphosed into pews;<br>
+Which still their ancient nature keep<br>
+By lodging folks disposed to sleep."</blockquote>
+<p>The squire's pew was a wondrous structure, with its own special
+fire-place, the fire in which the old gentleman used to poke
+vigorously when the parson was too long in preaching. It was amply
+furnished, this squire's pew, with arm-chairs and comfortable seats
+and stools and books. Such a pew all furnished and adorned did a
+worthy clerk point out to the witty Bishop of Oxford, Bishop
+Wilberforce, with much pride and satisfaction. "If there be ought
+your lordship can mention to mak' it better, I'm sure Squire will
+no mind gettin' on it."</p>
+<p>The bishop, with a merry twinkle in his eye, turned round to the
+vicar, who was standing near, and maliciously whispered:</p>
+<p>"A card table!"</p>
+<p>Such comfortable squires' pews still exist in some churches, but
+"restoration" has paid scanty regard to old-fashioned notions and
+ideas, and the squire and his family usually sit nowadays on
+benches similar to those used by the rest of the congregation.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-3"></a>[pg 3]</span>
+<p>Then the choir sat in the west gallery and made strange noises
+and sang curious tunes, the echoes of which we shall try to catch.
+No organ then pealed forth its reverent tones and awaked the church
+with dulcet harmonies: a pitch-pipe often the sole instrument. And
+then--what terrible hymns were sung! Well did Campbell say of
+Sternhold and Hopkins, the co-translators of the Psalms of David
+into English metre, "mistaking vulgarity for simplicity, they
+turned into bathos what they found sublime." And Tate and Brady's
+version, the "Dry Psalter" of "Samuel Oxon's" witticism, was little
+better. Think of the poetical beauties of the following lines, sung
+with vigour by a bald-headed clerk:</p>
+<blockquote>"My hairs are numerous, but few<br>
+Compared to th' enemies that me pursue."</blockquote>
+<p>It was of such a clerk and of such psalmody that John Wilmot,
+Earl of Rochester, in the seventeenth century wrote his celebrated
+epigram:</p>
+<blockquote>"Sternhold and Hopkins had great qualms<br>
+When they translated David's Psalms,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To make the heart more glad;<br>
+But had it been poor David's fate<br>
+To hear thee sing and them translate,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By Jove, 'twould have drove him
+mad."</blockquote>
+<p>When the time for singing the metrical Psalm arrived, the clerk
+gave out the number in stentorian tones, using the usual formula,
+"Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the one hundred and
+fourth Psalm, first, second, seving (seven), and eleving verses
+with the Doxology." Then, pulling out his pitch-pipe from the dusty
+cushions of his seat, he would strut pompously down the church,
+ascend the stairs leading to the west gallery, blow his pipe, and
+give the basses, tenors, and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-4"></a>[pg 4]</span> soprano voices their notes, which they
+hung on to in a low tone until the clerk returned to his place in
+the lowest tier of the "three-decker" and started the choir-folk
+vigorously. Those Doxologies at the end! What a trouble they were!
+You could find them if you knew where to look for them at the end
+of the Prayer Book after Tate and Brady's metrical renderings of
+the Psalms of David. There they were, but the right one was hard to
+find. Some had two syllables too much to suit the tune, and some
+had two syllables too little. But it did not matter very greatly,
+and we were accustomed to add a word here, or leave out one there;
+it was all in a day's work, and we went home with the comfortable
+reflection that we had done our best.</p>
+<p>But a pitch-pipe was not usually the sole instrument. Many
+village churches had their band, composed of fiddles, flutes,
+clarionets, and sometimes bassoons and a drum. "Let's go and hear
+the baboons," said a clerk mentioned by the Rev. John Eagles in his
+Essays. In order to preserve strict historical accuracy, I may add
+that this invitation was recorded in the year 1837, and therefore
+could have no reference to evolutionary theories and the Descent of
+Man. This clerk, who invariably read "Cheberims and Sepherims," and
+was always "a lion to my mother's children," looking not unlike one
+with his shaggy hair and beard, was not inviting a neighbour to a
+Sunday afternoon at the Zoo, but only to hear the bassoons.</p>
+<p>When the clerk gave out the hymn or Psalm, or on rare occasions
+the anthem, there was a strange sound of tuning up the instruments,
+and then the instruments wailed forth discordant melody. The clerk
+conducted the choir, composed of village lads and maidens, with a
+few stalwart basses and tenors. It was often a curious <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-5"></a>[pg 5]</span> performance. Everybody
+sang as loud as he could bawl; cheeks and elbows were at their
+utmost efforts, the bassoon vying with the clarionet, the
+goose-stop of the clarionet with the bassoon--it was Babel with the
+addition of the beasts. And they were all so proud of their
+performance. It was the only part of the service during which no
+one could sleep, said one of them with pride--and he was right. No
+one could sleep through the terrible din. They were the most
+important officials in the church, for did not the Psalms make it
+clear, "The singers go before, and the minstrels" (which they
+understood to mean ministers) "follow after"? And then--those
+anthems! They were terrible inflictions. Every bumpkin had his
+favourite solo, and oh! the murder, the profanation! "Some put
+their trust in charrots and some in 'orses," but they didn't "quite
+pat off the stephany," as one of the singers remarked, meaning
+symphony. It was all very strange and curious.</p>
+<p>Then followed the era of barrel-organs, the clerk's duty being
+to turn the handle and start the singing. He was the only person
+who understood its mechanism and how to change the barrels.
+Sometimes accidents happened, as at Aston Church, Yorkshire, some
+time in the thirties. One Sunday morning during the singing of a
+hymn the music came to a sudden stop. There was a solemn pause, and
+then the clerk was seen to make his way to the front of the singing
+gallery, and was heard addressing the vicar in a loud tone, saying,
+"Please, sor, an-ell 'as coom off." The handle had come off the
+instrument. At another church, in Huntingdonshire, the organ was
+hidden from view by drawn curtains, behind which the clerk used to
+retire when he had given out the Psalm. On one occasion, however,
+no sound of music issued from behind the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-6"></a>[pg 6]</span> curtains; at last,
+after a solemn pause, the clerk's quizzical face appeared, and his
+harsh voice shouted out, "Dang it, she 'on't speak!" The "grinstun
+organ," as David Diggs, the hero of Hewett's <i>Parish Clerk</i>
+calls it, was not always to be depended on. Every one knows the
+Lancashire dialect story of the "Barrel Organ" which refused to
+stop, and had to be carried out of church and sat upon, and yet
+still continued to pour forth its dirge-like melody.</p>
+<p>David Diggs may not have been a strictly historical character,
+but the sketch of him was doubtless founded upon fact, and the
+account of the introduction of the barrel-organ into the church of
+"Seatown" on the coast of Sussex is evidently drawn from life. A
+vestry meeting was held to consider about having a <i>quire</i> in
+church, and buying a barrel-organ with half a dozen simple Psalm
+tunes upon it, which Davy was to turn while the parson put his gown
+on, and the children taught to sing to. The clerk was ordered to
+write to the squire and ask him for a liberal subscription. This
+was his letter:</p>
+<blockquote>"Mr Squir, sur,<br>
+<br>
+"Me &amp; Farmer Field &amp; the rest of the genelmen In vestri
+sembled Thinks the parson want parish Relif in shape of A Grindstun
+orgin betwin Survisses--i am to grind him &amp; the sundy skool
+kildren is to sing to him wile he Gos out of is sete.<br>
+<br>
+"We liv It to yuresef wart to giv as we dont wont to limit yur
+malevolens<br>
+<br>
+"Your obedunt servunt<br>
+<br>
+"DAVY DIGGS."</blockquote>
+<p>Of course this worthy scribe taught the children in the school,
+though writing was happily considered a <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-7"></a>[pg 7]</span> superfluous
+accomplishment. He taught little beyond the Church Catechism and
+the Psalms, which he knew from frequent repetition, though he often
+wanted to imbue the infant minds entrusted to his charge with the
+Christening, Marriage, and Burial Services, and the Churching of
+Women, because he "know'd um by heart himself."</p>
+<p>The barrel-organ was scarcely a great improvement upon the
+"cornet, flute, sackbut, psaltery"--I mean the violins, 'cellos,
+clarionets, and bassoons which it supplanted. The music of the
+village musicians in the west gallery was certainly not of the
+highest order. The instruments were often out of tune, and the
+fiddle-player and the flutist were often at logger-heads; but it
+was a sad pity when their labours were brought to an end, and the
+mechanical organ took their place. The very fact that all these
+players took a keen interest in the conduct of Divine service was
+in itself an advantage.</p>
+<p>The barrel-organ killed the old musical life of the village.
+England was once the most musical nation in Europe. Puritanism
+tried to kill music. Organs were broken everywhere in the
+cathedrals and colleges, choirs dispersed and musical publications
+ceased. The professional players on violins, lutes, and flutes who
+had performed in the theatres or at Court wandered away into the
+villages, taught the rustics how to play on their beloved
+instruments in the taverns and ale-houses, and bequeathed their
+fiddles and clarionets to their rustic friends. Thus the rural
+orchestra had its birth, and right heartily did they perform not
+only in church, but at village feasts and harvest homes, wakes and
+weddings. The parish clerk was usually their leader, and was a
+welcome visitor in farm or cottage or <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-8"></a>[pg 8]</span> at the manor when he
+conducted his companions to sing the Christmas carols.</p>
+<p>The barrel-organ sealed the fate of the village orchestra. The
+old fiddles were wanted no more, and were hung up in the cottages
+as relics of the "good old times." For a time the clerk preserved
+his dignity and continued to take his part in the music, turning
+the handle of the organ.</p>
+<p>Then the harmonium came, played by the school-mistress or some
+other village performer. No wonder the clerk was indignant. His
+musical autocracy had been overthrown. At one church--Swanscombe,
+Kent--when, in 1854, the change had taken place, and a kind lady,
+Miss F----, had consented to play the new harmonium, the clerk,
+village cobbler and leader of parish orchestra, gave out the hymn
+in his accustomed fashion, and then, with consummate scorn,
+bellowed out, "Now, then, Miss F----, strike up!"</p>
+<p>It would have been a far wiser policy to have reformed the old
+village orchestra, to have taught the rustic musicians to play
+better, than to have silenced them for ever and substituted the
+"grinstun" instrument.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image02.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image02.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image02.jpg" width="100%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Village Choir.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Archbishop Tait once said that there is no one who<br>
+does not look back with a kind of shame to the sort of sermons
+which were preached, the sort of clergymen<br>
+who preached them, the sort of building in which they preached
+them, and the sort of psalmody with which the service was ushered
+in. The late Mr. Beresford Hope thus describes the kind of service
+that went on in the time of George IV in a market town of Surrey
+not far from London. It was a handsome Gothic church, the chancel
+being cut off from the nave by a solid partition covered with
+verses and strange paintings, among which <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-9"></a>[pg 9]</span> Moses and Aaron show
+in peculiar uncouthness. The aisles were filled with family pews or
+private boxes, raised aloft, and approached by private doors and
+staircases. These were owned by the magnates of the place, who were
+wont to bow their recognitions across the nave. There was a
+decrepit west gallery for the band, and the ground floor was
+crammed with cranky pews of every shape. A Carolean pulpit stood
+against a pillar, with reading-desk and clerk's box underneath. The
+ante-Communion Service was read from the desk, separated from the
+liturgy and sermon by such renderings of Tate and Brady as the
+unruly gang of volunteers with fiddles and wind instruments in the
+gallery pleased to contribute. The clerk, a wizened old fellow in a
+brown wig, repeated the responses in a nasal twang, and with a
+substitution of <i>w</i> for <i>v</i> so constant as not even to
+spare the Beliefs; while the local rendering of briefs, citations,
+and excommunications included announcements by this worthy, after
+the Nicene Creed, of meetings at the town inn of the executors of a
+deceased duke. Two hopeful cubs of the clerk sprawled behind him in
+the desk, and the back-handers occasionally intended to reduce them
+to order were apt to resound against the impassive boards. During
+the sermon this zealous servant of the sanctuary would take up his
+broom and sweep out the middle alley, in order to save himself the
+fatigue of a weekday visit. Soon, however, the clerk and his broom
+followed Moses and Aaron, the fiddles and the bassoons into the
+land of shadows.</p>
+<p>No sketch of bygone times, in which the clerk flourished in all
+his glory, would be complete without some reference to the
+important person who occupied the second tier in the
+"three-decker," and decked in gown <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-10"></a>[pg 10]</span> and bands delivered somnolent sermons
+from its upper storey. Curious stories are often told of the
+careless parsons of former days, of their irreverence, their love
+of sport, their neglect of their parishes, their quaint and
+irreverent manners; but such characters, about whom these stories
+were told, were exceptional. By far the greater number lived well
+and did their duty and passed away, and left no memories behind
+except in the tender recollections of a few simple-minded folk.
+There were few local newspapers in those days to tell their
+virtues, to print their sermons or their speeches at the opening of
+bazaars or flower-shows. They did their duty and passed away and
+were forgotten; while the parsons, like the wretch Chowne of the
+<i>Maid of Sker</i>, live on in anecdote, and grave folk shake
+their heads and think that the times must have been very bad, and
+the clergy a disgrace to their cloth. As with the clerk, so with
+his master; the evil that men do lives after them, the good is
+forgotten. There has been a vast amount of exaggeration in the
+accounts that have come down to us of the faithlessness,
+sluggishness, idleness, and base conduct of the clergy of the
+eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and perhaps a little too
+much boasting about the progress which our age has witnessed.</p>
+<p>It would be an easy task to record the lives of many worthy
+country clergymen of the much-abused Hanoverian period, who were
+exemplary parish priests, pious, laborious, and beloved. In
+recording the eccentricities and lack of reverence of many clerics
+and their faithful servitors, it is well to remember the many
+bright lights that shone like lamps in a dark place.</p>
+<p>It would be a difficult task to write a history of our
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-11"></a>[pg 11]</span> parish
+priesthood, for reasons which have already been stated, and such a
+labour is beyond our present purpose. But it may be well to record
+a few of the observations which contemporary writers have made upon
+the parsons of their day in order to show that they were by no
+means a set of careless, disreputable, and unworthy men.</p>
+<p>During the greater part of the eighteenth century there lived at
+Seathwaite, Lancashire, as curate, the famous Robert Walker, styled
+"the Wonderful," "a man singular for his temperance, industry, and
+integrity," as the parish register records.</p>
+<p>Wordsworth alludes to him in his eighteenth sonnet on Durdon as
+a worthy compeer of the country parson of Chaucer, and in the
+seventh book of the <i>Excursion</i> an abstract of his character
+is given:</p>
+<blockquote>"A priest abides before whose lips such doubts<br>
+Fall to the ground, as in those days<br>
+When this low pile a gospel preacher knew<br>
+Whose good works formed an endless retinue;<br>
+A pastor such as Chaucer's verse portrays,<br>
+Such as the heaven-taught skill of Herbert drew,<br>
+And tender Goldsmith crown'd with deathless praise."</blockquote>
+<p>The poet also gives a short memoir of the Wonderful Walker. In
+this occurs the following extract from a letter dated 1775:</p>
+<p>"By his frugality and good management he keeps the wolf from the
+door, as we say; and if he advances a little in the world it is
+owing more to his own care than to anything else he has to rely
+upon. I don't find his inclination in running after further
+preferment. He is settled among the people that are happy among
+themselves, and lives in the greatest unanimity and friendship with
+them; and, I believe, the minister <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-12"></a>[pg 12]</span> and people are exceedingly satisfied
+with each other: and indeed, how should they be dissatisfied, when
+they have a person of so much worth and probity for their pastor? A
+man who for his candour and meekness, his sober, chaste, and
+virtuous conversation, his soundness in principle and practice, is
+an ornament to his profession and an honour to the country he is
+in; and bear with me if I say, the plainness of his dress, the
+sanctity of his manners, the simplicity of his doctrine, and the
+vehemence of his expression, have a sort of resemblance to the pure
+practice of primitive Christianity."</p>
+<p>The income of his chapelry was the munificent sum of &pound;17
+10 s. He reared and educated a numerous family of twelve children.
+Every Sunday he entertained those members of his congregation who
+came from a distance, taught the village school, acted as scrivener
+and lawyer for the district, farmed, and helped his neighbours in
+haymaking and sheep-shearing, spun cloth, studied natural history,
+and, in spite of all this, was throughout a devoted and earnest
+parish priest. He was certainly entitled to his epithet "the
+Wonderful."</p>
+<p>Goldsmith has given us a charming picture of an old-world parson
+in his <i>Vicar of Wakefield</i>, and Fielding sketches a no less
+worthy cleric in his portrait of the Rev. Abraham Adams in <i>his
+Joseph Andrews</i>. As a companion picture he drew the character of
+the pig-keeping Parson Trulliber, no scandalous cleric, though he
+cared more for his cows and pigs than he did for his
+parishioners.</p>
+<p>"Hawks should not peck out hawks' e'en," and parsons should not
+scoff at their fellows; yet Crabbe <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-13"></a>[pg 13]</span> was a little unkind in his description
+of country parsons, though he could say little against the
+character of his vicar.</p>
+<blockquote>"Our Priest was cheerful and in season gay;<br>
+His frequent visits seldom fail'd to please;<br>
+Easy himself, he sought his neighbour's ease.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<blockquote>Simple he was, and loved the simple truth,<br>
+Yet had some useful cunning from his youth;<br>
+A cunning never to dishonour lent,<br>
+And rather for defence than conquest meant;<br>
+'Twas fear of power, with some desire to rise,<br>
+But not enough to make him enemies;<br>
+He ever aim'd to please; and to offend<br>
+Was ever cautious; for he sought a friend.<br>
+Fiddling and fishing were his arts, at times<br>
+He alter'd sermons, and he aimed at rhymes;<br>
+And his fair friends, not yet intent on cards,<br>
+Oft he amused with riddles and charades,<br>
+Mild were his doctrines, and not one discourse<br>
+But gained in softness what it lost in force;<br>
+Kind his opinions; he would not receive<br>
+An ill report, nor evil act believe.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<blockquote>Now rests our vicar. They who knew him best<br>
+Proclaim his life t' have been entirely--rest.<br>
+The rich approved--of them in awe he stood;<br>
+The poor admired--they all believed him good;<br>
+The old and serious of his habits spoke;<br>
+The frank and youthful loved his pleasant joke;<br>
+Mothers approved a safe contented guest,<br>
+And daughters one who backed each small request;<br>
+In him his flock found nothing to condemn;<br>
+Him sectaries liked--he never troubled them;<br>
+No trifles failed his yielding mind to please,<br>
+And all his passions sunk in early ease;<br>
+Nor one so old has left this world of sin<br>
+More like the being that he entered in."</blockquote>
+<p>A somewhat caustic and sarcastic sketch, and perhaps a little
+ill-natured, of a somewhat amiable cleric. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-14"></a>[pg 14]</span> Dr. Syntax is a good
+example of an old-world parson, whose biographer thus describes his
+laborious life:</p>
+<blockquote>"Of Church preferment he had none;<br>
+Nay, all his hope of that was gone;<br>
+He felt that he content must be<br>
+With drudging-in a curacy.<br>
+Indeed, on ev'ry Sabbath-day,<br>
+Through eight long miles he took his way,<br>
+To preach, to grumble, and to pray;<br>
+To cheer the good, to warn the sinner,<br>
+And if he got it,--eat a dinner:<br>
+To bury these, to christen those,<br>
+And marry such fond folks as chose<br>
+To change the tenor of their life,<br>
+And risk the matrimonial strife.<br>
+Thus were his weekly journeys made,<br>
+'Neath summer suns and wintry shade;<br>
+And all his gains, it did appear,<br>
+Were only thirty pounds a-year."</blockquote>
+<p>And when the last event of his hard-working life was over--</p>
+<blockquote>"The village wept, the hamlets round<br>
+Crowded the consecrated ground;<br>
+And waited there to see the end<br>
+Of Pastor, Teacher, Father, Friend."</blockquote>
+<p>Who could write a better epitaph?</p>
+<p>Doubtless the crying evil of what is called "the dead period" of
+the Church's history was pluralism. It was no uncommon thing for a
+clergyman to hold half a dozen benefices, in one of which he would
+reside, and appoint curates with slender stipends to the rest, only
+showing himself "when tithing time draws near."</p>
+<p>When Bishop Stanley became Bishop of Norwich in 1837 there were
+six hundred non-resident incumbents, a state of things which he did
+a vast amount of work to remedy. Mr. Clitherow tells me of a friend
+who was going to be married and who requested a neighbour to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-15"></a>[pg 15]</span> take his
+two services for him during his brief honeymoon. The neighbour at
+first hesitated, but at last consented, having six other services
+to take on the one Sunday.</p>
+<p>An old clergyman named Field lived at Cambridge and served three
+country parishes--Hauxton, Newton, and Barnington. On Sunday
+morning he used to ride to Hauxton, which he could see from the
+high road to Newton. If there was a congregation, the clerk used to
+waggle his hat on the top of a long pole kept in the church porch,
+and Field had to turn down the road and take the service. If there
+was no congregation he went on straight to Newton, where there was
+always a congregation, as two old ladies were always present. Field
+used to turn his pony loose in the churchyard, and as he entered
+the church began the Exhortation, so that by the time he was robed
+he had progressed well through the service. My informant, the Rev.
+M.J. Bacon, was curate at Newton, and remembers well the old
+surplice turned up and shortened at the bottom, where the old
+parson's spurs had frayed it.</p>
+<p>It was this pluralism that led to much abuse, much neglect, and
+much carelessness. However, enough has been said about the
+shepherd, and we must return to his helper, the clerk, with whose
+biography and history we are mainly concerned.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-16"></a>[pg 16]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3>THE ANTIQUITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE OFFICE OF CLERK</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The office of parish clerk can claim considerable antiquity, and
+dates back to the times of Augustine and King Ethelbert. Pope
+Gregory the Great, in writing to St. Augustine of Canterbury with
+regard to the order and constitution of the Church in new lands and
+under new circumstances, laid down sundry regulations with regard
+to the clerk's marriage and mode of life. King Ethelbert, by the
+advice of his Witenagemote, introduced certain judicial decrees,
+which set down what satisfaction should be given by those who stole
+anything belonging to the church. The purloiner of a clerk's
+property was ordered to restore threefold <a name=
+"FNanchor2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2">[2]</a>. The canons of King
+Edgar, which may be attributed to the wise counsel of St. Dunstan,
+ordered every clergyman to attend the synod yearly and to bring his
+clerk with him.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a>
+Bede's <i>Hist. Eccles</i>., ii. v.</blockquote>
+<p>Thus from early Saxon times the history of the office can be
+traced.</p>
+<p>His name is merely the English form of the Latin
+<i>clericus</i>, a word which signified any one who took part in
+the services of the Church, whether he was in major or minor
+orders. A clergyman is still a "clerk in <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-17"></a>[pg 17]</span> Holy Orders," and a
+parish clerk signified one who belonged to the rank of minor orders
+and assisted the parish priest in the services of the parish
+church. We find traces of him abroad in early days. In the seventh
+century, the canons of the Ninth Council of Toledo and of the
+Council of Merida tell of his services in the worship of the
+sanctuary, and in the ninth century he has risen to prominence in
+the Gallican Church, as we gather from the inquiries instituted by
+Archbishop Hincmar, of Rheims, who demanded of the rural deans
+whether each presbyter had a clerk who could keep school, or read
+the epistle, or was able to sing.</p>
+<p>In the decretals of Gregory IX there is a reference to the
+clerk's office, and his duties obtain the sanction of canon law.
+Every incumbent is ordered to have a clerk who shall sing with him
+the service, read the epistle and lesson, teach in the school, and
+admonish the parishioners to send their children to the church to
+be instructed in the faith. It was thus in ancient days that the
+Church provided for the education of children, a duty which she has
+always endeavoured to perform. Her officers were the schoolmasters.
+The weird cry of the abolition of tests for teachers was then
+happily unknown.</p>
+<p>The strenuous Bishop Grosseteste (1235-53), for the better
+ordering of his diocese of Lincoln, laid down the injunction that
+"in every church of sufficient means there shall be a deacon or
+sub-deacon; but in the rest a fitting and honest clerk to serve the
+priest in a comely habit." The clerk's office was also discussed in
+the same century at a synod at Exeter in 1289, when it was decided
+that where there was a school within ten miles of any parish some
+scholar should be chosen for the office of parish clerk. This rule
+provided for poor <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-18"></a>[pg
+18]</span> scholars who intended to proceed to the priesthood, and
+also secured suitable teachers for the children of the
+parishes.</p>
+<p>It appears that an attempt was made to enforce celibacy on the
+holders of minor orders, an experiment which was not crowned with
+success. William Lyndewoode, Official Principal of the Archbishop
+of Canterbury in 1429, speaks thus of the married clerk:--</p>
+<p>"He is a clerk, not therefore a layman; but if twice married he
+must be counted among laymen, because such an one is deprived of
+all clerical privilege. If, however, he were married, albeit not
+twice, yet so long as he wears the clerical habit and tonsure he
+shall be held a clerk in two respects, to wit, that he may enjoy
+the clerical privilege in his person, and that he may not be
+brought before the secular judges. But in all other respects he
+shall be considered as a layman."</p>
+<p>In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the parish clerks
+became important officials. We shall see presently how they were
+incorporated into fraternities or guilds, and how they played a
+prominent part in civic functions, in state funerals, and in
+ecclesiastical matters. The Reformation rather added to than
+diminished the importance of the office and the dignity of the
+holder of it.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image03.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image03.jpg" width="20%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>The Mediaeval Clerk.</b></p>
+<a name="image04.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image04.jpg" width="35%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>The Clerk in Procession.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>The continuity of the office is worthy of record. From the days
+of Augustine to the present time it has never ceased to exist. The
+clerk is the last representative of the minor orders which the
+ecclesiastical changes wrought in the sixteenth century have left
+us. Prior to the Reformation there were sub-deacons who wore alb
+and maniple, acolytes, the tokens of whose office were a taper
+staff and small pitcher, ostiaries or doorkeepers corresponding to
+our verger or clerk, readers, exorcists, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-19"></a>[pg 19]</span> <i>rectores
+chori</i>, etc. This full staff would, of course, be not available
+for every country church, and for such parishes a clerk and a boy
+acolyte doubtless sufficed, though in large churches there were
+representatives of all these various officials. They disappeared in
+the Reformation; only the clerk remained, incorporating in his own
+person the offices of reader, acolyte, sub-deacon.</p>
+<p>Indeed, if in these enlightened days any proof were needed of
+the historical continuity of the English Church, it would be found
+in the permanence of the clerk's office. Just as in many instances
+the same individual rector or vicar continued to hold his living
+during the whole period of the Reformation era, witnessing the
+spoliation of his church by the greedy Commissioners of Henry VIII
+and Edward VI, the introduction of the First Prayer Book of Edward
+VI, the revival of the "old religion" under Queen Mary, the triumph
+of Reformation principles under Queen Elizabeth; so did the parish
+clerk continue to hold office also. The Reformation changed many of
+his functions and duties, but the office remained. The old
+churchwardens' account books bear witness to this fact. Previous to
+the Reformation he received certain wages and many "perquisites"
+from the inhabitants of the parish for distributing the holy loaf
+and the holy water. At St. Giles's, Reading, in the year 1518-19,
+appears the item:</p>
+<p>EXPENS. In p'mis paid for the dekays of the Clark's wages
+vis.</p>
+<p>In the following year we notice:</p>
+<blockquote>WAGE. Paid to Harry Water Clerk for his wage for a yere
+ended at thannacon of our lady a&deg; xi&deg; ... xxvi s. viii
+d.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-20"></a>[pg 20]</span>
+<p>In 1545-6, Whitborne, the clerk, received 12 s. towards his
+wages, and he "to be bound to teche ij children free for the
+quere."</p>
+<p>After the Reformation, in the same town we find the same clerk
+continuing in office. He no longer went round the parish bearing
+holy water, but the collecting of money for the holy loaf
+continued, the proceeds being devoted to the necessary expenses of
+the church. Thus in the Injunctions given by the King's Majesty's
+visitors to the clergy and laity resident in the Deanery of
+Doncaster in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI,
+appears the following:</p>
+<p>"<i>Item</i>. The churchwardens of every Parish-Church shall,
+some one <i>Sunday</i>, or other Festival day, every month, go
+about the Church, and make request to every of the Parish for their
+charitable Contribution to the Poor; and the sum so collected shall
+be put in the Chest of Alms for that purpose provided. And for as
+much as the Parish-Clerk shall not hereafter go about the Parish
+with his Holy Water as hath been accustomed, he shall, instead of
+that labour, accompany the said Church-Wardens, and in a Book
+Register the name and Sum of every man that giveth any thing to the
+Poor, and the same shall intable; and against the next day of
+Collection, shall hang up somewhere in the Church in open place, to
+the intent the Poor having knowledge thereby, by whose Charity and
+Alms they be relieved, may pray for the increase and prosperity of
+the same <a name="FNanchor3"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_3">[3]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a>
+<i>The Clerk's Book of 1549</i>, edited by J. Wickham Legg,
+Appendix IX, p. 95.</blockquote>
+<p>This is only one instance out of many which might be quoted to
+prove that the clerk's office by no means ceased to exist after the
+Reformation changes. I shall refer later on to the survival of the
+collection of money for the holy loaf and to its transference to
+other uses.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-21"></a>[pg 21]</span>
+<p>The clerk, therefore, appears to have continued to hold his
+office shorn of some of his former duties. He witnessed all the
+changes of that changeful time, the spoliation of his church, the
+selling of numerous altar cloths, vestments, banners, plate, and
+other costly furniture, and, moreover, took his part in the
+destruction of altars and the desecration of the sanctuary. In the
+accounts for the year 1559 of the Church of St. Lawrence, Reading,
+appear the items:</p>
+<p>"Itm--for taking-downe the awlters and laying the stones,
+vs.</p>
+<p>"To Loryman (the clerk) for carrying out the rubbish x d
+<a name="FNanchor4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4">[4]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a>
+Rev. C. Kerry's <i>History of S. Lawrence's Church, Reading</i>, p.
+25.</blockquote>
+<p>Indeed, the clerk can claim a more perfect continuity of office
+than the rector or vicar. There was a time when the incumbents were
+forced to leave their cure and give place to an intruding minister
+appointed by the Cromwellian Parliament. But the clerk remained on
+to chant his "Amen" to the long-winded prayers of some black-gowned
+Puritan. That is a very realistic scene sketched by Sir Walter
+Besant when he describes the old clerk, an ancient man and
+rheumatic, hobbling slowly through the village, key in hand, to the
+church door. It was towards the end of the Puritan regime. After
+ringing the bell and preparing the church for the service, he goes
+into the vestry, where stood an ancient black oak coffer, the sides
+curiously graven, and a great rusty key in the lock. The clerk (Sir
+Walter calls him the sexton, but it is evidently the clerk who is
+referred to) turns the key with difficulty, throws open the lid,
+and looks in.</p>
+<p>"Ay," he says, chuckling, "the old surplice and the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-22"></a>[pg 22]</span> old Book of Common
+Prayer. Ye have had a long rest; 'tis time for you both to come out
+again. When the surplice is out, the book will stay no longer
+locked up." He draws forth an old and yellow roll. It was the
+surplice which had once been white. "Here you be," he says; "put
+you away for a matter of twelve year and more, and you bide your
+time; you know you will come back again; you are not in any hurry.
+Even the clerk dies; but you die not, you bide your time.
+Everything comes again. The old woman shall give you a taste o' the
+suds and the hot iron. Thus we go up and thus we go down." Then he
+takes up the old book, musty and damp after twelve years'
+imprisonment. "Fie," he says, "thy leather is parting from thy
+boards, and thy leaves they do stick together. Shalt have a pot of
+paste, and then lie in the sun before thou goest back to the desk.
+Whether 'tis Mass or Common Prayer, whether 'tis Independent or
+Presbyterian, folk mun still die and be buried--ay, and married and
+born--whatever they do say. Parson goes and Preacher comes;
+Preacher goes and Parson comes; but Sexton stays." He chuckles
+again, puts back the surplice and the book, and locks the coffer
+<a name="FNanchor5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5">[5]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5">[5]</a>
+<i>For Faith and Freedom</i>, by Sir Walter Besant, chap.
+1.</blockquote>
+<p>Like many of his brethren, he had seen the Church of England
+displaced by the Presbyterians, and the Presbyterians by the
+Independents, and the restoration of the Church. His father, who
+had been clerk before him, had seen the worship of the "old
+religion" in Queen Mary's time, and all the time the village life
+had been going on, and the clerk's work had continued; his office
+remained. In village churches the duties of clerk and sexton are
+usually performed by the same person. Not long ago a gentleman was
+visiting <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-23"></a>[pg 23]</span>
+a village church, and was much struck by the remarks of an old man
+who seemed to know each stone and tomb and legend. The stranger
+asking him what his occupation was, he replied:</p>
+<p>"I hardly know what I be. First vicar he called me clerk; then
+another came, and he called me virgin; the last vicar said I were
+the Christian, and now I be clerk again."</p>
+<p>The "virgin" was naturally a slight confusion for verger, and
+the "christian" was a corrupt form of sacristan or sexton. All the
+duties of these various callings were combined in the one
+individual.</p>
+<p>That story reminds one of another concerning the diligent clerk
+of R----, who, in addition to the ordinary duties of his office,
+kept the registers and acted as groom, gardener, and footman at the
+rectory. A rather pompous rector's wife used to like to refer at
+intervals during a dinner-party to "our coachman says," "our
+gardener always does this," "our footman is ...," leaving the
+impression of a somewhat large establishment. The dear old rector
+used to disturb the vision of a large retinue by saying, "They are
+all one--old Corby, the clerk."</p>
+<p>One of the chief characteristics of old parish clerks, whether
+in ancient or modern times, is their faithfulness to their church
+and to their clergyman. We notice this again and again in the
+biographies of many of these worthy men which it has been a
+privilege to study. The motto of the city of Exeter, <i>Semper
+fidelis</i>, might with truth have been recorded as the legend of
+their class. This fidelity must have been sorely tried in the sad
+days of the Commonwealth period, when the sufferings of the clergy
+began, and the poor clerk had to bid farewell to his beloved pastor
+and welcome and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-24"></a>[pg
+24]</span> "sit under" some hard-visaged Presbyterian or Puritan
+preacher.</p>
+<p>Isaac Walton tells the pathetic story of the faithful clerk of
+the parish of Borne, near Canterbury, where the "Judicious" Hooker
+was incumbent. The vicar and clerk were on terms of great
+affection, and Hooker was of "so mild and humble a nature that his
+poor clerk and he did never talk but with both their hats on, or
+both off, at the same time."</p>
+<p>This same clerk lived on in the quiet village until the third or
+fourth year of the Long Parliament. Hooker died and was buried at
+Borne, and many people used to visit his monument, and the clerk
+had many rewards for showing his grave-place, and often heard his
+praises sung by the visitors, and used to add his own recollections
+of his holiness and humility. But evil days came; the parson of
+Borne was sequestered, and a Genevan minister put into his good
+living. The old clerk, seeing so many clergymen driven from their
+homes and churches, used to say, "They have sequestered so many
+good men, that I doubt if my good Master Hooker had lived till now,
+they would have sequestered him too."</p>
+<p>Walton then describes the conversion of the church into a
+Genevan conventicle. He wrote: "It was not long before this
+intruding minister had made a party in and about the said parish
+that was desirous to receive the sacrament as at Geneva: to which
+end, the day was appointed for a select company, and forms and
+stools set about the altar or communion table for them to sit and
+eat and drink; but when they went about this work, there was a want
+of some joint-stools which the minister sent the clerk to fetch,
+and then to fetch cushions. When the clerk saw them begin to sit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-25"></a>[pg 25]</span> down, he
+began to wonder; but the minister bade him cease wondering and lock
+the church door: to whom he replied, 'Pray take you the keys, and
+lock me out: I will never more come into this church; for men will
+say my Master Hooker was a good man and a great scholar; and I am
+sure it was not used to be thus in his days': and report says this
+old man went presently home and died; I do not say died
+immediately, but within a few days after. But let us leave this
+grateful clerk in his quiet grave."</p>
+<p>Another faithful clerk was William Hobbes, who served in the
+church and parish of St. Andrew, Plymouth. Walker, in his
+<i>Sufferings of the Clergy</i>, records the sad story of his
+death. During the troubles of the Civil War period, when presumably
+there was no clergyman to perform the last rites of the Church on
+the body of a parishioner, the good clerk himself undertook the
+office, and buried a corpse, using the service for the Burial of
+the Dead contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The Puritans were
+enraged, and threatened to throw him into the same grave if he came
+there again with his "Mass-book" to bury any body: which "worked so
+much upon his Spirits, that partly with Fear and partly with Grief,
+he Died soon after." He died in 1643, and the accounts of the
+church show that the balance of his salary was paid to his
+widow.</p>
+<p>Many such faithful clerks have devoted their years of active
+life to the service of God in His sanctuary, both in ancient and
+modern times; and it will be our pleasurable duty to record some of
+the biographies of these earnest servants of the Church, whose
+services are too often disregarded.</p>
+<p>I have mentioned the continuity of the clerk's office, unbroken
+by either Reformation changes or by the confusion of the Puritan
+regime. We will now <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-26"></a>[pg
+26]</span> endeavour to sketch the appearance of the medi&aelig;val
+clerk, and the numerous duties which fell to his lot.</p>
+<p>Chaucer's gallery of ancient portraits contains a very life-like
+presentment of a medi&aelig;val clerk in the person of "Jolly
+Absolon," a somewhat frivolous specimen of his class, who figures
+largely in <i>The Miller's Tale</i>.</p>
+<blockquote>"Now was ther of that churche a parish clerk<br>
+The which that was y-cleped <a name="FNanchor6"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_6">[6]</a> Absolon.<br>
+Curl'd was his hair, and as the gold it shone,<br>
+And strutted <a name="FNanchor7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7">[7]</a>
+as a fann&euml; large and broad;<br>
+Full straight and even lay his folly shode. <a name=
+"FNanchor8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8">[8]</a><br>
+His rode <a name="FNanchor9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9">[9]</a> was
+red, his eyen grey as goose,<br>
+With Paul&euml;'s windows carven on his shoes. <a name=
+"FNanchor10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10">[10]</a><br>
+In hosen red he went full febishly. <a name=
+"FNanchor11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11">[11]</a><br>
+Y-clad he was full small and properly,<br>
+All in a kirtle of a light waget; <a name="FNanchor12"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_12">[12]</a><br>
+Full fair and thick&euml; be the point&euml;s set.<br>
+And thereupon he had a gay surplice,<br>
+As white as is the blossom on the rise. <a name=
+"FNanchor13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13">[13]</a><br>
+A merry child he was, so God me save;<br>
+Well could he letten blood, and clip, and shave,<br>
+And make a charter of land and a quittance.<br>
+In twenty manners could he trip and dance,<br>
+After the school of Oxenford&euml; tho', <a name=
+"FNanchor14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14">[14]</a><br>
+And with his legg&euml;s cast&euml; to and fro;<br>
+And playen song&euml;s or a small ribible; <a name=
+"FNanchor15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15">[15]</a><br>
+Thereto he sung sometimes a loud quinible. <a name=
+"FNanchor16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16">[16]</a><br>
+And as well could he play on a gitern. <a name=
+"FNanchor17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17">[17]</a><br>
+In all the town was brewhouse nor tavern<br>
+That he not visited with his solas, <a name=
+"FNanchor18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18">[18]</a><br>
+There as that any gaillard tapstere <a name=
+"FNanchor19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19">[19]</a> was.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;This Absolon, that jolly was and gay<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Went with a censor on the holy day,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Censing the wiv&euml;s of the parish fast:<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And many a lovely look he on them cast,<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Sometimes to show his lightness and mast'ry<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;He playeth Herod on a scaffold high."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6">[6]</a>
+Called.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7">[7]</a>
+Stretched.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8">[8]</a>
+Head of hair.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9">[9]</a>
+Complexion.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_10"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor10">[10]</a> His shoes were decked with an ornament like
+a rose-window in old St. Paul's.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_11"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor11">[11]</a> Daintily.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_12"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor12">[12]</a> A kind of cloth.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_13"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor13">[13]</a> A bush.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_14"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor14">[14]</a> The Oxford school of dancing is satirised by
+the poet.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_15"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor15">[15]</a> A kind of fiddle.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_16"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor16">[16]</a> Treble.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_17"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor17">[17]</a> Guitar.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_18"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor18">[18]</a> Sport, mirth.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_19"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor19">[19]</a> Tavern-wench.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-27"></a>[pg 27]</span>
+<p>I fear me Master Absolon was a somewhat frivolous clerk, or his
+memory has been traduced by the poet's pen, which lacked not satire
+and a caustic but good-humoured wit. Here was a parish clerk who
+could sing well, though he did not confine his melodies to "Psalms
+and hymns and spiritual songs." He wore a surplice; he was an
+accomplished scrivener, and therefore a man of some education; he
+could perform the offices of the barber-surgeon, and one of his
+duties was to cense the people in their houses. He was an actor of
+no mean repute, and took a leading part in the mysteries or
+miracle-plays, concerning which we shall have more to tell. He even
+could undertake the prominent part of Herod, which doubtless was an
+object of competition among the amateurs of the period. Such is the
+picture which Chaucer draws of the frivolous clerk, a sketch which
+is accurate enough as far as it goes, and one that we will
+endeavour to fill in with sundry details culled from medieval
+sources.</p>
+<p>Chaucer tells us that Jolly Absolon used to go to the houses of
+the parishioners on holy days with his censer. His more usual duty
+was to bear to them the holy water, and hence he acquired the title
+of <i>aqu&aelig;bajalus</i>. This holy water consisted of water
+into which, after exorcism, blest salt had been placed, and then
+duly sanctified with the sign of the cross and sacerdotal
+benediction. We can see the clerk clad in his surplice setting out
+in the morning of Sunday on his rounds. He is carrying a holy-water
+vat, made of brass or wood, containing the blest water, and in his
+hand is an <i>aspergillum</i> or sprinkler. This consists of a
+round brush of horse-hair with a short handle. When the clerk
+arrives at the great house of the village he first enters the
+kitchen, and seeing the cook engaged on her <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-28"></a>[pg 28]</span> household duties, he
+dips the sprinkler into the holy-water vessel and shakes it towards
+her, as in the accompanying illustration. Then he visits the lord
+and lady of the manor, who are sitting at meat in their solar, and
+asperges them in like manner. For his pains he receives from every
+householder some gift, and goes on his way rejoicing. Bishop
+Alexander, of Coventry, however, in his constitutions drawn up in
+the year 1237, ordered that no clerk who serves in a church may
+live from the fees derived from this source, and the penalty of
+suspension was to be inflicted on any one who should transgress
+this rule. The constitutions of the parish clerks at Trinity
+Church, Coventry, made in 1462, are a most valuable source of
+information with regard to the clerk's duties.</p>
+<p>The following items refer to the orders relating to the holy
+water:</p>
+<blockquote>"Item, the dekyn shall bring a woly water stoke with
+water for hys preste every Sonday for the preste to make woly
+water.<br>
+<br>
+"Item, the said dekyn shall every Sonday beyr woly water of hys
+chyldern to euery howse in hys warde, and he to have hys duty off
+euery man affter hys degre quarterly."</blockquote>
+<p>At the church of St. Nicholas, Bristol, in 1481, it was ordered
+that the "Clerke to ordeynn spryngals <a name=
+"FNanchor20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20">[20]</a> for the church,
+and for him that visiteth the Sondays and dewly to bere his holy
+water to euery howse Abyding soo convenient a space that every man
+may receive hys Holy water under payne of iiii d. tociens
+quociens."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_20"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor20">[20]</a> Bunches of twigs for sprinkling holy
+water.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<a name="image05.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image05.jpg" width="50%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>The Clerk Bearing Holy Water And Asperging The Cook.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image06.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image06.jpg" width="50%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>The Clerk Bearing Holy Water And Asperging The Lord And
+Lady.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>At Faversham a set of parish clerk's duties of the years 1506,
+1548, and 1593 is preserved. In the rules <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-29"></a>[pg 29]</span> ordained for his
+guidance in the first-mentioned year he with his assistant clerk is
+ordered to bear holy water to every man's house, as of old time
+hath been accustomed; in case of default he shall forfeit 8 d.; but
+if he shall be very much occupied on account of a principal feast
+falling on a Sunday or with any pressing parochial business, he is
+to be excused.</p>
+<p>A mighty dissension disturbed the equanimity of the little
+parish of Morebath in the year 1531 and continued for several
+years. The quarrel arose concerning the dues to be paid to the
+parish clerk, a small number of persons refusing to pay the just
+demands. After much disputing they finally came to an agreement,
+and one of the items was that the clerk should go about the parish
+with his holy water once a year, when men had shorn their sheep to
+gather some wool to make him a coat to go in the parish in his
+livery. There are many other items in the agreement to which we
+shall have occasion again to refer. Let us hope that the good
+people of Morebath settled down amicably after this great "storm in
+a tea-cup"; but this godly union and concord could not have lasted
+very long, as mighty changes were in progress, and much upsetting
+of old-established custom and practice.</p>
+<p>The clerk continued in many parishes to make his accustomed
+round of the houses, and collected money which was used for the
+defraying of the expenses of public worship; but he left behind him
+his sprinkler and holy-water vat, which accorded not with the
+principles and tenets, the practice and ceremonies of the reformed
+Church of England.</p>
+<p>This was, however, one of the minor duties of the medi&aelig;val
+clerk, and the custom of giving offerings to him seems to have
+started with a charitable intent. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-30"></a>[pg 30]</span> The constitutions of Archbishop
+Boniface of Canterbury issued in 1260 state:</p>
+<p>"We have often heard from our elders that the benefices of holy
+water were originally instituted from a motive of charity, in order
+that one of their proper poor clerks might have exhibitions to the
+schools, and so advance in learning, that they might be fit for
+higher preferment."</p>
+<p>He had many other and more important duties to perform, duties
+requiring a degree of education far superior to that which we are
+accustomed to associate with the holders of his office. We will
+endeavour to obtain a truer sketch of him than even that drawn by
+Chaucer, and to realise the multitudinous duties which fell to his
+lot, and the great services he rendered to God and to his
+Church.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-31"></a>[pg 31]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3>THE MEDI&AElig;VAL CLERK</h3>
+<br>
+<p>At the present time loud complaints are frequently heard of a
+lack of clergy. Rectors and vicars are sighing for assistant
+curates, the vast populations of our great cities require
+additional ministration, and the mission field is crying out for
+more labourers to reap the harvests of the world. It might be well
+in this emergency to inquire into the methods of the medi&aelig;val
+Church, and observe how the clergy in those days faced the problem,
+and gained for themselves tried and trusty helpers.</p>
+<p>One method of great utility was to appoint poor scholars to the
+office of parish clerk, by a due discharge of the duties of which
+they were trained to serve in church and in the parish, and might
+ultimately hope to attain to the ministry. This is borne out by the
+evidence of wills wherein some good incumbent, grateful for the
+faithful services of his clerk, bequeaths either books or money to
+him, in order to enable him to prepare himself for higher
+preferment. Thus in 1389 the rector of Marum, one Robert de Weston,
+bequeaths to "John Penne, my clerk, a missal of the New Use of
+Sarum, if he wishes to be a priest, otherwise I give him 20 s." In
+1337 Giles de Gadlesmere leaves "to William Ockam, clerk, two
+shillings, unless he be promoted before my death." Evidently it was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-32"></a>[pg 32]</span> no
+unusual practice in early times for the clerk to be raised to Holy
+Orders, his office being regarded as a stepping-stone to higher
+preferment. The status of the clerk was then of no servile
+character.</p>
+<p>A canon of Newburgh asked for Sir William Plumpton's influence
+that his brother might have a clerkship <a name=
+"FNanchor21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21">[21]</a>. Even the sons of
+kings and lords did not consider it beneath the dignity of their
+position to perform the duties of a clerk, and John of Athon
+considered the office of so much importance that he gave the
+following advice to any one who held it:</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_21"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor21">[21]</a> <i>Plumpton Correspondence</i>, Camden
+Society, 1839, P. 66, <i>temp</i>. Henry VII.</blockquote>
+<p>"Whoever you may be, although the son of king, do not blush to
+go up to the book in church, and read and sing; but if you know
+nothing of yourself, follow those who do know."</p>
+<p>It is recorded in the chronicle of Ralph de Coggeshall that
+Richard I used to take great delight in divine service on the
+principal festivals; going hither and thither in the choir,
+encouraging the singers by voice and hand to sing louder. In the
+<i>Life of Sir Thomas More</i>, written by William Roper, we find
+an account of that charming incident in the career of the great and
+worthy Lord Chancellor, when he was discovered by the Duke of
+Norfolk, who had come to Chelsea to dine with him, singing in the
+choir and wearing a surplice during the service of the Mass. After
+the conclusion of the service host and guest walked arm in arm to
+the house of Sir Thomas More.</p>
+<p>"God's body, my Lord Chancellor, what turned Parish Clerk? You
+dishonour the King and his office very much," said the Duke.</p>
+<p>"Nay," replied Sir Thomas, smiling, "your grace <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-33"></a>[pg 33]</span> may not think that
+the King, your master and mine, will be offended with me for
+serving his Master, or thereby account his service any way
+dishonoured."</p>
+<p>We will endeavour to sketch the daily and Sunday duties of a
+parish clerk, follow in his footsteps, and observe his manners and
+customs, as they are set forth in medi&aelig;val documents.</p>
+<p>He lived in a house near the church which was specially assigned
+to him, and often called the clerk's house. He had a garden and
+glebe. In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Giles's Church,
+Reading, there is an item in 1542-3:--"Paid for a latice to the
+clerkes hous ii s. x d." There was a clerk's house in St. Mary's
+parish, in the same town, which is frequently mentioned in the
+accounts (A.D. 1558-9).</p>
+<p>"RESOLUTES for the guyet Rent of the Clerkes Howse xii d.
+1559-60.</p>
+<p>"RENTES to farme and at will. Of the tenement at Cornyshe Crosse
+called the clerkes howse by the yere vi s. viii d."</p>
+<p>It appears that the house was let, and the sum received for rent
+was part of the clerk's stipend. This is borne out by the following
+entry:--</p>
+<p>"Md' that yt ys aggreed that the clerke most have for the office
+of the sexten But xx s. That ys for Ringing of the Bell vs for the
+quarter and the clerkes wayges by the howse <a name=
+"FNanchor22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22">[22]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_22"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor22">[22]</a> <i>Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary's,
+Reading</i>, by F.N.A. and A.G. Garry, p. 42.</blockquote>
+<p>Doubtless there still remain many such houses attached to the
+clerkship, as in the Act of 7 &amp; 8 Victoria, c. 59, sect. 6, it
+is expressly stated that any clerk dismissed from his office shall
+give up any house, building, land, or premises held or occupied by
+virtue or in respect of such office, and that if he fail to do
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-34"></a>[pg 34]</span> so the
+bishop can take steps for his ejection therefrom. Mr. Wickham Legg
+has collected several other instances of the existence of clerks'
+houses. At St. Michael's Worcester, there was one, as in 1590 a sum
+was paid for mending it. At St. Edmund's, Salisbury, the clerk had
+a house and garden in 1653. At Barton Turf, Norfolk, three acres
+are known as "dog-whipper's land," the task of whipping dogs out of
+churches being part of the clerk's duties, as we shall notice more
+particularly later on. The rent of this land was given to the
+clerk. At Saltwood, Kent, the clerk had a house and garden, which
+have recently been sold <a name="FNanchor23"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_23">[23]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_23"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor23">[23]</a> <i>The Clerk's Book of 1549</i>, edited by
+J. Wickham Legg, lvi.</blockquote>
+<p>Archbishop Sancroft, at Fressingfield, caused a comfortable
+cottage to be built for the parish clerk, and also a kind of
+hostelry for the shelter and accommodation of persons who came from
+a distant part of that large scattered parish to attend the church,
+so that they might bring their cold provisions there, and take
+their luncheon in the interval between the morning and the
+afternoon service.</p>
+<p>There was a clerk's house at Ringmer. In the account of the
+beating of the bounds of the parish in Rogation week, 1683, it is
+recorded that at the close of the third day the procession arrived
+at the Crab Tree, when the people sang a psalm, and "our minister
+read the epistle and gospel, to request and supplicate the blessing
+of God upon the fruits of the earth. Then did Mr. Richard Gunn
+invite all the company to <i>the clerk's house</i>, where he
+expended at his own charge a barrell of beer, besides a plentiful
+supply of provisions: and so ended our third and last day's
+perambulation <a name="FNanchor24"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_24">[24]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_24"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor24">[24]</a> <i>Social Life as told by Parish
+Registers</i>, by T.F. Thiselton-Dyer, p. 197.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-35"></a>[pg 35]</span>
+<p>In his little house the clerk lived and tended his garden when
+he was not engaged upon his ecclesiastical duties. He was often a
+married man, although those who were intending to proceed to the
+higher orders in the Church would naturally be celibate. Pope
+Gregory, in writing to St. Augustine of Canterbury, offered no
+objections to the marriage of clerks. Lyndewoode shows a preference
+for the unmarried clerk, but if such could not be found, a married
+clerk might perform his duties. Numerous wills are in existence
+which show that very frequently the clerk was blest with a wife,
+inasmuch as he left his goods to her; and in one instance, at Hull,
+John Huyk, in 1514, expresses his wish to be buried beside his wife
+in the wedding porch of the church <a name=
+"FNanchor25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25">[25]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_25"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor25">[25]</a> Injunction by John Bishop of Norwich (1561),
+B. i b., quoted by Mr. Legg in <i>The Parish Clerk's Book</i>, p.
+xlii.</blockquote>
+<p>One courageous clerk's wife did good service to her husband, who
+had dared to speak insultingly of the high and mighty John of
+Gaunt. He held office in the church of St. Peter-the-Less, in the
+City of London, in 1378. His wife was so persevering in her behests
+and so constant in her appeals for justice, that she won her suit
+and obtained her husband's release <a name=
+"FNanchor26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26">[26]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_26"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor26">[26]</a> Riley's <i>Memorials of London</i>, 1868, p.
+425.</blockquote>
+<p>We have the picture, then, of the medi&aelig;val clerk in his
+little house nigh the church surrounded by his wife and children,
+or as a bachelor intent upon preferment poring over his Missal, if
+he did not sometimes emulate the frivolous feats of Chaucer's
+"Jolly Absolon."</p>
+<p>At early dawn he sallied forth to perform his earliest duty of
+opening the church doors and ringing the day-bell. The ringing of
+bells seems to have been a fairly <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-36"></a>[pg 36]</span> constant employment of the clerk,
+though in some churches this duty was mainly performed by the
+sexton, but the aid of the clerk was demanded whenever it was
+needed. According to the constitution of the parish clerks at
+Trinity Church, Coventry, made in 1462, he was ordered every day to
+open the church doors at 6 a.m., and deliver to the priest who sang
+the Trinity Mass a book and a chalice and vestment, and when Mass
+was finished to see that these goods of the church be deposited in
+safety in the vestry. He had to ring all the people in to Matins,
+together with his fellow-clerk, at every commemoration and feast of
+IX lessons, and see that the books were ready for the priest. Again
+for High Mass he rang and sang in the choir. At 3 p.m. he rang for
+Evensong, and sang the service in the south side of the choir, his
+assistant occupying the north side. On weekdays they sang the
+Psalms and responses antiphonally, and on Sundays and holy-days
+acted as <i>rectores chori</i>, each one beginning the verses of
+the Psalms for his own side. He had to be very careful that the
+books were all securely locked up in the vestry, and the church
+locked at a convenient hour, having searched the building to see
+lest any one was lying in any seat or corner. On Sundays and
+holidays he had to provide a clerk or "dekyn" to read the gospel at
+High Mass. The sweeping of the floor of the church, the cleaning of
+the leaden roofs, and sweeping away the snow from the gutters
+"leste they be stoppyd," also came under his care. The bells he
+also kept in order, examining the clappers and bawdricks and ropes,
+and reporting to the churchwardens if they required mending. His
+assistant had to grease the bells when necessary, and find the
+materials. He had to tend the lamp and to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-37"></a>[pg 37]</span> fetch oil and rychys
+(rushes), and fix banners on holidays, fold up the albs and
+vestments. On Saturdays and on the eve of saints' days he had to
+ring the noon-tide bell, and to ring the sanctus bell every Sunday
+and holy-day, and during processions.</p>
+<p>Special seasons brought their special duties, and directions are
+minutely given with regard to every point to be observed. On Palm
+Sunday he was ordered to set a form at the priory door for the
+stations of the Cross, so that a crucifix or rood should be set
+there for the priest to sing <i>Ave rex</i>. He had to provide
+palms for that Sunday, watch the Easter sepulchre "till the
+resurrecion be don," and then take down the "lenten clothys" about
+the altar and the rood. In Easter week, when a procession was made,
+he bore the chrismatory. At the beginning of Lent he was ordered to
+help the churchwardens to cover the altar and rood with "lentyn
+clothys" and to hang the vail in the choir. The pulley which worked
+this vail is still to be seen in some churches, as at Uffington,
+Berks. For this labour the churchwardens were to give money to the
+clerk for drink. The great bell had to be rung for compline every
+Saturday in Lent. At Easter and Whit-Sunday the clerk was required
+to hang a towel about the font, and see that three "copys" (copes)
+be brought down to the font for the priests to sing <i>Rex
+sanctorum</i>.</p>
+<p>It was evidently considered the duty of the churchwardens to
+deck the high altar for great festivals, but they were to have the
+assistance of the clerk at the third peel of the first Evensong "to
+aray the hye awter with clothys necessary for it." Perhaps this
+duty of the churchwardens might with advantage be revived.</p>
+<p>Sheer Thursday or Maundy Thursday was a special day for
+cleansing the altars and font, which was done <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-38"></a>[pg 38]</span> by a priest; but the
+clerk was required to provide a birch broom and also a barrel in
+order that water might be placed in it for this purpose. On Easter
+Eve and the eve of Whit-Sunday the ceremony of cleaning the altar
+and font was repeated. Flagellation was not obsolete as a penance,
+and the clerk was expected to find three discipline rods.</p>
+<p>In medi&aelig;val times it was a common practice for rich men to
+leave money or property to a church with the condition that Masses
+should be said for the repose of their souls on certain days. The
+first Latin word of a verse in the funeral psalm was <i>dirige</i>
+("direct my steps," etc.), and this verse was used as an antiphon
+to those psalms in the old English service for the dead. Hence the
+service was called a <i>dirige</i>, and we find mention of "Master
+Meynley's dirige," or as it is spelt often "derege," the origin of
+the word "dirge." Those who attended were often regaled with
+refreshments--bread and ale--and the clerk's duty was to serve them
+with these things.</p>
+<p>We have already referred to his obligations as regards his
+bearing of holy water to the parishioners, a duty which brought him
+into close relationship with them. Another custom which has long
+since passed away was that of blessing a loaf of bread by the
+priest, and distributing portions of it to the parishioners.
+Sometimes this distribution took place in church, as at Coventry,
+where one of the clerks, having seen the loaf duly cut, gave
+portions of it to the assembled worshippers in the south aisle, and
+the other clerk performed a like duty in the north aisle. The clerk
+received some small fee for this service, usually a halfpenny.
+Berkshire has several evidences of the existence of the holy
+loaf.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-39"></a>[pg 39]</span>
+<p>In the accounts of St. Lawrence's Church, Reading, in 1551,
+occurs the following notice:</p>
+<p>"At this day it was concluded and agreed that from henceforth
+every inhabitant of the parish shall bear and pay every Sunday in
+the year 5 d. for every tenement as of old time the Holy Loaf was
+used to be paid and be received by the parish clerk weekly, the
+said clerk to have every Sunday for his pains 1 d. And 4 d. residue
+to be paid and delivered every Sunday to the churchwardens to be
+employed for bread and wine for the communion. And if any overplus
+thereof shall be of such money so received, to be to the use of the
+church; and if any shall lack, to be borne and paid by the said
+churchwardens: provided always, that all such persons as are poor
+and not able to pay the whole, be to have aid of such others as
+shall be thought good by the discretion of the churchwardens."</p>
+<p>With the advent of Queen Mary the old custom was reverted to, as
+the following item for the year 1555 plainly shows:</p>
+<p>"Rec. of money gathered for the holy lofe ix s. iiij d."</p>
+<p>At St. Mary's Church there is a constant allusion to this
+practice from the year 1566-7 to 1617-18, after which date the
+payment for the "holilofe" seems to have been merged in the charge
+for seats. In 1567-8 the following resolution was passed:</p>
+<p>"It is agreed that the clerk shall hereafter gather the Holy
+Loaf money, or else to have nothing of that money, and to gather
+all, or else to inform the parish of them that will not pay."</p>
+<p>There seems to have been some difficulty in collecting this
+money; so it was agreed in 1579-80 that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-40"></a>[pg 40]</span> "John Marshall shall
+every month in the year during the time that he shall be clerk,
+gather the holy loaf and thereof yield an account to the
+churchwardens."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Subsequently we constantly meet with such records as the
+following:</p>
+<p>"It'm for the holy loffe xiii s. vi d."</p>
+<p>Ultimately, however, this mode of collecting money for the
+providing of the sacred elements and defraying other expenses of
+the church was, as we have said, abandoned in favour of pew-rents.
+The clerk had long ceased to obtain any benefit from the custom of
+collecting this curious form of subscription to the parochial
+expenses.</p>
+<p>An interesting document exists in the parish of
+Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire, relating to the holy loaf. It was
+evidently written during the reign of Queen Mary, and runs as
+follows:--</p>
+<p>"Here following is the order of the giving of the loaves to make
+holy bread with videlicit of when it beginneth and endeth, what the
+whole value is, in what portions it is divided, and to whom the
+portions be due, and though it be written in the fifth part of the
+division of the book before in the beginning with these words (how
+money shall be paid towards the charges of the communion) ye shall
+understand that in the time of the Schism when this Realm was
+divided from the Catholic Church, the which was in the year of our
+Lord God in 1547, in the second year of King Edward the Sixth, all
+godly ceremonies and good uses were taken out of the church within
+this Realm, and then the money that was bestowed on the holy bread
+was turned to the use of finding bread and wine for the communion,
+and then the old order being <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-41"></a>[pg 41]</span> brought unto his [its] pristine state
+before this book was written causeth me to write with this term
+<a name="FNanchor27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27">[27]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_27"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor27">[27]</a> The spelling of the words I have ventured to
+modernise.</blockquote>
+<p>The order of the giving of the loaves is then set forth,
+beginning at a piece of ground called Ganders and continuing
+throughout the parish, together with names of the parishioners. The
+collecting of this sum must have been an arduous part of the
+clerk's duty. "And thus I make an end of this matter," as the
+worthy clergyman at Stanford-in-the-Vale wrote at the conclusion of
+his carefully drawn up document <a name="FNanchor28"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_28">[28]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_28"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor28">[28]</a> A relic of this custom existed in a small
+town in Dorset fifty years ago. At Easter the clerk used to leave
+at the house of each pew-holder a packet of Easter cakes--thin
+wafery biscuits, not unlike Jewish Pass-over cakes. The packet
+varied according to the size of the family and the depth of the
+master's purse. When the fussy little clerk called for his Easter
+offering, at one house he found 5 s. waiting for him, as a kind of
+payment for five cakes. The shilling's were quickly transferred to
+the clerk's pocket, who remarked, "Five shilling's is handsome for
+the clerk, sir; but the vicar only takes gold."<br>
+<br>
+The custom of the clerk carrying round the parish Easter cakes
+prevailed also at Milverton, Somerset, and at Langport in the same
+county.</blockquote>
+<p>In addition to his regular wages and to the dues received for
+delivering holy water and in connection with the holy loaf, the
+clerk enjoyed sundry other perquisites. At Christmas he received a
+loaf from every house, a certain number of eggs at Easter, and some
+sheaves when the harvest was gathered in. Among the documents in
+the parish chest at Morebath there is a very curious manuscript
+relating to a prolonged quarrel with regard to the dues to be paid
+to the clerk. This took place in the year 1531 and lasted until
+1536. This document throws much light on the customary fees and
+gifts paid to the holder of this office. After endless wrangling
+the parishioners decided that the clerk should have "a steche of
+clene corn" from every household, if there should be any corn; if
+not, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-42"></a>[pg 42]</span> a
+"steche of wotis" (oats), or 3 d. in lieu of corn. Also 1 d. a
+quarter from every household; at every wedding and funeral 2 d.; at
+shearing time enough wool for a coat. Moreover, it was agreed that
+he should have a clerk's ale in the church house. It is well known
+that church ales were very common in medieval times, when the
+churchwardens bought, and received presents of, a large quantity of
+malt which they brewed into beer. The village folk collected other
+provisions, and assembled in the church house, where there were
+spits and crocks and other utensils for dressing a feast. Old and
+young gathered together; the churchwardens' ale was sold freely.
+The young folk danced, or played at bowls or practised archery, the
+old people looking gravely on and enjoying the merry-making. Such
+were the old church ales, the proceeds of which were devoted to the
+maintenance of the poor or some other worthy object. An arbour of
+boughs was erected in the churchyard called Robin Hood's Bower,
+where the maidens collected money for the "ales." The clerk in some
+parishes, as at Morebath, had "an ale" at Easter, and it was agreed
+that "the parish should help to drink him a cost of ale in the
+church house," which duty doubtless the village folk carried out
+with much willingness and regularity.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image07.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image07.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image07.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Old Church-House At Hurst. Berkshire Now The Castle
+Inn.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="image08.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image08.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image08.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Old Church-House At Uffington. Berks Now Used As A
+School.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Puritanism gradually killed these "ales." Sabbatarianism lifted
+up its voice against them. The gatherings waxed merry, sometimes
+too merry, so the stern Puritan thought, and the ballad-singer sang
+profane songs, and the maidens danced with light-footed step, and
+it was all very wrong because they were breaking the Sabbath; and
+the ale was strong, and sometimes people drank too much, so the
+critics said. But all <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-43"></a>[pg 43]</span> reasonable and sober-minded folk were
+not opposed to them, and in reply to some inquiries instituted by
+Archbishop Laud, the Bishop of Bath and Wells made the following
+report:</p>
+<blockquote>"Touching clerke-ales (which are lesser church-ales)
+for the better maintenance of Parish-clerks they have been used
+(until of late) in divers places, and there was great reason for
+them; for in poor country parishes, where the wages of the clerk is
+very small, the people thinking it unfit that the clerk should duly
+attend at church and lose by his office, were wont to send in
+Provisions, and then feast with him, and give him more liberality
+than their quarterly payments would amount unto in many years. And
+since these have been put down, some ministers have complained unto
+me, that they are afraid they shall have no parish clerks for want
+of maintenance for them."</blockquote>
+<p>Mr. Wickham Legg has investigated the subsequent history of this
+good Bishop Pierce, and shows how the Puritans when they were in
+power used this reply as a means of accusation against him, whereby
+they attempted to prove that "he profanely opposed the
+sanctification of the Lord's Day by approving and allowing of
+profane wakes and revels on that day," and was "a desperately
+profane, impious, and turbulent Pilate."</p>
+<p>It is well known that the incomes of the clergy were severely
+taxed by the Pope, who demanded annates or first-fruits of one
+year's value on all benefices and sundry other exactions. The poor
+clerk's salary did not always escape from the rapacity of the
+Pope's collectors, as the story told by Matthew Paris clearly sets
+forth:</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-44"></a>[pg 44]</span>
+<p>"It happened that an agent of the Pope met a petty clerk
+carrying water in a little vessel, with a sprinkler and some bits
+of bread given him for having sprinkled some holy water, and to him
+the deceitful Roman thus addressed himself:</p>
+<p>"'How much does the profits yielded to you by this church amount
+to in a year?' To which the clerk, ignorant of the Roman's cunning,
+replied:</p>
+<p>"'To twenty shillings, I think.'</p>
+<p>"Whereupon the agent demanded the percentage the Pope had just
+demanded on all ecclesiastical benefices. And to pay that sum this
+poor man was compelled to hold school for many days, and by selling
+his books in the precincts, to drag on a half-starved life."</p>
+<p>This story discloses another duty which fell to the lot of the
+medi&aelig;val clerk. He was the parish schoolmaster--at least in
+some cases. The decretals of Gregory IX require that he should have
+enough learning in order to enable him to keep a school, and that
+the parishioners should send their children to him to be taught in
+the church. There is not much evidence of the carrying out of this
+rule, but here and there we find allusions to this part of a
+clerk's duties. Inasmuch as this may have been regarded as an
+occupation somewhat separate from his ordinary duties as regards
+the church, perhaps we should not expect to find constant allusion
+to it. However, Archbishop Peckham ordered, in 1280, that in the
+church of Bakewell and the chapels annexed to it there should be
+<i>duos clericos scholasticos</i> carefully chosen by the
+parishioners, from whose alms they would have to live, who should
+carry holy water round in the parish and chapels on Lord's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-45"></a>[pg 45]</span> Days and
+festivals, and minister <i>in divinis officiis</i>, and on weekdays
+should keep school <a name="FNanchor29"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_29">[29]</a>. It is said that Alexander, Bishop of
+Coventry, in 1237, directed that there should be in country
+villages parish clerks who should be schoolmasters.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_29"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor29">[29]</a> If that is the correct translation of
+<i>profestis diebus disciplinis scolasticis indulgentes</i>. Dr.
+Legg thinks that it may refer to their own education.</blockquote>
+<p>It is certain--for the churchwarden accounts bear witness to the
+fact--that in several parishes the clerks performed this duty of
+teaching. Thus in the accounts of the church of St. Giles, Reading,
+occurs the following:</p>
+<blockquote>Pay'd to Whitborne the clerk towards his wages and he
+to be bound to teach ij children for the choir ... xij
+s.</blockquote>
+<p>At Faversham, in 1506, it was ordered that "the clerks or one of
+them, as much as in them is, shall endeavour themselves to teach
+children to read and sing in the choir, and to do service in the
+church as of old time hath been accustomed, they taking for their
+teaching as belongeth thereto"; and at the church of St. Nicholas,
+Bristol, in 1481, this duty of teaching is implied in the order
+that the clerk ought not to take any book out of the choir for
+children to learn in without licence of the procurators. We may
+conclude, therefore, that the task of teaching the children of the
+parish not unusually devolved upon the clerk, and that some
+knowledge of Latin formed part of the instruction given, which
+would be essential for those who took part in the services of the
+church.</p>
+<p>Nor were his labours yet finished. In John Myrc's
+<i>Instructions to Parish Priests</i>, a poem written not later
+than 1450, a treatise containing good sound morality, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-46"></a>[pg 46]</span> and a good sight of
+the ecclesiastical customs of the Middle Ages, we find the
+following lines:</p>
+<blockquote>"When thou shalt to seke <a name=
+"FNanchor30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30">[30]</a> <i>gon</i><br>
+Hye thee fast and <i>go</i> a-non;<br>
+For if thou tarry thou dost amiss,<br>
+Thou shalt guyte <a name="FNanchor31"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_31">[31]</a> that soul I wys.<br>
+When thou shalt to seke gon,<br>
+A clene surples caste thee on;<br>
+Take thy stole with thee ry't, <a name="FNanchor32"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_32">[32]</a><br>
+And put thy hod ouer thy sy't <a name="FNanchor33"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_33">[33]</a><br>
+Bere thyne ost <a name="FNanchor34"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_34">[34]</a> a-nout thy breste<br>
+In a box that is honeste;<br>
+Make thy clerk before thee synge,<br>
+To bere light and belle ringe."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_30"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor30">[30]</a> Sick.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_31"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor31">[31]</a> Quiet.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_32"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor32">[32]</a> Right.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_33"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor33">[33]</a> Sight.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_34"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor34">[34]</a> Host.</blockquote>
+<p>It was customary, therefore, for the clerk to accompany the
+priest to the house of the sick person, when the clergyman went to
+administer the Last Sacrament or to visit the suffering. The clerk
+was required to carry a lighted candle and ring a bell, and an
+ancient MS. of the fourteenth century represents him marching
+before the priest bearing his light and his bell. In some town
+parishes he was ordered always to be at hand ready to accompany the
+priest on his errands of mercy. It was a grievous offence for a
+clerk to be absent from this duty. In the parish of St. Stephen's,
+Coleman Street, the clerks were not allowed "to go or ride out of
+the town without special licence had of the vicar and
+churchwardens, and at no time were they to be out of the way, but
+one of them had always to be ready to minister sacraments and
+sacramentals, and to wait upon the Curate and to give him warning."
+This custom of the clerk accompanying the priest when visiting the
+sick was not abolished at the Reformation. <i>The Parish Clerk's
+Guide</i>, published by the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks in
+1731, the history of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-47"></a>[pg 47]</span> which it will be our privilege to
+investigate, states that the holders of the office "are always
+conversant in Holy Places and Holy Things, such as are the Holy
+Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; yea and in the most
+serious Things too, such as the Visitation of the Sick, when we do
+often attend, and at the Burial of the Dead."</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image09.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image09.jpg" width="30%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>The Clerk Accompanying The Priest When Visiting The Sick</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="image10.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image10.jpg" width="30%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>The Clerk Attending The Priest, Who Is Administering The Last
+Sacrament</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Occupied with these numerous duties, engaged in a service which
+delighted him, his time could never have hung heavy on his hands.
+Faithful in his dutiful services to his rector, beloved by the
+parishioners, a welcome guest in cot and hall, and serving God with
+all his heart, according to his lights, he could doubtless exclaim
+with David, <i>Laetus sorte mea</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-48"></a>[pg 48]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3>THE DUTIES OF READING AND SINGING</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The clerk's highest privilege in pre-Reformation times was to
+take his part in the great services of the church. His functions
+were very important, and required considerable learning and skill.
+When the songs of praise echoed through the vaulted aisles of the
+great church, his voice was heard loud and clear leading the
+choirmen and chanting the opening words of the Psalm. As early as
+the time of St. Gregory this duty was required of him. In giving
+directions to St. Augustine of Canterbury the Pope ordered that
+clerks should be diligent in singing the Psalms. In the ninth
+century Pope Leo IV directed that the clerks should read the Psalms
+in divine service, and in 878 Archbishop Hincmar of Rheims issued
+some articles of inquiry to his Rural Deans, asking, among other
+questions, "Whether the presbyter has a clerk who can keep school,
+or read the epistle, or is able to sing as far as may seem needful
+to him?"</p>
+<p>A canon of the Council of Nantes, embodied in the Decretals of
+Pope Gregory IX, settled definitely that every presbyter who has
+charge of a parish should have a clerk, who should sing with him
+and read the epistle and lesson, and who should be able to keep
+school and admonish the parishioners to send their <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-49"></a>[pg 49]</span> children to church
+to learn the faith <a name="FNanchor35"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_35">[35]</a>. This ordinance was binding upon the Church
+in this country as in other parts of Western Christendom, and
+William Lyndewoode, Official Principal of the Archbishop of
+Canterbury, when laying down the law with regard to the marriage of
+clerks, states that the clerk has "to wait on the priest at the
+altar, to sing with him, and to read the epistle." A notable
+quarrel between two clerks, which is recorded by John of Athon
+writing in the years 1333-1348, gives much information upon various
+points of ecclesiastical usage and custom. The account says:</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_35"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor35">[35]</a> Decr. Greg. IX. Lib. III. tit. i. cap. iii.,
+quoted by Dr. Cuthbert Atchley in <i>Alcuin Club Tracts</i>,
+IV.</blockquote>
+<p>"Lately, when two clerks were contending about the carrying of
+holy water, the clerk appointed by the parishioners against the
+command of the priest, wrenched the book from the hands of the
+clerk who had been appointed by the rector, and who had been
+ordered to read the epistle by the priest, and hurled him violently
+to the ground, drawing blood <a name="FNanchor36"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_36">[36]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_36"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor36">[36]</a> John of Athon, <i>Constit. Dom.
+Othoboni</i>, tit. <i>De residentia archipreb. et episc.</i>: cap.
+<i>Pastor bonus</i>: verb <i>sanct&aelig;
+obedienti&aelig;</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>A very unseemly disturbance truly! Two clerks righting for the
+book in the midst of the sanctuary during the Eucharistic service!
+Still their quarrel teaches us something about the appointment and
+election of clerks in the Middle Ages, and of the duty of the
+parish clerk with regard to the reading of the epistle.</p>
+<p>In 1411 the vicar of Elmstead was enjoined by Clifford, Bishop
+of London, to find a clerk to help him at private Masses on
+weekdays, and on holy days to read the epistle.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-50"></a>[pg 50]</span>
+<p>In the rules laid down for the guidance of clerks at the various
+churches we find many references to the duties of reading and
+singing. At Coventry he is required to sing in the choir at the
+Mass, and to sing Evensong on the south side of the choir; on feast
+days the first clerk was ordered to be <i>rector chori</i> on the
+south side, while his fellow performed a like duty on the north
+side. On every Sunday and holy day the latter had to read the
+epistle. At Faversham the clerk was required to sing at every Mass
+by note the Grail at the upper desk in the body of the choir, and
+also the epistle, and to be diligent to sing all the office of the
+Mass by note, and at all other services. Very careful instructions
+were laid down for the proper musical arrangements in this church.
+The clerk was ordered "to set the choir not after his own brest (=
+voice) but as every man being a singer may sing conveniently his
+part, and when plain song faileth one of the clerks shall leave
+faburdon <a name="FNanchor37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37">[37]</a>
+and keep plain song unto the time the choir be set again." A fine
+of 2 d. was levied on all clerks as well as priests at St.
+Michael's, Cornhill, who should be absent from the church, and not
+take their places in the choir in their surplices, singing there
+from the beginning of Matins, Mass and Evensong unto the end of the
+services. At St. Nicholas, Bristol, the clerk was ordered "to sing
+in reading the epistle daily under pain of ii d."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_37"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor37">[37]</a> <i>Faburdon</i> = faux-bourdon, a simple
+kind of counterpoint to the church plain song-, much used in
+England in the fifteenth century. Grove's <i>Dictionary of
+Music</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>These various rules and regulations, drawn up with consummate
+care, together with the occasional glimpses of the medi&aelig;val
+clerk and his duties, which old writers afford, enable us to
+picture to ourselves what kind of <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-51"></a>[pg 51]</span> person he was, and to see him engaged
+in his manifold occupations within the same walls which we know so
+well. When the daylight is dying, musing within the dim mysterious
+aisle, we can see him folding up the vestments, bearing the books
+into their place of safe keeping in the vestry, singing softly to
+himself:</p>
+<blockquote>"<i>Et introibo ad altare Dei; ad Deum qui loetificat
+juventutem meam</i>."</blockquote>
+<p>The scene changes. The days of sweeping reform set in. The
+Church of England regained her ancient independence and was
+delivered from a foreign yoke. Her children obtained an open Bible,
+and a liturgy in their own mother-tongue. But she was distressed
+and despoiled by the rapacity of the commissioners of the Crown, by
+such wretches as Protector Somerset, Dudley and the rest, private
+peculation eclipsing the greediness of royal officials. Froude
+draws a sad picture of the halls of country houses hung with altar
+cloths, tables and beds quilted with copes, and knights and squires
+drinking their claret out of chalices and watering their horses in
+marble coffins. No wonder there was discontent among the people. No
+wonder they disliked the despoiling of their heritage for the
+enrichment of the Dudleys and the <i>nouveaux riches</i> who
+fattened on the spoils of the monasteries, and left the church bare
+of brass and ornament, chalice and vestment, the accumulation of
+years of the pious offerings of the faithful. No wonder there were
+risings and riots, quelled only by the stern and powerful hand of a
+Tudor despot.</p>
+<p>But in spite of all the changes that were wrought in that
+tumultuous time, the parish clerk remained, and continued to
+discharge many of the functions which had fallen to his lot before
+the Reformation had begun. As I have already stated, his duties
+with regard to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-52"></a>[pg
+52]</span> bearing holy water and the holy loaf were discontinued,
+although the collecting of money from the parishioners was
+conducted in much the same way as before, and the "holy loaf"
+corrupted into various forms--such as "holy looff," "holie loffe,"
+"holy cake," etc.--appears in churchwardens' account books as late
+as the beginning of the seventeenth century.</p>
+<p>As regards his main duties of reading and singing we find that
+they were by no means discontinued. From a study of the First
+Prayer Book of Edward VI, it is evident that his voice was still to
+be heard reading in reverent tones the sacred words of Holy
+Scripture, and chanting the Psalms in his mother-tongue instead of
+in that of the Vulgate. The rubric in the communion service
+immediately before the epistle directs that "the collectes ended,
+the priest, or he that is appointed, shall read the epistle, in a
+place assigned for the purpose." Who is the person signified by the
+phrase "he that is appointed"? That question is decided for us by
+<i>The Clerk's Book</i> recently edited by Dr. J. Wickham Legg,
+wherein it is stated that "the priest or clerk" shall read the
+epistle. The injunctions of 1547 interpret for us the meaning of
+"the place assigned for the purpose" as being "the pulpit or such
+convenient place as people may hear." Ability to read the epistle
+was still therefore considered part of the functions of a parish
+clerk, and the whole lesson derived from a study of <i>The Clerk's
+Book</i> is the very important part which he took in the services.
+As the title of the book shows, it contains "All that appertein to
+the clerkes to say or syng at the Ministracion of the Communion,
+and when there is no Communion. At Confirmacion. At Matrimonie. The
+Visitacion of the Sicke. The Buriall of the Dedde. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-53"></a>[pg 53]</span> At the Purification
+of Women. And the first daie of Lent."</p>
+<p>He began the service of Holy Communion by singing the Psalm
+appointed for the introit. In the book only the first words of the
+part taken by the priest are given, whereas all the clerk's part is
+printed in full. He leads the responses in the Lesser Litany, the
+<i>Gloria in excelsis</i>, the Nicene Creed. He reads the offertory
+sentences and says the <i>Ter Sanctus</i>, sings or says the
+<i>Agnus Dei</i>, besides the responses. In the Marriage Service he
+said or sang the Psalm with the priest, and responded diligently.
+As in pre-Reformation times he accompanied the priest in the
+visitation of the sick, and besides making the responses sang the
+anthems, "Remember not, Lord, our iniquities," etc., and "O Saviour
+of the world, save us, which by thy crosse and precious blood hast
+redeemed us, help us, we beseech thee, O God." In the Communion of
+the Sick the epistle is written out in full, showing that it was
+the clerk's privilege to read it. A great part of the service for
+the Burial of the Dead was ordered to be said or sung by the
+"priest or clerk," and "at the communion when there was a burial"
+he apparently sang the introit and read the epistle. In the
+Communion Service the clerk with the priest said the fifty-first
+Psalm and the anthem, "Turn thou us, O good Lord," etc. In Matins
+and Evensong the clerk sang the Psalms and canticles and made
+responses, and from other sources we gather that he used to read
+either one or both of the lessons. In some churches he was called
+the dekyn or deacon, and at Ludlow, in 1551, he received 3 s. 4 d.
+for reading the first lesson.</p>
+<p>In the accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, there is an item
+in the year 1553 for the repair of the pulpit <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-54"></a>[pg 54]</span> where, it is stated,
+"the curate and the clark did read the chapters at service
+time."</p>
+<p>Archbishop Grindal, in 1571, laid down the following injunction
+for his province of York: "That no parish clerk be appointed
+against the goodwill or without the consent of the parson, vicar,
+or curate of any parish, and that he be obedient to the parson,
+vicar, and curate, specially in the time of celebration of divine
+service or of sacraments, or in any preparation thereunto; and that
+he be able also to read the first lesson, the Epistle, and the
+Psalms, with answers to the suffrages as is used, and also that he
+endeavour himself to teach young children to read, if he be able so
+to do." When this archbishop was translated to Canterbury he issued
+very similar injunctions in the southern province. Other bishops
+followed his example, and issued questions in their dioceses
+relating to clerkly duties, and these injunctions show that to read
+the first lesson and the epistle and to sing the Psalms constituted
+the principal functions of a parish clerk.</p>
+<p>Evidences of the continuance of this practice are not wanting
+<a name="FNanchor38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38">[38]</a>. Indeed,
+within the memory of living men at one church at least the custom
+was observed. At Keighley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, some
+thirty or forty years ago the parish clerk wore a black gown and
+bands. He read the first lesson and the epistle. To read the latter
+he left his seat below the pulpit and went up to the altar and took
+down the book: after reading the epistle within the altar rails he
+replaced the book and returned to his place. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-55"></a>[pg 55]</span> At Wimborne Minster
+the clerk used to read the Lessons.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_38"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor38">[38]</a> cf. <i>The Parish Clerk's Book</i>, edited
+by Dr. J. Wickham Legg, F.S.A., and <i>The Parish Clerk and his
+right to read the Liturgical Epistle</i>, by Cuthbert Atchley,
+L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S. <i>(Alcuin Club Tracts</i>, IV).</blockquote>
+<p>Although it is evident that at the present time the clerk has a
+right to read the epistle and one of the lessons, as well as the
+Psalms and responses when they are not sung, it was perhaps
+necessary that his efforts in this direction should have been
+curtailed. When we remember the extraordinary blunders made by many
+holders of the office in the last century, their lack of education,
+and strange pronunciation, we should hardly care to hear the
+mutilation of Holy Scripture which must have followed the
+continuance of the practice. Would it not be possible to find men
+qualified to hold the office of parish clerk by education and
+powers of elocution who could revive the ancient practice with
+advantage to the church both to the clergyman and the people?</p>
+<p>Complaints about the eccentricities and defective reading and
+singing of clerks have come down to us from Jacobean times. There
+was one Thomas Milborne, clerk of Eastham, who was guilty of
+several enormities; amongst others, "for that he singeth the psalms
+in the church with such a jesticulous tone and altisonant voice,
+viz: squeaking like a gelded pig, which doth not only interrupt the
+other voices, but is altogether dissonant and disagreeing unto any
+musical harmony, and he hath been requested by the minister to
+leave it, but he doth obstinately persist and continue therein."
+Verily Master Milborne must have been a sore trial to his vicar,
+almost as great as the clerk of Buxted, Sussex, was to his rector,
+who records in the parish register with a sigh of relief his death,
+"whose melody warbled forth as if he had been thumped on the back
+with a stone."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-56"></a>[pg 56]</span>
+<p>The Puritan regime was not conducive to this improvement of the
+status or education of the clerk or the cultivation of his musical
+abilities. The Protectorate was a period of musical darkness. The
+organs of the cathedrals and colleges were taken down; the choirs
+were dispersed, musical publications ceased, and the gradual
+twilight of the art, which commenced with the accession of the
+Stuarts, faded into darkness. Many clerks, especially in the City
+of London, deserve the highest honour for having endeavoured to
+preserve the true taste for musical services in a dark age. Notable
+amongst these was John Playford, clerk of the Temple Church in
+1652. Benjamin Payne, clerk of St. Anne's, Blackfriars, in 1685,
+the author of <i>The Parish Clerk's Guide</i>, wrote of Playford as
+"one to whose memory all parish clerks owe perpetual thanks for
+their furtherance in the knowledge of psalmody." The <i>History of
+Music</i>, by Hawkins, describes him as "an honest and friendly
+man, a good judge of music, with some skill in composition. He
+contributed not a little to the art of printing music from
+letterpress types. He is looked upon as the father of modern
+psalmody, and it does not appear that the practice has much
+improved." The account which Playford gives of the clerks of his
+day is not very satisfactory, and their sorry condition is
+attributed to "the late wars" and the confusion of the times. He
+says:</p>
+<p>"In and about this great city, in above a hundred parishes there
+are but few parish clerks to be found that have either ear or
+understanding to set one of these tunes musically, as it ought to
+be, it having been a custom during the late wars, and since, to
+chuse men into such places more for their poverty than skill and
+ability, whereby that part of God's service hath been so
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-57"></a>[pg 57]</span>
+ridiculously performed in most places, that it is now brought into
+scorn and derision by many people." He goes on to tell us that "the
+ancient practice of singing the psalms in church was for the clerk
+to repeat each line, probably because, at the first introduction of
+psalms into our service great numbers of the common people were
+unable to read." The author of <i>The Parish Clerk's Guide</i>
+states that "since faction prevailed in the Church, and troubles in
+the State, Church music has laboured under inevitable prejudices,
+more especially by its being decried by some misguided and peevish
+sectaries as popery and anti-Christ, and so the minds of the common
+people are alienated from Church music, although performed by men
+of the greatest skill and judgment, under whom was wont to be
+trained up abundance of youth in the respective cathedrals, that
+did stock the whole kingdom at one time with good and able
+songsters." The Company of Parish Clerks of London [to the history
+and records of which we shall have occasion frequently to refer]
+did good service in promoting the musical training of the members
+and in upholding the dignity of their important office. In the
+edition of <i>The Parish Clerk's Guide</i> for 1731, the writer
+laments over the diminished status of his order, and states that
+"the clerk is oftentimes chosen rather for his poverty, to prevent
+a charge to the parish, than either for his virtue or skill; or
+else for some by-end or purpose, more than for the immediate Honour
+and Service of Almighty God and His Church."</p>
+<p>If that was the case in rich and populous London parishes, how
+much more was it true in poor village churches? Hence arose the
+race of country clerks who stumbled over and miscalled the hard
+words as they <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-58"></a>[pg
+58]</span> occurred in the Psalms, who sang in a strange and weird
+fashion, and brought discredit on their office. Indeed, the clergy
+were not always above suspicion in the matter of reading, and even
+now they have their detractors, who assert that it is often
+impossible to hear what they say, that they read in a strained
+unnatural voice, and are generally unintelligible. At any rate,
+modern clergy are not so deficient in education as they were in the
+early years of Queen Elizabeth, when, as Fuller states in his
+<i>Triple Reconciler</i>, they were commanded "to read the chapters
+over once or twice by themselves that so they might be the better
+enabled to read them distinctly to the congregation." If the clergy
+were not infallible in the matter of the pronunciation of difficult
+words, it is not surprising that the clerk often puzzled or amused
+his hearers, and mangled or skipped the proper names, after the
+fashion of the mistress of a dame-school, who was wont to say when
+a small pupil paused at such a name as Nebuchadnezzar, "That's a
+bad word, child! go on to the next verse."</p>
+<p>Of the mistakes in the clerk's reading of the Psalms there are
+many instances. David Diggs, the hero of J. Hewett's <i>Parish
+Clerk</i>, was remonstrated with for reading the proper names in
+Psalm lxxxiii. 6, "Odommities, Osmallities, and Mobbities," and
+replied: "Yes, no doubt, but that's noigh enow. Seatown folk
+understand oi very well."</p>
+<p>He is also reported to have said, "Jeball, Amon, and Almanac,
+three Philistines with them that are tired." The vicar endeavoured
+to teach him the correct mode of pronunciation of difficult words,
+and for some weeks he read well, and then returned to his former
+method of making a shot at the proper names.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-59"></a>[pg 59]</span>
+<p>On being expostulated with he coolly replied:</p>
+<p>"One on us must read better than t'other, or there wouldn't be
+no difference 'twixt parson and clerk; so I gives in to you.
+Besides, this sort of reading as you taught me would not do here.
+The p'rishioners told oi, if oi didn't gi' in and read in th' old
+style loike, as they wouldn't come to hear oi, so oi dropped
+it!"</p>
+<p>An old clerk at Hartlepool, who had been a sailor, used to
+render Psalm civ. 26, as "There go the ships and there is that
+lieutenant whom Thou hast made to take his pastime therein."</p>
+<p>"Leviathan" has been responsible for many errors. A shoemaker
+clerk used to call it "that great leather-thing." From various
+sources comes to me the story, to which I have already referred, of
+the transformation of "an alien to my mother's children" into "a
+lion to my mother's children."</p>
+<p>A clerk at Bletchley always called caterpillars
+<i>saterpillars</i>, and in Psalm lxviii. never read JAH, but spelt
+it J-A-H. He used to summon the children from their places to stand
+in single file along the pews during three Sundays in Lent, and
+say, "Children, say your catechayse."</p>
+<p>Catechising during the service seems to have been not uncommon.
+The clerk at Milverton used to summon the children, calling out,
+"Children, catechise, pray draw near."</p>
+<p>The clerk at Sidbury used to read, "Better than a bullock that
+has horns <i>enough</i>"; his name was Timothy Karslake, commonly
+called "Tim," and when he made a mistake in the responses some one
+in the church would call out, "You be wrong, Tim."</p>
+<p>Sometimes a little emphasis on the wrong word was used to
+express the feelings engendered by private <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-60"></a>[pg 60]</span> piques and quarrels.
+There were in one parish some differences between the parson and
+the clerk, who showed his independence and proud spirit when he
+read the verse of the Psalm, "If I <i>be</i> hungry, I will not
+tell <i>thee</i>," casting a rather scornful glance at the
+parson.</p>
+<p>Another specimen of his class used to read "Ananias, Azarias,
+and Mizzle," and one who was reading a lesson in church (Isaiah
+liv. 12), "And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of
+carbuncles," rendered the verse, "Thy window of a gate, and thy
+gates of crab ancles."</p>
+<p>Another clerk who was "not much of a scholard" used to allow no
+difficulty to check his fluency. If the right word did not fall to
+his hand he made shift with another of somewhat similar sound, the
+result frequently taxing to the uttermost the self-control of the
+better educated among his hearers. He was ill-mated to a shrewish
+wife, and one was sensible of a thrill of sympathy when, without a
+thought of irreverence, and in all simplicity, he rolled out,
+instead of "Woe is me, that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech!"
+"Woe is me, that I am constrained to dwell with <i>Missis</i>!"</p>
+<p>Old age at length puts an end to the power of the most stalwart
+clerks. That must have been a very pathetic scene in the church at
+East Barnet which few of those present could have witnessed without
+emotion. The clerk was a man of advanced age. He always conducted
+the singing, which must have been somewhat monotonous, as the 95th
+and the 100th Psalm (Old Version) were invariably sung. On one
+occasion, after several vain attempts to begin the accustomed
+melody, the poor old man exclaimed, "Well, my <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-61"></a>[pg 61]</span> friends, it's no
+use. I'm too old. I can't sing any more."</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image11.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image11.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image11.jpg" width="80%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Old Beckenham Church.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>It was a bitter day for the old clerks when harmoniums and
+organs came into fashion, and the old orchestras conducted by them
+were abandoned. Dethroned monarchs could not feel more
+distressed.</p>
+<p>The period of the decline and fall of the status of the old
+parish clerks was that of the Commonwealth, from 1640 to 1660.
+During the spacious days of Elizabeth and the early Stuarts they
+were considered most important officials. In pre-Reformation times
+the incumbents used to receive assistance from the chantry priests
+who were required to help the parson when not engaged in their
+particular duties. After the suppression of the chantries they
+continued their good offices and acted as assistant curates. But
+the race soon died out. Then lecturers and special preachers were
+frequently appointed by corporations or rich private individuals.
+But these lecturers and preachers were a somewhat independent race
+who were not very loyal to the parsons and impatient of episcopal
+control, and proved themselves rather a hindrance than a help. In
+North Devon <a name="FNanchor39"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_39">[39]</a> and doubtless in many other places the
+experiment was tried of making use of the parish clerks and raising
+them to the diaconate. Such a clerk so raised to major orders was
+Robert Langdon (1584-1625), of Barnstaple, to whose history I shall
+have occasion to refer again. His successor, Anthony Baker, was
+also a clerk-deacon. The parish clerk then attained the zenith of
+his power, dignity, and importance.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_39"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor39">[39]</a> <i>The Parish Clerks of Barnstaple</i>,
+1500-1900, by Rev. J.F. Chanter (Transactions of the Devonshire
+Association).</blockquote>
+<p>After the disastrous period of the Commonwealth <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-62"></a>[pg 62]</span> rule he emerges
+shorn of his learning, his rank, and status. His name remained; his
+office was recognised by legal enactments and ecclesiastical usage;
+but in most parishes he was chosen on account of his poverty rather
+than for his fitness for the post. So long as the church rates
+remained he received his salary, but when these were abolished it
+was found difficult in many parishes to provide the funds. Hence as
+the old race died out, the office was allowed to lapse, and the old
+clerk's place knows him no more. Possibly it may be the delectable
+task of some future historian to record the complete revival of the
+office, which would prove under proper conditions an immense
+advantage to the Church and a valuable assistance to the parochial
+clergy.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-63"></a>[pg 63]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3>THE CLERK IN LITERATURE</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The parish clerk is so notable a character in our ecclesiastical
+and social life, that he has not escaped the attention of many of
+our great writers and poets. Some of them have with gentle satire
+touched upon his idiosyncrasies and peculiarities; others have
+recorded his many virtues, his zeal and faithfulness. Shakespeare
+alludes to him in his play of <i>Richard II</i>, in the fourth act,
+when he makes the monarch face his rebellious nobles, reproaching
+them for their faithlessness, and saying:</p>
+<blockquote>"God save the King! will no man say Amen?<br>
+Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, Amen.<br>
+God save the King! although I be not he;<br>
+And yet, Amen, if Heaven do think him me."</blockquote>
+<p>An old ballad, <i>King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid</i>,
+contains an interesting allusion to the parish clerk, and shows the
+truth of that which has already been pointed out, viz. that the
+office of clerk was often considered to be a step to higher
+preferment in the Church. The lines of the old ballad run as
+follows:</p>
+<blockquote>"The proverb old is come to passe,<br>
+The priest when he begins his masse<br>
+Forgets that ever clarke he was;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;He knoweth not his estate."</blockquote>
+<p>Christopher Harvey, the friend and imitator of George Herbert,
+has some homely lines on the duties <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-64"></a>[pg 64]</span> of clerk and sexton in his poem <i>The
+Synagogue</i>. Of the clerk he wrote:</p>
+<blockquote>"The Churches Bible-clerk attends<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Her utensils, and ends<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Her prayers with Amen,<br>
+Tunes Psalms, and to her Sacraments<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Brings in the Elements,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And takes them out again;<br>
+Is humble minded and industrious handed,<br>
+Doth nothing of himself, but as commanded."</blockquote>
+<p>Of the sexton he wrote:</p>
+<blockquote>"The Churches key-keeper opens the door,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And shuts it, sweeps the floor,<br>
+Rings bells, digs graves, and fills them up again;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;All emblems unto men,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Openly owning Christianity<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;To mark and learn many good lessons by."</blockquote>
+<p>In that delightful sketch of old-time manners and quaint humour,
+<i>Sir Roger de Coverley</i>, the editor of <i>The Spectator</i>
+gave a life-like representation of the old-fashioned service. Nor
+is the clerk forgotten. They tell us that "Sir Roger has likewise
+added five pounds a year to the clerk's place; and that he may
+encourage the young fellows to make themselves perfect in the
+Church services, has promised, upon the death of the present
+incumbent, who is very old, to bestow it according to merit." The
+details of the exquisite picture of a rural Sunday were probably
+taken from the church of Milston on the Wiltshire downs where
+Addison's father was incumbent, and where the author was born in
+1672. Doubtless the recollections of his early home enabled Joseph
+Addison to draw such an accurate picture of the ecclesiastical
+customs of his youth. The deference shown by the members of the
+congregation who did not presume to stir till Sir Roger had left
+the building was practised in much more recent <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-65"></a>[pg 65]</span> times, and instances
+will be given of the observance of this custom within living
+memory.</p>
+<p>Two other references to parish clerks I find in <i>The
+Spectator</i> which are worthy of quotation:</p>
+<blockquote>"<i>Spectator</i>, No. 372.<br>
+<br>
+"In three or four taverns I have, at different times, taken notice
+of a precise set of people with grave countenances, short wigs,
+black cloaths, or dark camblet trimmed black, with mourning gloves
+and hat-bands, who went on certain days at each tavern
+successively, and keep a sort of moving club. Having often met with
+their faces, and observed a certain shrinking way in their dropping
+in one after another, I had the unique curiosity to inquire into
+their characters, being the rather moved to it by their agreeing in
+the singularity of their dress; and I find upon due examination
+they are a knot of parish clerks, who have taken a fancy to one
+another, and perhaps settle the bills of mortality over their half
+pints. I have so great a value and veneration for any who have but
+even an assenting <i>Amen</i> in the service of religion, that I am
+afraid but these persons should incur some scandal by this
+practice; and would therefore have them, without raillery, advise
+to send the florence and pullets home to their own homes, and not
+to pretend to live as well as the overseers of the poor.<br>
+<br>
+"HUMPHRY TRANSFER.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>"<i>Spectator</i>, No. 338.<br>
+<br>
+"A great many of our church-musicians being related to the theatre,
+have in imitation of their epilogues introduced in their favourite
+voluntaries a sort of music quite foreign to the design of church
+services, to the great prejudice of well-disposed people. These
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-66"></a>[pg 66]</span>
+fingering gentlemen should be informed that they ought to suit
+their airs to the place and business; and that the musician is
+obliged to keep to the text as much as the preacher. For want of
+this, I have found by experience a great deal of mischief; for when
+the preacher has often, with great piety and art enough, handled
+his subject, and the judicious clerk has with utmost diligence
+called out two staves proper to the discourse, and I have found in
+myself and in the rest of the pew good thoughts and dispositions,
+they have been all in a moment dissipated by a merry jig from the
+organ loft."</blockquote>
+<p>Dr. Johnson's definition of a parish clerk in his Dictionary
+does not convey the whole truth about him and his historic office.
+He is defined as "the layman who reads the responses to the
+congregation in church, to direct the rest." The great
+lexicographer had, however, a high estimation of this official.
+Boswell tells us that on one occasion "the Rev. Mr. Palmer, Fellow
+of Queens' College, Cambridge, dined with us. He expressed a wish
+that a better provision were made for parish clerks. Johnson: 'Yes,
+sir, a parish clerk should be a man who is able to make a will or
+write a letter for anybody in the parish.'" I am afraid that a vast
+number of our good clerks would have been sore puzzled to perform
+the first task, and the caligraphy of the letter would in many
+cases have been curious.</p>
+<p>That careful delineator of rural manners as they existed at the
+end of the eighteenth century, George Crabbe, devotes a whole poem
+to the parish clerk in his nineteenth letter of <i>The Borough</i>.
+He tells of the fortunes of Jachin, the clerk, a grave and austere
+man, fully orthodox, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-67"></a>[pg 67]</span> detecter and opposer
+of the wiles of Satan. Here is his picture:</p>
+<blockquote>"With our late vicar, and his age the same,<br>
+His clerk, bright Jachin, to his office came;<br>
+The like slow speech was his, the like tall slender frame:<br>
+But Jachin was the gravest man on ground,<br>
+And heard his master's jokes with look profound;<br>
+For worldly wealth this man of letters sigh'd,<br>
+And had a sprinkling of the spirit's pride:<br>
+But he was sober, chaste, devout, and just,<br>
+One whom his neighbours could believe and trust:<br>
+Of none suspected, neither man nor maid<br>
+By him were wronged, or were of him afraid.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;There was indeed a frown, a trick of state<br>
+In Jachin: formal was his air and gait:<br>
+But if he seemed more solemn and less kind<br>
+Than some light man to light affairs confined,<br>
+Still 'twas allow'd that he should so behave<br>
+As in high seat, and be severely grave."</blockquote>
+<p>The arch-tempter tries in vain to seduce him from the right
+path. "The house where swings the tempting sign," the smiles of
+damsels, have no power over him. He "shuns a flowing bowl and rosy
+lip," but he is not invulnerable after all. Want and avarice take
+possession of his soul. He begins to take by stealth the money
+collected in church, putting bran in his pockets so that the coin
+shall not jingle. He offends with terror, repeats his offence,
+grows familiar with crime, and is at last detected by a "stern
+stout churl, an angry overseer." Disgrace, ruin, death soon follow;
+shunned and despised by all, he "turns to the wall and silently
+expired." A woeful story truly, the results of spiritual pride and
+greed of gain! It is to be hoped that few clerks resembled poor
+lost Jachin.</p>
+<p>A companion picture to the disgraced clerk is that of "the noble
+peasant Isaac Ashford <a name="FNanchor40"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_40">[40]</a>," who won from <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-68"></a>[pg 68]</span> Crabbe's pen a
+gracious panegyric. He says of him:</p>
+<blockquote>"Noble he was, contemning all things mean,<br>
+His truth unquestioned, and his soul serene.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+If pride were his, 'twas not their vulgar pride,<br>
+Who, in their base contempt, the great deride:<br>
+Nor pride in learning--though by Clerk agreed,<br>
+If fate should call him, Ashford might succeed."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_40"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor40">[40]</a> <i>The Parish Register</i>, Part
+III.</blockquote>
+<p>He paints yet another portrait, that of old Dibble <a name=
+"FNanchor41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41">[41]</a>, clerk and
+sexton:</p>
+<blockquote>"His eightieth year he reach'd still undecayed,<br>
+And rectors five to one close vault conveyed.<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+His masters lost, he'd oft in turn deplore,<br>
+And kindly add,--'Heaven grant I lose no more!'<br>
+Yet while he spake, a sly and pleasant glance<br>
+Appear'd at variance with his complaisance:<br>
+For as he told their fate and varying worth,<br>
+He archly looked--'I yet may bear thee forth.'"</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_41"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor41">[41]</a> <i>The Parish Register</i>, Part
+III.</blockquote>
+<p>George Herbert, the saintly Christian poet, who sang on earth
+such hymns and anthems as the angels sing in heaven, was no friend
+of the old-fashioned duet between the minister and clerk in the
+conduct of divine service. He would have no "talking, or sleeping,
+or gazing, or leaning, or half-kneeling, or any undutiful behaviour
+in them." Moreover, "everyone, man and child, should answer aloud
+both Amen and all other answers which are on the clerk's and
+people's part to answer, which answers also are to be done not in a
+huddling or slubbering fashion, gaping, or scratching the head, or
+spitting even in the midst of their answer, but gently and
+pausably, thinking what they say, so that while they answer 'As it
+was in the beginning, etc.,' they meditate as they speak, that God
+hath ever had his people that have glorified <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-69"></a>[pg 69]</span> Him as well as now,
+and that He shall have so for ever. And the like in other
+answers."</p>
+<p>Cowper's kindliness of heart is abundantly evinced by his
+treatment of a parish clerk, one John Cox, the official of the
+parish of All Saints, Northampton. The poet was living in the
+little Buckinghamshire village of Weston Underwood, having left
+Olney when mouldering walls and a tottering house warned him to
+depart. He was recovering from his dread malady, and beginning to
+feel the pleasures and inconveniences of authorship and fame. The
+most amusing proof of his celebrity and his good nature is thus
+related to Lady Hesketh:</p>
+<p>"On Monday morning last, Sam brought me word that there was a
+man in the kitchen who desired to speak with me. I ordered him in.
+A plain, decent, elderly figure made its appearance, and being
+desired to sit spoke as follows: 'Sir, I am clerk of the parish of
+All Saints in Northampton, brother of Mr. Cox the upholsterer. It
+is customary for the person in my office to annex to a bill of
+mortality, which he publishes at Christmas, a copy of verses. You
+will do me a great favour, sir, if you will furnish me with one.'
+To this I replied: 'Mr. Cox, you have several men of genius in your
+town, why have you not applied to some of them? There is a namesake
+of yours in particular, Cox, the Statuary, who, everybody knows, is
+a first-rate maker of verses. He surely is the man of all the world
+for your purpose.' 'Alas, sir, I have heretofore borrowed help from
+him, but he is a gentleman of so much reading that the people of
+our town cannot understand him.'</p>
+<p>"I confess to you, my dear, I felt all the force of the
+compliment implied in this speech, and was almost <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-70"></a>[pg 70]</span> ready to answer,
+Perhaps, my good friend, they may find me unintelligible too for
+the same reason. But on asking him whether he had walked over to
+Weston on purpose to implore the assistance of my muse, and on his
+replying in the affirmative, I felt my mortified vanity a little
+consoled, and pitying the poor man's distress, which appeared to be
+considerable, promised to supply him. The waggon has accordingly
+gone this day to Northampton loaded in part with my effusions in
+the mortuary style. A fig for poets who write epitaphs upon
+individuals! I have written <i>one</i> that serves <i>two
+hundred</i> persons."</p>
+<p>Seven successive years did Cowper, in his excellent good nature,
+supply John Cox, the clerk of All Saints in Northampton, with his
+mortuary verses <a name="FNanchor42"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_42">[42]</a>, and when Cox died, he bestowed a like
+kindness on his successor, Samuel Wright.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_42"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor42">[42]</a> Southey's <i>Works of Cowper</i>, ii. p.
+283.</blockquote>
+<p>These stanzas are published in the complete editions of Cowper's
+poems, and need not be quoted here. They begin with a quotation
+from some Latin author--Horace, or Virgil, or Cicero--these
+quotations being obligingly translated for the benefit of the
+worthy townsfolk. The first of these stanzas begins with the
+well-known lines:</p>
+<blockquote>"While thirteen moons saw smoothly run<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The Nen's barge-laden wave,<br>
+All these, life's rambling journey done,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Have found their home, the grave."</blockquote>
+<p>Another verse which has attained fame runs thus:</p>
+<blockquote>"Like crowded forest trees we stand,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And some are mark'd to fall;<br>
+The axe will smite at God's command,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And soon will smite us all."</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-71"></a>[pg 71]</span>
+<p>And thus does Cowper, in his temporary r&ocirc;le, point the
+moral:</p>
+<blockquote>"And O! that humble as my lot,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And scorned as is my strain,<br>
+These truths, though known, too much forgot,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;I may not teach in vain.<br>
+<br>
+"So prays your clerk with all his heart,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And, ere he quits his pen,<br>
+Begs you for once to take his part,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And answer all--Amen."</blockquote>
+<p>Again, in another copy of verses he alludes to his honourable
+clerkship, and sings:</p>
+<blockquote>"So your verse-man I, and clerk,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Yearly in my song proclaim<br>
+Death at hand--yourselves his mark--<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And the foe's unerring aim.<br>
+<br>
+"Duly at my time I come,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Publishing to all aloud<br>
+Soon the grave must be our home,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And your only suit a shroud."</blockquote>
+<p>On one occasion the clerk delayed to send a printed copy of the
+verses; so we find the poet writing to his friend, William
+Bagot:</p>
+<p>"You would long since have received an answer to your last, had
+not the wicked clerk of Northampton delayed to send me the printed
+copy of my annual dirge, which I waited to enclose. Here it is at
+last, and much good may it do the readers!"</p>
+<p>Let us hope that at least the clerk was grateful.</p>
+<p>Yet again does the poet allude to the occupant of the lowest
+tier of the great "three-decker," when he in the opening lines of
+<i>The Sofa</i> depicts the various seekers after sleep. After
+telling of the snoring nurse, the sleeping traveller in the coach,
+he continues:</p>
+<blockquote>"Sweet sleep enjoys the curate in his desk,<br>
+The tedious rector drawling o'er his head;<br>
+And sweet the clerk below--"</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-72"></a>[pg 72]</span>
+<p>a pretty picture truly of a stirring and impressive service!</p>
+<p>Cowper, if he were alive now, would have been no admirer of
+<i>Who's Who</i>, and poured scorn upon any</p>
+<blockquote>"Fond attempt to give a deathless lot<br>
+To names ignoble, born to be forgot."</blockquote>
+<p>Beholding some "names of little note" in the <i>Biographia
+Britannica</i>, he proceeded to satirise the publication, to laugh
+at the imaginary procession of worthies--the squire, his lady, the
+vicar, and other local celebrities, and chants in his anger:</p>
+<blockquote>"There goes the parson, oh! illustrious spark!<br>
+And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk."</blockquote>
+<p>The poet Gay is not unmindful of the</p>
+<blockquote>"Parish clerk who calls the hymns so
+clear";</blockquote>
+<p>and Tennyson, in his sonnet to J.M.K., wrote:</p>
+<blockquote>"Our dusty velvets have much need of thee:<br>
+Thou art no sabbath-drawler of old saws,<br>
+Distill'd from some worm-canker'd homily;<br>
+But spurr'd at heart with fiercest energy<br>
+To embattail and to wall about thy cause<br>
+With iron-worded proof, hating to hark<br>
+The humming of the drowsy pulpit-drone<br>
+Half God's good Sabbath, while the worn-out clerk<br>
+Brow-beats his desk below."</blockquote>
+<p>In the gallery of Dickens's characters stands out the immortal
+Solomon Daisy of <i>Barnaby Rudge</i>, with his "cricket-like
+chirrup" as he took his part in the social gossip round the Maypole
+fire. Readers of Dickens will remember the timid Solomon's visit to
+the church at midnight when he went to toll the passing bell, and
+his account of the strange things that befell him there, and of the
+ringing of the mysterious bell that told the murder of Reuben
+Haredale.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-73"></a>[pg 73]</span>
+<p>In the British Museum I discovered a fragmentary collection of
+ballads and songs, made by Mr. Ballard, and amongst these is a song
+relating to a very unworthy follower of St. Nicholas, whose memory
+is thus unhappily preserved:</p>
+<blockquote>THE PARISH CLERK<br>
+<br>
+A NEW COMIC SONG<br>
+<br>
+<i>Tune</i>--THE VICAR AND MOSES<br>
+<br>
+Here rests from his labours, by consent of his neighbours,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;A peevish, ill-natur'd old clerk;<br>
+Who never design'd any good to mankind,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;For of goodness he ne'er had a spark.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Tol lol de rol lol de rol lol.<br>
+<br>
+But greedy as Death, until his last breath,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;His method he ne'er failed to use;<br>
+When interr'd a corpse lay, Amen he'd scarce say,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Before he cry'd Who pays the dues?<br>
+<br>
+Not a tear now he's dead, by friend or foe shed;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The first they were few, if he'd any;<br>
+Of the last he had more, than tongue can count o'er,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Who'd have hang'd the old churl for a penny.<br>
+<br>
+In Levi's black train, the clerk did remain<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Twenty years, squalling o'er a dull stave;<br>
+Yet his mind was so evil, he'd swear like the devil,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Nor repented on this side the grave.<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Fowler, Printer,
+Salisbury</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>That extraordinary man Mr. William Hutton, who died in 1813, and
+whose life has been written and his works edited by Mr. Llewellyn
+Jewitt, F.S.A., amongst his other poems wrote a set of verses on
+<i>The Way to Find Sunday without an Almanack</i>. It tells the
+story of a Welsh clergyman who kept poultry, and how he told the
+days of the week and marked the Sundays by the regularity with
+which one of his hens laid her eggs. The seventh egg always became
+his Sunday letter, and thus he always remembered to sally
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-74"></a>[pg 74]</span> forth
+"with gown and cassock, book and band," and perform his accustomed
+duty. Unfortunately the clerk was treacherous, and one week stole
+an egg, with dire consequences to the congregation, which had to
+wait until the clergyman, who was engaged in the unclerical task of
+"soleing shoes," could be fetched. The poem is a poor trifle, but
+it is perhaps worth mentioning on account of the personality of the
+writer.</p>
+<p>There is a charming sketch of an old clerk in the <i>Essays and
+Tales</i> of the late Lady Verney. The story tells of the old
+clerk's affection for his great-grandchild, Benny. He is a
+delightfully drawn specimen of his race. We see him "creeping
+slowly about the shadows of the aisle, in his long blue Sunday coat
+with huge brass buttons, the tails of which reached almost to his
+heels, shorts and brown leggings, and a low-crowned hat in his
+hand. He was nearly eighty, but wiry still, rather blind and
+somewhat deaf; but the post of clerk is one considered to be quite
+independent and irremovable, <i>quam diu se bene gesserit</i>,
+during good behaviour--on a level with Her Majesty's judges for
+that matter. Having been raised to this great eminence some sixty
+years before, when he was the only man in the parish who could
+read, he would have stood out for his rights to remain there as
+long as he pleased against all the powers and principalities in the
+kingdom--if, indeed, he could have conceived the possibility of any
+one, in or out of the parish, being sufficiently irreligious and
+revolutionary to dispute his sovereignty. He was part of the
+church, and the church was part of him--his rights and hers were
+indissolubly connected in his mind.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>"The Psalms that day offered a fine field for his <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-75"></a>[pg 75]</span> Anglo-Saxon plurals
+and south-country terminations; the 'housen,' 'priestesses,'
+'beasteses of the field,' came rolling freely forth from his mouth,
+upon which no remonstrances by the curate had had the smallest
+effect. Was he, Michael Major, who had fulfilled the important
+office 'afore that young jackanapes was born, to be teached how
+'twere to be done?' he had observed more than once in rather a high
+tone, though in general he patronised the successive occupants of
+the pulpit with much kindness. 'And this 'un, as cannot spike
+English nayther,' he added superciliously concerning the
+north-country accent of his pastor and master."</p>
+<p>On weekdays he wore a smock-frock, which he called his surplice,
+with wonderful fancy stitches on the breast and back and sleeves.
+At length he had to resign his post and take to his bed, and was
+not afraid to die when his time came. It is a very tender and
+touching little story, a very faithful picture of an old clerk
+<a name="FNanchor43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43">[43]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_43"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor43">[43]</a> <i>Essays and Tales</i>, by Frances
+Parthenope Lady Verney, p. 67.</blockquote>
+<p>Passing from grave to gay, we find Tom Hood sketching the clerk
+attending on his vicar, who is about to perform a wedding service
+and make two people for ever happy. He christens the two officials
+"the joiners, no rough mechanics, but a portly full-blown vicar
+with his clerk, both rubicund, a peony paged by a pink. It made me
+smile to observe the droll clerical turn of the clerk's beaver,
+scrubbed into that fashion by his coat at the nape."</p>
+<p>Few people know Alexander Pope's <i>Memoir of P.P., Clerk of
+this Parish</i>, which was intended to ridicule Burnet's <i>History
+of His Own Time</i>, a work characterised by a strong tincture of
+self-importance <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-76"></a>[pg
+76]</span> and egotism. These are abundantly exposed in the
+<i>Memoir</i>, which begins thus:</p>
+<p>"In the name of the Lord, Amen. I, P.P., by the Grace of God,
+Clerk of this Parish, writeth this history.</p>
+<p>"Ever since I arrived at the age of discretion I had a call to
+take upon me the Function of a Parish Clerk, and to this end it
+seemed unto me meet and profitable to associate myself with the
+parish clerks of this land, such I mean as were right worthy in
+their calling, men of a clear and sweet voice, and of becoming
+gravity."</p>
+<p>He tells how on the day of his birth Squire Bret gave a bell to
+the ring of the parish. Hence that one and the same day did give to
+their own church two rare gifts, its great bell and its clerk.</p>
+<p>Leaving the account of P.P.'s youthful amours and bouts at
+quarter-staff, we next find that:</p>
+<p>"No sooner was I elected into my office, but I layed aside the
+gallantries of my youth and became a new man. I considered myself
+as in somewise of ecclesiastical dignity, since by wearing of a
+band, which is no small part of the ornaments of our clergy, might
+not unworthily be deemed, as it were, a shred of the linen
+vestments of Aaron.</p>
+<p>"Thou mayest conceive, O reader, with what concern I perceived
+the eyes of the congregation fixed upon me, when I first took my
+place at the feet of the Priest. When I raised the Psalm, how did
+my voice quiver with fear! And when I arrayed the shoulders of the
+minister with the surplice, how did my joints tremble under me! I
+said within myself, 'Remember, Paul, thou standest before men of
+high worship, the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-77"></a>[pg
+77]</span> wise Mr. Justice Freeman, the grave Mr. Justice Tonson,
+the good Lady Jones.' Notwithstanding it was my good hap to acquit
+myself to the good liking of the whole congregation, but the Lord
+forbid I should glory therein."</p>
+<p>He then proceeded to remove "the manifold corruptions and
+abuses."</p>
+<p>1. "I was especially severe in whipping forth dogs from the
+Temple, all except the lap-dog of the good widow Howard, a sober
+dog which yelped not, nor was there offence in his mouth.</p>
+<p>2. "I did even proceed to moroseness, though sore against my
+heart, unto poor babes, in tearing from them the half-eaten apple,
+which they privily munched at church. But verily it pitied me, for
+I remembered the days of my youth.</p>
+<p>3. "With the sweat of my own hands I did make plain and smooth
+the dog's ears throughout our Great Bible.</p>
+<p>4. "I swept the pews, not before swept in the third year. I
+darned the surplice and laid it in lavender."</p>
+<p>The good clerk also made shoes, shaved and clipped hair, and
+practised chirurgery also in the worming of dogs.</p>
+<p>"Now was the long expected time arrived when the Psalms of King
+David should be hymned unto the same tunes to which he played them
+upon his harp, so I was informed by my singing-master, a man right
+cunning in Psalmody. Now was our over-abundant quaver and trilling
+done away, and in lieu thereof was instituted the sol-fa in such
+guise as is sung in his Majesty's Chapel. We had London
+singing-masters sent into every parish like unto excisemen."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-78"></a>[pg 78]</span>
+<p>P.P. was accused by his enemies of humming through his nostrils
+as a sackbut, yet he would not forgo the harmony, it having been
+agreed by the worthy clerks of London still to preserve the same.
+He tutored the young men and maidens to tune their voices as it
+were a psaltery, and the church on Sunday was filled with new
+Hallelujahs.</p>
+<p>But the fame of the great is fleeting. Poor Paul Philips passed
+away, and was forgotten. When his biographer went to see him, his
+place knew him no more. No one could tell of his virtues, his
+career, his excellences. Nothing remained but his epitaph:</p>
+<blockquote>"O reader, if that thou canst read,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Look down upon this stone;<br>
+Do all we can, Death is a man<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;That never spareth none."</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-79"></a>[pg 79]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3>CLERKS TOO CLERICAL. SMUGGLING DAYS AND SMUGGLING WAYS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>It is perhaps not altogether surprising that in times when
+ordained clergymen were scarce, and when much confusion reigned,
+the clerk should occasionally have taken upon himself to discharge
+duties which scarcely pertained to his office. Great diversity of
+opinion is evident as regards the right of the clerk to perform
+certain ecclesiastical services, such as his reading of the Burial
+Service, the Churching of Women, and the reading of the daily
+services in the absence of the incumbent. In the days of Queen
+Elizabeth, judging from the numerous inquiries issued by the
+bishops at their visitations, one would imagine that the parish
+clerk performed many services which pertained to the duties of the
+parish priest. It is not likely that such inquiries should have
+been made if some reports of clerks and readers exceeding their
+prescribed functions had not reached episcopal ears. They ask if
+readers presume to baptize or marry or celebrate Holy Communion.
+And the answers received in several cases support the surmise of
+the bishops. Thus we read that at Westbere, "When the parson is
+absent the parish clerk reads the service." At Waltham the parish
+clerk served the parish for the most as the vicar seldom came
+there. At <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-80"></a>[pg
+80]</span> Tenterden the service was read by a layman, one John
+Hopton, and at Fairfield a reader served the church. This was the
+condition of those parishes in 1569, and doubtless many others were
+similarly situated.</p>
+<p>The Injunctions of Archbishop Grindal, issued in 1571, are
+severe and outspoken with regard to lay ministration. He wrote as
+follows:</p>
+<blockquote>"We do enjoin and straitly command, that from
+henceforth no parish clerk, nor any other person not being ordered,
+at the least, for a deacon, shall presume to solemnize Matrimony,
+or to minister the Sacrament of Baptism, or to deliver the
+communicants the Lord's cup at the celebration of the Holy
+Communion. And that no person, not being a minister, deacon, or at
+least, tolerated by the ordinary in writing, do attempt to supply
+the office of a minister in saying divine service openly in any
+church or chapel."</blockquote>
+<p>In the Lincoln diocese in 1588 the clerk was still allowed to
+read one lesson and the epistle, but he was forbidden from saying
+the service, ministering any sacraments or reading any homily. In
+some cases greater freedom was allowed. In the beautiful Lady
+Chapel of the Church of St. Mary Overy there is preserved a curious
+record relating to this:</p>
+<blockquote>"Touching the Parish Clerk and Sexton all is well; only
+our clerk doth sometimes to ease the minister read prayers, church
+women, christen, bury and marry, being allowed so to do.<br>
+<br>
+"December 9. 1634."</blockquote>
+<p>Bishop Joseph Hall of Exeter asked in 1638 in his visitation
+articles, "Whether in the absence of the minister or at any other
+time the Parish Clerk, or any other lay person, said Common Prayer
+openly in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-81"></a>[pg
+81]</span> church or any part of the Divine Service which is proper
+to the Priest?"</p>
+<p>Archdeacon Marsh, of Chichester, in 1640 inquires: "Hath your
+Parish Clerk or Sexton taken upon him to meddle with anything above
+his office, as churching of women, burying of the dead, or such
+like?"</p>
+<p>During the troublous times of the Commonwealth period it is not
+surprising that the clerk often performed functions which were
+"above his office," when clergymen were banished from their
+livings. We have noticed already an example of the burial service
+being performed by the clerk when he was so rudely treated by angry
+Parliamentarians for using the Book of Common Prayer. Here is an
+instance of the ceremony of marriage being performed by the parish
+clerk:</p>
+<blockquote>"The marriages in the Parish of Dale Abbey were till a
+few years previous to the Marriage Act, solemnized by the Clerk of
+the Parish, at one shilling each, there being no
+minister."</blockquote>
+<p>This Marriage Act was that passed by the Little Parliament of
+1653, by which marriage was pronounced to be merely a civil
+contract. Banns were published in the market-place, and the
+marriages were performed by Cromwell's Justices of the Peace whom,
+according to a Yorkshire vicar, "that impious and rebell appointed
+out of the basest Hypocrites and dissemblers with God and man." The
+clerks' marriage ceremony was no worse than that of the
+justices.</p>
+<p>Dr. Macray, of the Bodleian Library, has discovered the draft of
+a licence granted by Dr. John Mountain, Bishop of London, to Thomas
+Dickenson, parish clerk of Waltham Holy Cross, in the year 1621,
+permitting <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-82"></a>[pg
+82]</span> him to read prayers, church women, and bury the dead.
+This licence states that the parish of Waltham Holy Cross was very
+spacious, many houses being a long distance from the church, and
+that the curate was very much occupied with his various duties of
+visiting the sick, burying the dead, churching women, and other
+business belonging to his office; hence permission is granted to
+Thomas Dickenson to assist the curate in reading prayers in church,
+burying dead corpses, and to church women in the absence of the
+curate, or when the curate cannot conveniently perform the same
+duty in his own person.</p>
+<p>Doubtless this licence was no solitary exception, and it is
+fairly certain that other clerks enjoyed the same privileges which
+are here assigned to Master Thomas Dickenson. He must have been a
+worthy member of his class, a man of education, and of skill and
+ability in reading, or episcopal sanction would not have been given
+to him to perform these important duties.</p>
+<p>It is evident that parish clerks occasionally at least performed
+several important clerical functions with the consent of, or in the
+absence of the incumbents, and that in spite of the articles in the
+visitations of some bishops who were opposed to this practice,
+episcopal sanction was not altogether wanting.</p>
+<p>The affection with which the parishioners regarded the clerk is
+evidenced in many ways. He received from them many gifts in kind
+and money, such as eggs and cakes and sheaves of corn. Some of them
+were demanded in early times as a right that could not be evaded;
+but the compulsory payment of such goods was abolished, and the
+parishioners willingly gave by courtesy that which had been deemed
+a right.</p>
+<p>Sometimes land has been left to the clerk in order <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-83"></a>[pg 83]</span> that he may ring the
+curfew-bell, or a bell at night and early morning, so that
+travellers may be warned lest they should lose their way over wild
+moorland or bleak down, and, guided by the sound of the bell, may
+reach a place of safety.</p>
+<p>An old lady once lost her way on the Lincolnshire wolds, nigh
+Boston, but was guided to her home by the sound of the church bell
+tolling at night. So grateful was she that she bequeathed a piece
+of land to the parish clerk on condition that he should ring one of
+the bells from seven to eight o'clock each evening during the
+winter months.</p>
+<p>There is a piece of land called "Curfew Land" at St.
+Margaret's-at-Cliffe, Kent, the rent of which was directed to be
+paid to the clerk or other person who should ring the curfew every
+evening in order to warn travellers lest they should fall over the
+cliff, as the unfortunate donor of the land did, for want of the
+due and constant ringing of the bell.</p>
+<p>In smuggling days, clerks, like many of their betters, were not
+immaculate. The venerable vicar of Worthing, the Rev. E. K.
+Elliott, records that the clerk of Broadwater was himself a
+smuggler, and in league with those who throve by the illicit trade.
+When a cargo was expected he would go up to the top of the spire,
+which afforded a splendid view of the sea, and when the coast was
+clear of preventive officers he would give the signal by hoisting a
+flag. Kegs of contraband spirits were frequently placed inside two
+huge tombs which have sliding tops, and which stand near the
+western porch of Worthing church.</p>
+<p>The last run of smuggled goods in that neighbourhood was well
+within the recollection of the vicar, and took place in 1855. Some
+kegs were taken to Charman <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-84"></a>[pg 84]</span> Dean and buried in the ground, and
+although diligent search was made, the smugglers baffled their
+pursuers.</p>
+<p>At Soberton, Hants, there is an old vault near the chancel door.
+Now the flat stone is level with the ground; but in 1800 it rested
+on three feet of brickwork, and could be lifted off by two men.
+Here many kegs of spirit that paid no duty were deposited by an
+arrangement with the clerk, and the stone lifted on again. This
+secret hiding-place was never discovered, neither did the curate
+find out who requisitioned his horse when the nights favoured
+smugglers.</p>
+<p>In the wild days of Cornish wreckers and wrecking, both priest
+and clerk are said to have taken part in the sharing of the tribute
+of the sea cast upon their rockbound coast. The historian of
+Cornwall, Richard Polwhele, tells of a wreck happening one Sunday
+morning just before service. The clerk, eager to be at the fray,
+announced to the assembled parishioners that "Measter would gee
+them a holiday."</p>
+<p>I will not vouch for the truth of that other story told in the
+<i>Encyclop&aelig;dia of Wit</i> (1801), which runs as follows:</p>
+<p>"A parson who lived on the coast of Cornwall, where one great
+business of the inhabitants is plundering from ships that are
+wrecked, being once preaching when the alarm was given, found that
+the sound of the wreck was so much more attractive than his sermon,
+that all his congregation were scampering out of church. To check
+their precipitation, he called out, 'My brethren, let me entreat
+you to stay for five words more'; and marching out of the pulpit,
+till he had got pretty near the door of the church, slowly
+pronounced, 'Let us all start fair,' and ran off with the rest of
+them."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-85"></a>[pg 85]</span>
+<p>An old parishioner of the famous Rev. R. S. Hawker once told him
+of a very successful run of a cargo of kegs, which the obliging
+parish clerk allowed the smugglers to place underneath the benches
+and in the tower stairs of the church. The old man told the story
+thus:</p>
+<blockquote>"We bribed Tom Hockaday, the sexton, and we had the
+goods safe in the seats by Saturday night. The parson did wonder at
+the large congregation, for divers of them were not regular
+churchgoers at other times; and if he had known what was going on,
+he could not have preached a more suitable discourse, for it was,
+'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.' It was one of his best
+sermons; but, there, it did not touch us, you see; for we never
+tasted anything but brandy and gin."</blockquote>
+<p>In such smuggling ways the clerk was no worse than his
+neighbours, who were all more or less involved in the illicit
+trade.</p>
+<p>The old Cornish clerks who used to help the smugglers were a
+curious race of beings, remarkable for their familiar ways with the
+parson. At St. Clements the clergyman one day was reading the
+verse, "I have seen the ungodly flourish like a <i>green bay</i>
+tree," when the clerk looked up with an inquiring glance from the
+desk below, "How can that be, maister?" He was more familiar with
+the colour of a bay horse than the tints of a bay tree.</p>
+<p>At Kenwyn two dogs, one of which belonged to the parson, were
+fighting at the west end of the church; the parson, who was then
+reading the second lesson, rushed out of the pew and went down and
+parted them. Returning to his pew, and doubtful where he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-86"></a>[pg 86]</span> had left
+off, he asked the clerk, "Roger, where was I?" "Why, down parting
+the dogs, maister," replied Roger.</p>
+<p>Two rocks stand out on the South Devon coast near Dawlish, which
+are known as the Parson and Clerk. A wild, weird legend is told
+about these rocks--of a parson who desired the See of Exeter, and
+often rode with his clerk to Dawlish to hear the latest news of the
+bishop who was nigh unto death. The wanderers lost their way one
+dark night, and the parson exhibited most unclerical anger, telling
+his clerk that he would rather have the devil for a guide than him.
+Of course, the devil or one of his imps obliged, and conducted the
+wanderers to an old ruined house, where there was a large company
+of disguised demons. They all passed a merry night, singing and
+carousing. Then the news comes that the bishop is dead. The parson
+and clerk determine to set out at once. Their steeds are brought,
+but will not budge a step. The parson cuts savagely at his horse.
+The demons roar with unearthly laughter. The ruined house and all
+the devils vanish. The waves are overwhelming the riders, and in
+the morning the wretches are found clinging to the rocks with the
+grasp of death, which ever afterwards record their villainy and
+their fate.</p>
+<p>Among tales of awe and weird mystery stands out the story of the
+adventures of Peter Priestly, clerk, sexton, and gravestone cutter,
+of Wakefield, who flourished at the end of the eighteenth century.
+He was an old and much respected inhabitant of the town, and not at
+all given to superstitious fears. One Saturday evening he went to
+the church to finish the epitaph on a stone which was to be in
+readiness for removal before Sunday. Arrived at the church, where
+he had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-87"></a>[pg 87]</span>
+his workshop, he set down his lantern and lighted his other candle,
+which was set in a primitive candlestick formed out of a potato.
+The church clock struck eleven, and still some letters remained
+unfinished, when he heard a strange sound, which seemed to say
+"Hiss!" "Hush!" He resumes his work undaunted. Again that awful
+voice breaks in once more. He lights his lantern and searches for
+its cause. In vain his efforts. He resolves to leave the church,
+but again remembers his promise and returns to his work. The mystic
+hour of midnight strikes. He has nearly finished, and bends down to
+examine the letters on the stone. Again he hears a louder "Hiss!"
+He now stands appalled. Terror seizes him. He has profaned the
+Sabbath, and the sentence of death has gone forth. With tottering
+steps Peter finds his way home and goes to bed. Sleep forsakes him.
+His wife ministers to him in vain. As morning dawns the good woman
+notices Peter's wig suspended on the great chair. "Oh, Peter," she
+cries, "what hast thou been doing to burn all t' hair off one side
+of thy wig?" "Ah! bless thee," says the clerk, "thou hast cured me
+with that word." The mysterious "hiss" and "hush" were sounds from
+the frizzling of Peter's wig by the flame of the candle, which to
+his imperfect sense of hearing imported things horrible and awful.
+Such is the story which a writer in Hone's <i>Year Book</i> tells,
+and which is said to have afforded Peter Priestly and the good
+people of merry Wakefield many a joke.</p>
+<p>The <i>Year Book</i> is always full of interest, and in the same
+volume I find an account of a most worthy representative of the
+profession, one John Kent, the parish clerk of St. Albans, who died
+in 1798, aged eighty years. He was a very venerable and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-88"></a>[pg 88]</span>
+intelligent man, who did service in the old abbey church, long
+before the days when its beauties were desecrated by Grimthorpian
+restoration, or when it was exalted to cathedral rank. For
+fifty-two years Kent was the zealous clerk and custodian of the
+minster, and loved to describe its attractions. He was the friend
+of the learned Browne Willis. His name is mentioned in Cough's
+<i>Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain</i>, and his intelligence
+and knowledge noticed, and Newcombe, the historian of the abbey,
+expressed his gratitude to the good clerk for much information
+imparted by him to the author. The monks could not have guarded the
+shrine of St. Alban with greater care than did Kent protect the
+relics of good Duke Humphrey. His veneration for all that the abbey
+contained was remarkable. A story is told of a gentleman who
+purloined a bone of the Duke. The clerk suspected the theft but
+could never prove it, though he sometimes taxed the gentleman with
+having removed the bone. At last, just before his death, the man
+restored it, saying to the clerk, "I could not depart easy with it
+in my possession."</p>
+<p>Kent was a plumber and glazier by trade, in politics a staunch
+partisan of "the Blues," and on account of his sturdy independence
+was styled "Honest John." He performed his duties in the minster
+with much zeal and ability, his knowledge of psalmody was
+unsurpassed, his voice was strong and melodious, and he was a
+complete master of church music. Unlike many of his
+confr&egrave;res, he liked to hear the congregation sing; but when
+country choirs came from neighbouring churches to perform in the
+abbey with instruments, contemptuously described by him as "a box
+of whistles," the congregation being unable to join in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-89"></a>[pg 89]</span>
+melodies, he used to give out the anthem thus: "Sing <i>ye</i> to
+the praise and glory of God...." Five years before his death he had
+an attack of paralysis which slightly crippled his power of
+utterance, though this defect could scarcely be detected when he
+was engaged in the services of the church. Two days before his
+death he sang his "swan-song." Some colours were presented to the
+volunteers of the town, and were consecrated in the abbey. During
+the service he sang the 20th Psalm with all the strength and
+vivacity of youth. When his funeral sermon was preached the rector
+alluded to this dying effort, and said that on the day of the great
+service "Nature seemed to have reassumed her throne; and, as she
+knew it was to be his last effort, was determined it should be his
+best." The body of the good clerk, John Kent, rests in the abbey
+church which he loved so well, in a spot marked by himself, and we
+hope that the "restoration," somewhat drastic and severe, which has
+fallen upon the grand old church, has not obscured his grave or
+destroyed the memorial of this worthy and excellent clerk.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-90"></a>[pg 90]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3>THE CLERK IN EPITAPH</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The virtues of many a parish clerk are recorded on numerous
+humble tombstones in village churchyards. The gratitude felt by
+both rector and people for many years of faithful service is thus
+set forth, sometimes couched in homely verse, and occasionally
+marred by the misplaced humour and jocular expressions and puns
+with which our forefathers thought fit to honour the dead. In this
+they were not original, and but followed the example of the Greeks
+and Romans, the Italians, Spaniards, and French. This objectionable
+fashion of punning on gravestones was formerly much in vogue in
+England, and such a prominent official as the clerk did not escape
+the attention of the punsters. Happily the quaint fancies and
+primitive humour, which delighted our grandsires in the production
+of rebuses and such-like pleasantries, no longer find themselves
+displayed upon the fabric of our churches, and the "merry jests"
+have ceased to appear upon the memorials of the dead. We will
+glance at the clerkly epitaphs of some of the worthies who have
+held the office of parish clerk who were deemed deserving of a
+memorial.</p>
+<p>In the southern portion of the churchyard attached <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-91"></a>[pg 91]</span> to St. Andrew's
+Church, Rugby, is a plain upright stone containing the following
+inscription:</p>
+<blockquote>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In memory of<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Peter Collis<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; 33 years Clerk of<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;this Parish<br>
+who died Feb'y 28th 1818<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Aged 82 years</blockquote>
+<p>[Some lines of poetry follow, but these unfortunately are not
+now discernible.]</p>
+<p>At the time Peter held office the incumbent was noted for his
+card-playing propensities, and the clerk was much addicted to
+cock-fighting. The following couplet relating to these worthies is
+still remembered:</p>
+<blockquote>No wonder the people of Rugby are all in the dark,<br>
+With a card-playing parson and a cock-fighting clerk.</blockquote>
+<p>Peter's father was clerk before him, and on a stone to his
+memory is recorded as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In
+memory of<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; John Collis Husband of<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Eliz: Collis who liv'd in<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Wedlock together 50 years<br>
+he served as Parish Clerk 41 years<br>
+And died June 19th 1781 aged 69 years<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Him who covered up the Dead<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Is himself laid in the same bed<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Time with his crooked scythe hath made<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Him lay his mattock down and spade<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;May he and we all rise again<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;To everlasting life AMEN.</blockquote>
+<p>The name Collis occurs amongst those who held the office of
+parish clerk at West Haddon. The Rev. John T. Page, to whom I am
+indebted for the above information <a name=
+"FNanchor44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44">[44]</a>, has gleaned the
+following particulars <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-92"></a>[pg 92]</span> from the parish registers and other
+sources. The clerk who reigned in 1903 was Thomas Adams, who filled
+the position for eighteen years. He succeeded his father-in-law,
+William Prestidge, who died 24 March, 1886, after holding the
+office fifty-three years. His predecessor was Thomas Collis, who
+died 30 January, 1833, after holding the office fifty-two years,
+and succeeded John Colledge, who, according to an old
+weather-beaten stone still standing in the churchyard, died 12
+September, 1781. How long Colledge held office cannot now be
+ascertained. Here are some remarkable examples of long years of
+service, Collis and Prestidge having held the office for 105
+years.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_44"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor44">[44]</a> cf. <i>Notes and Queries</i>, Tenth Series,
+ii., 10 September, 1904, p. 215.</blockquote>
+<p>In Shenley churchyard the following remarkable epitaph appears
+to the memory of Joseph Rogers, who was a bricklayer as well as
+parish clerk:</p>
+<blockquote>Silent in dust lies mouldering here<br>
+A Parish Clerk of voice most clear.<br>
+None Joseph Rogers could excel<br>
+In laying bricks or singing well;<br>
+Though snapp'd his line, laid by his rod,<br>
+We build for him our hopes in God.</blockquote>
+<p>A remarkable instance of longevity is recorded on a tombstone in
+Cromer churchyard. The inscription runs:</p>
+<blockquote>Sacred to the memory of David Vial who departed this
+life the 26th of March, 1873, aged 94 years, for sixty years clerk
+of this parish.</blockquote>
+<p>At the village church of Whittington, near Oswestry, there is a
+well-known epitaph, which is worth recording:</p>
+<blockquote>March 13th 1766 died Thomas Evans, Parish Clerk, aged
+72.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>Old Sternhold's lines or "Vicar of Bray"<br>
+Which he tuned best 'twas hard to say.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-93"></a>[pg 93]</span>
+<p>Another remarkable instance of longevity is that recorded on a
+tombstone in the cemetery of Eye, Suffolk, erected to the memory of
+a faithful clerk:</p>
+<center>Erected to the memory of<br>
+George Herbert<br>
+who was clerk of this parish for more<br>
+than 71 years<br>
+and who died on the 17th May 1873<br>
+aged 81 years.<br>
+<br>
+This monument<br>
+Is erected to his memory by his grateful<br>
+Friend<br>
+the Rev. W. Page Roberts<br>
+Vicar of Eye.</center>
+<p>Herbert must have commenced his duties very early in life;
+according to the inscription, at the age of ten years.</p>
+<p>At Scothorne, in Lincolnshire, there is a sexton-ringer-clerk
+epitaph on John Blackburn's tombstone, dated 1739-40. It reads
+thus:</p>
+<blockquote>Alas poor John<br>
+Is dead and gone<br>
+Who often toll'd the Bell<br>
+And with a spade<br>
+Dug many a grave<br>
+And said Amen as well.</blockquote>
+<p>The Roes were a great family of clerks at Bakewell, and the two
+members who occupied that office at the end of the eighteenth and
+beginning of the nineteenth century seem to have been endowed with
+good voices, and with a devoted attachment to the church and its
+monuments. Samuel Roe had the honour of being mentioned in the
+<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, and receives well-deserved praise for
+his care of the fabric of Bakewell <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-94"></a>[pg 94]</span> Church, and his epitaph is given,
+which runs as follows:</p>
+<center>To<br>
+The memory of<br>
+SAMUEL ROE<br>
+Clerk<br>
+of the Parish Church of Bakewell,<br>
+which office<br>
+he filled thirty-five years<br>
+with credit to himself<br>
+and satisfaction to the inhabitants.<br>
+His natural powers of voice,<br>
+in clearness, strength, and sweetness<br>
+were altogether unequalled.<br>
+He died October 31st, 1792<br>
+Aged 70 years</center>
+<p>The correspondent of the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> wrote thus
+of this faithful clerk:</p>
+<blockquote>"Mr. Urban,<br>
+<br>
+"It was with much concern that I read the epitaph upon Mr. Roe in
+your last volume, page 1192. Upon a little tour which I made in
+Derbyshire in 1789, I met with that worthy and very intelligent man
+at Bakewell, and in the course of my antiquarian researches there,
+derived no inconsiderable assistance from his zeal and civility. If
+he did not possess the learning of his namesake, your old and
+valuable correspondent <a name="FNanchor45"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_45">[45]</a>, I will venture to declare that he was not
+less influenced by a love and veneration for antiquity, many proofs
+of which he had given by his care and attention to the monuments of
+the church which were committed to his charge; for he united the
+characters of sexton, clerk, singing-master, will-maker,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-95"></a>[pg 95]</span> and
+schoolmaster. Finding that I was quite alone, he requested
+permission to wait upon me at the inn in the evening, urging as a
+reason for this request that he must be exceedingly gratified by
+the conversation of a gentleman who could read the characters upon
+the monument of Vernon, the founder of Haddon House, a treat he had
+not met with for many years. After a very pleasant gossip we
+parted, but not till my honest friend had, after some apparent
+struggle, begged of me to indulge him with my name."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_45"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor45">[45]</a> T. Row stands for T<i>he</i> R<i>ector</i>
+O<i>f</i> W<i>hittington</i>, the Rev. Samuel Pegge. cf. <i>Curious
+Epitaphs</i>, by W. Andrews, p. 124.</blockquote>
+<p>To this worthy clerk's care is due the preservation of the
+Vernon and other monuments in Bakewell Church. Mr. Andrews tells us
+that "in some instances he placed a wooden framework to keep off
+the rough hands and rougher knives of the boys and young men of the
+congregation. He also watched with special care the Wenderley tomb,
+and even took careful rubbings of the inscriptions <a name=
+"FNanchor46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46">[46]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_46"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor46">[46]</a> W. Andrews, <i>Curious Epitaphs</i>, p.
+124.</blockquote>
+<p>The inscription on the tomb of the son of this worthy clerk
+proves that he inherited his father's talents as regards musical
+ability:</p>
+<center>Erected<br>
+In remembrance of<br>
+PHILIP ROE<br>
+Who died 12th September, 1815,<br>
+Aged 52 years.</center>
+<br>
+<blockquote>The vocal Powers here let us mark<br>
+Of Philip our late Parish Clerk,<br>
+In church none ever heard a Layman<br>
+With a clearer voice say 'Amen'!<br>
+Who now with Hallelujahs sound<br>
+Like him can make this roof rebound?<br>
+The Choir lament his Choral Tones<br>
+The Town--so soon Here lie his Bones.<br>
+Sleep undisturb'd within thy peaceful shrine<br>
+Till Angels wake thee with such notes as thine.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-96"></a>[pg 96]</span>
+<p>The last two lines are a sweet and tender tribute truly to the
+memory of this melodious clerk.</p>
+<p>A writer in <i>All the Year Round</i> <a name=
+"FNanchor47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47">[47]</a>, who has been
+identified as Cuthbert Bede, the author of the immortal <i>Verdant
+Green</i>, tells of the Osbornes and Worrals, famous families of
+clerks, quoting instances of the hereditary nature of the office.
+He wrote as follows concerning them:</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_47"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor47">[47]</a> No. 624, New Series, p. 83.</blockquote>
+<p>"As a boy I often attended the service at Belbroughton Church,
+Worcestershire, when the clerk was Mr. Osborne, tailor. His family
+had been parish clerks and tailors since the time of Henry VIII,
+and were lineally descended from William Fitz-Osborne, who in the
+twelfth century had been deprived by Ralph Fitz-Herbert of his
+right to the manor of Bellam, in the parish of Bellroughton. Often
+have I stood in the picturesque churchyard of Wolverley,
+Worcestershire, by the grave of the old parish clerk, whom I well
+remember, old Thomas Worrall, the inscription on whose monument is
+as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sacred to the memory of<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; THOMAS WORRALL,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; parish clerk of Wolverley for a period
+of<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; forty-seven years.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Died A.D. 1854, February 23rd.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; He served with faithfulness in humble
+sphere<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As one who could his talents well
+employ,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hope that when Christ his Lord shall
+reappear,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; He may be bidden to his Master's joy.<br>
+<br>
+This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceased<br>
+by a few parishioners in testimony of his worth, April 1855.<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Charles R. Somers Cocks,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Vicar.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-97"></a>[pg 97]</span>
+<p>It may be noted of this worthy clerk that, with the exception of
+a week or two before his death, he was never absent from his Sunday
+and weekday duties in the forty-seven years during which he held
+office.</p>
+<p>He succeeded his father, James Worrall, who died in 1806, aged
+seventy-nine, after being parish clerk of Wolverley for thirty
+years. His tombstone, near to that of his son, was erected "to
+record his worth both in his public and private character, and as a
+mark of personal esteem--p. 1. F.H. and W.C. p.c." I am told that
+these initials stand for F. Hustle, and the Rev. William Callow,
+and that the latter was the author of the following lines inscribed
+on the monument, which are well worth quoting:</p>
+<blockquote>If courtly bards adorn each statesman's bust<br>
+And strew their laurels o'er each warrior's dust,<br>
+Alike immortalise, as good and great,<br>
+Him who enslaved as him who saved the State,<br>
+Surely the Muse (a rustic minstrel) may<br>
+Drop one wild flower upon a poor man's clay.<br>
+This artless tribute to his mem'ry give<br>
+Whose life was such as heroes seldom live.<br>
+In worldly knowledge, poor indeed his store--<br>
+He knew the village, and he scarce knew more.<br>
+The worth of heavenly truth he justly knew--<br>
+In faith a Christian, and in practice too.<br>
+Yes, here lies one, excel him ye who can:<br>
+Go! imitate the virtues of that man!</blockquote>
+<p>The famous "Amen" epitaph at Crayford, Kent, is well known,
+though the name of the clerk who is thus commemorated is sometimes
+forgotten. It is to the memory of one Peter Snell, who repeated his
+"Amens" diligently for a period of thirty years, and runs as
+follows:</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-98"></a>[pg 98]</span>
+<blockquote>Here lieth the body of<br>
+Peter Snell,<br>
+Thirty years clerk of this Parish.<br>
+He lived respected as a pious and mirthful man,<br>
+and died on his way to church to<br>
+assist at a wedding,<br>
+on the 31st of March, 1811,<br>
+Aged seventy years.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>The inhabitants of Crayford have raised this stone to
+his cheerful memory, and as a tribute to his long and faithful
+services.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>The life of this clerk was just threescore and ten,<br>
+Nearly half of which time he had sung out Amen.<br>
+In his youth he had married like other young men,<br>
+But his wife died one day--so he chanted Amen.<br>
+A second he took--she departed--what then?<br>
+He married and buried a third with Amen.<br>
+Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but then<br>
+His voice was deep base, as he sung out Amen.<br>
+On the horn he could blow as well as most men,<br>
+So his horn was exalted to blowing Amen.<br>
+But he lost all his wind after threescore and ten,<br>
+And here with three wives he waits till again<br>
+The trumpet shall rouse him to sing out Amen.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<a name="image12.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image12.jpg" width="45%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>Old Scarlett.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>The duties of sexton and parish clerk were usually performed by
+one person, as we have already frequently noticed, and therefore it
+is fitting that we should record the epitaph of Old Scarlett, most
+famous of grave-diggers, who buried two queens, both the victims of
+stern persecution, ill-usage, and Tudor tyranny--Catherine, the
+divorced wife of Henry VIII, and poor sinning Mary Queen of Scots.
+His famous picture in Peterborough Cathedral, on the wall of the
+western transept, usually attracts the chief attention of the
+tourist, and has preserved his name and fame. He is represented
+with a spade, pickaxe, keys, and a whip in his leathern girdle, and
+at his feet lies a skull. In <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-99"></a>[pg 99]</span> the upper left-hand corner appear the
+arms of the see of Peterborough, save that the cross-keys are
+converted into cross-swords. The whip at his girdle appears to show
+that Old Scarlett occupied the position of dog-whipper as well as
+sexton. There is a description of this portrait in the <i>Book of
+Days</i>, wherein the writer says:</p>
+<blockquote>"What a lively effigy--short, stout, hardy,
+self-complacent, perfectly satisfied, and perhaps even proud of his
+profession, and content to be exhibited with all its insignia about
+him! Two queens had passed through his hands into that bed which
+gives a lasting rest to queens and to peasants alike. An officer of
+death, who had so long defied his principal, could not but have
+made some impression on the minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and
+other magnates of the cathedral, and hence, as we may suppose, the
+erection of this lively portraiture of the old man, which is
+believed to have been only once renewed since it was first put up.
+Dr. Dibdin, who last copied it, tells us that 'old Scarlett's
+jacket and trunkhose are of a brownish red, his stockings blue, his
+shoes black, tied with blue ribbons, and the soles of his feet red.
+The cap upon his head is red, and so also is the ground of the coat
+armour.'" Beneath the portrait are these lines:</blockquote>
+<blockquote>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; YOU SEE OLD SCARLETTS PICTURE
+STAND ON HIE<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; BUT AT YOUR FEETE THERE DOTH HIS BODY
+LYE<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; HIS GRAVESTONE DOTH HIS AGE AND DEATH TIME
+SHOW<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; HIS OFFICE BY THEIS TOKENS YOU MAY
+KNOW<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; SECOND TO NONE FOR STRENGTH AND STURDYE
+LIMM<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A SCARBABE MIGHTY VOICE WITH VISAGE
+GRIM<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; HEE HAD INTER'D TWO QUEENES WITHIN THIS
+PLACE<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AND THIS TOWNES HOUSEHOLDERS IN HIS LIVES
+SPACE<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; TWICE OVER: BUT AT LENGTH HIS OWN TURNE
+CAME<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; WHAT HE FOR OTHERS DID FOR HIM THE
+SAME<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; WAS DONE: NO DOUBT HIS SOUL DOTH LIVE FOR
+AYE<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; IN HEAVEN: THOUGH HERE HIS BODY CLAD IN
+CLAY.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-100"></a>[pg 100]</span>
+<p>On the floor is a stone inscribed "JULY 2 1594 R.S. &aelig;tatis
+98." This painting is not a contemporary portrait of the old
+sexton, but a copy made in 1747.</p>
+<p>The sentiment expressed in the penult couplet is not uncommon,
+the idea of retributive justice, of others performing the last
+offices for the clerk who had so often done the like for his
+neighbours. The same notion is expressed in the epitaph of Frank
+Raw, clerk and monumental mason, of Selby, Yorkshire, which runs as
+follows:</p>
+<blockquote>Here lies the body of poor FRANK RAW<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Parish clerk and gravestone cutter,<br>
+And this is writ to let you know<br>
+What Frank for others used to do<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Is now for Frank done by another <a name=
+"FNanchor48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48">[48]</a>.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_48"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor48">[48]</a> <i>Curious Epitaphs</i>, by W. Andrews, p.
+120.</blockquote>
+<p>The achievement of Old Scarlett with regard to his interring
+"the town's householders in his life's space twice over," has
+doubtless been equalled by many of the long-lived clerks whose
+memoirs have been recorded, but it is not always recorded on a
+tombstone. At Ratcliffe-on-Soar there is, however, the grave of an
+old clerk, one Robert Smith, who died in 1782, at the advanced age
+of eighty-two years, and his epitaph records the following
+facts:</p>
+<blockquote>Fifty-five years it was, and something more,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Clerk of this parish he the office bore,<br>
+And in that space, 'tis awful to declare,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Two generations buried by him were <a name=
+"FNanchor49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49">[49]</a>!</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_49"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor49">[49]</a> <i>Ibid</i>. p. 121.</blockquote>
+<p>It is recorded on the tomb of Hezekiah Briggs, who died in 1844
+in his eightieth year, the clerk and sexton of Bingley, Yorkshire,
+that "he buried seven thousand corpses <a name=
+"FNanchor50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50">[50]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_50"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor50">[50]</a> <i>Notes and Queries</i>, Ninth Series, xii.
+453.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-101"></a>[pg 101]</span>
+<p>The verses written in his honour are worth quoting:</p>
+<blockquote>Here lies an old ringer beneath the cold clay<br>
+Who has rung many peals both for serious and gay;<br>
+Through Grandsire and Trebles with ease he could range,<br>
+Till death called Bob, which brought round the last change.<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;For all the village came to him<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;When they had need to call;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;His counsel free to all was given,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;For he was kind to all.<br>
+<br>
+Ring on, ring' on, sweet Sabbath bell,<br>
+Still kind to me thy matins swell,<br>
+And when from earthly things I part,<br>
+Sigh o'er my grave and lull my heart.</blockquote>
+<p>These last four lines strike a sweet note, and are far superior
+to the usual class of monumental poetry. I will not guarantee the
+correct copying of the third and fourth lines. Various copyists
+have produced various versions. One version runs:</p>
+<blockquote>Bob majors and trebles with ease he could bang,<br>
+Till Death called a bob which brought the last clang.</blockquote>
+<p>In Staple-next-Wingham, Kent, there is a stone to the memory of
+the parish clerk who died in 1820, aged eighty-six years, and thus
+inscribed:</p>
+<blockquote>He was honest and just, in friendship sincere,<br>
+And Clerk of this Parish for sixty-seven years.</blockquote>
+<p>At Worth Church, Sussex, near the south entrance is a headstone,
+inscribed thus:</p>
+<blockquote>In memory of John Alcorn, Clerk and Sexton of this
+parish, who died Dec. 13: 1868 in the 81st year of his
+age.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Thine honoured friend for
+fifty three full years,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; He saw each bridal's joy, each Burial's
+tears;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Within the walls, by Saxons reared of
+old,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; By the stone sculptured font of antique
+mould,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Under the massive arches in the glow,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Tinged by dyed sun-beams passing to and
+fro,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A sentient portion of the sacred
+place,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A worthy presence with a well-worn
+face.<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-102"></a>[pg 102]</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The lich-gate's shadow, o'er his pall at
+last<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Bids kind adieu as poor old John goes
+past.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Unseen the path, the trees, the old oak
+door,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; No more his foot-falls touch the
+tomb-paved floor,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; His silvery head is hid, his service
+done<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Of all these Sabbaths absent only one.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And now amidst the graves he delved
+around,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; He rests and sleeps, beneath the hallowed
+ground.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>Keep Innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is
+right, For that shall bring a man peace at the last. Psalm XXXVII.
+38.</blockquote>
+<p>There is an interesting memorial of an aged parish clerk in
+Cropthorne Church, Worcestershire, an edifice of considerable note.
+It consists of a small painted-glass window in the tower,
+containing a full-length portrait of the deceased official, duly
+apparelled in a cassock.</p>
+<p>There is in the King's Norton parish churchyard an old
+gravestone the existence of which I dare say a good many people had
+forgotten until recently, owing to the inscription having become
+almost illegible. Within the past few weeks it has been renovated,
+and thus a record has been prevented from dropping out of public
+memory. The stone sets forth that it was erected to the memory of
+Isaac Ford, a shoemaker, who was for sixty-two years parish clerk
+of King's Norton, and who died on 10 July, 1755, aged eighty-five
+years. Beneath is another interesting inscription to the effect
+that Henry Ford, son of Isaac, who died on 11 July, 1795, aged
+eighty-one, was also parish clerk for forty years. The two men thus
+held continuous office for one hundred and two years. This is a
+famous record of long service, though it has been surpassed by a
+few others, our parish clerks being a long-lived race.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-103"></a>[pg 103]</span>
+<p>At Stoulton Church a clerk died in 1812, and it is recorded on
+his epitaph that "He was clerk of this parish more 30 years and
+much envied." It was not his office or his salary which was envied,
+but "a worn't much liked by the t'others," and yet followed the
+verse:</p>
+<blockquote>A loving' husband, father dear,<br>
+A faithful friend lies buried here.</blockquote>
+<p>An epitaph without a "werse" was considered very degrading.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-104"></a>[pg 104]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3>THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The story of the City companies of London has many attractions
+for the historian and antiquary. When we visit the ancient homes of
+these great societies we are impressed by their magnificence and
+interesting associations. Portraits of old City worthies and royal
+benefactors gaze at us from the walls, and link our time with
+theirs, when they, too, strove to uphold the honour of their guild
+and benefit their generation. Many a quaint old-time custom and
+ceremonial usage linger on within the old halls, and there too are
+enshrined cuirass and targe, helmet, sword and buckler, which tell
+the story of the past, and of the part the companies played in
+national defence or in the protection of civic rights. Turning down
+some dark alley and entering the portals of one of their halls, we
+are transported at once from the busy streets and din of modern
+London into a region of old-world memories which has a fascination
+that is all its own.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image13.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image13.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image13.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Entrance to the Hall of the Company of Parish Clerks.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>This is not the place to discuss the origin of guilds and City
+companies, which can trace back their descent to Anglo-Saxon times
+and were usually of a religious type. They were the benefit
+societies of ancient days, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-105"></a>[pg 105]</span> institutions of self-help, combining
+care for the needy with the practice of religion, justice, and
+morality. There were guilds exclusively religious, guilds of the
+calendars for the clergy, social guilds for the purpose of
+promoting good fellowship, benevolence, and thrift, merchant guilds
+for the regulation of trade, and frith guilds for the promotion of
+peace and the establishment of law and order.</p>
+<p>In this goodly company we find evidences at an early date of the
+existence of the Fraternity of Parish Clerks. Its long and
+important career, though it ranked not with the Livery Companies,
+and sent not its members to take part in the deliberations of the
+Common Council, is full of interest, and reflects the greatest
+credit on the worthy clerks who composed it.</p>
+<p>In other cities besides London the clerks seem to have formed
+their guilds. As early as the time of the <i>Domesday Survey</i>
+there was a clerks' guild at Canterbury, wherein it is stated
+"<i>In civitate Cantuaria habet achiepiscopus</i> xii burgesses and
+xxxii mansuras which the clerks of the town, <i>clerici de
+villa</i>, hold within their gild and do yield xxxv shillings."</p>
+<p>The first mention of the company carries us back to the early
+days of Henry III, when in the seventeenth year of that monarch's
+reign (A.D. 1233), according to Stow, they were incorporated and
+registered in the books of the Guildhall. The patron saint of the
+company was St. Nicholas, who also extended his patronage to
+robbers and mariners. Thieves are dubbed by Shakespeare as St.
+Nicholas's clerks <a name="FNanchor51"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_51">[51]</a>, and Rowley calls highwaymen by the same
+title. Possibly this may be accounted for by the association of the
+light-fingered fraternity with Nicholas, or Old Nick, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-106"></a>[pg 106]</span> a cant name for
+the devil, or because <i>The Golden Legend</i> tells of the
+conversion of some thieves through the saint's agency. At any rate,
+the good Bishop of Myra was the patron saint of scholars, and
+therefore was naturally selected as tutelary guardian of
+clerks.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_51"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor51">[51]</a> <i>Henry IV</i>, act ii. sc. 1.</blockquote>
+<p>In 1442 Henry VI granted a charter to "the Chief or Parish
+Clerks of the City of London for the honour and glory of Almighty
+God and of the undefiled and most glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother,
+and on account of that special devotion, which they especially bore
+to Christ's glorious confessor, St. Nicholas, on whose day or
+festival we were first presented into this present world, at the
+hands of a mother of memory ever to be revered." The charter states
+that they had maintained a poor brotherhood of themselves, as well
+as a certain divine service, and divine words of charity and piety,
+devised and exhibited by them year by year, for forty years or more
+by part; and it conferred on them the right of a perpetual
+corporate community, having two roasters and two chaplains to
+celebrate divine offices every day, for the King's welfare whether
+alive or dead, and for the souls of all faithful departed, for
+ever. By special royal grace they were allowed, on petitioning His
+Majesty, to have the charter without paying any fine or fee.</p>
+<p>Seven years later a second charter was granted, wherein it is
+stated that their services were held in the Chapel of Mary
+Magdalene by the Guildhall. "Bretherne and Sisterne" were included
+in the fraternity. Bad times and the Wars of the Roses brought
+distress to the community, and they prayed Edward IV to refound
+their guild, allowing only the maintenance of one chaplain instead
+of two in the chapel nigh the Guildhall, together with the support
+of seven poor <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-107"></a>[pg
+107]</span> persons who daily offered up their prayers for the
+welfare of the King and the repose of the souls of the faithful.
+They provided "a prest, brede, wyne, wex, boke, vestments and
+chalise for their auter of S. Nicholas in the said chapel." The
+King granted their request.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image14.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image14.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image14.jpg" width="35%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Master's Chair at the Parish Clerks' Hall.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>The original home of the guild was in Bishopsgate. Brewers' Hall
+was, in 1422, lent to them for their meetings. But the old deeds in
+the possession of the company show that as early as 1274 they
+acquired property "near the King's highway in the parish of St.
+Ethelburga, extending from the west side of the garden of the Nuns
+of St. Helen's to near the stone wall of Bishopsgate on the north,
+in breadth from the east side of William the Whit Tawyer's to the
+King's highway on the south." These two highways are now known as
+Bishopsgate Street and Camomile Street. They had property also at
+Finsbury on the east side of Whitecross Street. Inasmuch as the
+guild did not in those early days possess a charter and was not
+incorporated, it had no power to hold property; hence the lands
+were transmitted to individual members of the fraternity <a name=
+"FNanchor52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52">[52]</a>. After their
+incorporation in 1442 the trustees of the lands and possessions
+were all clerks. Another property belonged to them at Enfield.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_52"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor52">[52]</a> The transmission of the property is
+carefully traced in <i>Some Account of Parish Clerks</i>, by Mr.
+James Christie, p. 78. He had access to the company's
+muniments.</blockquote>
+<p>The chief possession of the clerks was the Bishopsgate property.
+It consisted of an inn called "The Wrestlers," another inn which
+bore the sign of "The Angel," and a fair entry or gate near the
+latter which still bears the name Clerks' Place. Wrestlers' Court
+still marks the site of the old inn--so conservative are
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-108"></a>[pg 108]</span> the
+old names in the city of London. Passing through the entry we
+should have seen seven modest almshouses for the brethren and
+sisters of the guilds. Beyond these was the hall of the company. It
+consisted of a parlour (36 ft. by 14 ft.), with three chambers over
+it. The east side with fan glasses overlooked the garden, 72 ft. in
+length by 21 ft. wide. The west side was lined with wainscot. The
+actual hall adjoined, a fine room 30 ft. by 25 ft., with a gallery
+at the nether end, with a little parlour at the west end. A room
+for the Bedell, a kitchen with a vault under it, larder-rooms,
+buttery, and a little house called the Ewery, completed the
+buildings. It must have been a very delightful little home for the
+company, not so palatial as that of some of the greater guilds, but
+compact, charming, and altogether attractive.</p>
+<p>But evil days set in for the City companies of London.
+Spoliation, greed, destruction were in the air. Churches,
+monasteries, charities felt the rude hand of the spoiler, and it
+could scarcely be that the rich corporations of the City should
+fail to attract the covetous eyes of the rapacious courtiers. They
+were forced to surrender all their property which had been used for
+so-called "superstitious" purposes, and most of them bought this
+back with large sums of money, which went into the coffers of the
+King or his ministers. The Parish Clerks' Company fared no better
+than the rest. Their hall was seized by the King, or rather by the
+infamous courtiers of Edward VI, and sold, together with the
+almshouses, to Sir Robert Chester in 1548. He at once took
+possession of the property, but the clerks protested that they had
+been wrongfully despoiled, and again seized their rightful
+possessions. In spite of the sympathy <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-109"></a>[pg 109]</span> and support of the
+Lord Mayor, who "communed with the wardens of the Great Companies
+for their gentle aid to be granted to the parish clerks towards
+their charges in defence of their title to their Common Hall and
+lands," the clerks lost their case, and were compelled to give up
+their home or submit to a heavy fine of 1000 marks besides
+imprisonment. The poor dispossessed clerks were defeated, but not
+disheartened. In the days of Queen Mary they renewed their suit,
+and "being likely to have prevailed, Sir Robert Chester pulled down
+the hall, sold the timber, stone and land, and thereupon the suit
+was ended"--very summary conclusion truly!</p>
+<p>The Lord Mayor and his colleagues again showed sympathy and
+compassion for the dispossessed clerks, and offered them the church
+of the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in 1552 for their
+meetings. They did not lack friends. William Roper, whose picture
+still hangs in the hall of the company, the son-in-law of Sir
+Thomas More, was a great benefactor, who bequeathed to them some
+tenements in Southwark on condition that they should distribute
+&pound;4 among the poor prisoners in Newgate and other jails. He
+was the biographer of Sir Thomas More, and died in 1577.</p>
+<p>In 1610 the clerks applied for a new charter, and obtained it
+from James I, under the title of "The Parish Clerks of the Parishes
+and Parish Churches of the City of London, the liberties thereof
+and seven out of nine out-parishes adjoining." They were required
+to make returns for the bills of mortality and of the deaths of
+freemen. The masters and wardens had power granted to them to
+examine clerks as to whether they could sing the Psalms of David
+according to the usual tunes used in the parish churches, and
+whether <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-110"></a>[pg
+110]</span> they were sufficiently qualified to make their weekly
+returns. In 1636 a new charter was granted by Charles I, and again
+in 1640, this last charter being that by which the company is now
+governed. By this instrument their jurisdiction was extended so as
+to include Hackney and the other fifteen out-parishes, and they
+gained the right of collecting their own wages, and of suing for it
+in the ecclesiastical courts, and of printing the bills of
+mortality.</p>
+<p>Soon after the company lost their hall through the high-handed
+proceedings of Sir Robert Chester, they purchased or leased a new
+hall, which was situated at the north-east corner of Brode Lane,
+Vintry, where they lived from 1562, until the Great Fire in 1666
+again made them homeless. The Sun Tavern in Leadenhall Street, the
+Green Dragon, Queenhythe, the Quest House, Cripplegate, the Gun,
+near Aldgate, and the Mitre in Fenchurch Street, afforded them
+temporary accommodation. In 1669 they began to arrange for a new
+hall to be built off Wood Street, which was completed in 1671, and
+has since been their home. Various sums of money have been voted at
+different times for its repair or embellishment. It has once been
+damaged by fire, and on another occasion severely threatened. In
+1825 the entrance into Wood Street was blocked up and the entrance
+into Silver Street opened. The hall has been a favourite place of
+meeting for several other companies--the Fruiterers' Company, the
+Tinplate Workers' Company, the Society of Porters, and other
+private companies have been their tenants.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image15.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image15.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image15.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Portrait of William Roper.</b><br>
+Son-In-Law And Biographer Of Sir Thomas More, Benefactor Of The
+Clerks' Company</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="image16.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image16.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image16.jpg" width="80%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Grant Of Arms To The Company Of Parish Clerks.]</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>I had recently the privilege of visiting the Parish Clerks'
+Hall, and was kindly conducted there by Mr. William John Smith, the
+"Father" of the company, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-111"></a>[pg 111]</span> and a liberal benefactor, whose
+portrait hangs in the hall. He has been three times master, and his
+father and grandfather were members of the fraternity.</p>
+<p>The premises consist of a ground floor with cellars, which are
+let for private purposes, and a first floor with two rooms of
+moderate size. The old courtyard is now covered with business
+offices. Over the court-room door stands a copy of the Clerks'
+Arms, which are thus described: "The feyld azur, a flower de lice
+goulde on chieffe gules, a leopard's head betwen two pricksonge
+bookes of the second, the laces that bind the books next, and to
+the creast upon the healme, on a wreathe gules and azur, an arm,
+from the elbow upwards, holding a pricking book, 30th March, 1582."
+These are the arms "purged of superstition" by Robert Cook,
+Clarencieux Herald, on the aforementioned date. The company's motto
+is, <i>Unitas Societatis Stabilitas</i>. The arms over the
+court-room door have the motto <i>Pange lingua gloriosa</i>, which
+is accounted for by the fact that this copy of the clerks' heraldic
+achievement formerly stood over the organ in the hall. This organ
+is a small but pleasant instrument, and was purchased in 1737 in
+order to enable the members to practise psalmody. Several portraits
+of worthy clerks adorn the walls. Amongst them we notice that of
+William Roper, a benefactor of the company, whose name has been
+already mentioned.</p>
+<p>The portrait of John Clarke shows a firm, dignified old man, who
+was the parish clerk of St. Michael's, Cornhill, in 1805, and wrote
+extracts from the minute-books of the company. The picture was
+presented to the company in 1827. There are other portraits of
+worthy clerks, of Richard Hust, who died in 1835, and was a great
+benefactor of the company and the restorer of <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-112"></a>[pg 112]</span> the almshouses; of
+James Mayhew (1896), and of William John Smith (1903).</p>
+<p>In one of the windows is the portrait, in stained glass, of John
+Clarke, parish clerk of Bartholomew-the-Less, London, master of the
+company, A.D. 1675, <i>&aelig;tatis su&aelig;</i> 45. He is
+represented with a dark skull cap on his head, long hair, a
+moustache, and a large falling band or collar.</p>
+<p>There are also portraits in stained glass of Stephen Penckhurst,
+parish clerk of St. Mary Magdalene, Fish Street, London, master in
+1685; of James Maddox, parish clerk of St. Olive's, Jury, master in
+1684; of Nicholas Hudles, parish clerk of St. Andrew's, Undershaft,
+twice master, in 1674 and 1682; of Thomas Williams, parish clerk of
+St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, master in 1680; of Robert Seal,
+parish clerk of St. Gregory, master in 1681; of William Disbrow,
+parish clerk of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, and of St. Michael Le
+Querne, master in 1674; and of William Hornbuck, parish clerk of
+St. James, Clerkenwell, master in 1679.</p>
+<p>One of the windows has a curious emblematical representation of
+music and its effects, showing King David surrounded by cherubs.
+The royal arms of the time of Charles II, the arms of the company,
+the arms of the Prince of Wales, and a portrait of Queen Anne also
+appear in the windows.</p>
+<p>The master's chair was presented by Samuel Andrews, master in
+1716, which date appears on the back together with the arms of the
+company, the crest being an arm raised bearing a scroll on which is
+inscribed the ninety-fourth Psalm. The seat of the chair is cane
+webbing. Psalm x. is inscribed on the front, and below is the
+fleur-de-lis.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image17.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image17.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image17.jpg" width="80%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Stained Glass Window At The Hall Of The Parish Clerks'
+Company</b></p>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-113"></a>[pg 113]</span>
+<p>There is an interesting warden's or clerk's chair, made of
+mahogany, dating about the middle of the eighteenth century, and
+some walnut chairs fashioned in 1690.</p>
+<p>Amongst other treasures I noticed an old Dutch chest, an ancient
+clock, the gift of the master and wardens in 1786, a reprint of
+Visscher's View of London in 1616, the grant of arms to the
+company, a panel painting of the Flight into Egypt, and the Orders
+and Rules of the company in 1709.</p>
+<p>A snuff-box made of the wood of the <i>Victory</i>, mounted in
+silver, is one of the clerks' valued possessions, and they have a
+goodly store of plate, in spite of the fact that they, like many of
+their distinguished brethren, the Livery Companies of the City,
+have been obliged at various critical times in their history to
+dispose of their plate in order to meet the heavy demands upon
+their treasury. They still possess their pall, which is used on the
+occasion of the funeral of deceased members, and also "two garlands
+of crimson velvet embroidered" bearing the date 1601, which were
+formerly used at the election of the two masters. The master now
+wears a silver badge, the gift of Richard Perkins in 1879, which
+bears the inscription: <i>Hoc insigne in usum Magistri D.D.
+Richardus Perkins, SS. Augustini et Fidis Clericus, his Magistri
+1878, 1879</i>.</p>
+<p>By far the most interesting document in the possession of the
+company is the Bede Roll, which contains a list of the members of
+the fraternity from the time of Henry VI. The writing is
+magnificent, and the lettering varies in colours--red, blue, and
+black ink having been used. Amongst the distinguished names of the
+honorary members I noticed John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and
+Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-114"></a>[pg 114]</span>
+<p>The company, by the aid of generous benefactors, looks well
+after the poor widows of clerks and the decayed brethren, bestowing
+upon them adequate pensions for their support in their indigence
+and old age. These benefactions entrusted to the care of the
+company, and the gifts by its members of plate and other treasures,
+show the affectionate regard of the parish clerks for their ancient
+and interesting associations, which has done much to preserve the
+dignity of the office, to keep inviolate its traditions, and to
+improve the status of its members.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image18.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image18.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image18.jpg" width="40%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>A Page Of The Bede Roll Of The Parish Clerks' Company</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-115"></a>[pg 115]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>THE CLERKS OF LONDON: THEIR DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES</h3>
+<br>
+<p>A brief study of the history of the Parish Clerks' Company has
+already revealed the important part which its members played in the
+old City life of London. They were intimately connected with the
+Corporation. The clerks held their services in the Guildhall
+Chapel, and were required on Michaelmas Day to sing the Mass before
+the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and commoners before they went to the
+election of a new Lord Mayor. As early as the days of the famous
+Richard Whittington, on the occasion of his first election to the
+mayoralty, which as the popular rhyme says he held three times, we
+hear of their services being required for this great function.</p>
+<p>In the year 1406 it was ordered that "a Mass of the Holy Ghost
+should be celebrated with solemn music in the chapel annexed to the
+Guildhall, to the end that the same commonalty by the grace of the
+Holy Spirit might be able peacefully and amicably to nominate two
+able and proper persons to be mayor of the City for the ensuing
+year, the same Mass, by the ordinance of the Chamberlain for the
+time being, to be solemnly chanted by the finest singers, in the
+chapel aforesaid and upon that feast."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-116"></a>[pg 116]</span>
+<p>And when the Mass was no longer sung in the chapel of the
+Guildhall, they still chanted the Psalms and anthems before and
+after divine service and sermon, sometimes with the help of "two
+singing men of Paul's," who received twelvepence apiece for their
+pains; and sometimes the singing was done by a convenient number of
+the Clerks' Company most skilful in singing, and deemed most fit by
+the master and wardens to perform that service.</p>
+<p>They were in great request at the great and stately funerals of
+the sixteenth century, going before the hearse and singing with
+their surplices hanging on their arms till they came to the church.
+The changes wrought by the Reformation strongly affected their use.
+In the early years of the century we can hear them chanting
+anthems, dirige, and Mass; later on they sing "the Te Deum in
+English new fashion, Geneva wise--men, women and all do sing and
+boys."</p>
+<p>These splendid funerals were a fruitful source of income to the
+Clerks' Company. We see Masters William Holland and John Aungell,
+clerks of the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas, with twenty-four persons
+and three children singing the Masses of Our Lady, the Trinity and
+Requiem at the interment of Sir Thomas Lovell, the sage and witty
+counsellor of King Henry VIII and Constable of the Tower, while
+sixty-four more clerks met the body on its way and conducted it to
+its last resting-place at Holywell, Shoreditch. Perhaps it was not
+without some satisfaction that the clerks took a prominent part in
+the burial of the Duke of Somerset, the iniquitous spoiler of their
+goods. In the ordinances of the companies issued in 1553, very
+minute regulations are laid down with <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-117"></a>[pg 117]</span> regard to the fees
+for funerals and the order in which each clerk should serve. At the
+burials of "noble honourable, worshipful men or women or citizens
+of the City of London," the attendance of the clerks was limited to
+the number asked for by the friends of the deceased. No person was
+to receive more than eight-pence. The beadle might charge fourpence
+for the use of the hearse cloth. An extra charge of fourpence could
+be made if the clerks were wanted both in the afternoon and in the
+forenoon for the sermon or other service. The bearers might have
+twopence more than the usual wage. Each clerk was to have his turn
+in attending funerals, so that no one man might be taken for favour
+or left out for displeasure.</p>
+<p>The records of these gorgeous funerals, which are preserved in
+Machyn's diary and other chronicles, reveal the changes wrought by
+the spread of Reformation principles and Puritan notions. In Mary's
+reign they were very magnificent, "priests and clerks chanting in
+Latin, the priest having a cope and the clerk the holy water
+sprinkle in his hand." The accession of Elizabeth seems at first to
+have wrought little change, and the services of the Clerks' Company
+were in great request. On 21 October, 1559, "the Countess of
+Rutland was brought from Halewell to Shoreditch Church with thirty
+priests and clarkes singing," and "Sir Thomas Pope was buried at
+Clerkenwell with two services of pryke song <a name=
+"FNanchor53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53">[53]</a>, and two masses of
+requiem and all clerkes of London." "Poules Choir and the Clarkes
+of London" united their services on some occasions. Funeral sermons
+began to be considered an important part of the function, and
+Machyn records the names of the preachers. Even though such keen
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-118"></a>[pg 118]</span>
+Protestants as Coverdale, Bishop Pilkington, Robert Crowley, and
+Veron preached the sermons, twenty clerks of the company were
+usually present singing. Machyn much disliked the innovations made
+by the Puritan party, their singing "Geneva wise" or "the tune of
+Genevay," men, women, and children all singing together, without
+any clerk. Here is a description of such a funeral on 7 March,
+1559: "And there was a great company of people two and two
+together, and neither priest nor clarke, the new preachers in their
+gowns like laymen, neither singing nor saying till they came to the
+grave, and afore she was put in the grave, a collect in English,
+and then put in the grave, and after, took some earth and cast it
+on the corse, and red a thyng ... for the sam, and contenent cast
+the earth into the grave, and contenent read the Epistle of St.
+Paul to the Stesselonyans the ... chapter, and after they sang
+<i>Pater noster</i> in English, bothe preachers and other, and ...
+of a new fashion, and after, one of them went into the pulpit and
+made a sermon." Machyn especially disliked the preacher Veron,
+rector of St. Martin's, Ludgate, a French Protestant, who had been
+ordained by Bishop Ridley, and was "a leader in the change from the
+old ecclesiastical music for the services to the Psalms in metre,
+versified by Sternhold and Hopkins <a name=
+"FNanchor54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54">[54]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_53"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor53">[53]</a> The notes of the harmony were pricked on the
+lines of music.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_54"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor54">[54]</a> <i>Some Account of Parish Clerks</i>, by J.
+Christie, p. 153.</blockquote>
+<p>The clerks indirectly caused the disgrace and suspension of
+Robert Crowley, vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and prebendary of
+St. Paul's Cathedral, a keen Puritan and hater of clerkly ways. He
+loathed surplices as "rags of Popery," and could not bear to see
+the clerks marching in orderly procession singing and chanting. A
+funeral took place at his church on 1 April, 1566. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-119"></a>[pg 119]</span> A few days before,
+the Archbishop of Canterbury had issued his Advertisements ordering
+the use of the surplice. The friends of the deceased had engaged
+the services of the parish clerks, who, believing that the order
+with regard to the use of surplices applied to them as well as to
+the clergy, appeared at the door of the church attired according to
+their ancient usage. A scene occurred. The angry Crowley met them
+at the door and bade them take off those "porter's coats." The
+deputy of the ward supported the vicar and threatened to lay them
+up by the feet if they dared to enter the church in such obnoxious
+robes. There was a mighty disturbance. "Those who took their part
+according to the queen's prosedyngs were fain to give over and
+tarry without the church door." The Lord Mayor's attention was
+called to this disgraceful scene. He complained to the archbishop.
+The deputy of the ward was bound over to keep the peace, and
+Crowley was ordered to stay in his house, and for not wearing a
+surplice was deprived of his living, to which he was again
+appointed twelve years later <a name="FNanchor55"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_55">[55]</a>. The clerks triumphed, but their services
+at funerals soon ceased. Puritan opinions spread; no longer did the
+clerks lead the singing and processions at funereal pageants, and a
+few boys from Christ's Hospital or school children took their
+places in degenerate days.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_55"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor55">[55]</a> <i>Some Account of Parish Clerks</i>, by J.
+Christie, p. 154.</blockquote>
+<p>The Parish Clerks' Company were not a whit behind other City
+companies in their love of processions and pageantry, and their
+annual feasts and elections were conducted with great ceremony and
+magnificence. The elections took place on Ascension Day, and the
+feast on the following Monday. The clerks in 1529 were ordered to
+come to the Guildhall College on the Sunday <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-120"></a>[pg 120]</span> before Whit-Sunday
+to Evensong clad in surplices, and on the following day to attend
+Mass, when each man offered one halfpenny. When Mass was over they
+marched in procession wearing copes from the Guildhall to Clerks'
+Hall, where the feast was held. Fines were levied for absence or
+non-obedience to these observances. Machyn describes the accustomed
+usages in Mary's reign as follows: "The sixth of May was a goodly
+evensong at Yeldhall College with singing and playing as you have
+heard. The morrow after was a great Mass at the same place by the
+same Fraternity, when every clerk offered a halfpenny. The Mass was
+sung by divers of the Queen's Chapel and children. And after Mass
+was done every clerk went their procession, two and two together,
+each having a surplice, a rich cope and a garland. After them
+fourscore standards, streamers and banners, and every one that bare
+had an albe, or else a surplice, and two and two together. Then
+came the waits playing, and then between, thirty Clarkes again
+singing <i>Salva festa dies</i>. So there were four quires. Then
+came a canopy, borne by four of the masters of the Clarkes over the
+Sacrament with a twelve staff torches burning, up St. Lawrence Lane
+and so to the further end of Cheap, then back again by Cornhill,
+and so down to Bishopsgate, into St. Albrose Church, and there they
+did put off their copes, and so to dinner every man, and then
+everyone that bare a streamer had money, as they were of bigness
+then." A very striking procession it must have been, and those who
+often traverse the familiar streets of the City to-day can picture
+to themselves the clerks' pageant of former times, which wended its
+way along the same accustomed thoroughfares.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image19.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image19.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image19.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Organ At The Parish Clerks Hall</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>But times were changing, and religious ceremonies <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-121"></a>[pg 121]</span> changed too. Less
+pomp and pageantry characterise the celebrations of the clerks.
+There is the Evensong as usual, and a Communion on the following
+day, followed by a dinner and "a goodly concert of children of
+Westminster, with viols and regals." A little later we read that
+the clerks marched clad in their liveries, gowns, and hoods of
+white damask. Copes are no longer recognised as proper vestments.
+Standards, banners, and streamers remain locked up in the City's
+treasure-house, and Puritan simplicity is duly observed. But the
+clerks lacked not feasting. Besides the election dinner, there were
+quarterly dinners, and dinners for the wardens and assistants. Time
+has wrought some changes in the mode of celebrating election day
+and other festive occasions. Sometimes "plain living and high
+thinking" were the watchwords that guided the principles of the
+company. Processions and gown-wearing have long been discontinued,
+but in its essential character the election day is still observed,
+though pomp and pageantry no longer form important features of its
+ceremonial.</p>
+<p>We have seen that the parish clerks of London were in great
+request on account of their musical abilities. In 1610 the masters
+and wardens were called upon to examine all those who wished to be
+admitted into the honourable company, as to whether they could read
+the Psalms of David according to the usual tunes used in the parish
+churches. The finest singers chanted Mass in pre-Reformation times
+in the Guildhall at the election of the Lord Mayor. In order to
+improve themselves in this part of their duties, the parish clerks
+soon after the Restoration of the monarchy, in 1660, provided
+themselves with an organ in order to perfect themselves in the art
+of chanting. The minute book <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-122"></a>[pg 122]</span> of the company tells that it was
+acquired "the better to enable them to perform a service incumbent
+upon them before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City on
+Michaelmas Day, and also the better to enable them who already are,
+or hereafter shall be, parish clerks of the City in performing
+their duties in the several parishes to which they stand related."
+Here the clerks used to meet on Tuesday afternoons for a regular
+weekly practice in music, and for many years an organist was
+appointed by the company to assist the brethren in their
+cultivation of psalmody. The selection of psalms specially suited
+for each Sunday in the year was made by the company and set forth
+in <i>The Parish Clerks' Guide</i>, in order that the special
+teaching of the Sunday, as set forth in the Collect, Epistle, and
+Gospel, might be duly followed in the Psalms.</p>
+<p>Another important duty which the parish clerks of London, and
+also in some provincial towns, discharged was the publishing of the
+bills of mortality for the City. This duty is enjoined in their
+charter of 1610. The corporation required from them returns of the
+deaths of freemen in their respective parishes, and also returns of
+the number of deaths and christenings. The records of the City of
+London contain a copy of the agreement, made in 1545-6 between the
+Lord Mayor and the Parish Clerks' Company, which provides that
+"They shall cause all clerks of the City to present to the common
+crier the name and surname of any freeman that shall die having any
+children under the age of 21 years." The Chamberlain was instructed
+to pay to the company 13 s. 4 d. yearly for their services. The
+custody of all orphans, with that of their lands and goods, had
+been entrusted to the City by the charter of Richard III, and this
+agreement was made in order to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-123"></a>[pg 123]</span> enable the "City Fathers" to
+faithfully discharge their duties in looking after children of
+deceased freemen. In spite of many difficulties, especially after
+the Great Fire which rendered thousands homeless and scattered the
+population, the clerks continued to perform this duty, though not
+always to the satisfaction of their employers, until the beginning
+of the eighteenth century, when the custom seems to have
+lapsed.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image20.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image20.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image20.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>A Page Of An Early Bill Of Mortality Preserved At The Hall Of
+The Parish Clerks Company</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>The earliest bills of mortality now in existence date back to
+the time of Henry VIII, when the clerks were required to furnish
+information with regard to the deaths caused by plague, as well as
+those resulting from other causes. The returns of the victims of
+plague are occasionally very large. In 1562, 20,372 persons died,
+of which number 17,404 died from the plague. The burial grounds of
+the City became terribly overcrowded, and the parish clerks were
+ordered to report upon the space available in the City churchyards.
+They also were appointed to see to "the shutting up of infected
+houses and putting papers on the doors."</p>
+<p>An early "Bill of Mortality" is preserved at the Hall. It tells
+of "the Number of those who dyed in the Citie of London and
+Liberties of the same from the 28th of December 1581 to the 17th of
+December 1582, with the Christenings. And also the number of all
+those who have died of the plague in every parish particularly.
+Blessed are the Dead." There is also preserved a number of the
+weekly bills of mortality. Referring to the year of the Great
+Plague, 1665, these documents show that at the beginning of the
+pestilence in April, during one week only fifty-seven persons died;
+whereas in September the death-roll had reached the enormous number
+of 6544.</p>
+<p>The company seems to have been a useful agency for <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-124"></a>[pg 124]</span> carrying out all
+kinds of duties connected with gathering the statistics of
+mortality, nor do they seem to have been overpaid for their
+trouble. In the early years of the seventeenth century &pound; 3. 6
+s. 8 d. was all that they received. In 1607 the sum was increased
+to &pound;8, inasmuch as they were ordered to furnish a bill to the
+Queen and the Lord Chancellor as well as to the King. Some clerks
+endeavoured to make illicit gains by supplying the public with
+"false and untrue bills," or distributing some bills for each week
+before they had been sent to the Lord Mayor; and any brother who
+"by any cunning device gave away, dispersed, uttered, or declared,
+or by sinister device cast forth at any window, hole, or crevice of
+a wall any bills or notes" before the due returns had been sent to
+the Lord Mayor, was ordered to pay a fine of 10 s. and other divers
+penalties.</p>
+<p>The methods of making out these returns are very curious, and
+did not conduce to infallible accuracy. In each parish there were
+persons called searchers, ancient women who were informed by the
+sexton of a death, and whose duty it was to visit the deceased and
+state the cause of death. They had no medical knowledge, and
+therefore their diagnosis could only have been very conjectural.
+This they reported to the parish clerk. The clerk made out his bill
+for the week, took it to the Hall of the company, and deposited it
+in a box on the staircase. All the returns were then tabulated,
+arranged, and printed, and when copies had been sent to the
+authorities, others were placed in the hands of the clerks for
+sale.</p>
+<p>The system was all very excellent and satisfactory, but its
+carrying out was defective. Negligent clerks did not send their
+returns in spite of admonition, caution, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-125"></a>[pg 125]</span> fine, or brotherly
+persuasion. The searchers' information was usually unreliable.
+Complications arose on account of the Act of the Commonwealth
+Parliament requiring the registration of births instead of
+baptisms, of civil marriages, and banns published in the market
+place; also on account of the vast mortality caused by the Great
+Plague, the burials in the large common pits and public burial
+grounds, and the opposition of the Quakers to inspection and
+registration. All these causes contributed to the issuing of
+unreliable returns. The company did their best to grapple with all
+these difficulties. They did not escape censure, and were blamed on
+account of the faults of individual clerks. The contest went on for
+years, and was only finally settled in 1859, when the last bills of
+mortality were issued, and the Public Registration Act rendered the
+work of the clerks, which they had carried on for three centuries
+to the best of their skill and ability, unnecessary. In the
+Guildhall Library are preserved a large number of the volumes of
+these bills which the industry of the clerks of London had issued
+with so much perseverance and energy under difficult circumstances,
+and they form a valuable and interesting collection of documents
+illustrative of the old life of the City.</p>
+<p>One happy result of the duty laid upon the clerks of issuing
+bills of mortality in the City of London was that they were allowed
+to set up a printing press in the Hall of their company. The
+licence for this press was obtained in 1625, and in the following
+year it was duly established with the consent of the authorities.
+It was no easy task in the early Stuart times to obtain leave to
+have a printing press, and severe were the restrictions laid down,
+and the penalties for any violation of any of them. The Archbishop
+of Canterbury and the Bishop <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-126"></a>[pg 126]</span> of London had mighty powers over the
+Press, and the clerks could not choose their printer save with the
+approval of these ecclesiastical dignitaries.</p>
+<p>Very strict regulations were laid down by the company in order
+to prevent any improper use being made of the productions of their
+press. The door of the chamber containing their printing machine
+was provided with three locks; the key of the upper lock was placed
+in the charge of the upper master, that of the middle lock was in
+the custody of the upper warden, while the key of the lower lock
+was kept by the under warden. They appointed one Richard Hodgkinson
+as their printer in 1630, with whom they had much disputing. Six
+years later one of their own company, Thomas Cotes, parish clerk of
+Cripplegate Without, was chosen to succeed him. Richard Cotes
+followed in 1641, and then a female printer carried on the work,
+Mrs. Ellinor Cotes, probably the widow of Richard.</p>
+<p>The Great Fire caused the destruction of the clerks' press; but
+a few years later a prominent member of the company, whose portrait
+we see in the Hall, Mr. John Clarke, procured for them another
+press with type, and Andrew Clarke was appointed printer. He was
+succeeded by Benjamin Motte, whose widow carried on the work after
+his death. An intruding printer, appointed by the Archbishop of
+Canterbury and the Bishop of London without the consent of the
+company, one Humphreys, made his appearance, much to the
+displeasure of the clerks, who objected to be dictated to with
+regard to the choice of their own official. Litigation ensued, but
+in the end Humphreys was appointed. He was not a satisfactory
+printer, and was careless and neglectful. The clerks reprimanded
+him and he promised amendment, but his <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-127"></a>[pg 127]</span> errors continued,
+and after a petition was presented to the Archbishop and the Bishop
+of London by the company, he was compelled to resign.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image21.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image21.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image21.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Interior Of The Hall Of The Parish Clerks Company</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>The increase of newspapers and the publication of the bills of
+mortality in their sheets taken from the records of the clerks
+materially affected the sale of the company's issue of the same,
+and efforts were made in Parliament to obtain a monopoly for the
+company. This action was costly, and no benefit was derived. After
+the removal of the unsatisfactory Humphreys the printing of the
+company passed into the hands of the Rivingtons, a name honoured
+amongst printers and publishers for many generations. Mr. Charles
+Rivington was printer for the clerks in 1787, his brother being a
+bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, to whose son's widow, Mrs.
+Anne Rivington, the office passed in 1790. The printing of the
+bills of mortality was carried on by the company until 1850, having
+been conducted by the Rivington family for over sixty years
+<a name="FNanchor56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56">[56]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_56"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor56">[56]</a> I am indebted for this list of printers to
+Mr. James Christie's <i>Some Account of Parish
+Clerks</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>In addition to their statistical returns, the Company of Parish
+Clerks are responsible for some other and more important works
+which reflect great credit upon them. Foremost among them is a book
+entitled:</p>
+<p>"<i>New Remarks of London</i>; or, a Survey of the Cities of
+London and Westminster, of Southwark and part of Middlesex and
+Surrey within the circumference of the Bills of Mortality." It
+contains "an account of the situation, antiquity, and rebuilding of
+each church, the value of the Rectory or Vicarage, in whose gifts
+they are, and the names of the present incumbents or lecturers. Of
+the several vestries, Hours <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-128"></a>[pg 128]</span> of Prayer, Parish and Ward Officers,
+Charity and other schools, the number of Charity Children, how
+maintained, educated and placed out apprentices, or put to service.
+Of the Almshouses, Workhouses and Hospitals. The remarkable Places
+and Things in each Parish, with the limits or Bounds, Streets,
+Lanes, Courts, and numbers of Houses. An alphabetical table of all
+the Streets, Courts, Lanes, Alleys, Yards, Rows, Rents, Squares,
+etc. within the Bills of Mortality, shewing in which Liberty or
+Freedom they are, and an easy method of finding them. Of the
+several Inns of Court, and Inns of Chancery, with their several
+Buildings, Courts, Lanes, etc.</p>
+<p>"Collected by the Company of Parish-Clerks to which is added the
+Places to which Penny Post Letters are sent, with proper Directions
+therein. The Wharfs, Keys, Docks, etc. near the River Thames, of
+water-carriage to several Cities, Towns, etc. The Rates of
+Watermen, Porters of all kinds and Carmen. To what Inns Stage
+Coaches, Flying Coaches, Waggons and Carriers come, and the days
+they go out. The whole being very useful for Ladies, Gentlemen,
+Clergymen, Merchants, Tradesmen, Coachmen, Chair-men, Car-men,
+Porters, Bailiffs and others.</p>
+<blockquote>"London, Printed for E. Midwinter at <i>the</i><br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Looking Glass and three Crowns</i> in
+St Paul's<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Churchyard
+MDCCXXXII."</blockquote>
+<br>
+<a name="image22.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image22.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image22.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Portrait Of John Clarke, Parish Clerk Of The Church Of St.
+Michael. Cornhill</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>This is a wonderfully interesting little book. Each clerk
+compiled the information for his own parish and appended his name.
+Most carefully is the information contained in the book arranged,
+and the volume is a most creditable production of the worshipful
+company.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-129"></a>[pg 129]</span>
+<p>Amongst the books preserved in the Hall is another volume,
+entitled "<i>London Parishes</i>; containing an account of the
+Rise, Corruption, and Reformation of the Church of England." This
+was published by the parish clerks in 1824.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-130"></a>[pg 130]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>CLERKENWELL AND CLERKS' PLAYS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Parish clerks are immortalised by having given their name to an
+important part of London. Clerkenwell is the <i>fons clericorum</i>
+of the old chronicler, Fitz-Stephen. It is the Clerks' Well, the
+syllable <i>en</i> being the form of the old Saxon plural.
+Fitz-Stephen wrote in the time of King Stephen: "There are also
+round London on the northern side, in the suburbs, excellent
+springs, the water of which is sweet, clear, salubrious, 'mid
+glistening pebbles gliding playfully; amongst which Holywell,
+Clerkenwell, (<i>fons clericorum</i>), and St. Clement's Well are
+of most note, and most frequently visited, as well by the scholars
+from the schools as by the youth of the City when they go out to
+take air in the summer evenings."</p>
+<p>It was then, and for centuries later, a rural spot, not far from
+the City, just beyond Smithfield, a place of green sward and gently
+sloping ground, watered by a pleasant stream, far different from
+the crowded streets of the modern Clerkenwell. It was a spot famous
+for athletic contests, for wrestling bouts and archery, and hither
+came the Lord Mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen at Bartholomew Fair
+time to witness the sports, and especially the wrestling.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image23.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image23.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image23.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Old Map Of Clerkenwell</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>But that which gave to the place its name and chief <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-131"></a>[pg 131]</span> glory was the fact
+that once a year at least the parish clerks of London came here to
+perform their mystery plays and moralities. "Their profession,"
+wrote Warton <a name="FNanchor57"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_57">[57]</a>, "employment and character, naturally
+dictated to this spiritual brotherhood the representation of plays,
+especially those of the scriptural kind, and their constant
+practice in shows, processions, and vocal music easily accounts for
+their address in detaining the best company which England afforded
+in the fourteenth century at a religious farce for more than a
+week." These plays were no ordinary performances, no afternoon or
+evening entertainment, but a protracted drama lasting from three to
+eight days. In the reign of Richard II, A.D. 1391, the clerks were
+acting before the King, his Queen, and many nobles. The
+performances continued for three days, and the representations were
+the "Passion of Our Lord and the Creation of the World," which so
+well pleased the King that he commanded &pound;10, a very
+considerable sum of money in those days, to be paid to the clerks
+of the parish churches and to divers other clerks of the City of
+London. Here is the record of his gift:</p>
+<blockquote>"<i>Issue Roll</i>, Easter, 14 Ric. II.<br>
+<br>
+"11 July. To the clerks of the parish churches and to divers other
+clerks of the city of London. In money paid to them in discharge of
+&pound;10 which the Lord the King commanded to be paid to them of
+his gift on account of the play of the 'Passion of Our Lord and the
+Creation of the World' by them performed at Skynnerwell after the
+feast of St. Bartholomew last past. By writ of Privy Seal amongst
+the mandates of this term--&pound;10."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_57"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor57">[57]</a> <i>English Poetry</i>, vol. ii. p.
+397.</blockquote>
+<p>Skinners' Well was close to the Clerks' Well, and it was so
+called, so Stow informs us, "for that the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-132"></a>[pg 132]</span> Skinners of London
+held there certain plays yearly of Holy Scripture,"</p>
+<p>A few years later, in the succeeding reign, 10 Henry IV, A.D.
+1409, the fraternity of clerks were again performing at the same
+place. Stow says: "In the year 1409 was a great play at Skynners'
+Welle, neere unto Clarkenwell, besides London, which lasted eight
+daies, and was of matter from the creation of the world; there were
+to see the same the most part of the nobles and gentles in
+England"--a mighty audience truly, which not even Sir Henry Irving
+could command in his farewell performances at Drury Lane.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image24.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image24.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image24.jpg" width="80%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>A Mystery Play At Chester (From A Print After A Painting By T.
+Uwins)</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>These religious plays or mysteries were a powerful means for
+instructing the people; and if we had lived in medi&aelig;val
+times, we should not have needed to fly to Ober-Ammergau in order
+to witness a Passion Play. In the streets of Coventry or Chester,
+York, or Tewkesbury, Witney, or Reading, or on the Green at
+Clerkenwell, we could have seen the appealing spectacle; and though
+sometimes the actors lapsed into buffoonery, and the red demons
+carrying souls to hell's mouth created merriment rather than
+terror, and though realism was carried to such a pitch that Adam
+and Eve appeared in a state of nature, yet many of the spectators
+would carry away with them pious thoughts and some grasp of the
+facts of Scripture history, and of the mysteries of the faith.
+Originally the plays were performed in churches, but owing to the
+gradually increased size of the stage and the more elaborate stage
+effects, the sacred buildings were abandoned as the scenes of
+medi&aelig;val drama. Then the churchyard was utilised for the
+purpose. The clergy no longer took part in the pageants, and in the
+fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the people liked to act their
+plays in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-133"></a>[pg
+133]</span> the highways and public places as at Clerkenwell. The
+guilds and fraternities in many places provided the chief actors,
+and in towns where there were many guilds and companies, each
+company performed part of the great drama, the movable stage being
+drawn about from street to street. Thus at York the story of the
+Creation and the Redemption was divided into forty-eight parts,
+each part being acted by a guild, or group of companies. The
+Tanners represented God the Father creating the heavens, angels and
+archangels, and the fall of Lucifer and the disobedient angels.
+Then the Plasterers showed the Creation of the Earth, and the work
+of the first five days. The Card-makers exhibited the Creation of
+Adam of the clay of the earth, and the making of Eve of Adam's rib,
+thus inspiring them with the breath of life. The Fall, the story of
+Cain and Abel, of Noah and the Flood, of Moses, the Annunciation
+and all Gospel history, ending with the Coronation of the Virgin
+and the Final Judgment.</p>
+<p>The stage upon which the clerks performed their plays, according
+to Strutt, consisted of three platforms, one above another. On the
+uppermost sat God the Father surrounded by His angels. He was
+represented in a white robe, and until it was discovered how
+injurious the process was, the actor who played the part used to
+have his face gilded. On the second platform were the glorified
+saints, and on the lowest men who had not yet passed from life. On
+one side of the lowest platform was hell's mouth, a dark pitchy
+cavern, whence issued the appearance of fire and flames, and
+sometimes hideous yellings and noises in imitation of the howlings
+and cries of wretched souls tormented by relentless demons. From
+this yawning cave the devils constantly ascended to delight
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-134"></a>[pg 134]</span> the
+spectators and afford comic relief to the more serious drama. The
+three stages were not always used. Archdeacon Rogers, who died in
+1595, left an account of the Chester play which he himself saw, and
+he wrote that the stage was a high scaffold with two rooms, a
+higher and a lower, upon four wheels. In the lower the actors
+apparelled themselves, and in the higher they played. But this was
+a movable stage on wheels. The clerks' stage would, doubtless, be a
+fixed structure, and of a more elaborate construction.</p>
+<p>The dresses used by the actors were very gorgeous and splendid,
+though little care was bestowed upon the appropriateness of the
+costumes. The words of the play of the Creation differ in the
+various versions which have come down to us. Strutt thinks that the
+clerks' play, acted before "the most part of the nobles and gentles
+in England," was very similar to the Coventry play, which cannot
+compare in grandeur and vigour with the York play discovered in the
+library of Lord Ashburnham, and edited by Miss Toulmin Smith
+<a name="FNanchor58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58">[58]</a>. But as
+the north-country dialect of the York version would have been
+difficult for the learned clerks of London to pronounce, their
+version would doubtless resemble more that of Coventry than that of
+York. The first act represents the Deity seated upon His throne and
+speaking as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Ego sum Alpha et Omega, principium et
+finis</i>.<br>
+My name is knowyn, God and Kynge;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;My work to make now wyl I wende;<br>
+In myselfe resteth my reynenge,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;It hath no gynnyng, ne no ende,<br>
+And all that evyr shall have beynge<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Is closed in my mende; <a name=
+"FNanchor59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59">[59]</a><br>
+When it is made at my lykynge<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;I may it save, I may it shende <a name=
+"FNanchor60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60">[60]</a><br>
+After my plesawns." <a name="FNanchor61"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_61">[61]</a></blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_58"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor58">[58]</a> Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1885. A portion of
+this is published in Mr. A.W. Pollard's <i>English Miracle
+Plays</i>.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_59"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor59">[59]</a> Mind.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_60"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor60">[60]</a> Destroy.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_61"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor61">[61]</a> Pleasure.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-135"></a>[pg 135]</span>
+<p>At the close of this oration, which consists of forty lines, the
+angels enter upon the upper stage, surround the throne of the
+Deity, and sing from the <i>Te Deum</i>:</p>
+<blockquote><i>Te Deum laudamus, te dominum
+confitemur</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>The Father bestows much honour and brightness on Lucifer, who is
+full of pride. He demands of the good angels in whose honour they
+are singing their songs of praise. Are they worshipping God or
+reverencing him? They reply that they are worshipping God, the
+mighty and most strong, who made them and Lucifer. Then Lucifer
+daringly usurps the seat of the Almighty, and receives the homage
+of the rebellious angels. Then the Father orders them and their
+leader to fall from heaven to hell, and in His bliss never more to
+dwell. Then does Lucifer reply:</p>
+<blockquote>"At thy byddyng y wyl I werke,<br>
+And pass from joy to peyne and smerte.<br>
+Now I am a devyl full derke,<br>
+That was an angel bryght.<br>
+Now to Helle the way I take,<br>
+In endless peyn'y to be put;<br>
+For fere of fyr apart I quake<br>
+In Helle dongeon my dene is dyth."</blockquote>
+<p>Then the Devil and his angels sink into the cavern of hell's
+mouth.</p>
+<p>We cannot follow all the scenes in this strange drama. The final
+representation included the Descent into Hell, or the Harrowing of
+Hell, as it was called, when the soul of Christ goes down into the
+infernal regions and rescues Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the
+saints of old. The <i>Anima Christi</i> says:</p>
+<blockquote>"Come forth, Adam and Eve, with the,<br>
+And all my fryends that herein be;<br>
+In Paradyse come forth with me,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;In blysse for to dwell.<br>
+The fende of hell that is your foe,<br>
+He shall be wrappyd and woundyn in woo;<br>
+Fro wo to welth now shall ye go,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;With myrth ever mo to melle."</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-136"></a>[pg 136]</span>
+<p>Adam replies:</p>
+<blockquote>"I thank the Lord of thy grete grace,<br>
+That now is forgiven my great trespase;<br>
+No shall we dwell in blyssful place."</blockquote>
+<br>
+<a name="image25.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image25.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image25.jpg" width="80%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Descent into Hell.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>The accompanying print of the Descent into Hell was engraved by
+Michael Burghers from an ancient drawing for our Berkshire
+antiquary, Thomas Herne.</p>
+<p>Modern buildings have obliterated the scene of this ancient
+drama acted by the clerks of London, but some traces of the
+association of the fraternity with the neighbourhood can still be
+found. The two famous conventual houses, for which Clerkenwell was
+famous, the nunnery of St. Mary and the priory of St. John of
+Jerusalem, founded in 1100, have long since disappeared. Clerks'
+Close is mentioned in numerous documents, and formed part of the
+estate belonging to the Skinners' Company, where Skinner Street now
+runs. Clerks' Well was close to the modern church of St. James's,
+Clerkenwell, which occupies the site of the church and nunnery of
+St. Mary <i>de fonte clericorum</i>, which once possessed one of
+the six water-pots in which Jesus turned the water into wine. Vine
+Street formerly delighted in the name Mutton Lane, which is said to
+be a corruption of meeting or moteing lane, referring to the
+clerks' mote or meeting place by the well. When Mr. Pink wrote his
+history of Clerkenwell forty years ago, there was at the east side
+of Ray Street a broken iron pump let into the front wall of a
+dilapidated house which showed the site of Clerks' Well. In 1673
+the spring and plot of ground were given by the Earl of Northampton
+to the poor of the parish, but the vestry leased the spring to a
+brewer. Strype, writing in 1720, states that "the old well at
+Clerkenwell, whence the parish had its name, is still <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-137"></a>[pg 137]</span> known among the
+inhabitants. It is on the right hand of a lane that leads from
+Clerkenwell to Hockley-in-the-Hole, in a bottom. One Mr. Crosse, a
+brewer, hath this well enclosed; but the water runs from him, by
+means of a watercourse above-mentioned, into the said place. It is
+enclosed with a high wall, which was formerly built to bound in
+Clerkenwell Close; the present well (the conduit head) being also
+enclosed by another lower wall from the street. The way to it is
+through a little house, which was the watch-house. You go down a
+good many steps to it. The well had formerly ironwork and brass
+cocks, which are now cut off; the water spins through the old wall.
+I was there and tasted the water, and found it excellently clear,
+sweet, and well tasted."</p>
+<p>In 1800 a pump was erected on the east side of Ray Street to
+celebrate the parish clerks' ancient performances, which were
+immortalised in raised letters of iron with this inscription:</p>
+<blockquote>A.D. 1800. William Bound, Joseph Bird, Churchwardens.
+For the better accommodation of the neighbourhood, this pump was
+removed to the spot where it now stands. The spring by which it is
+supplied is situated four feet eastward, and round it, as history
+informs us, the Parish Clerks of London in remote ages commonly
+performed sacred plays. That custom caused it to be denominated
+Clerks'-Well, and from which this parish derived its name. The
+water was greatly esteemed by the Prior and Brethren of the Order
+of St. John of Jerusalem and the Benedictine Nuns in the
+neighbourhood.</blockquote>
+<p>Hone, in his <i>Ancient Mysteries</i>, describes this pump,
+which in his day, A.D. 1832, stood between an earthenware shop and
+the abode of a bird-seller, and states that the monument denoting
+the histrionic fame of the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-138"></a>[pg 138]</span> place, and alluding to the
+miraculous powers of the water for healing incurable diseases,
+remains unobserved beneath its living attractions. "The present
+simplicity of the scene powerfully contrasts with the recollection
+of its former splendour. The choral chant of the Benedictine Nuns,
+accompanying the peal of the deep-toned organ through their
+cloisters, and the frankincense curling its perfume from priestly
+censers at the altar, are succeeded by the stunning sounds of
+numerous quickly plied hammers, and the smith's bellows flashing
+the fires of Mr. Bound's ironfoundry, erected upon the unrecognised
+site of the convent. The religious house stood about half-way down
+the declivity of the hill, which commencing near the church on
+Clerkenwell Green, terminates at the River Fleet. The prospect then
+was uninterrupted by houses, and the people upon the rising ground
+could have had an uninterrupted view of the performances at the
+well."</p>
+<p>In the parish there is a vineyard walk, which marks the site of
+the old vineyard attached to the priory of St. John. The
+cultivation of the vine was carried on in many monasteries. In
+1859, in front of the old Vineyard Inn, a signboard was set up
+which stated that "This house is celebrated from old associations
+connected with the City of London. After the City clerks partook of
+the water of Clerks' Well, from which the parish derives its name,
+they repaired hither to partake of the fruit of the finest English
+grapes." This was an ingenious contrivance on the part of the
+landlord to solicit custom. It need hardly be stated that the
+information given on this signboard was incorrect. Before the
+Reformation there were few inns, and the old Vineyard Inn can
+scarcely claim such a remote ancestry.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-139"></a>[pg 139]</span>
+<p>When miracle plays ceased to be performed the clerks did not
+desert their old quarters. It is, indeed, stated that the ancient
+society of parish clerks became divided; some turned their
+attention to wrestling and mimicry at Bartholomew Fair, whilst
+others, for their better administration, formed themselves into the
+Society of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Recorder of Stroud Green,
+assembling in the Old Crown at Islington; but still "saving their
+right to exhibit at the Old London Spaw, formerly Clerks' Well,
+when they might happen to have learned sheriffs and other officers
+to get up their sacred pieces as usual." Even so late as 1774 the
+members of this ancient society were accustomed to meet annually in
+the summer time at Stroud Green, and to regale themselves in the
+open air, the number of persons assembling on some occasions
+producing a scene similar to that of a country wake or fair. These
+assemblies had no connection with the Worshipful Company of Parish
+Clerks.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-140"></a>[pg 140]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3>THE CLERKS AND THE PARISH REGISTERS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>A study of an old parish register reveals a remarkable variation
+in the style and character of the handwriting. We see in the old
+parchment pages numerous entries recorded in a careless scribble,
+and others evidently written by the hand of a learned and careful
+scholar. The rector or vicar ever since the days of Henry VIII,
+when in 1536 Vicar-General Thomas Cromwell ordered the keeping of
+registers, was usually supposed to have recorded the entries in the
+register. Cromwell derived the notion of ordering the keeping of
+the registers from his observation of the records kept by the
+Spanish priests in the Low Countries where he resided in his youth.
+Archbishop Ximenes of Toledo instituted a system of registration in
+Spain in 1497, and this was carried on by the Spanish priests in
+the Netherlands, and thus laid the foundation of that system which
+Thomas Cromwell introduced to this country and which has continued
+ever since.</p>
+<p>But not all these entries were made by the incumbents. There is
+good evidence that the parish clerks not infrequently kept the
+registers, especially in later times, and from the beginning they
+were responsible for the facts recorded. The entries do not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-141"></a>[pg 141]</span> seem
+to have been made when the baptism, marriage, or burial took place.
+Cromwell's edict required that the records of each week should be
+entered in the register on the following Sunday, in the presence of
+the churchwardens. It seems to have been the custom for the clerk
+or vicar to write down particulars of the baptism, marriage, or
+burial in a private memorandum book or on loose sheets of paper at
+the time of the ceremony. Afterwards these rough notes were copied
+into the register book. Sometimes this was done each week; but
+human nature is fallible; the clerk or his master forgot sometimes
+to make the required entries in the book. Days and weeks slipped
+by; note-books and scraps of paper were mislaid and lost; the
+spelling of the clerk was not always his strongest point; hence
+mistakes, omissions, inaccuracies were not infrequent. Sometimes
+the vicar did not make up his books until a whole year had elapsed.
+This was the case with the poor parson of Carshalton, who was
+terribly distressed because his clerk would not furnish him with
+the necessary notes, and mightily afraid lest he should incur the
+censure of his parishioners. Hence we find the following note in
+his register, dated 10 March, 1651:</p>
+<blockquote>"Good reader, tread gently:<br>
+<br>
+"For though these vacant years may seem to make me guilty of thy
+censure, neither will I excuse myself from all blemishe; yet if
+thou doe but cast thine eye upon the former pages and see with what
+care I have kept the Annalls of mine owne time, and rectifyed
+sundry errors of former times, thou wilt begin to think ther is
+some reason why he that began to build so well should not be able
+to make an ende.<br>
+<br>
+"The truth is that besyde the miserys and distractions of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-142"></a>[pg 142]</span> these
+ptermitted years which it may be God in his owne wisdom would not
+suffer to be kept uppon record, the special ground of that
+permission ought to be imputed to Richard Finch, the p'rishe
+Clarke, whose office it was by long pscrition to gather the
+ephemeris or dyary by the dayly passages, and to exhibit them once
+a year to be transcribed into this registry; and though I have
+often called upon him agayne and agayne to remember his chadge, and
+he always told me that he had the accompts lying by him, yet at
+last p'ceaving his excuses, and revolving upon suspicion of his
+words to put him home to a full tryall I found to my great griefe
+that all his accompts were written in sand, and his words committed
+to the empty winds. God is witness to the truth of this apologie,
+and that I made it knowne at some parish meetings before his own
+face, who could not deny it, neither do I write it to blemishe him,
+but to cleere my own integritie as far as I may, and to give
+accompt of this miscarryage to after ages by the subscription of my
+hand <a name="FNanchor62"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_62">[62]</a>."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_62"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor62">[62]</a> <i>Social Life as told by Parish
+Registers</i>, by T.F. Thiselton-Dyer, p. 57.</blockquote>
+<p>We may hope that all clerks were not so neglectful as poor
+Richard Finch, whose name is thus handed down as an "awful example"
+to all careless clerks. The same practice of the parish clerks
+recording the particulars of weddings, christenings, and burials
+seems to have prevailed at St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, London,
+in 1542, as the following order shows:</p>
+<blockquote>"They shall every week certify to the curate and the
+churchwardens all the names and sir-names of them that be wedded,
+christened, and buried in the same parish that week <i>sub pena</i>
+of a 1 d. to be paid to the churche."</blockquote>
+<p>In this case the curate doubtless entered the items in the
+register as they were delivered to him.</p>
+<p>At St. Margaret's, Lothbury, the clerk seems to have kept the
+register himself. Amongst the ordinances <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-143"></a>[pg 143]</span> made by "the hole
+consent of the parrishiners" in 1571, appears the following:</p>
+<blockquote>"Item the Clarcke shall kepe the register of
+cristeninge weddinge and burynge perfectlye, and shall present the
+same everie Sondaie to the churche wardens to be perused by them,
+and shall have for his paines in this behaufe yearelye 0. 03.
+4."</blockquote>
+<p>It is evident that in some cases in the sixteenth century the
+clerk kept the register. But in far the larger number of parishes
+the records were inserted by the vicar or rector, and in many books
+the records are made in Latin. The "clerk's notes" from which the
+entries were made are still preserved in some parishes.</p>
+<p>In times of laxity and confusion wrought by the Civil War and
+Puritan persecution, the clerk would doubtless be the only person
+capable of keeping the registers. In my own parish the earliest
+book begins in the year 1538, and is kept with great accuracy, the
+entries being written in a neat scholarly hand. As time goes on the
+writing is still very good, but it does not seem to be that of the
+rector, who signs his name at the foot of the page. If it be that
+of the clerk, he is a very clerkly clerk. The writing gradually
+gets worse, especially during the Commonwealth period; but it is no
+careless scribble. The clerk evidently took pains and fashioned his
+letters after the model of the old court-hand. An entry appears
+which tells of the appointment of a Parish Registrar, or "Register"
+as he was called. This is the announcement:</p>
+<blockquote>"Whereas Robt. Williams of the p ish of Barkham in the
+County of Berks was elected and chosen by the Inhabitants of the
+same P ish to be their p ish Register, he therefore ye sd Ro: Wms
+was approved and sworne this sixteenth day of Novemb.. 1653<br>
+<br>
+Snd R. Bigg."</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-144"></a>[pg 144]</span>
+<p>Judging from the similarity of the writing immediately above and
+below this entry, I imagine that Robert Williams must have been the
+old clerk who was so beloved by the inhabitants that in an era of
+change, when the rector was banished from his parish, they elected
+him "Parish Register," and thus preserved in some measure the
+traditions of the place. The children are now entered as "borne"
+and not baptised as formerly.</p>
+<p>The writing gradually gets more illiterate and careless, until
+the Restoration takes place. A little space is left, and then the
+entries are recorded in a scholarly handwriting, evidently the work
+of the new rector. Subsequently the register appears to have been
+usually kept by the rector, though occasionally there are lapses
+and indifferent writing appears. Sometimes the clerk has evidently
+supplied the deficiencies of his master, recording a burial or a
+wedding which the rector had omitted. In later times, when
+pluralism was general, and this living was held in conjunction with
+three or four other parishes, the rector must have been very
+dependent upon the clerk for information concerning the functions
+to be recorded. Moreover, when a former rector who was a noted
+sportsman and one of the best riders and keenest hunters in the
+county, sometimes took a wedding on his way to the meet, he would
+doubtless be so eager for the chase that he had little leisure to
+record the exact details of the names of the "happy pair," and must
+have trusted much to the clerk.</p>
+<p>Some of the private registers kept by clerks are still
+preserved. There is one at Pattishall which contains entries of
+births, marriages, and burials, and was probably commenced in 1774,
+that date being on the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-145"></a>[pg 145]</span> front page together with the
+inscription: "John Clark's Register Book." The writing is of a good
+round-hand character, and far superior to the caligraphy of many
+present-day clerks. The book is bound in vellum <a name=
+"FNanchor63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63">[63]</a>. The following
+entry, taken from the end of the volume, is worth recording:</p>
+<blockquote>"London, March 31th<br>
+<br>
+"Yesterday the Rev'd Mr Hetherington ... transferred. 20,000
+&pound;. South-Sea Annuities into the Names of S'r Henry Banks
+Kn't. Thos Burfoot, Joseph Eyre, Thos Coventry, and Samuel Salt.
+Esqu'rs in Trust to pay always to 50 Blind people, Objects of,
+Charity, not being Beggars, nor receiving, Alms from the Parish, 10
+&pound;. each for their lives, it may be said with great propriety
+of this truly benevolent Gentleman that 'he hath displeased abroad,
+and given to the poor and is Righteousness remaineth for ever; his
+Horn shall exalted with Honour.'"</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_63"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor63">[63]</a> By the information of the Rev. B.W.
+Blyn-Stoyle, who has most kindly assisted me in many ways in
+discovering quaint records of old clerks.</blockquote>
+<p>Amongst the register books of Wednesbury there is a volume bound
+in parchment bearing this inscription:</p>
+<blockquote>"This Book seems to be the private register of
+Alexander Bunn, Parish Clerk, because it corresponds with another
+bearing the same dates; the private accounts written in this book
+by the said A. Bunn seem to corroborate my opinion.<br>
+<br>
+"A.B. Haden<br>
+<br>
+"Vicar of Wednesbury<br>
+<br>
+"August 7th 1782."</blockquote>
+<p>These accounts appear to be of items incurred by the parish
+clerk in his official capacity, and which were due to him in
+repayment from the churchwardens. The accompanying remarks of this
+old Wednesbury parish clerk are often quaint and interesting.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-146"></a>[pg 146]</span>
+<p>The following extracts will show the nature of the book and of
+the systematic record the good clerk kept of his expenditure. The
+only item about which there is some uncertainty is the amount
+"spent at Freeman's Coming from Visitation." Is it possible that he
+was so much excited or intoxicated that he could not remember?</p>
+<blockquote>"1737. Land tax to hon. Adenbrook 0. 0. 11 Acount<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;What Mary Tunks as ad.
+Redy money 4/-, for a<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;hapern 2/-, for caps 1/6
+and for shoes 2/6, and for<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ye werk 6 d. Stokins and
+sues mendering 6 d, and<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;for string 2 d, and for a
+Gound 3/-, and for ale for<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Hur father 2 d, for
+mending Gound 8 d, for stokens<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;10 d, for more Shuse
+strong 2/6, Shift mending<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and maken 5 d, for Hur
+mother 1/6, for a Shift<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2/7."</blockquote>
+<p>To this day old Wednesbury natives say "hapern" for apron, and
+"sues" for shoes.</p>
+<blockquote>"Sep. the 10th, 1745, then recd of Alex. Bunn the sum
+of<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; six pounds for one
+year's rent due at Midsmar.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Last past Ellin Moris.
+Wm. Selvester and his<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; man the first wick 14/-.
+Mr. Butler and Gilbut<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Wrigh, church wardens
+for the year 1741, due to<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Alex Bunn as under.
+Ringing for the Visitation<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 2/-, spent at Roshall,
+going to the visitation 1/6-,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; spent at Henery Rutoll
+1/-, paid at Litchfield to<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; the Horsbox (?) 6 d, Wm.
+Aston Had Ale at my<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; House 6 d, for Micklmas
+Supeles washing and<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; lining 1/8, for Ringing
+for the 11th of October<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 5/-, for Ringing for the
+30th of October 5/-, for<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; half year's wages Due
+June ye 24 &pound; 1 12 s. 6.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ringing for the 5th
+November, for washing the<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Supelis and Lining and
+Bread at Chrsmus 1/3,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; for Easter Supelis
+washing and Lining and Bread<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 1/8, for Joyle for the
+Clock and Bells 2/6, for<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-147"></a>[pg 147]</span>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Leader for the 4th Bell
+Clapper 5 d, Ringing for<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; the 23rd of April 5/-,
+for making the Levy 2/-,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; for a hors to Lichfield
+11/6, pd John Stack<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; going to Dudley 2 times
+for the Clockman 1/-.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For a monthly (?)
+meeting to Ralph Momford<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sep. the 15th 2/-, Spent
+at freeman's Coming from<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; the Visitation-----"
+<a name="FNanchor64"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_64">[64]</a></blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_64"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor64">[64]</a> <i>Olden Wednesbury</i>, by F.W. Hackwood,
+who kindly sent me this information.</blockquote>
+<p>But we have grievous things to record with regard to the clerks
+and the registers, not that they were to blame so much as the
+proper custodians, who neglected their duties and left these
+precious books in the hands of ignorant clerks to be preserved in
+poor overcrowded cottages. But the parish clerks sinned grievously.
+One Phillips, clerk of Lambeth parish, ran away with the register
+book, so Francis Sadler tells us in his curious book, <i>The
+Exaction and Imposition of Parish Fees Discovered</i>, published in
+1738, "whereby the parish became great sufferers; and in such a
+case no person that is fifty years old, and born in the parish, can
+have a transcript of the Register to prove themselves heir to an
+estate." Moreover, Master Sadler, who was very severe on parish
+clerks, tells of the iniquities of the Battersea clerk who used to
+register boys for girls and girls for boys, and not one-half of the
+register book, in his time, was correct and authentic, as it ought
+to be.</p>
+<p>What shall be said of the carelessness of an incumbent who
+allowed the register to be kept by the clerk in his poor cottage?
+When a gentleman called to obtain an extract from the book, the
+clerk produced the valuable tome from a drawer in an old table,
+where it was reposing with a mass of rubbish. Another old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-148"></a>[pg 148]</span>
+parchment register was discovered in a cottage in a
+Northamptonshire parish, some of the pages of which were tacked
+together as a covering for the tester of a bedstead. The clerk in
+another parish followed the calling of a tailor, and found the old
+register book useful for the purpose of providing himself with
+measures. With this object he cut out sixteen leaves of the old
+book, which he regarded in the light of waste paper.</p>
+<p>A gentleman on one occasion visited a church in order to examine
+the registers of an Essex parish. He found the record for which he
+was searching, and asked the clerk to make the extract for him.
+Unfortunately this official had no ink or paper at hand with which
+to copy out the entry, and casually observed:</p>
+<p>"Oh, you may as well have the leaf as it is," and without any
+hesitation took out his pocket-knife, cut out the leaf and gave the
+gentleman the two entire pages <a name="FNanchor65"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_65">[65]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_65"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor65">[65]</a> <i>History of Parish Registers</i>, by Burn;
+<i>Social Life as told by Parish Registers</i>, by T.F.
+Thiselton-Dyer, p. 2.</blockquote>
+<p>Another scandalous case was that of the clerk who combined his
+ecclesiastical duties with those of the village grocer. The pages
+of the parish register he found most useful for wrapping up his
+goods for his customers. He was, however, no worse than the
+curate's wife, who ought to have known better, and who used the
+leaves of the registers for making her husband's
+kettle-holders.</p>
+<p>What shall be said for the guardians of the church documents of
+Blythburgh, Suffolk? The parish chest preserved in the church was
+at one time full of valuable documents in addition to very complete
+registers. So Suckling, the historian of Suffolk, reported. Alas!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-149"></a>[pg 149]</span> these
+have nearly all disappeared. Scarcely anything remains of the
+earliest volume of the register which concludes with the end of the
+seventeenth century, and the old deeds have gone also. How could
+this terrible loss have occurred? It appears that a parish clerk,
+"in showing this fine old church to visitors, presented those
+curious in old papers and autographs with a leaf from the register,
+or some other document, as a memento of their visit <a name=
+"FNanchor66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66">[66]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_66"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor66">[66]</a> <i>Social Life as told by Parish
+Registers</i>; also <i>Standard</i>, 8 Jan., 1880.</blockquote>
+<p>Another clerk was extremely popular with the old ladies of the
+village, and used to cut out the parchment leaves of the registers
+and present them to his old lady friends for wrapping their
+knitting pins. He was also the village schoolmaster, as many of his
+predecessors had been, but this wretch used to cover the backs of
+his pupil's lesson-books with leaves of parchment taken from the
+parish chest. Another clerk found the leaves of the registers very
+useful for "singeing a goose."</p>
+<p>The value of old registers for proving titles to estates and
+other property is of course inestimable. Sometimes incomes of
+thousands of pounds depend upon a little entry in one of these old
+books, and it is terrible to think of the jeopardy in which they
+stand when they rest in the custody of a careless clerk or
+apathetic vicar.</p>
+<p>The present writer owes much to the faithful care of a good
+clerk, who guarded well the registers of a defunct City church of
+London. My father was endeavouring to prove his title to an estate
+in the north country, and had to obtain the certificates of the
+births, deaths, and marriages of the family during about a century.
+One wedding could not be proved. <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-150"></a>[pg 150]</span> Report stated that it had been a
+runaway marriage, and that the bride and bridegroom had fled to
+London to be married in a City church. My father casually heard of
+the name of some church where it was thought that the wedding might
+have taken place. He wrote to the authorities of that church. It
+had, however, ceased to exist. The church had disappeared, but the
+old clerk was alive and knew where the books were. He searched, and
+found the missing register, and the chain of evidence was complete
+and the title to the property fully established, which was
+confirmed after much troublesome litigation by the Court of
+Chancery.</p>
+<p>Sometimes litigants have sought to remove troublesome entries in
+those invaluable books which record with equal impartiality the
+entrance into the world and the departure from it of peer or
+peasant. And in such dramas the clerk frequently appears. The old
+man has to be bribed or cajoled to allow the books to be tampered
+with. A stranger arrives one evening at Rochester, and demands of
+the clerk to be shown the registers. The stranger finds the entry
+upon which much depends. In its present form it does not support
+his case. It must be altered in order to meet his requirements. The
+clerk hovers about the vestry, alert, vigilant. He must be got rid
+of. The stranger proposes various inducements; the temptation of a
+comfortable seat in a cosy corner of the nearest inn, a stimulating
+glass, but all in vain. There is something suspicious about the
+stranger's looks and manners; so the clerk thinks. He sticks to his
+elbow like a leech, and nothing can shake him off. At length the
+stranger offers the poor clerk a goodly bribe if only he will help
+him to alter a few words in that all-important register.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-151"></a>[pg 151]</span> I am
+not sure whether the clerk yielded to the temptation.</p>
+<p>There was a still more dramatic scene in the old vestry of
+Lainston Church, where a few years previously a Miss Chudleigh had
+been married to Lieutenant Hervey. This young lady, who was not
+remarkable for her virtue, arrived one day at the church
+accompanied by a fascinating friend who, while Mrs. Hervey examined
+the register, exercised her blandishments on the clerk. She
+expressed much interest in the church, and asked him endless
+questions about its architecture, the state of his health, his
+family, his duties; and while this little by-play was proceeding
+Mrs. Hervey was carefully and noiselessly cutting out the page in
+the register which contained the entry of her marriage. Having
+removed the tell-tale page she hastily closed the book, summoned
+her fascinating friend, and hastened back to London. The clerk,
+still thinking of the beautiful lady who had been so friendly and
+given him such a handsome present, locked the safe, and never
+discovered the theft. But time brought its revenge. Lieutenant
+Hervey succeeded unexpectedly to the title of the earldom of
+Bristol. His wife was overcome with remorse. By her foolish scheme
+she had sacrificed a coronet. That missing paper must be restored;
+and so the lady pays another visit to Lainston Church, on this
+occasion in the company of a lawyer. The old clerk unlocks again
+the parish chest. The books are again produced; confession is made
+of the former theft; the lawyer looks threateningly at the clerk,
+and tells him that if it should ever be discovered he will suffer
+as an accomplice; and then, with the promise of a substantial
+bribe, the clerk consents to give his aid. The missing paper is
+produced and deftly <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-152"></a>[pg 152]</span> inserted in its former place in the
+book, and Miss Chudleigh becomes the Countess of Bristol. It is a
+curious story, but it has the merit of being true. Many strange
+romances are bound up within the stained and battered parchment
+covers of an old register.</p>
+<p>Sometimes the clerk seems to have recorded in the register book
+some entries which scarcely relate to ecclesiastical usages or
+spiritual concerns. Agreements or bargains were inserted
+occasionally, and the fact that it was recorded in the church books
+testified to the binding nature of the transaction. Thus in the
+book of St. Mary Magdalene, Cambridge, in the year 1692, it is
+announced that Thomas Smith promises to supply John Wingate "with
+hatts for twenty shillings the yeare during life." Mr.
+Thiselton-Dyer, who records this transaction in his book on
+<i>Social Life as told by Parish Registers</i>, conjectures with
+evident truth that the aforenamed men made this bargain at an
+ale-house, and the parish clerk, being present, undertook to
+register the agreement.</p>
+<p>A most remarkable clerk lived at Grafton Underwood in the
+eighteenth century, one Thomas Carley, who was born in that village
+in 1755, having no hands and one deformed leg. Notwithstanding that
+nature seemed to have deprived him of all means of manual labour,
+he rose to the position of parish schoolmaster and parish clerk. He
+contrived a pair of leather rings, into which he thrust the stumps
+of his arms, which ended at the elbow, and with the aid of these he
+held a pen, ruler, knife and fork, etc. The register books of the
+parish show admirable specimens of his wonderful writing, and I
+have in my possession a tracing made by Mr. Wise, of Weekley, from
+the label fixed inside the cover of one of the large folio Prayer
+Books which used to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-153"></a>[pg 153]</span> be in the Duke of Buccleuch's pew
+before the church was restored, and were then removed to Boughton
+House. These books contain many beautifully written papers, chiefly
+supplying lost ones from the Psalms. The writing is simply like
+copper-plate engraving. In the British Museum, amongst the
+"additional MSS." is an interleaved edition of Bridge's <i>History
+of Northamptonshire</i>, bound in five volumes. In the fourth
+volume, under the account of Grafton Underwood, some particulars
+have been inserted of the life of this extraordinary man, with a
+water-colour portrait of him taken by one of his pupils, E.
+Bradley. There is also a specimen of his writing, the Lord's Prayer
+inscribed within a circle about the size of a shilling. There is
+also in existence "a mariner's compass," most accurately drawn by
+him. He died in 1823.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-154"></a>[pg 154]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3>THE CLERK AS A POET</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The parish clerk, skilled in psalmody, has sometimes shown
+evidences of true poetic feeling. The divine afflatus has
+occasionally inspired in him some fine thoughts and graceful
+fancies. His race has produced many writers of terrible doggerel of
+the monumental class of poetry; but far removed from these there
+have been some who have composed fine hymns and sweet verse.</p>
+<p>An obscure hymn-writer, whose verses have been sung in all parts
+of the world, was Thomas Bilby, parish clerk of St. Mary's Church,
+Islington, between the years 1842 and 1872. He was the parish
+schoolmaster also, and thus maintained the traditions of his office
+handed down from medi&aelig;val times. Before the days of School
+Boards it was not unusual for the clerk to teach the children of
+the working classes the three R's and religious knowledge, charging
+a fee of twopence per week for each child. Mrs. Mary Strathern has
+kindly sent me the following account of the church wherein Thomas
+Bilby served as clerk, and of the famous hymn which he wrote.</p>
+<p>The church of St. Mary's, Islington, was not internally a thing
+of beauty. It was square; it had no chancel; the walls were covered
+with monuments and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-155"></a>[pg
+155]</span> tablets to the praise and glory of departed
+parishioners. On three sides it had a wide gallery, the west end of
+which contained the organ, with the Royal Arms as large as life in
+front. On either side below the galleries were double rows of high
+pews, and down the centre passage a row of open benches for the
+poor. Between these benches and the altar, completely hiding the
+altar from the congregation, stood a huge "three-decker." The
+pulpit, on a level with the galleries, was reached by a staircase
+at the back; below that was "the reading desk," from which the
+curate said the prayers; and below that again, a smaller desk,
+where, Sunday after Sunday, for thirty years, T. Bilby, parish
+clerk and schoolmaster, gave out the hymns, read the notices, and
+published the banns of marriage. He was short and stout; his hair
+was white; he wore a black gown with deep velvet collar, ornamented
+with many tassels and fringes; and he carried a staff of
+office.</p>
+<p>It was a great missionary parish. The vicar, Daniel Wilson, was
+a son of that well-known Daniel Wilson, sometime vicar of
+Islington, and afterwards Bishop of Calcutta. The Church Missionary
+College, where many young missionaries sent out by the Church
+Missionary Society are trained, stood in our midst; and it was
+within St. Mary's Church the writer saw the venerable Bishop
+Crowther, of the Niger, ordain his own son deacon. Mr. Bilby had at
+one time been a catechist and schoolmaster in Sierra Leone, and was
+full of interesting stories of the mission work amongst the freed
+slaves in that settlement. He had a magic lantern, with many views
+of Africa, and of the churches and schools in the mission fields,
+and often gave missionary lectures to the school children. It was
+on <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-156"></a>[pg 156]</span> one
+of these occasions, when he had been telling us about his work
+abroad, and how he soon got to know when a black boy had a dirty
+face, that he said: "While I was in Africa, I composed a hymn, and
+taught the black children to sing it; and now there is not a
+Christian school in any part of the world where my hymn is not
+known and sung. I will begin it now, and you will all sing it with
+me." Then the old man began:</p>
+<blockquote>"Here we suffer grief and pain."</blockquote>
+<p>Immediately every child in the room took it up, and sang with
+might and main:</p>
+<blockquote>"Here we meet to part again;<br>
+In heaven we part no more."</blockquote>
+<p>We had always thought the familiar words were as old as the
+Bible itself, and could scarcely believe they had been written by
+our own old friend.</p>
+<p>Soon after that memorable night, the old man began to get
+feeble; his place in the church and schools was frequently filled
+by "Young Bilby," as he was familiarly called; and in 1872, aged
+seventy-eight, the old parish clerk was gathered to his fathers,
+and his son reigned in his stead.</p>
+<p>The other day a copy of a Presbyterian hymn-book found its way
+into my house, and there I found "Here we suffer grief and pain." I
+turned up the index which gives the names of authors, wondering if
+the compilers knew anything of the source from whence it came, and
+found the name "Bilby"; but who "Bilby" was, and where he lived, is
+known to very few outside the parish, where the name is a household
+word, for Mr. Bilby's son is still the parish clerk of St. Mary,
+Islington, and through him we learn that his father <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-157"></a>[pg 157]</span> composed the
+<i>tune</i> as well as the words of "Here we suffer grief and
+pain."</p>
+<p>As the hymn is not included in <i>Hymns Ancient and Modern</i>
+or some other well-known collection, perhaps it will be well to
+print the first two verses. It is published in John Curwen's <i>The
+Child's Own Hymn Book</i>:</p>
+<blockquote>"Here we suffer grief and pain;<br>
+Here we meet to part again:<br>
+In heaven we part no more.<br>
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;O! that will be joyful,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Joyful, joyful, joyful,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;O! that will be joyful!<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;When we meet to part no more!<br>
+<br>
+"All who love the Lord below,<br>
+When they die to heaven will go,<br>
+And sing with saints above.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;O! that," etc.</blockquote>
+<p>A poet of a different school was Robert Story, schoolmaster and
+parish clerk of Gargrave, Yorkshire. He was born at Wark,
+Northumberland, in 1795, but migrated to Gargrave in 1820, where he
+remained twenty years. Then he obtained the situation of a clerk in
+the Audit Office, Somerset House, at a salary of &pound;90 a year,
+which he held till his death in 1860. His volume of poems, entitled
+<i>Songs and Lyrical Poems</i>, contains some charming verse. He
+wrote a pathetic poem on the death of the son of a gentleman at
+Malham, killed while bird-nesting on the rocks of Cam Scar. Another
+poem, <i>The Danish Camp</i>, tells of the visit of King Alfred to
+the stronghold of his foes, and has some pretty lines. "O, love has
+a favourite scene for roaming," is a tender little poem. The
+following example of his verse is of a humorous and festive type.
+It is taken from a volume of his <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-158"></a>[pg 158]</span> productions, entitled <i>The Magic
+Fountain, and Other Poems</i>, published in 1829:</p>
+<blockquote>"Learn next that I am parish clerk:<br>
+A noble office, by St. Mark!<br>
+It brings me in six guineas clear,<br>
+Besides <i>et c&aelig;teras</i> every year.<br>
+I waive my Sunday duty, when<br>
+I give the solemn deep Amen;<br>
+Exalted then to breathe aloud<br>
+The heart-devotion of the crowd.<br>
+But oh, the fun! when Christmas chimes<br>
+Have ushered in the festal times,<br>
+And sent the clerk and sexton round<br>
+To pledge their friends in draughts profound,<br>
+And keep on foot the good old plan,<br>
+As only clerk and sexton can!<br>
+Nor less the sport, when Easter sees<br>
+The daisy spring to deck her leas;<br>
+Then, claim'd as dues by Mother Church,<br>
+I pluck the cackler from the perch;<br>
+Or, in its place, the shilling clasp<br>
+From grumbling dame's slow opening grasp.<br>
+But, Visitation Day! 'tis thine<br>
+Best to deserve my native line.<br>
+Great day! the purest, brightest gem<br>
+That decks the fair year's diadem.<br>
+Grand day! that sees me costless dine<br>
+And costless quaff the rosy wine,<br>
+Till seven churchwardens doubled seem,<br>
+And doubled every taper's gleam;<br>
+And I triumphant over time,<br>
+And over tune, and over rhyme,<br>
+Call'd by the gay convivial throng,<br>
+Lead, in full glee, the choral song!"</blockquote>
+<p>The writers of doggerel verses have been numerous. The following
+is a somewhat famous composition which has been kindly sent to me
+by various correspondents. My father used to tell us the rhymes
+when we were children, and they have evidently become notorious.
+The clerk who composed them lived in <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-159"></a>[pg 159]</span> Somersetshire <a name=
+"FNanchor67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67">[67]</a>, and when the Lord
+Bishop of the Diocese came to visit his church, he thought that
+such an occasion ought not to be passed over without a fitting
+tribute to the distinguished prelate. He therefore composed a new
+and revised version of Tate and Brady's metrical rendering of Psalm
+lxvii., and announced his production after this manner:</p>
+<p>"Let us zing to the Praze an' Glory of God part of the
+zixty-zeventh Zalm; zspeshul varshun zspesh'ly 'dapted vur
+t'cazshun.</p>
+<blockquote>"W'y 'op ye zo ye little 'ills?<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And what var du 'ee zskip?<br>
+Is it a'cause ter prach too we<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Is cum'd me Lord Biship?<br>
+<br>
+"W'y zskip ye zo ye little 'ills?<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;An' whot var du 'ee 'op?<br>
+Is it a'cause to prach too we<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Is cum'd me Lord Bishop?<br>
+<br>
+"Then let us awl arize an' zing,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;An' let us awl stric up,<br>
+An' zing a glawrious zong uv praze;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;An' bless me Lord Bishup."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_67"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor67">[67]</a> Another correspondent states that the
+incident occurred at Bradford-on-Avon in 1806. Mr. Francis Bevan
+remembers hearing a similar version at Dover about sixty years ago.
+Can it be that these various clerks were plagiarists?</blockquote>
+<p>A somewhat similar effusion was composed by Eldad Holland,
+parish clerk of Christ Church, Kilbrogan parish, Bandon, County
+Cork, in Ireland. This church was built in 1610, and has the
+reputation of being the first edifice erected in Ireland for the
+use of the Church of Ireland after the Reformation. Bandon was
+originally colonised by English settlers in the reign of Queen
+Elizabeth, and for a long time was a noted stronghold of
+Protestantism. This fact may throw light upon the opinions and
+sentiments of Master Holland, an original <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-160"></a>[pg 160]</span> character, whose
+tombstone records that "he departed this life ye 29th day of 7ber
+1722." When the news of the victory of William III reached Bandon
+there were great rejoicings, and Eldad paraphrased a portion of the
+morning service in honour of the occasion. After the first lesson
+he gave out the following notice:</p>
+<p>"Let us sing to the praise and glory of William, a psalm of my
+own composing:</p>
+<blockquote>"William is come home, come home,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;William home is come,<br>
+And now let us in his praise<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Sing a <i>Te Deum</i>."</blockquote>
+<p>He then continued: "We praise thee, O William! we acknowledge
+thee to be our king!" adding with an impressive shake of the head,
+"And faith, a good right we have, for it was he who saved us from
+brass money, wooden shoes and Popery." He then resumed the old
+version, and reverently continued it to the end <a name=
+"FNanchor68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68">[68]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_68"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor68">[68]</a> This information was kindly sent to me by
+Mr. Robert Clarke, of Castle Eden, Durham, who states that he
+derived the information from <i>The History of Bandon</i>, by
+George Bennett (1869). My father used to repeat the following
+version:<br>
+<br>
+<blockquote>"King William is come home,<br>
+Come home King William is come;<br>
+So let us then together sing<br>
+A hymn that's called <i>Te D'um</i>."</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+I am not sure which version is the better poetry! The latter
+corresponds with the version composed by Wesley's clerk at Epworth,
+old John; so Clarke in his memoirs of the Wesley family
+records.</blockquote>
+<p>In a parish in North Devon <a name="FNanchor69"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_69">[69]</a> there was a poetical clerk who had great
+reverence for Bishop Henry Phillpotts, and on giving out the hymn
+he proclaimed his regard in this form: "Let us sing to the glory of
+God, and of the Lord Bishop of Exeter." On one occasion his
+lordship held a confirmation in the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-161"></a>[pg 161]</span> church on 5 November, when it is
+said the clerk gave out the Psalm in the usual way, adding, "in a
+stave of my own composing":</p>
+<blockquote>"This is the day that was the night<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;When the Papists did conspire<br>
+To blow up the King and Parliament House<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;With Gundy-powdy-ire."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_69"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor69">[69]</a> My kind correspondent, the Rev. J.B. Hughes,
+abstains from mentioning the name of the parish.</blockquote>
+<p>My informant cannot vouch for the truth of this story, but he
+can for the fact that when Bishop Phillpotts on another occasion
+visited the church his lordship was surprised to hear the clerk
+give out at the end of the service, "Let us sing in honour of his
+lordship, 'God save the King.'" The bishop rose somewhat hastily,
+saying to his chaplain, "Come along, Barnes; we shall have 'Rule,
+Britannia!' next."</p>
+<p>Cuthbert Bede tells the story of a poetical clerk who was much
+aggrieved because some disagreeable and naughty folk had
+maliciously damaged his garden fence. On the next Sunday he gave
+out "a stave of his own composing":</p>
+<blockquote>"Oh, Lord, how doth the wicked man;<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;They increases more and more;<br>
+They break the posts, likewise the rails<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Around this poor clerk's door."</blockquote>
+<p>He almost deserved his fate for barbarously mutilating a
+metrical Psalm, and was evidently a proper victim of poetical
+justice.</p>
+<p>A Devonshire clerk wrote the following noble effort:--</p>
+<blockquote>"Mount Edgcumbe is a pleasant place<br>
+Right o'er agenst the Ham-o-aze,<br>
+Where ships do ride at anchor,<br>
+To guard us agin our foes. Amen."</blockquote>
+<p>Besides writing "hymns of his own composing," the parish clerk
+often used to give vent to his poetical talents in the production
+of epitaphs. The occupation <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-162"></a>[pg 162]</span> of writing epitaphs must have been a
+lucrative one, and the effusions recording the numerous virtues of
+the deceased are quaint and curious. Well might a modern English
+child ask her mother after hearing these records read to her,
+"Where were all the bad people buried?" Learned scholars and abbots
+applied their talents to the production of the Latin verses
+inscribed on old brass memorials of the dead, and clever ladies
+like Dame Elizabeth Hobby sometimes wrote them and appended their
+names to their compositions. In later times this task seems to have
+been often undertaken by the parish clerk with not altogether
+satisfactory results, though incumbents and great poets, among whom
+may be enumerated Pope and Byron, sometimes wrote memorials of
+their friends. But the clerk was usually responsible for these
+inscriptions. Master John Hopkins, clerk at one of the churches at
+Salisbury at the end of the eighteenth century, issued an
+advertisement of his various accomplishments which ran thus:</p>
+<blockquote>"John Hopkins, parish clerk and undertaker, sells
+epitaphs of all sorts and prices. Shaves neat, and plays the
+bassoon. Teeth drawn, and the Salisbury Journal read gratis every
+Sunday morning at eight. A school for psalmody every Thursday
+evening, when my son, born blind, will play the fiddle. Specimen
+epitaph on my wife:<br>
+<br>
+<blockquote>My wife ten years, not much to my ease,<br>
+But now she is dead, in c&aelig;lo quies.</blockquote>
+<br>
+Great variety to be seen within. Your humble servant, John
+Hopkins."</blockquote>
+<p>Poor David Diggs, the hero of Hewett's story of <i>The Parish
+Clerk</i>, used to write epitaphs in strange and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-163"></a>[pg 163]</span> curious English.
+Just before his death he put a small piece of paper into the hands
+of the clergyman of the parish, and whispered a request that its
+contents might be attended to. When the clergyman afterwards read
+the paper he found the following epitaph, which was duly inscribed
+on the clerk's grave:</p>
+<blockquote>"Reader Don't stop nor shed no tears<br>
+For I was parish clerk For 60 years;<br>
+If I lived on I could not now as Then<br>
+Say to the Parson's Prases A loud Amen."</blockquote>
+<p>A very worthy poetical clerk was John Bennet, shoemaker, of
+Woodstock. A long account of him appears in the <i>Lives of
+Illustrious Shoemakers</i>, written by W.E. Winks. He inherited the
+office of parish clerk from his father, and with it some degree of
+musical taste. In the preface to his poems he wrote: "Witness my
+early acquaintance with the pious strains of Sternhold and Hopkins,
+under that melodious psalmodist my honoured Father, and your
+approved Parish Clerk." This is addressed to the Rev. Thomas
+Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and sometime curate of
+Woodstock, to whose patronage and ready aid John Bennet was greatly
+indebted. Southey, who succeeded Warton in the Professorship, wrote
+that "This Woodstock shoemaker was chiefly indebted for the
+patronage which he received to Thomas Warton's good nature; for my
+predecessor was the best-hearted man that ever wore a great wig."
+Certainly the list of subscribers printed at the beginning of his
+early work is amazingly long. Noblemen, squires, parsons, great
+ladies, all rushed to secure the cobbler-clerk's poems, which were
+published in 1774. The poems consist mainly of simple rhymes or
+rustic themes, and are not without merit or humour. He is very
+modest and humble about <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-164"></a>[pg 164]</span> his poetical powers, and tells that
+his reason for publishing his verses was "to enable the author to
+rear an infant offspring and to drive away all anxious solicitude
+from the breast of a most amiable wife." His humour is shown in the
+conclusion of his Dedication, where he wrote:</p>
+<p>"I had proceeded thus far when I was called to measure a
+gentleman of a certain college for a pair of fashionable boots, and
+the gentleman having insisted on a perusal of what I was writing,
+told me that a dedication should be as laconic as the boots he had
+employed me to make; and then, taking up my pen, added this scrap
+of Latin for a Heel-piece, as he called it, to my Dedication:</p>
+<blockquote>"<i>Jam satis est; ne me Crispini scrinia lippi<br>
+Compilasse putes, vertum non amplius</i>."</blockquote>
+<p>The cobbler poet concludes his verses with the humorous
+lines:</p>
+<blockquote>"So may our cobler rise by friendly aid,<br>
+Be happy and successful in his trade;<br>
+His awl and pen with readiness be found,<br>
+To make or keep our understandings sound."</blockquote>
+<p>Later in life John Bennet published another volume, entitled
+<i>Redemption</i>. It was dedicated to Dr. Mavor, rector of
+Woodstock. It is a noble poem, far exceeding in merit his first
+essay, and it is a remarkable and wonderful composition for a
+self-taught village shoemaker. The author-clerk died and was buried
+at Woodstock in 1803.</p>
+<p>A fine character and graceful poet was Richard Furness <a name=
+"FNanchor70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70">[70]</a>, parish clerk of
+Dore, five miles from Shalfield, a secluded hamlet. He was then
+styled "The Poet of the Peak," of sonorous voice and clear of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-165"></a>[pg 165]</span>
+speech, the author of many poems, and factotum supreme of the
+village and neighbourhood. Two volumes of his poems have been
+published. He combined, like many of his order, the office of
+parish clerk with that of schoolmaster, his schoolroom being under
+the same roof as his house. Thither crowds flocked. He was an
+immense favourite. The teacher of children, healer of all the lame
+and sick folk, the consoler and adviser of the troubled, he played
+an important part in the village life. His accomplishments were
+numerous. He could make a will, survey or convey an estate, reduce
+a dislocation, perform the functions of a parish clerk, lead a
+choir, and write an ode. This remarkable man was born at Eyam in
+1791, the village so famous for the story of its plague, in an old
+house long held by his family. Over the door is carved:</p>
+<blockquote>R. 1615. F</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_70"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor70">[70]</a> <i>Biographical Sketches of Remarkable
+People</i>, by Spencer T. Hall.</blockquote>
+<p>When a boy he was very fond of reading, and studied mathematics
+and poetry. <i>Don Quixote</i> was his favourite romance. His
+father would not allow him to read at night, but the student could
+not be prevented from studying his beloved books. In order to
+prevent the light in his bedroom from being seen in other parts of
+the house, he placed a candle in a large box, knelt by its side,
+and with the lid half closed few rays of the glimmering taper could
+reach the window or door. When he grew to be a man he migrated to
+Dore, and there set up a school, and began that active life of
+which an admirable account is given by Dr. G. Calvert Holland in
+the introduction of <i>The Poetical Works of Richard Furness</i>,
+published in 1858. In addition to other duties he sometimes
+discharged clerical functions. The vicar of the parish of Dore,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-166"></a>[pg 166]</span> Mr.
+Parker, was somewhat old and infirm, and sometimes found it
+difficult to tramp over the high moors in winter to privately
+baptize a sick child. So he often sent his clerk to perform the
+duty. On dark and stormy nights Richard Furness used to tramp over
+moor and fell, through snow and rain to some lonely farm or
+moorland cottage in order to baptize some suffering infant. On one
+occasion he omitted to ascertain before commencing the service
+whether the child was a boy or a girl. Turning to the father in the
+midst of a prayer, when the question whether he ought to use
+<i>his</i> or <i>her</i> had to be decided, he inquired, "What
+sex?" The father, an ignorant labourer, did not understand the
+meaning of the question. "Male or female?" asked the clerk. Still
+the father did not comprehend. At last the meaning of the query
+dawned upon his rustic intelligence, and he whispered, "It's a mon
+childt."</p>
+<p>Thus does Richard Furness in his poems describe his many
+duties:</p>
+<blockquote>"I Richard Furness, schoolmaster, Dore,<br>
+Keep parish books and pay the poor;<br>
+Draw plans for buildings and indite<br>
+Letters for those who cannot write;<br>
+Make wills and recommend a proctor;<br>
+Cure wounds, let blood with any doctor;<br>
+Draw teeth, sing psalms, the hautboy play<br>
+At chapel on each holy day;<br>
+Paint sign-boards, cast names at command,<br>
+Survey and plot estates of land:<br>
+Collect at Easter, one in ten,<br>
+And on the Sunday say Amen."</blockquote>
+<p>He wrote a poem entitled <i>Medicus Magus, or the
+Astrologer</i>, a droll story brimming over with quiet humour,
+folk-lore, philology and archaic lore. Also <i>The Ragbag</i>,
+which is dedicated to "John Bull, Esq." The style of his poetry was
+Johnsonian, or after the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-167"></a>[pg 167]</span> manner of Erasmus Darwin, a bard
+whom the present generation has forgotten, but whose <i>Botanic
+Garden</i>, published in 1825, is full of quaint plant-lore and
+classical allusions, if it does not reach the highest form of
+poetic talent. Here is a poem by our clerkly poet on the Old Year's
+funeral:</p>
+<blockquote>"The clock in oblivion's mouldering tower<br>
+By the raven's nest struck the midnight hour,<br>
+And the ghosts of the seasons wept over the bier<br>
+Of Old Time's last son--the departing year.<br>
+<br>
+"Spring showered her daisies and dews on his bed,<br>
+Summer covered with roses his shelterless head,<br>
+And as Autumn embalmed his bodiless form,<br>
+Winter wove his snow shroud in his Jacquard of storm;<br>
+For his coffin-plate, charged with a common device,<br>
+Frost figured his arms on a tablet of ice,<br>
+While a ray from the sun in the interim came,<br>
+And daguerreotyped neatly his age, death, and name.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Then the shadowing months at call<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Stood up to bear the pall,<br>
+And three hundred and sixty-five days in gloom<br>
+Formed a vista that reached from his birth to his tomb.<br>
+And oh, what a progeny followed in tears--<br>
+Hours, minutes, and moments--the children of years!<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Death marshall'd th' array,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Slowly leading the way,<br>
+With his darts newly fashioned for New Year's Day."</blockquote>
+<p>Richard Furness died in 1857, and was buried with his ancestors
+at Eyam. He thus sang his own requiem shortly before he passed
+away:</p>
+<blockquote>"To joys and griefs, to hopes and fears,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;To all pride would, and power could do,<br>
+To sorrow's cup, to pity's tears,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;To mortal life, to death adieu."</blockquote>
+<p>I will conclude this chapter on poetical clerks with a sweet
+carol for Advent, written by Mr. Daniel Robinson, ex-parish clerk
+of Flore, Weedon, which is worthy of preservation:</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-168"></a>[pg 168]</span>
+<h2>A CAROL FOR ADVENT</h2>
+<p>"Behold, thy King cometh unto thee."--MATTHEW xxi. 5.</p>
+<blockquote>Behold, thy King is coming<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Upon this earth to reign,<br>
+To take away oppression<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And break the captive's chain;<br>
+Then trim your lamps, ye virgins,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Your oil of love prepare,<br>
+To meet the coming Bridegroom<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Triumphant in the air.<br>
+<br>
+Behold, thy King is coming,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Hark! 'tis the midnight cry,<br>
+The herald's voice proclaimeth<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;The hour is drawing nigh;<br>
+Then go ye forth to meet Him,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;With lamps all burning bright,<br>
+Let sweet hosannahs greet Him,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And welcome Him aright.<br>
+<br>
+Go decorate your churches<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;With evergreens and flowers,<br>
+And let the bells' sweet music<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Resound from all your towers;<br>
+And sing your sweetest anthems,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;For lo, your King is nigh,<br>
+While songs of praise are soaring<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;O'er vale and mountain high.<br>
+<br>
+Let sounds of heavenly music<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;From sweet-voiced organs peal,<br>
+While old and young assembling<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Before God's "Altar" kneel;<br>
+In humble adoration<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Let each one praise and pray,<br>
+And give the King a welcome<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;This coming Christmas Day.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-169"></a>[pg 169]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3>THE CLERK GIVING OUT NOTICES</h3>
+<br>
+<p>After the Nicene Creed in the Book of Common Prayer occurs a
+rubric with regard to the giving out of notices, the observance of
+Holy-days or Feasting-days, the publication of Briefs, Citations
+and Ex-communications, which ends with the following words:</p>
+<p>"And nothing shall be proclaimed or published in the Church,
+during the time of Divine Service, but by the Minister; nor by him
+any thing but what is prescribed in the Rules of this Book, or
+enjoined by the King or by the Ordinary of the place."</p>
+<p>This rubric was added to the Prayer Book in the revision of
+1662, and doubtless was intended to correct the undesirable
+practice of publishing all kinds of secular notices during the time
+of divine service. Dr. Wickham Legg has unearthed an inquiry made
+in an archidiaconal visitation in 1630, relating to the
+proclamation of lay businesses made in church, when the following
+question was asked:</p>
+<p>"Whether hath your Parish Clerk, or any other in Prayers time,
+or before Prayers or Sermon ended, before the people departed, made
+proclamation in your church touching any goods strayed away or
+wanting, or of any Leet court to be held, or of common-dayes-works
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-170"></a>[pg 170]</span> to be
+made, or touching any other thing which is not merely
+ecclesiasticall, or a Church-businesse?"</p>
+<p>In times of Puritan laxity it was natural that notices sacred
+and profane should be indiscriminately mingled, and the rubric
+mentioned above would be sorely needed when church order and a
+reverent service were revived. But in spite of this direction the
+practice survived of not very strictly confining the notices to the
+concerns of the Church.</p>
+<p>An aged lady, Mrs. Gill, who is now eighty-four years of age,
+remembers that between the years 1825 and 1835, in a parish church
+near Welbeck Abbey, the clerk used to announce the date of the Duke
+of Rutland's rent-day. Another correspondent states that after
+service the clerk used to take his stand on one of the high flat
+tombstones and announce sales by auction, the straying of cattle,
+etc., and Sir Walter Scott wrote that at Hexham cattle-dealers used
+to carry their business letters to the church, "when after service
+the clerk was accustomed to read them aloud and answer them
+according to circumstances."</p>
+<p>Mr. Beresford Hope recollected that in a Surrey town church the
+notices given out by the clerk included the announcement of the
+meetings at the principal inn of the town of the executors of a
+deceased duke.</p>
+<p>In the days of that extraordinary free-and-easy go-as-you-please
+style of service which prevailed at the end of the eighteenth and
+beginning of the nineteenth century, the most extraordinary
+announcements were frequently made by the clerk, and very numerous
+stories are told of the laxity of the times and the quaintness of
+the remarks of the clerk.</p>
+<p>An old Shropshire clerk gave out on Easter Day the following
+extraordinary notice:</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-171"></a>[pg 171]</span>
+<p>"Last Friday was Good Friday, but we've forgotten un; so next
+Friday will be."</p>
+<p>Another clerk gave out a strange notice on Quinquagesima Sunday
+with regard to the due observance of Ash Wednesday. He said: "There
+will be no service on Wednesday--'coss why? Mester be going
+hunting, and so beeze I!" with triumphant emphasis. He is not the
+only sporting clerk of whom history speaks, and in the biographies
+of some worthies of the profession we hope to mention the
+achievements of a clerkly tailor who denied himself every luxury of
+life in order to save enough money to buy and keep a horse in order
+that he might follow the hounds "like a gentleman."</p>
+<p>Sporting parsons have furnished quite a crop of stories with
+regard to strange notices given out by their clerks. Some of them
+are well known and have often been repeated; but perhaps it is well
+that they should not be omitted here.</p>
+<p>About the year 1850 a clerk gave out in his rector's hearing
+this notice: "There'll be no service next Sunday, as the rector's
+going out grouse-shooting."</p>
+<p>A Devonshire hunting parson went to help a neighbouring
+clergyman in the old days when all kinds of music made up the
+village choir. Unfortunately some difficulty arose in the tuning of
+the instruments. The fiddles and bass-viol would not accord, and
+the parson grew impatient. At last, leaning over the reading-desk
+and throwing up his arms, he shouted out, "Hark away, Jack! Hark
+away, Jack! Tally-ho! Tally-ho! <a name="FNanchor71"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_71">[71]</a>"</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_71"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor71">[71]</a> <i>Mumpits and Crumpits</i>, by Sarah
+Hewitt, p. 175.</blockquote>
+<p>Another clerk caused amusement and consternation in a
+south-country parish and roused the rector's wrath. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-172"></a>[pg 172]</span> The young rector,
+who was of a sporting turn of mind, told him that he wanted to get
+to Worthing on a Sunday afternoon in time for the races which began
+on the following day, and that therefore there would be no service.
+This was explained to the clerk in confidence. The rector's horror
+may be imagined when he heard him give out in loud sonorous tones:
+"This is to give notice, no suvviss here this arternoon, becos
+measter meyans to get to Worthing to-night to be in good toime for
+reayces to-morrow mornin'."</p>
+<p>Old Moody, of Redbourn, Herts, was a typical parish clerk, and
+his vicar, Lord Frederick Beauclerk, and the curate, the Rev. W.S.
+Wade, were both hunting parsons of the old school. One Sunday
+morning Moody announced, just before giving out the hymn, that "the
+vicar was going on Friday to the throwing off of the Leicestershire
+hounds, and could not return home until Monday next week; therefore
+next Sunday there would not be any service in the church on that
+day." Moody was quite one of the leading characters of the place,
+whose words and opinions were law.</p>
+<p>No one in those days thought of disputing the right or
+questioning the conduct of a rector closing the church, and
+abandoning the accustomed services on a Sunday, in order to keep a
+sporting engagement.</p>
+<p>That other notice about the fishing parson is well known. The
+clerk announced: "This is to gi notus, there won't be no surviss
+here this arternoon becos parson's going fishing in the next
+parish." When he was remonstrated with after service for giving out
+such a strange notice, he replied:</p>
+<p>"Parson told I so 'fore church."</p>
+<p>"Surely he said officiating--not fishing?" said his monitor.
+"The bishop would not be pleased to hear <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-173"></a>[pg 173]</span> of one of his
+clergy going fishing on a Sunday afternoon."</p>
+<p>The clerk was not convinced, and made a clever defence, grounded
+on the employment of some of the Apostles. The reader's imagination
+will supply the gist of the argument.</p>
+<p>Another rector, who had lost his favourite setter, told his
+clerk to make inquiries about it, but was much astonished to hear
+him give it out as a notice in church, coupled with the offer of a
+reward of three pounds if the dog should be restored to his
+owner.</p>
+<p>The clerk of the sporting parson was often quite as keen as his
+master in following the chase. It was not unusual for rectors to
+take "occasional services," weddings or funerals, on the way to a
+meet, wearing "pink" under their surplices. A wedding was
+proceeding in a Devonshire church, and when the happy pair were
+united and the Psalm was just about to be said, the clerk called
+out, "Please to make 'aste, sir, or he'll be gone afore you have
+done." The parson nodded and looked inquiringly at the clerk, who
+said, "He's turned into the vuzz bushes down in ten acres. Do look
+sharp, sir <a name="FNanchor72"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_72">[72]</a>."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_72"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor72">[72]</a> This story is told by Mrs. Hewett in her
+<i>Peasant Speech of Devon</i>, but I have ventured to anglicise
+the broad Devonshire a little, and to suggest that the scene could
+scarcely have taken place on a Sunday morning, as Mrs. Hewett
+suggests in her admirable book.</blockquote>
+<p>The story is told of a rector who, when walking to church across
+the squire's park during a severe winter, found a partridge
+apparently frozen to death. He placed the poor bird in the
+voluminous pocket of his coat. During the service the warmth of the
+rector's pocket revived the bird and thawed it back to life; and
+when during the sermon the rector pulled out his <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-174"></a>[pg 174]</span> handkerchief, the
+revived bird flew vigorously away towards the west end of the
+church. The clerk, who sat in his seat below, was not unaccustomed
+to the task of beating for the squire's shooting parties, called
+out lustily:</p>
+<p>"It be all right, sir; I've marked him down in the belfry."</p>
+<p>The fame of the Rev. John Russell, the sporting parson of
+Swymbridge, is widespread, and his parish clerk, William Chapple,
+is also entitled to a small niche beneath the statue of the great
+man. The curate had left, and Mr. Russell inserted the following
+advertisement:</p>
+<p>"Wanted, a curate for Swymbridge; must be a gentleman of
+moderate and orthodox views."</p>
+<p>The word <i>orthodox</i> rather puzzled the inhabitants of
+Swymbridge, who asked Chapple what it meant. The clerk did not
+know, but was unwilling to confess such ignorance, and knowing his
+master's predilections, replied, "I 'spects it be a chap as can
+ride well to hounds."</p>
+<p>The strangest notice ever given out in church that I ever have
+heard of, related to a set of false teeth. The story has been told
+by many. Perhaps Cuthbert Bede's version is the best. An old rector
+of a small country parish had been compelled to send to a dentist
+his set of false teeth, in order that some repairs might be made.
+The dentist had faithfully promised to send them back "by
+Saturday," but the Saturday's post did not bring the box containing
+the rector's teeth. There was <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-175"></a>[pg 175]</span> no Sunday post, and the village was
+nine miles from the post town. The dentist, it afterwards appeared,
+had posted the teeth on the Saturday afternoon with the full
+conviction that their owner would receive them on Sunday morning in
+time for service. The old rector bravely tried to do that duty
+which England expects every man to do, more especially if he is a
+parson and if it be Sunday morning; but after he had mumbled
+through the prayers with equal difficulty and incoherency, he
+decided that it would be advisable to abandon any further attempts
+to address his congregation on that day. While the hymn was being
+sung he summoned his clerk to the vestry, and then said to him, "It
+is quite useless for me to attempt to go on. The fact is, that my
+dentist has not sent me back my artificial teeth; and as it is
+impossible for me to make myself understood, you must tell the
+congregation that the service is ended for this morning, and that
+there will be no service this afternoon." The old clerk went back
+to his desk; the singing of the hymn was brought to an end; and the
+rector, from his retreat in the vestry, heard the clerk address the
+congregation as follows:</p>
+<p>"This is to give notice! as there won't be no sarmon, nor no
+more service this mornin', so you'd better all go whum (home); and
+there won't be no sarvice this afternoon, as the rector ain't got
+his artful teeth back from the dentist!"</p>
+<p>This story so amused George Cruikshank that he wanted to make an
+illustration of it. But the journal in which it ought to have
+appeared was very short-lived. Hence Cruikshank's drawing was lost
+to the world.</p>
+<p>The clerk is a firm upholder of established custom. "We will now
+sing the evening hymn," said the rector of an East Anglian church
+in the sixties. "No, sir, it's doxology to-night." The preacher
+again said, "We'll sing the evening hymn." The clerk, however,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-176"></a>[pg 176]</span>
+persisted, "It's doxology to-night"; and doxology it was, in spite
+of the parson's protests.</p>
+<p>In the days when parish notices with reference to the lost,
+stolen, or strayed animals were read out in church at the
+commencement of the service, the clerk of a church [my informant
+has forgotten the name of the parish] rose in his place and
+said:</p>
+<p>"This is to give notice that my Lady ---- has lost her little
+dog; he comes to the name of Shock; he is all white except two
+patches of black on his sides and he has
+got--eh?--what?--yes--no--upon my soul he has got four eyes!" It
+should have been sore eyes, but the long <i>s</i> had misled the
+clerk.</p>
+<p>The clerk does not always shine as an orator, but a
+correspondent who writes from the Charterhouse can vouch for the
+following effort of one who lived in a village not a hundred miles
+from Harrow about thirty years ago.</p>
+<p>There was a tea for the school children, at which the clerk, a
+farm labourer, spoke thus: "You know, my friends, that if we wants
+to get a good crop of anything we dungs the ground. Now what I say
+is, if we wants our youngsters to crop properly, we must see that
+they are properly dunged--- put the larning into them like dung,
+and they'll do all right."</p>
+<p>The subject of the Disestablishment of the Church was scarcely
+contemplated by a clerk in the diocese of Peterborough, who, after
+the amalgamation of two parishes, stated that he was desired by the
+vicar to announce that the services in each parish would be morning
+and evening to <i>all eternity</i>. It is thought that he meant to
+say <i>alternately</i>.</p>
+<p>I have often referred to the ancient clerkly method of giving
+out the hymns. It was a terrible blow to the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-177"></a>[pg 177]</span> clerk when the
+parsons began to interfere with his prerogative and give out the
+hymns themselves. All clerks did not revenge themselves on the
+usurpers of their ancient right as did one of their number, who was
+very indignant when a strange clergyman insisted on giving out the
+hymns himself. In due course he gave out "the fifty-third hymn,"
+when out popped the old clerk's head from under the red curtains
+which hung round the gallery, and which gave him the appearance of
+wearing a nightcap, and he shouted, "That a baint! A be the
+varty-zeventh."</p>
+<p>The following account of a notice, which was scarcely
+authorised, shows the homely manners of former days. It was at
+Sapiston Church, a small village on the Duke of Grafton's estate.
+The grandfather of the present Duke was returning from a shooting
+expedition, and was passing the church on Sunday afternoon while
+service was going on. The Duke quietly entered the vestry, and
+signed to the clerk to come to him. The Duke gave the man a hare,
+and told him to put it into the parson's trap, and give a
+complimentary message about it at the end of the service. But the
+clerk, knowing his master would be pleased at the little attention,
+could not refrain from delivering both hare and message at once
+before the whole congregation. At the close of the hymn before the
+sermon he marched into a prominent position holding up the gift,
+and shouted out, "His Grace's compliments, and, please sir, he's
+sent ye a hare."</p>
+<p>In giving out the hymns or Psalms many difficulties of
+pronunciation would often arise. One clerk had many struggles over
+the line, "Awed by Thy gracious word." He could not manage that
+tiresome first word, and always called it "a wed." The old metrical
+version <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-178"></a>[pg
+178]</span> of the Psalm, "Like as the hart desireth the
+water-brooks," etc. is still with us, and a beautiful hymn it
+is:</p>
+<blockquote>"As pants the hart for cooling streams<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;When heated in the chase."</blockquote>
+<p>A Northumbrian clerk used to give out the words thus:</p>
+<blockquote>"As pants the 'art for coolin' streams<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;When 'eated in the chaise,"</blockquote>
+<p>which seems to foreshadow the triumph of modern civilisation,
+the carted deer, a mode of stag-hunting that was scarcely
+contemplated by Tate and Brady.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-179"></a>[pg 179]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h3>SLEEPY CHURCH AND SLEEPY CLERKS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>There was a time when the Church of England seemed to be asleep.
+Perhaps it may have been that "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy
+sleep," was only preparing her exhausted energies for the unwonted
+activities of the last half-century; or was it the sleep that
+presaged death? Her enemies told her so in plain and unvarnished
+language. Her friends, too, said that she was folding her robes to
+die with what dignity she could. Lethargy, sloth, sleep--a dead,
+dull, dreary sleep--fell like a leaden pall upon her spiritual
+life, darkening the light that shone but vaguely through the
+storied panes of her medi&aelig;val windows, while a paralysing
+numbness crippled her limbs and quenched her activity.</p>
+<p>Such scenes as Archbishop Benson describes as his early
+recollection of Upton, near Droitwich, were not uncommon. The
+church was aisleless, and the middle passage, with high pews on
+each side, led up to the chancel-arch, in which was a
+"three-decker," fifteen feet high. The clerk wore a wig and immense
+horn spectacles. He was a shoemaker, dressed in black, with a white
+tie. In the gallery sat "the music"--a clarionet, flute, violin,
+and 'cello. The clerk gave out the "Twentieth Psalm of David," and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-180"></a>[pg 180]</span> the
+fiddlers tuned for a moment and then played at once. Then they
+struck up, and the clerk, absolutely alone, in a majestic voice
+which swayed up and down without regard to time or tune, sang it
+through like the braying of an ass; not a soul else joined in; the
+farmers amused and smiling at each other. Such scenes were quite
+usual.</p>
+<p>In Cornwall affairs were worse. In one church the
+curate-in-charge had to be chained to the altar rails while he read
+the service, as he had a harmless mania, which made him suddenly
+flee from the church if his own activities were for an instant
+suspended, as, for example, by a response. The churchwarden, a
+farmer, kept the padlock-key in his pocket till the service was
+safely over, and then released the imprisoned cleric. At another
+Cornish church the vicar's sister used to read the lessons in a
+deep bass voice.</p>
+<p>Congregations were often very sparse. Few people attended, and
+perhaps none on weekdays, unless the clerk was in his place. On
+such occasions the parson was tempted to emulate the humour of Dean
+Swift, who at the first weekday service that he held after his
+appointment to the living of Laracor, in the diocese of Meath,
+after waiting for some time in vain for a congregation, began the
+service, addressing his clerk, "Dearly beloved Roger, the scripture
+moveth you and me in sundry places," etc.</p>
+<p>When the Psalms were read, you heard the first verse read in a
+mellifluous and cultured voice. Perhaps it was the evening of the
+twenty-eighth day of the month, and you listened to the sacred
+words of Psalm cxxxvii., "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and
+wept, when we remembered thee, O Sion." Then followed a bellow from
+a raucous throat: "Has <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-181"></a>[pg 181]</span> fur ur 'arp, we 'anged 'em hup hupon
+the trees that hare thurin." And then at the end of the Lord's
+Prayer, after every one had finished, the same voice came drowsily
+cantering in: "For hever and hever, Haymen." Sometimes we heard,
+"Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the 'undred and
+sixtieth Psalm--<i>'Ymn 'ooever."</i> The numbers of the hymns or
+Psalms were scored on the two sides of a slate. Sometimes the
+functionary in the gallery forgot to turn the slate after the first
+hymn. "Let us sing," began the clerk--(pause)--"Turn the slate,
+will you, if you please, Master Scroomes?" he continued, addressing
+the neglectful person.</p>
+<p>The singing was no mechanical affair of official routine--it was
+a drama. "As the moment of psalmody approached a slate appeared in
+front of the gallery, advertising in bold characters the Psalm
+about to be sung. The clerk gave out the Psalm, and then migrated
+to the gallery, where in company with a bassoon and two key-bugles,
+a carpenter understood to have an amazing power of singing
+'counter,' and two lesser musical stars, formed the choir. Hymns
+were not known. The New Version was regarded with melancholy
+tolerance. 'Sternhold and Hopkins' formed the main source of
+musical tastes. On great occasions the choir sang an anthem, in
+which the key-bugles always ran away at a great pace, while the
+bassoon every now and then boomed a flying shot after them." It was
+all very curious, very quaint, very primitive. The Church was
+asleep, and cared not to disturb the relics of old crumbling
+inefficiency. The Church was asleep, the congregation slept, and
+the clerk often slept too.</p>
+<p>Hogarth's engraving of <i>The Sleeping Congregation</i>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-182"></a>[pg 182]</span> is a
+parable of the state of the Church of England in his day. It is a
+striking picture truly. The parson is delivering a long and drowsy
+discourse on the text: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and I
+will give you rest." The congregation is certainly resting, and the
+pulpit bears the appropriate verse: "I am afraid of you, lest I
+have bestowed upon you labour in vain." The clerk is attired in his
+cassock and bands, contrives to keep one eye awake during the
+sermon, and this wakeful eye rests upon a comely fat matron, who is
+fast asleep, and has evidently been meditating "on matrimony," as
+her open book declares. A sleepy church, sleepy congregation,
+sleepy times!</p>
+<p>Many stories are told of dull and sleepy clerks.</p>
+<p>A canon of a northern cathedral tells me of one such clerk,
+whose duty it was, when the rector finished his sermon, to say
+"Amen." On a summer afternoon, this aged official was overtaken
+with drowsiness, and as soon as the clergyman had given out his
+text, slept the sleep of the just. Sermons in former years were
+remarkable for their length and many divisions.</p>
+<p>After the "firstly" was concluded, the preacher paused. The
+clerk, suddenly awaking, thought that the discourse was concluded,
+and pronounced his usual "Arummen." The congregation rose, and the
+service came to a close. As the gathering dispersed, the squire
+slipped half a crown into the clerk's hand, and whispered: "Thomas,
+you managed that very well, and deserve a little present. I will
+give you the same next time."</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image26.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image26.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image26.jpg" width="50%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Sleeping Congregation By Hogarth</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>At Eccleshall, near Sheffield, the clerk, named Thompson, had
+been, in the days of his youth, a good cricketer, and always acted
+as umpire for the village <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-183"></a>[pg 183]</span> team. One hot Sunday morning, the
+sermon being very long, old Thompson fell asleep. His dream was of
+his favourite game; for when the parson finished his discourse and
+waited for the clerk's "Amen," old Thompson awoke, and, to the
+amazement of the congregation, shouted out "Over!" After all, he
+was no worse than the cricketing curate who, after reading the
+first lesson, announced: "Here endeth the first innings."</p>
+<p>Every one has heard of that Irish clerk who used to snore so
+loudly during the sermon that he drowned the parson's voice. The
+old vicar, being of a good-natured as well as a somewhat humorous
+turn of mind, devised a plan for arousing his lethargic clerk. He
+provided himself with a box of hard peas, and when the well-known
+snore echoed through the church, he quietly dropped one of the peas
+on the head of the offender, who was at once aroused to the sense
+of his duties, and uttered a loud "Amen."</p>
+<p>This plan acted admirably for a time, but unfortunately the
+parson was one day carried away by his eloquence, gesticulated
+wildly, and dropped the whole box of peas on the head of the
+unfortunate clerk. The result was such a strenuous chorus of
+"Amens," that the laughter of the congregation could not be
+restrained, and the peas were abolished and consigned to the limbo
+of impractical inventions. Possibly the story may be an invention
+too.</p>
+<p>One of the causes which tended to the unpopularity of the Church
+was the accession of George IV to the throne of England. "Church
+and King" were so closely connected in the mind of the people that
+the sins of the monarch were visited on the former, and deemed to
+have brought some discredit on it. Moreover, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-184"></a>[pg 184]</span> the King by his
+first act placed the loyal members of the Church in some
+difficulty, and that was the order to expunge the name of the
+ill-used, if erring, Queen Caroline from the Prayers for the Royal
+Family in the Book of Common Prayer.</p>
+<p>One good clergyman, Dr. Parr, vicar of Hatton, placed an
+interesting record in his Prayer Book after the required erasure:
+"It is my duty as a subject and as an ecclesiastic to read what is
+prescribed by my Sovereign as head of the Church, but it is not my
+duty to express my approbation." The sympathy of the people was
+with the injured Queen, and they knew not how much the clergy
+agreed with them. During the trial popular excitement ran high. In
+a Berkshire village the parish clerk "improved the occasion" by
+giving out in church "the first, fourth, eleventh, and twelfth
+verses of the thirty-fifth Psalm" in Tate and Brady's New
+Version:</p>
+<blockquote>"False witnesses with forged complaints<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Against my truth combined,<br>
+And to my charge such things they laid<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;As I had ne'er designed."</blockquote>
+<p>These words he sang most lustily.</p>
+<p>Cowper mentions a similar application of psalmody to political
+affairs in his <i>Task</i>:</p>
+<blockquote>"So in the chapel of old Ely House<br>
+When wandering Charles who meant to be the third,<br>
+Had fled from William, and the news was fresh,<br>
+The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce,<br>
+And eke did rear right merrily, two staves<br>
+Sung to the praise and glory of King George."</blockquote>
+<p>It was not an unusual thing for a parish clerk to select a psalm
+suited to the occasion when any special excitement gave him an
+opportunity. Branston, the satirist, in his <i>Art of Politicks</i>
+published in 1729, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-185"></a>[pg
+185]</span> alluded to this misapplication of psalmody occasionally
+made by parish clerks in the lines:</p>
+<blockquote>"Not long since parish clerks with saucy airs<br>
+Apply'd King David's psalms to State affairs."</blockquote>
+<p>In order to avoid this unfortunate habit, a country rector in
+Devonshire compiled in 1725 "Twenty-six Psalms of Thanksgiving,
+Praise, Love, and Glory, for the use of a parish church, with the
+omission of all the imprecatory psalms, lest a parish clerk or any
+other should be whetting his spleen, or obliging his spite, when he
+should be entertaining his devotion."</p>
+<p>Sometimes the clerks ventured to apply the verses of the Psalms
+to their own private needs and requirements, so as to convey gentle
+hints and suggestions to the ears of those who could supply their
+needs. Canon Ridgeway tells of the old clerk of the Church of King
+Charles the Martyr at Tunbridge Wells. His name was Jenner. He was
+a well-known character; he used to have a pipe and pitch the tune,
+and also select the hymns. It was commonly said that the
+congregation always knew when the lodgings in his house on Mount
+Sion were unlet; for when this was the case he was wont to give out
+the Psalm:</p>
+<blockquote>"Mount Sion is a pleasant place to dwell."</blockquote>
+<p>At Great Yarmouth, until about the year 1850, the parish clerk
+was always invited to the banquets or "feasts" given by the
+corporation of the borough; and he was honoured annually with a
+card of invitation to the "mayor's feast" on Michaelmas Day. On one
+occasion the mayor-elect had omitted to send a card to the clerk,
+Mr. David Absolon, who was clerk from 1811 to 1831, and had been a
+member of the corporation and common councillor previous to his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-186"></a>[pg 186]</span>
+appointment to his ecclesiastical office. On the following Sunday,
+Master David Absolon reminded his worship of his remissness by
+giving out the following verse, directing his voice at the same
+time to the mayor-elect:</p>
+<blockquote>Let David his accustomed place<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;In thy remembrance find."</blockquote>
+<p>The words in Tate and Brady's metrical version of Psalm cxxxii.
+run thus:</p>
+<blockquote>"Let David, Lord, a constant place<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;In Thy remembrance find <a name=
+"FNanchor73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73">[73]</a>."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_73"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor73">[73]</a> <i>History of St. Nicholas' Church, Great
+Yarmouth</i>, by the present Clerk, Mr. Edward J. Lupson, p.
+24.</blockquote>
+<p>In the same town great excitement used to attend the election of
+the mayor on 29 August in each year. Before the election the
+corporation attended service in the parish church, and the clerk on
+these occasions gave out for singing "the first two staves of the
+fifteenth Psalm:</p>
+<blockquote>"Lord, who's the happy man," etc.</blockquote>
+<p>The passing of the Municipal Act changed the manner and time of
+the election, but it did not take away the interest felt in the
+event. As long as Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms was used
+in the church, that is until the year 1840, these "two staves" were
+annually sung on the Sunday preceding the election <a name=
+"FNanchor74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74">[74]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_74"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor74">[74]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 23.</blockquote>
+<p>In these days of reverent worship it seems hardly possible that
+the beautiful expressions in the psalms of praise to Almighty God
+should ever have been prostituted to the baser purposes of private
+gain or municipal elections.</p>
+<p>Sleepy times and sleepy clerks--and yet these were not always
+sleepy; in fact, far too lively, riotous, and unruly. At least, so
+the poor rector of Hayes found <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-187"></a>[pg 187]</span> them in the middle of the eighteenth
+century. Such conduct in church is scarcely credible as that which
+was witnessed in this not very remote parish church in not very
+remote times. The registers of the parish of Hayes tell the story
+in plain language. On 18 March, 1749, "the clerk gave out the 100th
+Psalm, and the singers immediately opposed him, and sung the 15th,
+and bred a disturbance. <i>The clerk then ceased</i>." Poor man,
+what else could he have done, with a company of brawling, bawling
+singers shouting at him from the gallery! On another occasion
+affairs were worse, the ringers and others disturbing the service,
+from the beginning of the service to the end of the sermon, by
+ringing the bells and going into the gallery to spit below. On
+another occasion a fellow came into church with a pot of beer and a
+pipe, and remained smoking in his pew until the end of the sermon
+<a name="FNanchor75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75">[75]</a>. <i>O
+tempora! O mores!</i> as some disconsolate clergymen wrote in their
+registers when the depravity of the times was worse than usual. The
+slumbering congregation of Hogarth's picture would have been a
+comfort to the distracted parson.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_75"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor75">[75]</a> <i>Antiquary</i>, vol. xviii, p. 65. Quoted
+in <i>Social Life as told by Parish Registers</i>, p.
+54.</blockquote>
+<p>To prevent people from sleeping during the long sermons a
+special officer was appointed, in order to banish slumber when the
+parson was long in preaching. This official was called a
+sluggard-waker, and was usually our old friend the parish clerk
+with a new title. Several persons, perhaps reflecting in their last
+moments on all the good advice which they had missed through
+slumbering during sermon time, have bequeathed money for the
+support of an officer who should perambulate the church, and call
+to attention <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-188"></a>[pg
+188]</span> any one who, through sleep, was missing the preacher's
+timely admonition. Richard Dovey, of Farmcote, in 1659 left
+property at Claverley, Shropshire, with the condition that eight
+shillings should be paid to, and a room provided for, a poor man,
+who should undertake to awaken sleepers, and to whip out dogs from
+the church of Claverley during divine service <a name=
+"FNanchor76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76">[76]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_76"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor76">[76]</a> <i>Old English Customs and Curious
+Bequests</i>, S.H. Edwards (1842), p. 220.</blockquote>
+<p>John Rudge, of Trysull, Staffordshire, left a like bequest to a
+poor man to go about the parish church of Trysull during sermon to
+keep people awake, and to keep dogs out of church <a name=
+"FNanchor77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77">[77]</a>. Ten shillings a
+year is paid by a tenant of Sir John Bridges, at Chislett, Kent, as
+a charge on lands called Dog-whipper's Marsh, to a person for
+keeping order in the church during service <a name=
+"FNanchor78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78">[78]</a>, and from time
+immemorial an acre of land at Peterchurch, Herefordshire, was
+appropriated to the use of a person for keeping dogs out of church,
+such person being appointed by the minister and churchwardens.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_77"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor77">[77]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 221.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_78"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor78">[78]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 222.</blockquote>
+<p>Mr. W. Andrews, Librarian of the Hull Institute, has collected
+in his <i>Curiosities of the Church</i> much information concerning
+sluggard-wakers and dog-whippers. The clerk in one church used a
+long staff, at one end of which was a fox's brush for gently
+arousing a somnolent female, while at the other end was a knob for
+a more forcible awakening of a male sleeper. The Dunchurch
+sluggard-waker used a stout wand with a fork at the end of it.
+During the sermon he stepped stealthily up and down the nave and
+aisles and into the gallery marking down his prey. And no one
+resented his forcible awakenings.</p>
+<p>The sluggard-waker and dog-whipper appear in many old
+churchwardens' account-books. Thus in the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-189"></a>[pg 189]</span> accounts of
+Barton-on-Humber there is an entry for the year 1740: "Paid
+Brocklebank for waking sleepers 2 s. 0." At Castleton the officer
+in 1722 received 10 s. 0 <a name="FNanchor79"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_79">[79]</a>. The clerk in his capacity of dog-whipper
+had often arduous duties to perform in the old dale churches of
+Yorkshire when farmers and shepherds frequently brought their dogs
+to church. The animals usually lay very quietly beneath their
+masters' seat, but occasionally there would be a scrimmage and
+fight, and the clerk's staff was called into play to beat the dogs
+and produce order.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_79"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor79">[79]</a> The reader will find numerous entries
+relating to this subject in the work of Mr. W. Andrews to which I
+have referred.</blockquote>
+<p>Why dogs should have been ruthlessly and relentlessly whipped
+out of churches I can scarcely tell. The Highland shepherd's dog
+usually lies contentedly under his master's seat during a long
+service, and even an archbishop's collie, named Watch, used to be
+very still and well-behaved during the daily service, only once
+being roused to attention and a stately progress to the lectern by
+the sound of his master's voice reading the verse "I say unto all,
+Watch." But our ancestors made war against dogs entering churches.
+In medi&aelig;val and Elizabethan times such does not seem to have
+been the case, as one of the duties of the clerks in those days was
+to make the church clean from the "shomeryng of dogs." The nave of
+the church was often used for secular purposes, and dogs followed
+their masters. Mastiffs were sometimes let loose in the church to
+guard the treasures, and I believe that I am right in stating that
+chancel rails owe their origin to the presence of dogs in churches,
+and were erected to prevent them from entering the sanctuary. Old
+Scarlett bears a dog-whip as a badge of his office, and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-190"></a>[pg 190]</span>
+numerous bequests to dog-whippers show the importance of the
+office.</p>
+<p>Nor were dogs the only creatures who were accustomed to receive
+chastisement in church. The clerk was usually armed with a cane or
+rod, and woe betide the luckless child who talked or misbehaved
+himself during service. Frequently during the course of a long
+sermon the sound of a cane (the Tottenham clerk had a split cane
+which made no little noise when used vigorously) striking a boy's
+back was heard and startled a sleepy congregation. It was all quite
+usual. No one objected, or thought anything about it, and the
+sermon proceeded as if nothing had happened. Paul Wootton, clerk at
+Bromham, Wilts, seventy years ago performed various duties during
+the service, taking his part in the gallery among the performers as
+bass, flute serpent, an instrument unknown now, etc., pronouncing
+his Amen <i>ore rotundo</i> and during the sermon armed with a long
+stick sitting among the children to preserve order. If any one of
+the small creatures felt that <i>opere in longo fas est obrepere
+somnum</i>, the long stick fell with unerring whack upon the
+urchin's head. When Mr. Stracey Clitherow went to his first curacy
+at Skeyton, Norfolk, in 1845, he found the clerk sweeping the whole
+chancel clear of snow which had fallen through the roof. The font
+was of wood painted orange and red. The singers sat within the
+altar rails with a desk for their books inside the rails. There was
+a famous old clerk, named Bird, who died only a year or two ago,
+aged ninety, and, as Mr. Clitherow informed Bishop Stanley, was the
+best man in the parish, and was well worthy of that character.</p>
+<p>Even in London churches unfortunate events happened, and
+somnolent clerks were not confined to the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-191"></a>[pg 191]</span> country. A
+correspondent remembers that in 1860, when St.
+Martin's-in-the-Fields was closed for the purpose of redecorating,
+his family migrated to St. Matthew's Chapel, Spring Gardens
+(recently demolished), where one hot Sunday evening one of the
+curates of St. Martin's was preaching, and in the course of his
+sermon said that it was the duty of the laity to pray that God
+would "endue His ministers with righteousness." The clerk was at
+the moment sound asleep, but suddenly aroused by the familiar
+words, which acted like a bugle call to a slumbering soldier, he at
+once slid down on the hassock at his feet and uttered the response
+"And make Thy chosen people joyful." My informant remarks that the
+"chosen people" who were present became "joyful" to an unseemly
+degree, in spite of strenuous efforts to restrain their
+feelings.</p>
+<p>Sometimes the clerk was not the only sleeper. A tenor soloist of
+Wednesbury Old Church eighty years ago used to tell the story of
+the vicar of Wednesbury, who one very sultry afternoon retired into
+the vestry, which was under the western tower, to don his black
+gown while a hymn was being sung by the expectant congregation. The
+hymn having been sung through, and the preacher not having returned
+to ascend the pulpit, the clerk gave out the last verse again.
+Still no parson. Then he started the hymn, directing it to be sung
+all through again; but still the vicar returned not. At last in
+desperation he gave out that they "would now sing," etc. etc., the
+119th Psalm. Mercifully before they had all sunk back into their
+seats exhausted the long-lost parson made his hurried reappearance.
+The poor old gentleman had dropped into an arm-chair in the vestry,
+and overcome by the heat had fallen soundly asleep. As to the
+clerk, he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-192"></a>[pg
+192]</span> could not leave his seat to go in search of him; there
+was no precedent for both vicar and clerk to be away from the
+three-decker before the service was brought to a close.</p>
+<p>The old clerk is usually intensely loyal to the Church and to
+his clergyman, but there have been some exceptions. An example of a
+disloyal clerk comes from the neighbourhood of Barnstaple.</p>
+<p>A parish clerk, apparently religious and venerable, held his
+position in a village church in that district for thirty years. He
+carried out his duties with regularity and thoroughness equalled
+only by the parish priest. This old clerk would frequently make
+remarks--not altogether pleasing--about Nonconformists, whom he
+summed up as a lot of "mithudy n&uuml;zenses" (methodist
+nuisances).</p>
+<p>A new rector came and brought with him new ideas. The parish
+clerk would not be required for the future. As soon as the old
+clerk heard this he attached himself to a local dissenting body and
+joined with them to worship in their small chapel. This, after
+thirty years' service in the Church and a bitter feeling against
+Nonconformists, is rather remarkable.</p>
+<p>In the forties there was a sleepy clerk at Hampstead, a very
+portly man, who did ample justice to his bright red waistcoat and
+brass buttons. The church had a model old-time three-decker. The
+lower deck was occupied by the clerk, the upper deck by the reader,
+and the quarter-deck by the preacher. The clerk, during the sermon,
+would often fall asleep and make known his state by a snore. Then
+the reader would tap his bald head with a hymn-book, whereupon he
+would wake up and startle the congregation by a loud and prolonged
+"Ah-men."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-193"></a>[pg 193]</span>
+<p>We are accustomed now to have our churches beautifully decorated
+with flowers and fruits and holly and evergreens at the great
+festivals and harvest thanksgiving services. Sometimes on the
+latter occasions our decorations are perhaps a little too
+elaborate, and remind one of a horticultural show. No such charge
+could be brought against the old-fashioned method of church
+decoration. Christmas was the only season when it was attempted,
+and sprigs of holly stuck at the corners of the old square pews in
+little holes made for the purpose were always deemed sufficient.
+This was always the duty of the clerk. Later on, when a country
+church was found to be elaborately decorated for Christmas and the
+clerk was questioned on the subject, he replied, shaking his head,
+"Ah! we're getting a little High Church now." At Langport,
+Somerset, the pews were similarly adorned on Palm Sunday with
+sprigs of the catkins from willow trees to represent palms.</p>
+<p>I have already mentioned some instances of clerks who were
+sometimes elated by the dignity of the office and full of conceit.
+Wesley enjoyed the experience of having a conceited clerk at
+Epworth, who not only was proud of his singing and other
+accomplishments, but also of his personal appearance. He delighted
+to wear Wesley's old clerical clothes and especially his wig, which
+was much too big for the insignificant clerk's head. John Wesley
+must have had a sense of humour, though perhaps it might have been
+exhibited in a more appropriate place. However, he was determined
+to humble his conceited clerk, and said to him one Sunday morning,
+"John, I shall preach on a particular subject this morning, and
+shall choose my own psalm, of which I will give out the first line,
+and you will proceed and repeat the next as usual." When
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-194"></a>[pg 194]</span> the
+time for psalmody arrived Wesley gave out, "Like to an owl in ivy
+bush," and the clerk immediately responded, "That rueful thing am
+I." The members of the congregation looked up and saw his small
+head half-buried in his large wig, and could not restrain their
+smiles. The clerk was mortified and the rector gratified that he
+should have been taught a lesson and learned to be less vain.</p>
+<p>Old-fashioned ways die hard. Only seven years ago the incumbent
+of a small Somerset parish found when in the pulpit that he had
+left his spectacles at home. Casting a shrewd glance around, he
+perceived just below him, well within reach, one of his
+parishioners who was wearing a large pair of what in rustic circles
+are termed "barnacles" tied behind his head. Stretching down, the
+parson plucked them from the astonished owner's brow, and, fitting
+them on his clerical nose, proceeded to deliver his discourse.
+Thenceforward the clerk, doubtless fearing for his own glasses,
+never failed to carry to church a second pair wherewith to supply,
+if need be, his coadjutor's shortcomings.</p>
+<p>Another and final story of sleepy manners comes to us from the
+north country. A short-sighted clergyman of what is known as the
+"old school" was preaching one winter afternoon to a slumberous
+congregation. Dusk was falling, the church was badly lighted, and
+his manuscript difficult to decipher. He managed to stumble along
+until he reached a passage which he rendered as follows:
+"Enthusiasm, my brethren, enthusiasm in a good cause is an
+excellent--excellent quality, but unless it is tempered with
+judgment, it is apt to lead us--apt to lead us--Here, Thomas,"
+handing the sermon to the clerk, "go to the window and see what it
+is apt to lead us into."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-195"></a>[pg 195]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<h3>THE CLERK IN ART</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The finest portrait ever painted of a parish clerk is that of
+Orpin, clerk of Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts, whose interesting old
+house still stands near the grand parish church and the beautiful
+little Saxon ecclesiastical structure. This picture is the work of
+Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., and is now happily preserved in the
+National Gallery. Orpin has a fine and noble face upon which the
+sunlight is shining through a window as he turns from the Divine
+Book to see the glories of the blue sky.</p>
+<blockquote>"Some word of life e'en now has met<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;His calm benignant eye;<br>
+Some ancient promise breathing yet<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Of immortality.<br>
+Some heart's deep language which the glow<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Of faith unwavering gives;<br>
+And every feature says 'I know<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;That my Redeemer lives.'"</blockquote>
+<p>The size of this canvas is four feet by three feet two inches.
+Orpin is wearing a blue coat, black vest, white neck-cloth, and
+dark breeches. His hair is grey and curly, and falls upon his
+shoulders. He sits on a gilt-nailed chair at a round wooden table,
+on which is a reading-easel, supporting a large volume bound in
+dark green, and labelled "Bible, Vol. I." The background is warm
+brown.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-196"></a>[pg 196]</span>
+<p>Of this picture a critic states: "The very noble character of
+the worthy old clerk's head was probably an additional inducement
+to Gainsborough to paint the picture, Seldom does so fine a subject
+present itself to the portrait painter, and Gainsborough evidently
+sought to do justice to his venerable model by unusual and striking
+effect of lighting, and by more than ordinary care in execution. It
+might almost seem like impertinence to eulogise such painting, as
+this canvas contains painting which, unlike the works of Reynolds,
+seems fresh and pure as the day it left the easel; and it would be
+still more futile to attempt to define the master's method."</p>
+<p>The history of the portrait is interesting. It was painted at
+Shockerwick, near Bradford, where Wiltshire, the Bath carrier,
+lived, who loved art so much that he conveyed to London
+Gainsborough's pictures from the year 1761 to 1774 entirely free of
+charge. The artist rewarded him by presenting him with some of his
+paintings, <i>The Return from Harvest, The Gipsies' Repast</i>, and
+probably this portrait of Orpin was one of his gifts. It was sold
+at Christie's in 1868 by a descendant of the art-loving carrier,
+and purchased for the nation by Mr. Boxall for the low sum of
+&pound;325.</p>
+<p>The medi&aelig;val clerk appears in many ancient manuscripts and
+illuminations, which show us, better than words can describe, the
+actual duties which he was called upon to perform. The British
+Museum possesses a number of pontificals and other illustrated
+manuscripts containing artistic representations of clerks. We see
+him accompanying the priest who is taking the last sacrament to the
+sick. He is carrying a taper and a bell, which he is evidently
+ringing as he goes, its tones asking for the prayers of the
+faithful for the sick <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-197"></a>[pg 197]</span> man's soul. This picture occurs in a
+fourteenth-century MS. [6 E. VI, f. 427], and in the same MS. we
+see another illustration of the priest administering the last
+sacrament attended by the clerk [6 E. VII, f. 70].</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image27.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image27.jpg" width="30%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>The Clerk Attending The Priest At Holy Baptism</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="image28.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><img src="images/image28.jpg" width="30%" alt=
+""><br>
+<b>The Clerk Attending The Priest At Holy Baptism</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Another illustration shows the priest baptizing an infant which
+the male sponsor holds over the font, while the priest pours water
+over its head from a shallow vessel. The faithful parish clerk
+stands by the priest. This appears in the fifteenth-century MS.
+Egerton, 2019, f. 135.</p>
+<p>In the MS. of Froissart's Chronicle there is an illustration of
+the coronation procession of Charles V of France. The clerk goes
+before the cross-bearer and the bishop bearing his holy-water
+vessel and his sprinkler for the purpose of aspersing the
+spectators. We have already given two illustrations taken from a
+fourteenth-century MS. in the British Museum, which depict the
+clerk, as the <i>aqu&aelig;bajalus</i>, entering the lord's house
+and going first into the kitchen to sprinkle the cook with holy
+water, and then into the hall to perform a like duty to the lord
+and lady as they sit at dinner.</p>
+<p>There is a fine picture in a French pontifical of the fifteenth
+century, which is in the British Museum (Tiberius, B. VIII, f. 43),
+of the anointing and coronation of a king of France. An
+ecclesiastical procession is represented meeting the king and his
+courtiers at the door of the cathedral of Rheims, and amongst the
+dignitaries we see the clerk bearing the holy-water vessel, the
+cross-bearer, and the thurifer swinging his censer. The clerk wears
+a surplice over a red tunic.</p>
+<p>One other of these medi&aelig;val representations of the clerk's
+duties may be mentioned. It is a fifteenth-century <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-198"></a>[pg 198]</span> French MS. in the
+British Museum (Egerton, 2019, f. 142), and represents the last
+scenes of this mortal life. The absolution of the penitent, the
+administration of the last sacrament, the woman mourning for her
+husband and arranging the grave-clothes, the singing of the dirige,
+the burial, and the reception of the soul of the departed by our
+Lord in glory. The clerk appears in several of these scenes. He is
+kneeling behind the priest in the administration of the last
+sacrament. Robed in surplice and cope he is chanting the Psalms for
+the departed, and at the burial he is holding the holy-water vessel
+for the asperging of the corpse.</p>
+<p>There are several paintings by English artists which represent
+the old-fashioned clerk in all his glory in his throne in the
+lowest seat of the "three-decker." Perhaps the most striking is the
+satirical sketch of the pompous eighteenth-century clerk as shown
+in Hogarth's engraving of <i>The Sleeping Congregation</i>, to
+which I have already referred. As a contrast to Hogarth's
+<i>Sleeping Congregation</i> we may place Webster's famous painting
+of a village choir, which is thoroughly life-like and inspiring.
+The old clerk with enrapt countenance is singing lustily. The
+musicians are performing on the 'cello, clarionet, and hautboy, and
+the singers are chanting very earnestly and very vigorously the
+strains of some familiar melody. The picture is a very exact
+presentment of an old village choir of the better sort.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image29.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image29.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image29.jpg" width="50%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Duties Of A Clerk At A Death And Funeral</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="image30.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image30.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image30.jpg" width="80%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Vicar Of Wakefield By W.P. Frith</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>It was perhaps such a choir as this that an aged friend
+remembers in a remote Cornish village. It was a mixed choir, led by
+a 'cello, flute, and clarionet. Tate and Brady's version of the
+Psalms was used alternately with a favourite anthem arranged by
+some of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-199"></a>[pg
+199]</span> the members. "We'll wash our hands," the basses led off
+in stentorian tones. Then the tenors followed. Then the trebles in
+shrill voices--"washed hands." Finally, after a pause, the whole
+choir shouted triumphantly, "in innocenc<i>ee</i>"; and the
+congregation bore it, my friend na&iuml;vely remarks. The orchestra
+on one occasion struck work. Only the clerk, who played his 'cello,
+remained faithful. To prove his loyalty he appeared as usual, gave
+out a hymn of many verses, and sang it through in his clear bass
+voice, to the accompaniment of his instrument.</p>
+<p>It was not an unusual thing for the clerk to be the only
+chorister in a village church, and then sometimes strange things
+happened. There was a favourite tune which required the first half
+of one of the lines to be repeated thrice. This led to such curious
+utterances as "My own sal," called out lustily three times, and
+then finished with "My own salvation's rock to praise." The
+thrice-repeated "My poor poll" was no less striking, but it was
+only a prelude to "My poor polluted heart." A chorus of women and
+girls in the west gallery sang lustily, "Oh for a man," <i>bis,
+bis</i>--a pause--"A mansion in the skies." Another clerk sang "And
+in the pie" three times, supplementing it with "And in the pious He
+delights." Another bade his hearers "Stir up this stew," but he was
+only referring to "This stupid heart of mine." Yet another sang
+lustily "Take Thy pill," but when the line was completed it was
+heard to be "Take Thy pilgrim home."</p>
+<p>Returning to the artistic presentment of clerks, there is a fine
+sketch of one in Frith's famous painting of the Vicar of Wakefield,
+whose gentle manners and loving character as conceived by Goldsmith
+are admirably depicted by the artist. Near the vicar stands
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-200"></a>[pg 200]</span> the
+faithful clerk, a dear old man, who is scarcely less reverend than
+his vicar.</p>
+<p>There is an old print of a portion of the church of St.
+Margaret, Westminster, which shows the Carolian "three-decker," a
+very elaborate structure, crowned by a huge sounding-board. The
+clergyman is officiating in the reading desk, and a very
+nice-looking old clerk, clad in his black gown with bands, sits
+below. There is a pompous beadle with his flowing wig and a mace in
+an adjoining pew, and some members of the congregation appear at
+the foot of the "three-decker," and in the gallery. It is a very
+correct representation of the better sort of old-fashioned
+service.</p>
+<p>The hall of the Parish Clerks' Company possesses several
+portraits of distinguished members of the profession, which have
+already been mentioned in the chapter relating to the history of
+the fraternity. By the courtesy of the company we are enabled to
+reproduce some of the paintings, and to record some of the
+treasures of art which the fraternity possesses.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image31.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image31.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image31.jpg" width="50%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Portrait Of Richard Hunt</b><br>
+The Restorer Of The Clerks' Almshouses</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-201"></a>[pg 201]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<h3>WOMEN AS PARISH CLERKS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>A woman cannot legally be elected to the office of parish clerk,
+though she may be a sexton. There was the famous case of
+<i>Olive</i> v. <i>Ingram</i> (12 George I) which determined this.
+One Sarah Bly was elected sexton of the parish of St. Botolph
+without Aldersgate by 169 indisputable votes and 40 which were
+given by women who were householders and paid to the church and
+poor, against 174 indisputable votes and 20 given by women for her
+male rival. Sarah Bly was declared elected, and the Court upheld
+the appointment and decreed that women could vote on such
+elections.</p>
+<p>Cuthbert Bede states that in 1857 there were at least three
+female sextons, or "sextonesses," in the City of London, viz.: Mrs.
+Crook at St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury; Mrs. E. Worley at St.
+Laurence, Jewry, King Street; and Mrs. Stapleton at St. Michael's,
+Wood Street. In 1867 Mrs. Noble was sextoness of St. John the
+Baptist, Peterborough. The <i>Annual Register</i> for 1759 mentions
+an extraordinary centenarian sextoness:</p>
+<blockquote>Died, April 30th, Mary Hall, sexton of Bishop Hill,
+York City, aged one hundred and five; she walked about and retained
+her senses till within three days of her death.</blockquote>
+<p>Evidently the duties of her office had not worn out the stalwart
+old dame.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-202"></a>[pg 202]</span>
+<p>Although legally a woman may not perform the duties of a parish
+clerk, there have been numerous instances of female holders of the
+office. In the census returns it is not quite unusual to see the
+names of women returned as parish clerks, and we have many who
+discharge the duties of churchwarden, overseer, rate-collector, and
+other parochial offices.</p>
+<p>One Ann Hopps was parish clerk of Linton about the year 1770,
+but nothing is known of her by her descendants except her name.
+Madame D'Arblay speaks in her diary of that "poor, wretched, ragged
+woman, a female clerk" who showed her the church of Collumpton,
+Devon. This good woman inherited her office from her deceased
+husband and received the salary, but she did not take the clerk's
+place in the services on Sunday, but paid a man to perform that
+part of her functions.</p>
+<p>The parish register of Totteridge tells of the fame of Elizabeth
+King, who was clerk of that place for forty-six years. The
+following extract tells its own story:</p>
+<blockquote>March 2nd, 1802, buried Elizabeth King, widow, for 46
+years clerk of this parish, in the 91st year of her age, who died
+at Whetstone in the Parish of Finchley, Feb. 24th.<br>
+<br>
+N.B.--This old woman, as long as she was able to attend, did
+constantly, and read on the prayer-days, with great strength and
+pleasure to the hearers, though not in the clerk's place; the desk
+being filled on the Sunday by her son-in-law, Benjamin Withall, who
+did his best <a name="FNanchor80"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_80">[80]</a>.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_80"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor80">[80]</a> Burn's <i>History of Parish Registers</i>,
+p. 129.</blockquote>
+<p>Under the shade of the episcopal palace at Cuddesdon, at
+Wheatley, near Oxford, about sixty-five years ago, a female clerk,
+Mrs. Sheddon, performed the duties of the office which had been
+previously discharged by her husband. At Avington, near Hungerford,
+Berks, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-203"></a>[pg 203]</span>
+Mrs. Poffley was parish clerk for a period of twenty-five years at
+the beginning of the last century. About the same time Mary
+Mountford was parish clerk of Misterton, near Crewkerne,
+Somersetshire, for upwards of thirty years. A female clerk was
+acting at Igburgh, Norfolk, in 1853; and at Sudbrook, near Lincoln,
+in 1830, a woman also officiated and died in the service of the
+Church. Nor was the office confined to rural women of the working
+class. Mr. Ellacombe remembered to have seen "a gentle-woman acting
+as parish clerk of some church in London."</p>
+<p>There are doubtless many other instances of women serving as
+parish clerks, and one of my correspondents remembers a very
+remarkable example.</p>
+<p>In the village of Willoughton, Lincolnshire, more than seventy
+years ago, there lived an old dame named Betty Wells, who
+officiated as parish clerk. For many years Betty sat in the lowest
+compartment of the three-decker pulpit, reading the lessons and
+leading the responses, and, with the exception of ringing the
+church bell, fulfilling all the duties of clerk.</p>
+<p>But Betty was also looked upon as a witch, and several stories
+are told of how she made things very unpleasant for those who
+offended her.</p>
+<p>One day there had been a christening at which Betty had done her
+share; but by some unfortunate oversight she was not invited to the
+feast which took place afterwards. No sooner had the guests seated
+themselves at the table than a great cloud of soot fell down the
+chimney smothering all the good things, so that nothing could be
+eaten. Then, too late, they remembered that Betty Wells had not
+been invited, and perfectly confident were they that she had had
+her revenge by spoiling the feast.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-204"></a>[pg 204]</span>
+<p>One of the farmers let Betty have straw for bedding her pig in
+return for manure. When one of his men came to fetch the manure
+away, she thought he had taken too much. So she warned him that he
+would not go far--neither did he, for the cart tipped right over.
+And that was Betty again!</p>
+<p>We know Betty had a husband, for we hear that one evening when
+he came home from his work his wife had ever so many tailors
+sitting on the table all busily stitching. When John came in they
+vanished.</p>
+<p>A few people still remember Betty Wells, and they shake their
+heads as they say, "Well, you see, the old woman had a very
+queer-looking eye," giving you to understand that it was with that
+particular eye she worked all these wonders.</p>
+<p>The story of Betty Wells has been gleaned from scraps supplied
+by various old people and collected by Miss Frances A. Hill, of
+Willoughton. The unfortunate christening feast took place after the
+baptism of her father, and the story was told to her by an old
+aunt, now dead, who was grown up at the time (1830) and could
+remember it all distinctly. The people who told Miss Hill about
+Betty and her weird witch-like ways fully believed in her
+supernatural powers.</p>
+<p>Another Betty, whose surname was Finch, was employed at the
+beginning of the last century at Holy Trinity Church, Warrington,
+as a "bobber," or sluggard-waker <a name="FNanchor81"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_81">[81]</a>. She was the wife of the clerk, and was
+well fitted on account of her masculine form to perform this duty
+which usually fell to the lot of the parish clerk. She used to
+perambulate the church armed with a long rod, like a fishing-rod,
+which had a "bob" fastened to the end of it. With this instrument
+she <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-205"></a>[pg 205]</span>
+effectually disturbed the peaceful slumbers of any one who was
+overcome with drowsiness. The whole family of Betty was
+ecclesiastically employed, as her son used to sing:</p>
+<blockquote>"My father's a clerk,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;My sister's a singer,<br>
+My mother's a bobber,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And I am a ringer."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_81"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor81">[81]</a> W. Andrews, <i>Curiosities of the
+Church</i>, p. 176.</blockquote>
+<p>One of my correspondents tells of another female clerk who
+officiated in a dilapidated old church with a defective roof, and
+who held an umbrella over the unfortunate clergyman when he was
+reading the service, in order to protect him from the drops of rain
+that poured down upon him.</p>
+<p>Doubtless in country places there are many other churches where
+female clerks have discharged the duties of the office, but history
+has not, as far as I am aware, recorded their names or their
+services. Perhaps in an age in which women have taken upon
+themselves to perform all kinds of work and professional duties
+formerly confined to men alone, we may expect an increase in the
+number of female parish clerks, in spite of legal enactments and
+other absurd restrictions. Since women can be churchwardens, and
+have been so long ago as 1672, sextons, overseers and registrars of
+births, and much else, and even at one time were parish constables,
+it seems that the pleasant duties of a parish clerk might not be
+uncongenial to them, though they be debarred by law from receiving
+the title and rank of the office.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-206"></a>[pg 206]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h3>SOME YORKSHIRE CLERKS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>During many years of the time that the Rev. John Torre occupied
+the rectory of Catwick, Thomas Dixon <a name=
+"FNanchor82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82">[82]</a> was associated
+with him as parish clerk. He is described as a little man,
+old-looking for his age, and in the later years of his life able to
+walk only with difficulty. These peculiarities, however, did not
+prevent his winning a young woman for his wife. Possibly she saw
+the sterling character of the man, and admired and loved him for
+it.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_82"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor82">[82]</a> This account of the clerks Dixon and Fewson
+was sent by the Rev. J. Gaskell Exton, and is published by the
+permission of the editor of the <i>Yorkshire Weekly
+Post</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>Dixon was strongly attached to the rector, so much so, that to
+him neither the rector nor the things belonging to the rector,
+whether animate or inanimate, could do wrong. He had a watch, and
+even though it might not be one of the best, a watch was no small
+acquisition to a working man of his time. He did not live in the
+days of the three-and-sixpenny marvel, or of the half-crown wonder,
+now to be found in the pocket of almost every schoolboy. Dixon's
+watch was of the kind worn by the well-known Captain Cuttle, which
+Dickens describes as being "a silver watch, which was so big and so
+tight in the pocket that it came out like a bung" when its owner
+drew it from the depths to see the time. It must, consequently,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-207"></a>[pg 207]</span> have
+cost many half-crowns, but yet as timekeeper it was somewhat of a
+failure. In this, too, it resembled that of the famous captain of
+which its proud possessor, as everybody knows, used to say, "Put
+you back half-an-hour every morning, and about another quarter
+towards the afternoon, and you've a watch that can be equalled by a
+few and excelled by none." Dixon, therefore, when asked the time of
+day, was usually obliged to go through an arithmetical calculation
+before he could reply.</p>
+<p>On Sunday, however, all was different; he then had no hesitation
+whatever in at once declaring the correct time. For every Sunday
+morning he put his watch by the rector's clock, and it mattered not
+how far the rector's clock might be fast or slow, what that clock
+said was the true time for Dixon. And though the remonstrances of
+the parishioners might be loud and long, they were all in vain, for
+according to the rector's clock he rang the church bells, and so
+the services commenced. He loved the rector, therefore the rector's
+clock could not be wrong. Evidently Dixon was capable of strong
+affection, a quality of no mean moral order.</p>
+<p>Before the enclosure of parishes was common, and their various
+fields separated by hedges or other fences; before, too, the
+ordnance survey with its many calculations was an accomplished
+fact, much more measuring of land in connection with work done each
+year was required than at present. It was a necessity, therefore,
+that each village should have in or near it a man skilled in the
+science of calculation. Consequently, the acquirement of figures
+was fostered, and so in the earlier part of the nineteenth century
+almost every parish could produce a man supposed to be, and who
+probably was, great in arithmetic. Catwick's <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-208"></a>[pg 208]</span> calculator was
+Dixon, and he was generally thought by his co-villagers to be as
+learned a one as any other, if not more so.</p>
+<p>He had, however, a great rival at Long Riston. This was one
+Richard Fewson, who, like Dixon, was clerk of his parish; but while
+Dixon was a shopkeeper Fewson kept the village school.</p>
+<p>Fewson's modes of punishing refractory scholars were somewhat
+peculiar. Either a culprit was hoisted on the back of another
+scholar, or made to stoop till his nose entered a hole in the desk,
+and when in one or other of these positions was made to feel the
+singular sensation caused by a sound caning on that particular part
+of his anatomy which it is said "nature intends for correction."
+Sometimes, too, an offender was made to sit in a small basket, to
+the cross handle of which a rope had been tied, and by this means
+he was hoisted to a beam near the roof of the school. Here he was
+compelled to stay for a longer or shorter period, according to the
+offence, knowing that, if he moved to ease his crippled position,
+the basket would tilt and he would fall to the floor.</p>
+<p>On one occasion, with an exceptionally refractory pupil, his
+mode of punishment was even more peculiar still. Having told all
+the girls to turn their faces to the wall--and not one of them, so
+my informant, one of the boys, said, would dare to disobey the
+order--he chalked the shape of a grave on the floor of the
+schoolroom. He then made the boy, an incorrigible truant, strip off
+all his clothes, and when he stood covered only in nature's dress,
+told him in solemn tones that he was going to bury him alive and
+under the floor. One scholar was then sent for a pick, and when
+this was fetched, another was sent for a shovel. By the time
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-209"></a>[pg 209]</span> they
+were both brought, the truant was in a panic of fear, the end hoped
+for. The master then sternly asked the boy if he would play truant
+again, to which the boy quickly answered no. On this, he was
+allowed to dress, being assured as he did so that if ever again he
+stopped from school without leave he should certainly be buried
+alive, and so great was the dread produced, the boy from that time
+was regularly found at school.</p>
+<p>If parents objected to these punishments, they were simply told
+to take their children from school, which, as Fewson was the only
+master for miles around, he knew they would be loath to do. Fewson
+taught nearly all the children of the district whose parents felt
+it necessary that they should have any education. He is said to
+have turned out good scholars in the three R's, his curriculum
+being limited to these subjects, with, for an extra fee,
+mensuration added.</p>
+<p>But Fewson, if he did not teach it, felt himself to be well up
+in astronomy. One summer, an old boy of his told me, he got the
+children--my informant amongst the number--to collect from their
+parents and others for a trip to Hornsea. When the money was all in
+he complained that the amount was insufficient for a trip, and
+suggested that a telescope he had seen advertised should be bought
+with the money. If this were done, he promised that those who had
+subscribed should have the telescope in turn to look through from
+Saturday to Monday. The telescope was purchased, and each
+subscriber had it once, and then it was no more seen. From that
+time it became the entire property of the master. The children
+never again collected for a trip, and small wonder.</p>
+<p>Fewson was a good singer and musician generally, so in addition
+to his office as clerk he held the <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-210"></a>[pg 210]</span> position of choirmaster. At church
+on Sunday he sat at the west end, the boys of the village sitting
+behind him, and it was part of his duty to see that they behaved
+themselves decorously. Should a boy make any disturbance Fewson's
+hand fell heavily on the offender's ears, and so sharply that the
+sound of the blows could be heard throughout the church. Such
+incidents as this were by no means uncommon in churches in the days
+when Fewson and Dixon flourished, and they were looked upon as
+nothing extraordinary, for small compunction was felt in the
+punishment of unruly urchins.</p>
+<p>I have been told of another clerk, for instance, who dealt such
+severe blows on the heads of boys, who behaved in the least badly,
+with a by no means small stick, that, like Fewson's, they, too,
+resounded all over the church. This clerk was known as "Old Crack
+Skull," and there were many others who might as appropriately have
+borne the name.</p>
+<p>As parish clerk, Fewson attended the Archdeacon's visitation
+with the churchwardens, whose custom it was on each such occasion
+to spend about &pound;3 in eating and drinking. On the appointment
+of a new and reforming churchwarden this expenditure was stopped,
+and for the first time Fewson returned to Riston sober. Here he
+looked at the churchwarden and sorrowfully said, "For thirty years
+I have been to the visitation and always got home drunk; Sally will
+think I haven't been." He then turned into the public-house, and
+afterwards reached home in the condition Sally, his wife, would
+expect.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image32.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image32.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image32.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Church Of St. Margaret, Westminster</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Insobriety was the normal condition of Fewson after school
+hours. It was his invariable custom to visit the public-house each
+evening, where he always found <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-211"></a>[pg 211]</span> a clean pipe and an ounce of tobacco
+ready for him. Here he acted as president of those who forgathered,
+being by virtue of his wisdom readily conceded this position. His
+favourite drink was gin, and of this he imbibed freely; leaving for
+home about ten o'clock, which he found usually only after many a
+stumble and sometimes a fall. He, however, managed to save money,
+with which he built himself a house at Arnold, adorning it, as
+still to be seen, with the carved heads of saints and others,
+begged from the owners of the various ancient ecclesiastical piles
+of the neighbourhood. He died about seventy years ago, and was
+buried at Riston.</p>
+<p>Between Dixon and Fewson there was much friendly strife with
+regard to the solving of hard arithmetical problems. This contest
+was no mere private matter. It was entered into with great zest by
+the men of both the villages concerned; the Catwickians and the
+Ristonians each backing their man to win. "A straw shows which way
+the wind blows," we say, and herein we may feel a breathing of the
+Holderness man's love of his clan, an affection which has done much
+to develop and to strengthen his character.</p>
+<p>Dixon was employed by the harvesters and others to measure the
+land which they had reaped, or on which they had otherwise worked.
+When the different measurements had been taken, he, of course, had
+to find the result. For this, he needed no pen, ink, or paper, nor
+yet a slate and pencil. He made his calculations by a much more
+economic method than these would supply. He sat down in the field
+he had measured, took off his beaver hat, and, using it as a kind
+of blackboard, with a piece of chalk worked out the result of his
+measurements on its crown.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-212"></a>[pg 212]</span>
+<p>Dixon must have been a man of resources, as are most Holderness
+men where the saving of money is concerned. I have heard it said
+that the spirit of economy has so permeated their character that it
+has influenced even their speech. "So saving are they," say some,
+"that the definite article, <i>the</i>, is never used by them in
+their talk." But this is a libel; another and a truer reason may be
+found for the omission in their Scandinavian origin.</p>
+<p>Another parish clerk who held office at a church about five
+miles from Catwick, by trade a tailor, was a noted character and
+remarkable for his parsimonious habits. He is described as having
+been a very little man and of an extremely attenuated appearance.
+The story of his economy during his honeymoon, when the happy pair
+stayed in some cheap town lodgings, is not pleasing.</p>
+<p>His great effort in saving, however, resulted from his sporting
+proclivities. Tailor though he was, he conceived a great desire to
+be a mighty hunter. So strong did this passion burn within him that
+he made up his mind, sooner or later, to hunt, and with the best,
+in a red coat, too. He therefore began to save with this object in
+view. Denying himself every luxury and most other things which are
+usually counted necessaries, for long he lived, it is said, on half
+a salt herring a day with a little bread or a few vegetables in
+addition. By doing so, he was able to put almost all he earned to
+the furtherance of the purpose of his heart. This went on till he
+had saved &pound;200. Then he felt his day was come. He bought a
+horse, made himself the scarlet coat, and went to the hunt as he
+thought a gentleman should. His hunting lasted for two seasons,
+when, the money he had saved being <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-213"></a>[pg 213]</span> spent, he went back to his trade, at
+which he worked as energetically as ever.</p>
+<p>At the west end of the nave of Catwick Church formerly was
+erected a gallery. In this loft, as it was commonly called, the
+musicians of the parish sang or played. Various instruments,
+bassoon, trombone, violoncello, cornet, cornopean, and clarionet,
+flute, fiddle, and flageolet, or some of their number, were
+employed, calling to mind the band of Nebuchadnezzar of old. The
+noise made in the tuning of the instruments to the proper pitch may
+be readily imagined. Now, the church possesses an organ, and the
+choirmen and boys have their places in the chancel, while the
+musicians of the parish occupy the front seats of the nave. This
+arrangement is eminently suitable for effectually leading the
+praises of the people, but not perhaps more so, its noise
+notwithstanding, than the former style; indeed, I am somewhat
+doubtful if the new equals the old. The old certainly had the merit
+of engaging most, if not all, the musicians of the village in the
+worship of the church.</p>
+<p>At the east end of the nave, in the days of the loft, stood a
+kind of triple pulpit, commonly called a three-decker. It was
+composed of three compartments, the second above and behind the
+first, and the third similarly placed with regard to the second.
+The lowest, resting on the floor, was the place for the clerk, the
+middle was for the parson when reading the prayers and Scriptures,
+and the highest for the parson when preaching. Such pulpits are now
+almost as completely things of the past as the old warships from
+which, in derision, they got their name. Once only have I read the
+service and preached from a three-decker, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-214"></a>[pg 214]</span> and then the clerk
+did not occupy the position assigned to him. Dixon, however, always
+used the little desk at the foot of the Catwick pulpit, and from it
+took his share of the service.</p>
+<p>It was part of his duty, as clerk, to choose and to give out the
+number of the hymns. Now Dixon, like Fewson, was a singer, and felt
+that the choir could not get on without the help of his voice in
+the gallery when the hymns were sung. Consequently, he then left
+his box and went to the singing loft; but, to save time, as he
+marched down the aisle from east to west, and as he mounted the
+steps of the gallery, he slowly and solemnly announced the number
+of the hymn and read the lines of the first verse. When the hymn
+was sung, our bird-like clerk came down again from the heights of
+the loft and returned to his perch at the base of the pulpit.</p>
+<p>Nowadays, we should consider such proceedings very unseemly, but
+it would have been thought nothing of in the days of Dixon. Scenes,
+according to our ideas, much more grotesque were then of frequent
+occurrence. We have already looked on at least one; here is another
+which took place in the neighbouring church of Skipsea one Sunday
+afternoon some sixty years ago, and in connection with singing. The
+account was given to me by a parishioner of about eighty years of
+age, who was one of the choirmen on the occasion.</p>
+<p>The leading singer, he said, there being no instrument, started
+a tune for the hymn. It would not fit the words, and he soon came
+to a full stop, and choir and congregation with him. At this, one
+of the congregation, in a voice that could be heard the whole
+church over, called out, "Give it up, George! Give <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-215"></a>[pg 215]</span> it up!" "No, no,"
+said the vicar in answer, leaning over his desk, "No, no, George,
+try again! try again!" George tried again, and again failed. But
+the vicar still encouraged him with "Have another try, George! Have
+another try! You may get it yet!" George tried the third time, and
+now hit upon a right tune; and to the general delight the hymn was
+sung through.</p>
+<p>Without doubt, in the days of our forefathers the services of
+the Church were conducted with the greatest freedom. But we may not
+judge those who preceded us by our own standard, nor yet apart from
+the time in which they lived.</p>
+<p>When two young people of Catwick or its neighbourhood feel they
+can live no longer without each other, they in local phrase "put in
+the banns." They then, of course, expect to have them published, or
+again in local idiom "thrown over the pulpit." On all such
+occasions, according to a very old custom, after the rector had
+read out the names, with the usual injunction following, from the
+middle compartment of the three-decker, Dixon would rise from his
+seat below, and slowly and clearly cry out, "God speed 'em weel"
+(God speed them well). By this pious wish he prayed for a blessing
+on those about to be wed, and in this the congregation joined, for
+they responded with Amen.</p>
+<p>Dixon was the last of the Catwick clerks to keep this custom.
+Much more recently, however, than the time he held office, members
+of the congregation, usually those seated in the loft, on the
+publication of the banns of some well-known people, have called out
+the time-honoured phrase. But it is now heard no more. The custom
+has gone into a like oblivion to that of the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-216"></a>[pg 216]</span> parish clerk
+himself, once so important a person, in his own estimation if in
+that of no other, both in church and parish. "The old order
+changeth."</p>
+<p>Thomas Dixon died at Catwick when sixty-seven years of age. He
+was buried in the churchyard on January 2, 1833, and by the Rev.
+John Torre, the rector he served so faithfully.</p>
+<p>When Sydney Smith went to see the out-of-the-way Yorkshire
+village of Foston-le-Clay, to which benefice he had been presented,
+his arrival occasioned great excitement. The parish clerk came
+forward to welcome him, a man eighty years of age, with long grey
+hair, thread-bare coat, deep wrinkles, stooping gait, and a crutch
+stick. He looked at the new parson for some time from under his
+grey shaggy eyebrows, and talked, and showed that age had not
+quenched the natural shrewdness of the Yorkshireman.</p>
+<p>At last, after a pause, he said, striking his crutch stick on
+the ground:</p>
+<p>"Master Smith, it often stroikes moy moind that folks as come
+frae London be such fools. But you," he added, giving Sydney Smith
+a nudge with his stick, "I see you be no fool." The new vicar was
+gratified.</p>
+<p>Yorkshiremen are keen songsters, and <i>fortissimo</i> is their
+favourite note of expression. "Straack up a bit, Jock! straack up a
+bit," a Yorkshire parson used to shout to his clerk, when he wanted
+the Old Hundredth to be sung. Well do I remember a delightful old
+clerk in the Craven district, who used to give out the hymn in the
+accustomed form with charming manner. He liked not itinerant
+choirs, which were not uncommon forty or fifty years ago, and used
+to migrate from church to church, and sometimes to chapel, in the
+district where the members lived. One <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-217"></a>[pg 217]</span> of these choirs
+visited the church where the Rev. ---- Morris was rector, and he
+was directed to give out the anthem which the itinerant strangers
+were prepared to sing. He neither knew nor cared what an anthem
+was; and he gave the following somewhat confused notice:</p>
+<p>"Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the fiftieth Psalm,
+<i>while you folks sing th' anthem</i>," casting a scornful glance
+at the wandering musicians in the opposite gallery.</p>
+<p>Missionary meetings and sermons were somewhat rare in those
+days, but the special preacher for missions, commonly called the
+deputation, who performs for lazy clerics the task of instructing
+the people about work in the mission field--a duty which could well
+be performed by the vicar himself--had already begun his itinerant
+course. The congregation were waiting in the churchyard for his
+arrival, when the old Yorkshire vicar, mentioned above, said to his
+clerk, "Jock, ye maunt let 'em into th' church; the dippitation
+a'n't coom." Presently two clergymen arrived, when the clerk called
+out, "Ye maunt gang hoame; t' deppitation's coom." The old vicar
+made an excellent chairman, his introductory remarks being models
+of brevity: "T' furst deppitation will speak!" "T' second
+deppitation will speak!" after which the clerk lighted some candles
+in the singing gallery, and gave out for an appropriate hymn,
+"Vital spark of heavenly flame."</p>
+<p>A writer in <i>Chambers's Journal</i> tells of a curious class
+of clergymen who existed forty years ago, and were known as
+"Northern Lights," the light from a spiritual point of view being
+somewhat dim and flickering. The writer, who was the vicar for
+twenty-five <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-218"></a>[pg
+218]</span> years of a moorland parish, tells of several clerks who
+were associated with these clerics, and who were as quaint and
+curious in their ways as their masters <a name=
+"FNanchor83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83">[83]</a>. The village was a
+hamlet on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, near the confines of
+Derbyshire. Beside the church was a public-house kept by the parish
+clerk, Jerry, a dapper little man, who on Sundays and funeral days
+always wore a wig, an old-fashioned tailed coat, black stockings,
+and shoes with buckles. His house was known as "Heaven's Gate,"
+where the farmers from the neighbouring farms used to drink and
+stay a week at a time. Jerry used to direct the funerals, make the
+clerkly responses, and then provide the funeral party with good
+cheer at his inn. His invitation was always given at the graveside
+in a high-pitched falsetto voice, and the formula ran in these
+words, and was never varied:</p>
+<p>"Friends of the corpse is respectfully requested to call at my
+house, and partake then and there of such refreshments as is
+provided for them."</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_83"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor83">[83]</a> By the kindness of the editor of
+<i>Chambers's Journal</i> I am permitted to retell some of the
+stories of the manners of these clerks and parsons.</blockquote>
+<p>Much intemperance and disorder often followed these funeral
+feastings. An old song long preserved in the district depicts one
+of these funerals, which was by no means a one-day affair, but
+sometimes lasted several days, during which the drinking went on.
+The inn was perhaps a necessity in this out-of-the-world place, but
+it was unfortunately a great temptation to the inhabitants, and to
+the old Northern Light parson who preceded the vicar whose
+reminiscences we are recording. Here in the inn the old parson sat
+between morning and afternoon service with a long clay pipe in his
+mouth and a glass of whisky by his <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-219"></a>[pg 219]</span> side. When the bells began to settle
+and the time of service approached, he would send Jerry to the
+church to see if many people had arrived. When Jerry replied:</p>
+<p>"There's not many comed yet, Mr. Nowton," the parson would
+say:</p>
+<p>"Then tell them to ring another peal, Jerry, and just fill up my
+glass again."</p>
+<p>The communion plate was kept at the inn under Jerry's charge.
+Three times a year it was used, and the circumstances were
+disgraceful. Four bottles of port wine were deemed the proper
+allowance on communion days, and after a fractional quantity had
+been consumed in the church, the rest was finished by the
+churchwardens at the inn. One of these churchwardens drank himself
+to death after the communion service. He was a big man with a red
+face, and was always present when a bear was baited at the top of
+the hill above the village. One day the bear escaped and ran on to
+the moor; everybody scattered in all directions, and several dogs
+were killed before the bear was caught.</p>
+<p>The successor of Jerry as clerk, but not as publican, was a
+rough, honest individual who was called Dick. When excited he had
+two oaths, "By'r Lady!" and "By the mass!" but as he always
+pronounced this last word <i>mess</i>, it was evident he did not
+understand the nature of the oath he used. He had a rough-and-ready
+way of doing things, and when handing out hymn-books during service
+he used to throw a book up to an applicant in the gallery to save
+the trouble of walking up the stairs in proper fashion. He talked
+the broadest Yorkshire dialect, and it was not always easy to
+understand him. This was particularly the <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-220"></a>[pg 220]</span> case when, in his
+capacity as clerk, he repeated the responses at the funeral
+service.</p>
+<p>A tremendous snowfall happened one winter, and the roads were
+all blocked. It was impossible for any one to go to church on the
+Sunday morning following the fall, as the snow had not been cleared
+away. It was necessary for the vicar, however, to get there, as he
+had to read out the banns of marriage which were being published;
+so, putting on fishing-waders to protect himself from the wet snow,
+he succeeded with some difficulty in getting through the drifts. In
+the churchyard, standing before the church clock, he found Dick
+intently gazing at it, so he asked him if it was going. His reply
+was laconic: "Noa; shoo's froz." He and the vicar then went into
+the church, and the necessary publication of banns was read in the
+presence of the clerk alone.</p>
+<p>In those days it was necessary that the wedding service should
+be all over by twelve o'clock, and it was most important that due
+notice should be given of the date of the wedding, a matter about
+which Dick was sometimes rather careless.</p>
+<p>The vicar had gone into Derbyshire for a few days to fish the
+River Derwent. He was fishing a long distance up the stream when he
+heard his name called, and saw his servant running towards him, who
+said that a wedding was waiting for him at the church. Dick had
+forgotten to give due notice of this event. The vicarage trap was
+in readiness, but the road over the Derbyshire Peak was rough and
+steep, the pony small, the distance ten miles, and the vicar
+encumbered with wet clothes. The chance of getting to the church
+before twelve o'clock seemed remote. But the vicar and pony did
+their best; it was, however, half an hour <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-221"></a>[pg 221]</span> after the
+appointed time when they reached the church. Glancing at the clock
+in the tower, the vicar, to his astonishment, found the hands
+pointing to half-past eleven. The situation was saved, and the
+service was concluded within the prescribed time. The vicar turned
+to the clerk for an explanation. "I seed yer coming over the hill,"
+he said, "and I just stopped the clock a bit." Dick was an
+ingenious man.</p>
+<p>There was another character in the parish quite as peculiar as
+Dick, and he was one of the principal singers, who sat in the west
+gallery. He had formerly played the clarionet, before an organ was
+put into the church. During service he always kept a red cotton
+handkerchief over his bald head, which gave him a decidedly comic
+appearance.</p>
+<p>On one occasion the clergyman gave out a hymn in the
+old-fashioned way: "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the
+twenty-first hymn, second version." Up jumped the old singer and
+shouted, "You're wrang, maister; it's first version." The clergyman
+corrected himself, when the singer again rose: "You're wrang
+agearn; it's twenty-second hymn." Without any remark the clergyman
+corrected the number, and the man again jumped up: "That's reet,
+mon, that's reet." When the old singer died his widow was very
+anxious there should be some record on his tombstone of his having
+played the clarionet in church; so above his name a trumpet-shaped
+instrument was carved on the stone, and some doggerel lines were to
+be added below. The vicar had great difficulty in persuading the
+family to abandon the lines for the text, "The trumpet shall sound,
+and the dead shall be raised."</p>
+<p>A neighbouring vicar was on one occasion taking the duty of an
+old man with failing eyesight, and Dick reminded <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-222"></a>[pg 222]</span> him before the
+afternoon service that there was a funeral at four o'clock. "You
+must come into the church and tell me when it arrives," he told the
+clerk, "and I will stop my sermon." It was the habit of the old
+clergyman to relapse into a strong Yorkshire dialect when speaking
+familiarly, and this will account for the brief dialogue which
+passed between him and Dick as he stood at the lectern. In due
+course the funeral arrived at the church gates, and the first
+intimation the congregation inside the church had of this fact was
+the appearance of Dick, who noisily threw open the big doors of the
+south porch. He then stood and beckoned to the clergyman, but his
+poor blind eyes could not see so far. Dick then came nearer and
+waved his hat before him. This again met with no response. Then he
+got near enough to pluck him by the arm, which he did rather
+vigorously, shouting at the same time, "Shoo's coomed." "Wha's
+coomed?" replied the clergyman, relapsing into his Yorkshire
+speech. "Funeral's coomed," retorted Dick. "Then tell her to wait a
+bit while I finish my sermon"; and the old man went quietly on with
+his discourse.</p>
+<p>Another instance of Dick's failing to give proper notice of a
+service was as follows; but on this occasion it was not really his
+fault. Some large reservoirs were being made in the parish, and
+nearly a thousand navvies were employed on the works. These men
+were constantly coming and going, and very often they brought some
+infectious disorder which spread among the huts where they lived.
+One day a navvy arrived who broke out in smallpox of a very severe
+kind, and in a couple of days the man died, and the doctor ordered
+the body to be buried the moment a coffin could be got. It was
+winter-time, and the vicar had ridden over to see <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-223"></a>[pg 223]</span> some friends about
+ten miles away. As the afternoon advanced it began to rain very
+heavily, and he decided not to ride back home, but to sleep at his
+friend's house. About five o'clock a messenger arrived to say a
+funeral was waiting in the church, and he was to come at once. He
+started in drenching rain, which turned to sleet and snow as he
+approached the moor edges. It was pitch-dark when he got off his
+horse at the church gates, and with some difficulty he found his
+way into the vestry and put a surplice over his wet garments. He
+could see nothing in the church, but he asked when he got into the
+reading-desk if any one was there. A deep voice answered, "Yes,
+sir; we are here"; and he began the service, which long practice
+had taught him to repeat by heart. When about half-way through the
+lesson he saw a glimmer of light, and Dick entered the church with
+a lantern, which he placed on the top of the coffin. It was a
+gruesome scene which the lantern brought into view. There was the
+coffin, and before it, in a seat, four figures of the
+navvy-bearers, and Dick himself covered with snow and as white as
+if he wore a surplice. They filed out into the churchyard, but the
+wind had blown the snow into the grave, and this had to be got out
+before they could lower the body into it. The navvies, who were
+kind-hearted fellows, explained that they could give no notice of
+the funeral beforehand, and they quite understood the delay was no
+fault of the vicar's or Dick's.</p>
+<p>Dick was, in spite of his faults, an honest and kind-hearted
+man, and his death, caused by a fall from a ladder, was much
+regretted by his good vicar. On his death-bed the old clerk sent
+for his favourite grandson, who succeeded him in his office, and
+made this pathetic request: "Thou'lt dig my grave, Jont, lad."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-224"></a>[pg 224]</span>
+<p>With Dick the last of the "Northern Lights" flickered out.
+Nothing now remains in the village recalling those old times. The
+village inn has been suppressed, and the drinking bouts are over.
+The old church has been entirely restored, and there is order and
+decency in the services. The strange thing is that it should have
+been possible that only forty years ago matters were in such a
+state of chaos and disorder, and in such need of drastic
+reformation.</p>
+<p>Another Yorkshire clerk flourished in the thirties at
+Bolton-on-Dearne named Thomas Rollin, commonly called Tommy. He
+used to render Psalm cii. 6: "I am become a <i>pee-li-can</i> in
+the wilderness, and an owl in the <i>dee-sert</i>." Tommy was a
+tailor by trade, and made use of a ready-reckoner to assist him in
+making up his accounts, and his familiarity with that useful book
+was shown when reading the second verse of the forty-fifth Psalm,
+which Tommy invariably read: "My tongue is the pen of a
+<i>ready-reckoner</i>," to the immense delight of the youthful
+members of the congregation.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-225"></a>[pg 225]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<h3>AN OLD CHESHIRE CLERK AND SOME OTHER WORTHIES</h3>
+<br>
+<p>It is nearly fifty years since I used to attend the quaint old
+parish church at Lawton, Cheshire, situate half-way between
+Congleton and Crewe. It is a lonely spot, "miles from anywhere,"
+having not the vestige of a village, and the congregation was
+formed of well-to-do farmers, who came from the scattered
+farmsteads. How well I remember the old parish clerk and the
+numerous duties which fell to his lot! He united in his person the
+offices of clerk, sexton, beadle, church-keeper, organist, and
+ringer. The organ was of the barrel kind, and no one knew how to
+manipulate the instrument or to change the barrels, except the
+clerk. He had also to place ten decent loaves in a row on the
+communion table every Sunday morning, which were provided by a
+charitable bequest for the benefit of the poor widows of the
+parish. If the widows did not attend service to curtsy for them,
+the loaves were given to any one who liked to take them. Old Clerk
+Briscall baked them himself. He kept a small village shop about two
+miles from the church. He was also the village shoemaker. A curious
+system prevailed. As you entered the church, near the large stove
+you would see a long bench, and under <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-226"></a>[pg 226]</span> this bench a row
+of boots and shoes. If any one wanted his boots to be mended, he
+would take them to church with him and put them under the bench.
+These were collected by the cobbler-clerk, carried home in a sack,
+and brought back on the following Sunday neatly and carefully soled
+and heeled. It would seem strange now if on entering a church our
+eyes should light upon a row of farmers' dirty old boots and the
+freshly-mended evidences of the clerk's skill. All this took place
+in the fifties. In the sixties a new vicar came. The old organ
+wheezed its last phlegmatic tune; it was replaced by a modern
+instrument with six stops, and a player who did his best, but
+occasioned not a little laughter on account of his numerous
+breakdowns. The old high pews have disappeared, nice open benches
+erected, the floor relaid, a good choir enlisted, and everything
+changed for the better.</p>
+<p>The poor old clerk must have been almost overwhelmed by his
+numerous duties, and was often much embarrassed and exasperated by
+the old squire, Mr. C.B. Lawton, who was somewhat whimsical in his
+ways. This gentleman used to enter the church by his own private
+door, and go to his large, square, high-panelled family pew, and
+when the vicar gave out the hymn, he used often to shout out,
+"Here, hold on! I don't like that one; let's have hymn Number 25,"
+or some such effort of psalmody. This request, or command, used to
+upset the organ arrangement, and the poor old clerk had to rummage
+among his barrels to get a suitable tune, and the operation, even
+if successful, took at least ten minutes, during which time a large
+amount of squeaking and the sounds of the writhing of woodwork and
+snapping of sundry catches were heard in the church. But the
+congregation was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-227"></a>[pg
+227]</span> accustomed to the performance and thought little of it.
+(John Smallwood, 2 Mount Pleasant, Strangeways, Manchester.)</p>
+<p>Caistor Church, Lincolnshire, famous for the curious old
+ceremony of the gad-whip, was also celebrated for its clerk, old
+Joshua Foster, who was officiating there in 1884 at the time of the
+advent of a new vicar. Trinity Sunday was the first Sunday of the
+new clergyman, who sorely puzzled the clerk by reading the
+Athanasian Creed. The old man peered down into the vicar's family
+pew from his desk, casting a despairing glance at the wife of the
+vicar, who handed him a Prayer Book with the place found, so that
+he could make the responses. He was very economical in the use of
+handkerchiefs, and used the small pieces of paper on which the
+numbers of the metrical psalm were written. In vain did the wife of
+the vicar present him with red-and-white-spotted handkerchiefs,
+which were used as comforters. The church was lighted with tallow
+candles--"dips" they were called--and at intervals during the
+service Joshua would go round and snuff them. The snuffers soon
+became full, and it was a matter of deep interest to the
+congregation to see on whose head the snuff would fall, and to
+dodge it if it came their way.</p>
+<p>The Psalms of Tate and Brady's version were sung and were given
+out with the usual preface, "Let us sing to the praise and glory of
+God the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 20th verses of the ---- Psalm with
+the Doxology." How that Doxology bothered the congregation! The
+Doxologies were all at the end of the Prayer Book, and it was not
+always easy to hit the right metre; but that was of little
+consequence. A word added if the line <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-228"></a>[pg 228]</span> was too short, or
+omitted if too long, required skill, and made all feel that they
+had done their best when it was successfully over. After the old
+clerk's death, he was succeeded by his son Joshua, or Jos-a-way, as
+the name was pronounced, whose son, also named Joshua the third,
+became clerk, and still holds the office.</p>
+<p>The predecessor of the vicar was a pluralist, who held Caistor
+with its two chapelries of Holton and Clixby and the living of
+Rothwell. He was non-resident, and the numerous churches were
+served by a curate. This man was a great smoker, and used to retire
+to the vestry to don the black gown and smoke a pipe before the
+sermon, the congregation singing a Psalm meanwhile. One Sunday he
+had an extra pipe, and Joshua told him that the people were getting
+impatient.</p>
+<p>"Let them sing another Psalm," said the curate.</p>
+<p>"They have, sir," replied the clerk.</p>
+<p>"Then let them sing the 119th," replied the curate.</p>
+<p>At last he finished his pipe, and began to put on the black
+gown, but its folds were troublesome, and he could not get it
+on.</p>
+<p>"I think the devil's in the gown," muttered the curate.</p>
+<p>"I think he be," dryly replied old Joshua.</p>
+<p>That the clerk was often a person of dignity and importance is
+shown by the recollections of an old parishioner of the rector of
+Fornham All Saints, near Bury St. Edmunds. "Mr. Baker, the clerk,"
+of Westley, who flourished seventy years ago, used to hear the
+children their catechism in church on Sunday afternoons. "Ah, sir,
+I often think of what he told us, that the world would not come to
+an end till people <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-229"></a>[pg
+229]</span> were killed <i>wholesale</i>, and now think how often
+that happens!" She was probably not alluding to the South African
+or the Japanese war, but to railway accidents, as she at once told
+her favourite story of her solitary journey to Newmarket, when on
+her return she remarked, "If I live to set foot on firm ground,
+never no more for me."</p>
+<p>The old clerk used to escort the boys and girls to their
+confirmation at Bury, and superintended their meal of bread, beer,
+and cheese after the rite. There was no music at Westley, except
+when Mr. Humm, the clerk of Fornham, "brought up his fiddle and
+some of the Fornham girls." Nowadays, adds the rector, the Rev.
+C.L. Feltoe, the clerks are much more illiterate than their
+predecessors, and, unlike them, non-communicants.</p>
+<p>Another East Anglian clerk was a quaint character, who had a
+great respect for all the old familiar residents in his town of
+S----, and a corresponding contempt for all new-comers. The family
+of my informant had resided there for nearly a century, and had,
+therefore, the approval of the clerk. On one occasion some of the
+family found their seat occupied by some new people who had
+recently settled in the town. The clerk rushed up, and in a loud
+voice, audible all over the church, exclaimed:</p>
+<p>"Never you mind that air muck in your pew. I'll soon turn 'em
+out. The imperent muck, takin' your seats!"</p>
+<p>The family insisted upon "the muck" being left in peace, and
+forbade the eviction.</p>
+<p>The old clerk used vigorously a long stick to keep the school
+children in order. He was much respected, and his death universally
+regretted.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-230"></a>[pg 230]</span>
+<p>Fifty years ago there was a dear, good old clerk, named Bamford,
+at Mangotsfield Church, who used to give out the hymns, verse by
+verse. The vicar always impressed upon him to read out the words in
+a loud voice, and at the last word in each verse to pitch his
+voice. The hymn, "This world's a dream," was rendered in this
+fashion:</p>
+<blockquote>"This world's a <i>drame</i>, an empty shoe,<br>
+But this bright world to which I goo<br>
+Hath jaays substantial an' sincere,<br>
+When shall I wack and find me THEER?"</blockquote>
+<p>William Smart, the parish clerk of Windermere in the sixties,
+was a rare specimen. By trade an auctioneer and purveyor of
+Westmorland hams, he was known all round the countryside. He was
+very patronising to the assistant curates, and a favourite
+expression of his was "me and my curate." When one of his curates
+first took a wedding he was commanded by the clerk, "When you get
+to 'hold his peace,' do you stop, for I have something to say." The
+curate was obedient, and stopped at the end of his prescribed
+words, when William shouted out, "God speed them well!"</p>
+<p>This unauthorised but excellent clerkly custom was not confined
+to Windermere, but was common in several Norfolk churches, and at
+Hope Church, Derbyshire, the clerk used to express the good wish
+after the publication of the banns.</p>
+<p>The old-fashioned clerk was usually much impressed by the
+importance of his office. Crowhurst, the old clerk at Allington,
+Kent, in 1852, just before a wedding took place, marched up to the
+rector, the Rev. E.B. Heawood, and said:</p>
+<p>"If you please, sir, the ceremony can't proceed."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-231"></a>[pg 231]</span>
+<p>"Why not? What do you mean?" asked the surprised rector.</p>
+<p>"The marriage can't take place, sir," he answered solemnly,
+"'cos I've lost my specs."</p>
+<p>Fortunately a pupil of the rector's came forward and confessed
+that he had hidden the old man's spectacles in a hole in the wall,
+and the ceremony was no longer delayed.</p>
+<p>At Bromley College the same clergyman had a curious experience,
+when the clerk was called to assist at a service for the Churching
+of Women. As it was very unusually performed there, he was totally
+at a loss what service to find, and asked in great
+perturbation:</p>
+<p>"Please, sir, be I to read the responses in the services for the
+Queen's Accession?"</p>
+<p>The same service sadly puzzled the clerk at Haddington, who was
+in the employment of the then Earl of W----. One Sunday Lady W----
+came to be churched, when in response to the clergyman's prayer, "O
+Lord, save this woman, Thy servant," the clerk said, "Who putteth
+her ladyship's trust in Thee."</p>
+<p>The Rev. W.H. Langhorne tells me some amusing anecdotes of old
+clerks. Once he was preaching in a village church for home
+missions, and just as he was reaching the pulpit he observed that
+the clerk was preparing to take round the plate. He whispered to
+him to wait till he had finished his sermon. "It won't make a
+ha'porth o' difference," was the encouraging reply. But at the
+close of the sermon there was another invitation to give additional
+offerings, which were not withheld.</p>
+<p>In the old days when <i>Bell's Life</i> was the chief sporting
+paper, a hunting parson was taking the service one Sunday morning
+and gave out the day of the month <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-232"></a>[pg 232]</span> and the Psalm. The clerk corrected
+him, but the rector again gave out the same day and was again
+corrected. The rector, in order to decide the controversy, produced
+a copy of <i>Bell's Life</i> and handed it to the clerk, who then
+submitted. It is not often, I imagine, that a sporting paper has
+been appealed to for the purpose of deciding what Psalms should be
+read in church.</p>
+<p>One very wet Sunday Mr. Langhorne was summoned to take an
+afternoon service several miles distant from his residence. The
+congregation consisted of only half a dozen people. After service
+he said to the clerk that it was hardly worth while coming so far.
+"We might have done with a worse 'un," was his reply.</p>
+<p>That reminds me of another clerk who apologised to a church
+dignitary who had been summoned to take a service at a small
+country church. The form of the apology was not quite happily
+expressed. He said, "I am sorry, sir, to have brought such a
+gentleman as you to this poor place. A worse would have done, if we
+had only known where to find him!"</p>
+<p>The new vicar of D---- was calling upon an old parishioner, who
+said to him: "Ah! I've seen mony changes. I've seen four vicars of
+D----. First there was Canon G----, then there was Mr. T----, who's
+now a bishop, and then Mr. F---- came, and now you've coom, and
+we've wossened (worsened) every toime."</p>
+<p>A clerk named Turner, who officiated at Alnwick, was a great
+character, and in spite of his odd ways was esteemed for his
+genuine worth and fidelity to the three vicars under whom he
+served. He looked upon the church and parish as his own, and used
+to say that he had trained many "kewrats" in their duties. His
+responses in the Psalms were often startling. Instead <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-233"></a>[pg 233]</span> of "The Lord
+setteth up the meek," he would say, "The Lord sitteth upon the
+meek." "The great leviathan" he rendered "the great live thing."
+"Caterpillars innumerable" he pronounced "caterpilliars
+innumerabble." When a funeral was late he scolded the bearers at
+the churchyard gate.</p>
+<p>At Wimborne Minster, Dorset, there used to be three priest
+vicars, and each of them had a clerk. It was the custom for each of
+the priest vicars to take the services for a week in rotation, and
+the first lesson was always read by "the clerk of the week," as he
+was called. On Sundays, when there was a celebration of the Holy
+Communion, the "clerk of the week" advanced to the lectern after
+the sermon was finished, and said, "All who wish to receive the
+Holy Communion, draw near." These words, in the case of one worthy,
+named David Butler, were always spoken in a high-pitched, drawling
+voice, and finished off with a kick to the rearwards of the right
+leg.</p>
+<p>The old clerk at Woodmancote, near Henfield, Sussex, was a very
+important person. There was never any committee meeting but he
+attended. So much so, that one day in church leading the singing
+and music with voice and flute, when it came to the "Gloria" he
+sang loudly, "As it was in the committee meeting, is now, and ever
+shall be ..."</p>
+<p>An acquaintance remarked to him afterwards that the last meeting
+he attended must have been a rather long one!</p>
+<p>A story is told of the clerk at West Dean, near Alfriston,
+Sussex. Starting the first line of the Psalm or hymn, he found that
+he could not see owing to the failing light on a dark wintry
+afternoon. So he said, "My eyes are dim, I canna see," at which the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-234"></a>[pg 234]</span>
+congregation, composed of ignorant labourers, sang after him the
+<i>same</i> words. The clerk was wroth, and cried out, "Tarnation
+fools you all must be." Here again the congregation sang the same
+words after the clerk.</p>
+<p>Strange times, strange manners!</p>
+<p>A writer in the <i>Spectator</i> tells of a clerk who, like many
+of his fellows, used to convert "leviathan" into "that girt livin'
+thing," thus letting loose before his hearers' imagination a whole
+travelling menagerie, from which each could select the beast which
+most struck his fancy. This clerk was a picturesque personality,
+although, unlike his predecessor, he had discarded top-boots and
+cords for Sunday wear in favour of black broadcloth. When not
+engaged in marrying or burying one of his flock, he fetched and
+carried for the neighbours from the adjacent country town, or sold
+herrings and oranges (what mysterious affinity is there between
+these two dissimilar edibles that they are invariably hawked in
+company?) from door to door. During harvest he rang the morning
+"leazing bell" to start the gleaners to the fields, and every night
+he tolled the curfew, by which the villagers set their clocks. He
+it was who, when the sermon was ended, strode with dignity from his
+box on the "lower deck" down the aisle to the belfry, and pulled
+the "dishing-up bell" to let home-keeping mothers know that hungry
+husbands and sons were set free. Folks in those days were less
+easily fatigued than they are now. Services were longer, the
+preacher's "leanings to mercy" were less marked, and congregations
+counted themselves ill-used if they broke up under the two hours.
+The boys stood in wholesome awe of the clerk, as well they might,
+for his eye was keen and his stick far-reaching. Moreover, no fear
+of man prevented <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-235"></a>[pg
+235]</span> him from applying the latter with effect to the heads
+of slumberers during divine service. By way of retaliation the
+youths, when opportunity occurred, would tie the cord of the
+"tinkler" to the weathercock, and the parish on a stormy night
+would be startled by the sound of ghostly, fitful ting-tangs. To
+Sunday blows the clerk, who was afflicted with rheumatism, added
+weekday anathemas as he climbed the steep ascent to the
+bell-chamber and the yet steeper ladder that gave access to the
+leads of the tower. The perpetual hostility that reigned between
+discipliner and disciplined bred no ill will on either side. "Boys
+must be boys" and "He's paid for lookin' arter things" were the
+arguments whereby the antagonists testified their mutual respect,
+in both of which the parents concurred; and his severity did not
+cost the old man a penny when he made his Easter rounds to collect
+the "sweepings." It may, perhaps, be well to explain that the
+"sweepings" consisted of an annual sum of threepence which every
+householder contributed towards the cleaning of the church, and
+which represented a large part of the clerk's salary <a name=
+"FNanchor84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84">[84]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_84"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor84">[84]</a> <i>Spectator</i>, 14 October,
+1905.</blockquote>
+<p>The Rev. C.C. Prichard recollects a curious old character at
+Churchdown, near Gloucester, commonly pronounced "Chosen" in those
+days.</p>
+<p>This old clerk was only absent one Sunday from "Chosen" Church,
+and then he was lent to the neighbouring church of Leckhampton.
+Instead of the response "And make Thy chosen people joyful,"
+mindful of his change of locality he gave out with a strong nasal
+twang, "And make Thy Leck'ampton people joyful." The Psalms were
+somewhat a trouble to him, and to the congregation too. One verse
+he rendered "Like a <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-236"></a>[pg 236]</span> paycock in a wild-dook's nest, and a
+howl in the dessert, even so be I." He was a thoroughly good old
+man, and brought up a large family very respectably.</p>
+<p>I remember the old clerk, James Ingham, of Whalley Church,
+Lancashire. It is a grand old church, full of old dark oak square
+pews, and the clerk was in keeping with his surroundings. He was a
+humorous character, and had a splendid deep bass voice. He used to
+show people over the ruined abbey, and his imagination supplied the
+place of accurate historical information. Some American visitors
+asked him what a certain path was used for. "Well, marm," said
+James, "it's onsartin: but they do say the monks and nuns used to
+walk up and down this 'ere path, arm-in-arm, of a summer
+arternoon."</p>
+<p>It is recorded of one Thomas Atkins, clerk of Chillenden Church,
+Kent, that he used to leave his reading-desk at the commencement of
+the General Thanksgiving and proceed to the west gallery, where he
+gave out the hymn and sang a duet with the village cobbler, in
+which the congregation joined as best they could. He walked very
+slowly down the church, and said the Amen at the end of the
+Thanksgiving wherever he happened to be, and that was generally
+half-way up the gallery stairs, whence his feeble voice, with a
+good <i>tremolo</i>, used to sound like the distant baaing of a
+sheep. It was a strange and curious performance.</p>
+<p>Miss Rawnsley, of Raithby Hall, Spilsby, gives some delightful
+reminiscences of a most original specimen of the race of clerks,
+old Haw, who officiated at Halton Holgate, Lincolnshire. He was a
+curious mixture of worldly wisdom and strong religious feeling. The
+former was exemplified by his greeting to a cousin of my
+correspondent, just returned from his ordination.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-237"></a>[pg 237]</span>
+<p>He said, "Now, Mr. Hardwick, remember thou must creep an' crawl
+along the 'edge bottoms, and then tha'ill make thee a bishop."</p>
+<p>He was a strong advocate of Fasting Communion. No one ever knew
+whence he derived his strong views on the subject. The rector never
+taught it. Probably his ideas were derived from some long lingering
+tradition. When over seventy years of age he set out fasting to
+walk six miles to attend a late celebration at a distant church on
+the occasion of its consecration. Nothing would ever induce him to
+break his fast before communicating; and on this occasion he was
+picked up in a dead faint, his journey being only half
+completed.</p>
+<p>On Wednesdays and Fridays he always went into the church at
+eleven o'clock and said the Litany aloud. When asked his reason, he
+said, "I've gotten an ungodly wife and two ungodly bairns to pray
+for, sir." He once asked one of the rector's daughters to help him
+in the <i>Parody</i> of the Psalms he was making; and on another
+occasion requested to have the old altar-cloth, which had just been
+replaced by a new one, "to make a slop to dig the graves in, and no
+sacrilege neither."</p>
+<p>At Sutton Maddock, Shropshire, there was a clerk who used to
+read "<i>Pe</i>-li-<i>can</i> in the wilderness," and the usual
+"<i>Howl</i> in the <i>De</i>sart," and "Teach the <i>Se</i>nators
+wisdom," and when the Litany was said on Wednesdays and Fridays
+declared that it was not in his Prayer Book though he took part in
+it every Sunday. When a kind lady, Miss Barnfield, expressed a wish
+that his wife would get better, he replied, "I hope her will or
+<i>summat</i>."</p>
+<p>At Claverley, in the same county, on one Sunday, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-238"></a>[pg 238]</span> rector
+told the clerk to give notice that there would be no service that
+afternoon, adding <i>sotto voce</i>, "I am going to dine at the
+Paper Mill." He was rather disgusted when the clerk announced,
+"There will be no Diving Service this arternoon, the Parson is
+going to dine at the Peaper Mill." The clerk was no respecter of
+persons, and once marched up to the rector's wife in church and
+told her to keep her eyes from beholding vanity.</p>
+<p>The Rev. F.A. Davis tells me of a story of an illiterate clerk
+who served in a Wiltshire church, where a cousin of my informant
+was vicar. A London clergyman, who had never preached or been in a
+country church before, came to take the duty. He was anxious to
+find out if the people listened or understood sermons. His Sunday
+morning discourse was based on the text St. Mark v. 1-17,
+containing the account of the healing of the demoniacally possessed
+persons at Gadara, and the destruction of the herd of swine. On the
+Monday he asked the clerk if he understood the sermon. The clerk
+replied somewhat doubtfully, "Yes." "But is there anything you do
+not quite understand?" said the clergyman; "I shall be only too
+glad to explain anything I can, so as to help you." After a good
+deal of scratching the back of his head and much hesitating, the
+clerk replied, "Who paid for them pigs?"</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image33.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image33.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image33.jpg" width="25%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>William Hinton, A Wiltshire Worthy</b><br>
+Drawn By The Rev. Julian Charles Young</p>
+<br>
+<p>Many examples I have given of the dry humour of old clerks,
+which is sometimes rather disconcerting. A stranger was taking the
+duty in a church, and after service made a few remarks about the
+weather, asserting that it promised to be a fine day for the
+haymaking to-morrow. "Ah, sir," replied the clerk, "they do say
+that the hypocrites can discern the face of the sky."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-239"></a>[pg 239]</span>
+<p>The Rev. Julian Charles Young, rector of Ilmington, in his
+<i>Memoir of Charles Mayne Young, Tragedian</i>, published in 1871,
+speaks of the race of parish clerks who flourished in Wiltshire in
+the first half of the last century. Instead of a nice
+discrimination being exercised in the choice of a clerk, it seems
+to have been the rule to select the sorriest driveller that could
+be found--some "lean and slippered pantaloon, with spectacles on
+nose and pouch at side,"</p>
+<blockquote>"triumphant over time,<br>
+And over tune, and over rhyme"--</blockquote>
+<p>who by his snivelling enunciation of the responses and his nasal
+drawlings of the A--mens, was sure to provoke the risibility of his
+hearers. Mr. Young's own clerk was, however, a very worthy man, of
+such lofty aspirations and of such blameless purity of life, that
+in making him Nature made the very ideal of a village clerk and
+schoolmaster, and then "broke the mould." His grave yet kindly
+countenance, his well-proportioned limbs encased in breeches and
+gaiters of corded kerseymere, and the natural dignity of his
+carriage, combined "to give the world assurance of" a bishop rather
+than a clerk. It needed familiarity with his inner life to know how
+much simpleness of purpose and simplicity of mind and contentment
+and piety lay hid under a pompous exterior and a phraseology
+somewhat stilted.</p>
+<p>His name was William Hinton, and he dwelt in a small whitewashed
+cottage which, by virtue of his situation as schoolmaster, he
+enjoyed rent free. It stood in the heart of a small but
+well-stocked kitchen garden. His salary was &pound;40 per annum,
+and on this, with perhaps &pound;5 a year more derived from church
+fees, he brought up five children in the greatest respectability,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-240"></a>[pg 240]</span> all of
+whom did well in life. They regarded their father with absolute
+veneration. By the side of the labourer who only knew what he had
+taught him, or of the farmer who knew less, he was a giant among
+pygmies--a Triton among minnows.</p>
+<p>When Mr. Young went to the village, with the exception of a
+Bible, a Prayer Book, a random tract or two, and a <i>Moore's
+Almanac</i>, there was scarcely a book to be found in it. The
+rector kindly allowed his clerk the run of his well-stocked
+library. Hinton devoured the books greedily. So receptive and
+imitative was his intellect that his conversation, his deportment,
+even his spirit, became imbued with the individuality of the author
+whose writings he had been studying. After reading Dr. Johnson's
+works his conversation became sententious and dogmatic. <i>Lord
+Chesterfield's Letters</i> produced an airiness and jauntiness that
+were quite foreign to his nature. His favourite authors were Jeremy
+Taylor, Bacon, and Milton. After many months reverential communion
+with these Goliaths of literature he became pensive and
+contemplative, and his manner more chastened and severe. The
+secluded village in which he dwelt had been his birthplace, and
+there he remained to the day of his death. He knew nothing of the
+outer world, and the rector found his intercourse with a man so
+original, fresh, and untainted a real pleasure. He was physically
+timid, and the account of a voyage across the Channel or a journey
+by coach filled him with dread. One day he said to Mr. Young, "Am
+I, reverend sir, to understand that you voluntarily trust your
+perishable body to the outside of a vehicle, of the soundness of
+which you know nothing, and suffer yourself to be drawn to and fro
+by four strange animals, of whose temper you are ignorant,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-241"></a>[pg 241]</span> and
+are willing to be driven by a coachman of whose capacity and
+sobriety you are uninformed?" On being assured that such was the
+case, he concluded that "the love of risk and adventure must be a
+very widely-spread instinct, seeing that so many people are ready
+to expose themselves to such fearful casualties." He was grateful
+to think that he had never been exposed to such terrific hazards.
+What the worthy clerk would have said concerning the risks of
+motoring somewhat baffles imagination.</p>
+<p>When just before the opening of the Great Western Railway line
+the Company ran a coach through the village from Bath to Swindon,
+the clerk witnessed with his own eyes the dangers of travelling.
+The school children were marshalled in line to welcome the coach,
+bouquets of laurestina and chrysanthema were ready to be bestowed
+on the passengers, the church bells rang gaily, when after long
+waiting the cheery notes of the key-bugle sounded the familiar
+strains of "Sodger Laddie," and the steaming steeds hove in sight,
+an accident occurred. At a sharp turn just opposite the clerk's
+house the swaying coach overturned, and the outside passengers were
+thrown into the midst of his much-prized ash-leaf kidneys. The
+clerk fled precipitately to the extreme borders of his domain, and
+afterwards said to the rector, "Ah, sir, was I right in saying I
+would never enter such a dangerous carriage as a four-horse coach?
+I assure you I was not the least surprised. It was just what I
+expected."</p>
+<p>When the first railway train passed through the village he was
+overwhelmed with emotion at the sight. He fell prostrate on the
+bank as if struck by a thunder-bolt. When he stood up his brain
+reeled, he was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-242"></a>[pg
+242]</span> speechless, and stood aghast, unutterable amazement
+stamped upon his face. In the tone of a Jeremiah he at length
+gasped out, "Well, sir, what a sight to have seen: but one I never
+care to see again! How awful! I tremble to think of it! I don't
+know what to compare it to, unless it be to a messenger despatched
+from the infernal regions with a commission to spread desolation
+and destruction over the fair land. How much longer shall knowledge
+be allowed to go on increasing?"</p>
+<p>The rector taught the clerk how to play chess, to which game he
+took eagerly, and taught it to the village youths. They played it
+on half-holidays in winter and became engrossed in it,
+manufacturing chess-boards out of old book-covers and carving very
+creditable chessmen out of bits of wood. When he was playing with
+his rector one evening he lost his queen and at once resigned,
+saying, "I consider, reverend sir, that chess without a queen is
+like life without a female."</p>
+<p>Hinton knew not a word of Latin, but he had a pedantic pleasure
+in introducing it whenever he could. Genders were ever a mystery to
+him, though with the help of a dictionary he would often substitute
+a Latin for an English word. Thus he used the signatures "Gulielmus
+Hintoniensis, Rusticus Sacrista," and when writing to Mrs. Young he
+always addressed her as "Charus Domina." On this lady's return
+after a long absence, the clerk wrote in large letters, "Gratus,
+gratus, optatus," and dated his greeting, "Martius quinta, 1842." A
+funeral notice was usually sent in doggerel.</p>
+<p>The following letter was sent to the rector's unmarried
+sister:</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-243"></a>[pg 243]</span>
+<blockquote>"<i>Januarius Prima</i>, 1840.<br>
+<br>
+"CHARUS DOMINA,</blockquote>
+<p>"That the humble Sacrista should be still retained on the
+tablets of your memory is an unexpected pleasure. Your gift, as a
+criterion of your esteem, will be often looked at with delight, and
+be carefully preserved, as a memorial of your friendship; and for
+which I beg to return my sincere thanks. May the meridian sunshine
+of happiness brighten your days through the voyage of life; and may
+your soul be borne on the wings of seraphic angels to the realms of
+bliss eternal in the world to come is the sincere wish and fervent
+prayer of Charus Domina, your most obedient, most respectful, most
+obliged servant,</p>
+<blockquote>"GULIELMUS HINTONIENSIS,<br>
+<br>
+"<i>Rusticus Sacrista</i>.<br>
+"GRATITUDE<br>
+<br>
+"A gift from the virtuous, the fair, and the good,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;From the affluent to the humble and low,<br>
+Is a favour so great, so obliging and kind,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;To acknowledge I scarcely know how.<br>
+I fain would express the sensations I feel,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;By imploring the blessing of Heaven<br>
+May be showered on the lovely, the amiable maid,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Who this gift to Sacrista has given.<br>
+May the choicest of husbands, the best of his kind,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Be hers by the appointment of Heaven!<br>
+And may sweet smiling infants as pledges of love<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;To crown her connubium be given."</blockquote>
+<p>The following is a characteristic note of this worthy clerk,
+which differs somewhat from the notices usually sent to vicars as
+reminders of approaching weddings:</p>
+<p>"REV. SIR,</p>
+<p>"I hope it has not escaped your memory that the young couple at
+Clack are hoping to offer incense at the shrine of Venus this
+morning at the hour of ten. I anticipate the bridegrooms's
+anxiety.</p>
+<p>"RUSTICUS SACRISTA."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-244"></a>[pg 244]</span>
+<p>He was somewhat curious on the subject of fashionable ladies'
+dresses, and once asked the rector "in what guise feminine
+respectability usually appeared at an evening party?" When a low
+dress was described to him, he blushed and shivered and exclaimed,
+"Then methinks, sir, there must be revelations of much which
+modesty would gladly veil." He was terribly overcome on one
+occasion when he met in the rector's drawing-room one evening some
+ladies who were attired, as any other gentlewomen would be, in low
+gowns.</p>
+<p>William Hinton was, in spite of his air of importance and his
+inflated phraseology, a simple, single-minded, humble soul. When
+the rector visited him on his death-bed, he greeted Mr. Young with
+as much serenity of manner as if he had been only going on a
+journey to a far country for which he had long been preparing.
+"Well, reverend and dear sir. Here we are, you see! come to the
+nightcap scene at last! Doubtless you can discern that I am dying.
+I am not afraid to die. I wish your prayers.... I say I am not
+afraid to die, and you know why. Because I know in whom I have
+believed; and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I
+have committed unto Him against that day." A little later he said,
+"Thanks, reverend sir! Thanks for much goodwill! Thanks for much
+happy intercourse! For nearly seven years we have been friends
+here. I trust we shall be still better friends hereafter. I shall
+not see you again on this side Jordan. I fear not to cross over.
+Good-bye. My Joshua beckons me. The Promised Land is in sight."</p>
+<p>This worthy and much-mourned clerk was buried on 5 July,
+1843.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-245"></a>[pg 245]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<h3>THE CLERK AND THE LAW</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The parish clerk is so important a person that divers laws have
+been framed relating to his office. His appointment, his rights,
+his dismissal are so closely regulated by law that incumbents and
+churchwardens have to be very careful lest they in any way
+transgress the legal enactments and judgments of the courts. It is
+not an easy matter to dismiss an undesirable clerk: it is almost as
+difficult as to disturb the parson's freehold; and unless the clerk
+be found guilty of grievous faults, he may laugh to scorn the
+malice of his enemies and retain his office while life lasts.</p>
+<p>It may be useful, therefore, to devote a chapter to the laws
+relating to parish clerks--a chapter which some of my readers who
+have no liking for legal technicalities can well afford to
+skip.</p>
+<p>As regards his qualifications the clerk must be at least twenty
+years of age, and known to the parson as a man of honest
+conversation, and sufficient for his reading, writing, and for his
+competent skill in singing, "if it may be <a name=
+"FNanchor85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85">[85]</a>." The visitation
+articles of the seventeenth century frequently inquire whether the
+clerk be of the age of twenty years at least.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_85"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor85">[85]</a> Canon 91 (1603).</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-246"></a>[pg 246]</span>
+<p>The method of his appointment has caused much disputing. With
+whom does the appointment rest? In former times the parish clerk
+was always nominated by the incumbent both by common law and the
+custom of the realm. This is borne out by the constitution of
+Archbishop Boniface and the 91st Canon, which states that "No
+parish clerk upon any vacation shall be chosen within the city of
+London or elsewhere, but by the parson or vicar: or where there is
+no parson or vicar, by the minister of that place for the time
+being; which choice shall be signified by the said minister, vicar
+or parson, to the parishioners the next Sunday following, in the
+time of Divine Service."</p>
+<p>But this arrangement has often been the subject of dispute
+between the parson and his flock as to the right of the former to
+appoint the clerk. In pre-Reformation times there was a diversity
+of practice, some parishioners claiming the right to elect the
+clerk, as they provided the offerings by which he lived. A terrible
+scene occurred in the fourteenth century at one church. The
+parishioners appointed a clerk, and the rector selected another.
+The rector was celebrating Mass, assisted by his clerk, when the
+people's candidate approached the altar and nearly murdered his
+rival, so that blood was shed in the sanctuary.</p>
+<p>Custom in many churches sanctioned the right of the
+parishioners, who sometimes neglected to exercise it, and the
+choice of clerk was left to the vicar. The visitations in the time
+of Elizabeth show that the people were expected to appoint to the
+office, but the episcopal inquiries also demonstrate that the
+parson or vicar could exercise a veto, and that no one could be
+chosen without his goodwill and consent.</p>
+<p>The canon of 1603 was an attempt to change this <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-247"></a>[pg 247]</span> variety of usage,
+but such is the force of custom that many decisions of the
+spiritual courts have been against the canon and in favour of
+accustomed usage when such could be proved. It was so in the case
+of <i>Cundict</i> v. <i>Plomer</i> (8 Jac. I) <a name=
+"FNanchor86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86">[86]</a>, and in
+<i>Jermyn's Case</i> (21 Jac. I).</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_86"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor86">[86]</a> <i>Ecclesiastical Law</i>, Sir R.
+Phillimore, p. 1901.</blockquote>
+<p>At the present time such disputes with regard to the appointment
+of clerks are unlikely to arise. They are usually elected to their
+office by the vestry, and the person recommended by the vicar is
+generally appointed. Indeed, by the Act 7 &amp; 8 Victoria, c. 49,
+"for better regulating the office of Lecturers and Parish Clerks,"
+it is provided that when the appointment is by others than the
+parson, it is to be subject to the approval of the parson. Owing to
+the difficulty of dismissing a clerk, to which I shall presently
+refer, it is not unusual to appoint a gentleman or farmer to the
+office, and to nominate a deputy to discharge the actual duties. If
+we may look forward to a revival of the office and to a restoration
+of its ancient dignity and importance, it might be possible for the
+more highly educated man to perform the chief functions, the
+reading the lessons and epistle, serving at the altar, and other
+like duties, while his deputy could perform the more menial
+functions, opening the church, ringing the bell, digging graves, if
+there be no sexton, and the like.</p>
+<p>It is not absolutely necessary that the clerk, after having been
+chosen and appointed, should be licensed by the ordinary, but this
+is not unusual; and when licensed he is sworn to obey the incumbent
+of the parish <a name="FNanchor87"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_87">[87]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_87"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor87">[87]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 1902.</blockquote>
+<p>We have recorded some of the perquisites, fees and <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-248"></a>[pg 248]</span> wages, which the
+clerk of ancient times was accustomed to receive when he had been
+duly appointed. No longer does he receive accustomed alms by reason
+of his office of <i>aqu&aelig;bajalus</i>. No longer does he derive
+profit from bearing the holy loaf; and the cakes and eggs at
+Easter, and certain sheaves at harvest-tide, are perquisites of the
+past.</p>
+<p>The following were the accustomed wages of the clerk at
+Rempstone in the year 1629 <a name="FNanchor88"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_88">[88]</a>:</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_88"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor88">[88]</a> <i>The Clerks' Book</i>, Dr. Wickham Legg,
+lv.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>"22nd November, 1629.<br>
+<br>
+"The wages of the Clarke of the Parish Church of Rempstone. At
+Easter yearely he is to have of every Husbandman one pennie for
+every yard land he hath in occupation. And of every Cottager two
+pence.<br>
+<br>
+"Furthermore he is to have for every yard land one peche of Barley
+of the Husbandman yearely.<br>
+<br>
+"Egges at Easter by Courtesie.<br>
+<br>
+"For every marriage two pence. And at the churching of a woman his
+dinner.<br>
+<br>
+"The said Barley is to be payed between Christmasse and the Feast
+of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary."</blockquote>
+<p>Clerk's Ales have vanished, too, together with the cakes and
+eggs, but his fees remain, and marriage bells and funeral knells,
+christenings and churchings bring to him the accustomed dues and
+offerings. Tables of Fees hang in most churches. It is important to
+have them in order that no dispute may arise. The following table
+appears in the parish books of Salehurst, Sussex, and is curious
+and interesting:</p>
+<blockquote>"April 18, 1597.<br>
+<br>
+"Memorandum that the duties for Churchinge of women in the parishe
+of Salehurst is unto the minister ix d. 0 b. and unto the Clarke ij
+d.<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-249"></a>[pg 249]</span> "Item
+the due unto the minister for a marriadge is xxj d. And unto the
+Clarke ij d. the Banes, and iiij d. the marriadge.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>"Item due for burialls as followeth<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; To the Minister in the Chancell .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;xiii s.&nbsp;&nbsp; iiij
+d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; To the Clarke in the Chancell .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;vi
+s.&nbsp;&nbsp;viiij d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; To the Parish in the Church . .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;vi
+s.&nbsp;&nbsp; viii d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; To the Clarke in the Church . .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; v
+s.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;o d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; To the Clarke in the churchyard for great<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; coffins . . . . . .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ii
+s.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; vi d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; For great Corses uncoffined . .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ii
+s.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;o d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; For Chrisomers and such like coffined
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; i s.&nbsp;&nbsp; iiii d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; And uncoffined . . . .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;xij
+d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; For tolling the passing bell and houre
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;i s.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; For ringing the sermon bell an houre
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;i
+s.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;0 d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; To the Clarke for carrying the beere
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+iiij d.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp; If it be fetched . . . .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+ij d.</blockquote>
+<blockquote>"Item for funerals the Minister is to have the mourning
+pullpit Cloth and the Clarke the herst Cloth.<br>
+<br>
+"Item the Minister hathe ever chosen the parishe Clarke and one of
+the Churchwardens and bothe the Sydemen.<br>
+<br>
+"Item if they bring a beere or poles with the corps the Clarke is
+to have them.<br>
+<br>
+"If any Corps goe out of the parish they are to pay double dutyes
+and to have leave.<br>
+<br>
+"If any Corps come out of another parish to be buryed here, they
+are to pay double dutyes besides breakinge the ground; which is
+xiij s. 4 d. in the church, and vi s. viii d. in the
+churchyard.<br>
+<br>
+"For marryage by licence double fees both to the Minister and
+Clarke <a name="FNanchor89"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_89">[89]</a>."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_89"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor89">[89]</a> <i>Sussex Arch&aelig;ological
+Collections</i>, 1873, vol. xxv. p. 154.</blockquote>
+<p>In addition to the fees to which the clerk is entitled by
+long-established custom, he receives wages, which he can recover by
+law if he be unjustly deprived of them. Churchwardens who in the
+old days neglected to levy a church rate in order to pay the
+expenses of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-250"></a>[pg
+250]</span> the parish and the salary of the clerk, have been
+compelled by law to do so, in order to satisfy the clerk's
+claims.</p>
+<p>The wages which he received varied considerably. The
+churchwardens' accounts reveal the amounts paid the holders of the
+office at different periods. At St. Mary's, Reading, there are the
+items in 1557:</p>
+<blockquote>"Imprimis the Rent of the Clerke's<br>
+howse . . . . .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+vi s. viii d."<br>
+<br>
+"Paid to Marshall (the clerk) for parcell of<br>
+his wages that he was unpaide .
+.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+v s."</blockquote>
+<p>In 1561 the clerk's wages were 40 s., in 1586 only 20 s. At St.
+Giles's, Reading, in 1520, he received 26 s. 8 d., as the following
+entry shows:</p>
+<blockquote>"Paid to Harry Water Clerk for his<br>
+wage for a yere ended at thannacon<br>
+(the Annunciation) of Our Lady. xxvi s. viii."</blockquote>
+<p>The clerk at St. Lawrence, Reading, received 20 s. for his
+services in 1547. Owing to the decrease in the value of money the
+wages gradually rose in town churches, but in the eighteenth
+century in many country places 10 s. was deemed sufficient. The sum
+of &pound;10 is not an unusual wage at the present time for a
+village clerk.</p>
+<p>The dismissal of a parish clerk was a somewhat difficult and
+dangerous task. In the eyes of the law he is no menial servant--no
+labourer who can be discharged if he fail to please his master. The
+law regards him as an officer for life, and one who has a freehold
+in his place. Sixty years ago no ecclesiastical court could deprive
+him of his office, but he could be censured for his faults and
+misdemeanours, though not discharged. Several cases have appeared
+in the law <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-251"></a>[pg
+251]</span> courts which have decided that as long as a clerk
+behaves himself well, he has a good right and title to continue in
+his office. Thus in <i>Rex</i> v. <i>Erasmus Warren</i> (16 Geo.
+III) it was shown that the clerk became bankrupt, had been guilty
+of many omissions in his office, was actually in prison at the time
+of his amoval, and had appointed a deputy who was totally unfit for
+the office. Against which it was insisted that the office of parish
+clerk was a temporal office during life, that the parson could not
+remove him, and that he had a right to appoint a deputy. One of the
+judges stated that though the minister might have power of removing
+the clerk on a good and sufficient cause, he could never be the
+sole judge and remove him at pleasure, without being subject to the
+control of the court. No misbehaviour of consequence was proved
+against him, and the clerk was restored to his office.</p>
+<p>In a more recent case the clerk had conducted himself on several
+occasions by designedly irreverent and ridiculous behaviour in his
+performance of his duty. He had appeared in church drunk, and had
+indecently disturbed the congregation during the administration of
+Holy Communion. He had been repeatedly reproved by the vicar, and
+finally removed from his office. But the court decided that because
+the clerk had not been summoned to answer for his conduct before
+his removal, a mandamus should be issued for his restoration to his
+office <a name="FNanchor90"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_90">[90]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_90"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor90">[90]</a> <i>Ecclesiastical Law</i>, Sir R.
+Phillimore, p. 1907.</blockquote>
+<p>No deputy clerk when removed can claim to be restored. It will
+be gathered, therefore, that an incumbent is compelled by law to
+restore a clerk removed by him without just cause, that the justice
+of the cause is not determined in the law courts by an
+<i>ex-parte</i> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-252"></a>[pg
+252]</span> statement of the incumbent, and that an accused clerk
+must have an opportunity of answering the charges made against him.
+If a man performs the duties of the office for one year he gains a
+settlement, and cannot afterwards be removed without just
+cause.</p>
+<p>An important Act was passed in 1844, to which I have already
+referred, for the better regulating the office of lecturers and
+parish clerks. Sections 5 and 6 of this Act bear directly on the
+method of removal of a clerk who may be guilty of neglect or
+misbehaviour. I will endeavour to divest the wording of the Act
+from legal technicalities, and write it in "plain English."</p>
+<p>If a complaint is made to the archdeacon, or other ordinary,
+with regard to the misconduct of a clerk, stating that he is an
+unfit and improper person to hold that office, the archdeacon may
+summon the clerk and call witnesses who shall be able to give
+evidence or information with regard to the charges made. He can
+examine these witnesses upon oath, and hear and determine the truth
+of the accusations which have been made against the clerk. If he
+should find these charges proved he may suspend or remove the
+offender from his office, and give a certificate under his hand and
+seal to the incumbent, declaring the office vacant, which
+certificate should be affixed to the door of the church. Then
+another person may be elected or appointed to the vacant office:
+"Provided always, that the exercise of such office by a sufficient
+deputy who shall duly and faithfully perform the duties thereof,
+and in all respects well and properly demean himself, shall not be
+deemed a wilful neglect of his office on the part of such church
+clerk, chapel clerk, or parish clerk, so as to render him liable,
+for such cause alone, to be suspended or removed therefrom."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-253"></a>[pg 253]</span>
+<p>A special section of the Act deals with such possessions as
+clerks' houses, buildings, lands or premises, held by a clerk by
+virtue of his office. If, when deprived of his office, he should
+refuse to give up such buildings or possessions, the matter must be
+brought before the bishop of the diocese, who shall summon the
+clerk to appear before him. If he fail to appear, or if the bishop
+should decide against him, the bishop shall grant a certificate of
+the facts to the person or persons entitled to the possession of
+the land or premises, who may thereupon go before a justice of the
+peace. The magistrate shall then issue his warrant to the
+constables to expel the clerk from the premises, and to hand them
+over to the rightful owners, the cost of executing the warrant
+being levied upon the goods and chattels of the expelled clerk. If
+this cost should be disputed, it shall be determined by the
+magistrate. Happily few cases arise, but perhaps it is well to know
+the procedure which the law lays down for the carrying out of such
+troublesome matters.</p>
+<p>The law also takes cognizance of the humbler office of sexton,
+the duties of which are usually combined in country places with
+those of the parish clerk. The sexton is, of course, the sacristan,
+the keeper of the holy things relating to divine worship, and seems
+to correspond with the <i>ostarius</i> in the Roman Church. His
+duties consist in the care of the church, the vestments and
+vessels, in keeping the church clean, in ringing the bells, in
+opening and closing the doors for divine service, and to these the
+task of digging graves and the care of the churchyard are also
+added. He is appointed by the churchwardens if his duties be
+confined to the church, but if he is employed in the churchyard the
+appointment is vested in the rector. If <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-254"></a>[pg 254]</span> his duties embrace
+the care of both church and churchyard, he should be appointed by
+the churchwardens and incumbent jointly <a name=
+"FNanchor91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91">[91]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_91"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor91">[91]</a> <i>Ecclesiastical Law</i>, p.
+1914.</blockquote>
+<p>Many cases have come before the law courts relating to sextons
+and their election and appointment. He does not usually hold the
+same fixity of tenure as the parish clerk, he being a servant of
+the parish rather than an officer or one that has a freehold in his
+place; but in some cases a sexton has determined his right to hold
+the office for life, and gained a mandamus from the court to be
+restored to his position after having been removed by the
+churchwardens.</p>
+<p>The law has also decided that women may be appointed
+sextons.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-255"></a>[pg 255]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<h3>RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD CLERKS AND THEIR WAYS</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Personal recollections of the manners and curious ways of old
+village clerks are valuable, and several writers have kindly
+favoured me with the descriptions of these quaint personages, who
+were well known to them in the days of their youth.</p>
+<p>The clerk of a Midland village was an old man who combined with
+his sacred functions the secular calling of the keeper of the
+village inn. He was very deaf, and consequently spoke in a loud,
+harsh voice, and scraps of conversation which were heard in the
+squire's high square box pew occasioned much amusement among the
+squire's sons. The Rev. W.V. Vickers records the following
+incidents:</p>
+<p>It was "Sacrament Sunday," and part of the clerk's duty was to
+prepare the Elements in the vestry, which was under the western
+tower. Apparently the wine was not forthcoming when wanted, and we
+heard the following stage-aside in broad Staffordshire: "Weir's the
+bottle? Oh! 'ere it is, under the teeble (table) all the
+whoile."</p>
+<p>Another part of his duty was to sing in the choir, for which
+purpose he used to leave the lower deck of the three-decker and
+hobble with his heavy oak stick to <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-256"></a>[pg 256]</span> the chancel for the canticles and
+hymns, and having swelled the volume of praise, hobble back again,
+a pause being made for his journey both to and fro. Not only did he
+sing in the choir but he gave out the hymns. This he did in a
+peculiar sing-song voice with up-and-down cadences: "Let us sing
+(low) to the praise (high) and glory (low) of God (high) the
+hundredth (low) psalm (high)." Very much the same intonation
+accompanied his reading of the alternate verses of the Psalms.</p>
+<p>On one occasion a locum tenens, who officiated for a few weeks,
+was <i>stone</i> deaf. Hence a difficulty arose in his knowing when
+our worthy, and the congregation, had finished each response or
+verse. This the clerk got over by keeping one hand well forward
+upon his book and raising the fingers as he came to the close. This
+was the signal to the deaf man above him that it was <i>his</i>
+turn! The old man, by half sitting upon a table in the belfry,
+could chime the four bells. It was his habit, instead of going by
+his watch, to look out for the first appearance of my father's
+carriage (an old-fashioned "britska," I believe it was called, with
+yellow body and wheels and large black hood, and so very
+conspicuous) at a certain part of the road, and then, and not till
+then, commence chiming. It was a compliment to my father's
+punctuality; but what happened when, by chance, he failed to attend
+church I know not--but such occasions were rare <a name=
+"FNanchor92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92">[92]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_92"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor92">[92]</a> In olden days it seems to have been the
+usual practice in many churches to delay service until the advent
+of the squire. Every one knows the old story of how, through some
+inadvertence, the minister had not looked out to see that the great
+man was in his accustomed pew. He began, "When the wicked man--"
+The parish clerk tugged him by his coat, saying, "Please, sir, he
+hasn't come yet!" As to whether the clergyman took the hint and
+waited for "the wicked man" history sayeth not. Another clerk told
+a young deacon, who was impatient to begin the service, "You must
+wait a bit, sir, we ain't ready." He then clambered on the
+Communion table, and peered through the east window, which
+commanded a view of the door in the wall of the squire's garden.
+"Come down!" shouted the curate. "I can see best where I be,"
+replied the imperturbable clerk; "I'm watching the garden door.
+Here she be, and the squire." Whereupon he clambered down again,
+and without much further delay the service proceeded.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-257"></a>[pg 257]</span>
+<p>Our <i>parish</i> church we seldom attended, for the simple
+reason that the aged vicar was scarcely audible; but there the
+clerk, after robing the vicar, mounted to the gallery above the
+vestry, where, taking a front seat, he watched for the exit of the
+vicar (whose habit it was to wait for the young men, who also
+waited in the church porch for him to begin the service!), and
+then, taking his seat at the organ, commenced the voluntary. It was
+his duty also to give out the hymns. I have known him play an
+eight-line tune to a four-line verse (or psalm--we used Tate and
+Brady), repeating the words of each verse twice!</p>
+<p>The organ produced the most curious sounds. In course of time
+the mice got into it, and the churchwardens, of whom the clerk was
+one, approached the vicar with the information, at the same time
+venturing a hint that the organ was quite worn out and that a
+harmonium would be more acceptable to the congregation than the
+present music. His reply was that a harmonium was not a
+sufficiently sacred instrument, and added, "Let a mouse-trap be set
+at once." #/</p>
+<p>Robert Dicker, quondam cabinet-maker in the town of Crediton,
+Devon, reigned for many years as parish clerk to the, at one time,
+collegiate church of the same town. He appears to have fulfilled
+his office satisfactorily up to about 1870, when his mind became
+somewhat <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-258"></a>[pg
+258]</span> feeble. Nevertheless, no desire was apparent to shorten
+the days of his office, as he was regular in his attendance and
+musically inclined; but when he began to play pranks upon the vicar
+it became necessary to consider the advisability of finding a
+substitute who should do the work and receive half the pay. One of
+his escapades was to stand up in the middle of service and call the
+vicar a liar; at another time he announced that a wedding was to
+take place on a certain day. The vicar, therefore, attended and
+waited for an hour, when the clerk affirmed that he must have
+dreamed it! Dicker was given to the study of astronomy, and it is
+related that he once gave a lecture on this subject in the Public
+Rooms. There is close to the town a small park in memory of one of
+the Duller family. A man one night was much alarmed when walking
+therein to discover a bright light in one of the trees, and, later,
+to hear the voice of the worthy clerk, who addressed him in these
+words: "Fear not, my friend, and do not be affrighted. I am Robert
+Dicker, clerk of the parish. I am examining the stars." Another
+account alleges that he affirmed himself to be "counting the
+stars." Whichever account is the true one, it will be gathered that
+he was already "far gone."</p>
+<p>Another of his achievements was the conversion of a barrel
+organ, purchased from a neighbouring church, into a manual,
+obtaining the wind therefor by a pedal arrangement which worked a
+large wheel attached to a crank working the bellows. On all great
+festivals and especially on Christmas Day he was wont to rouse the
+neighbourhood as early as three and four o'clock, remarking of the
+ungrateful, complaining neighbours that they had no heart for music
+or religion.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-259"></a>[pg 259]</span>
+<p>The wheel mentioned above was part of one of his tricycle
+schemes. His first attempt in cycle-making resulted in the
+construction of a bicycle the wheels of which resembled the top of
+a round deal table; this soon came to grief. His second endeavour
+was more successful and became a tricycle, the wheels of which were
+made of wrought iron and the base of a triangular shape. Upon the
+large end he placed an arm-chair, averring that it would be useful
+to rest in whenever he should grow weary! Then, making another
+attempt, he succeeded in turning out (being aided by another
+person) a very respectable and useful tricycle upon which he made
+many journeys to Barnstaple and elsewhere.</p>
+<p>However, just as an end comes to everything that is mortal, so
+did an end come to our friend the clerk; for, as so many stories
+finish, he died in a good old age, and his substitute reigned in
+his stead.</p>
+<p>The following reminiscences of a parish clerk were sent by the
+Rev. Augustus G. Legge, who has since died.</p>
+<p>It is reported of an enthusiastic arch&aelig;ologian that he
+blessed the day of the Commonwealth because, he said, if Cromwell
+and all his destructive followers had never lived, there would have
+been no ruins in the country to repay the antiquary's researches.
+And the converse of this is true of a race of men who before long
+will be "improved" off the face of the earth, if the restoration of
+our parish churches is to go on at the present rate. I allude to
+the old parish clerks of our boy-hood days. Who does not remember
+their quaint figures and quainter, though somewhat irreverent,
+manner of leading the responses of the congregation? It is well
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-260"></a>[pg 260]</span> indeed
+that our churches, sadly given over to the laxity and carelessness
+of a bygone age, should be renovated and beautified, the tone of
+the services raised, and the "bray" of the old clerks, unsuited to
+the devotional feelings of a more enlightened day, silenced, but
+still a shade of regret will be mingled with their dismissal, if
+only for the sake of the large stock of amusing anecdotes which
+their names recall.</p>
+<p>My earliest recollections are connected with old Russell
+<a name="FNanchor93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93">[93]</a>, my
+father's clerk. He was a little man but possessed of a
+consequential manner sufficient for a giant. A shoemaker by trade,
+his real element was in the church. His conversation was
+embellished by high-flown grandiloquence, and he invariably walked
+upon the heels of his boots. This latter peculiarity, as may well
+be imagined, was the cause of a most comical effect whenever he had
+occasion to leave his seat and clatter down the aisle of the
+church. How often when a boy did I make my old nurse's sides shake
+with laughter by imitating old Russell's walk! His manner of
+reading the responses in the service can only be compared to a kind
+of bellow--as my father used to say, "he bellowed like a calf"--and
+his rendering of parts of it was calculated to raise a smile upon
+the lips of the most devout. The following are a few instances of
+his perversions of the text. "Leviathan" under his quaint
+manipulation became "leather thing," his trade of shoemaker helping
+him, no doubt, to his interpretation. Whether he had ever attended
+a fish-dinner at Greenwich and his mind had thus become impressed
+with the number and variety of the inhabitants of the deep, history
+does not record, but, be that as it may, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-261"></a>[pg 261]</span> "Bring hither the
+tabret" was invariably read as "Bring hither the turbot."
+"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego" did service for "Ananias,
+Azarias, and Misael" in the "Benedicite," and "Destructions are
+come to a perpetual end" was transmogrified into "<i>parental</i>
+end" in the ninth Psalm. My father once took the trouble to point
+out and try to correct some of his inaccuracies, but he never
+attempted it again. Old Russell listened attentively and
+respectfully, but when the lecture was over he dismissed the
+subject with a superior shake of the head and the disdainful
+remark, "Well, sir, I have heerd tell of people who think with
+you." Never a bit though did he make any change in his own peculiar
+rendering of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_93"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor93">[93]</a> Old Russell, for many years clerk of the
+parish of East Lavant in the county of Sussex.</blockquote>
+<p>There was one occasion on which he especially distinguished
+himself, and I shall never forget it. A farmyard of six
+outbuildings abutted upon the church burial ground, and it was but
+natural that all the fowls should stray into it to feed and enjoy
+themselves in the grass. Amongst these was a goodly flock of
+guinea-fowls, which oftentimes no little disturbed the congregation
+by their peculiar cry of "Come back! come back! come back!" One
+Sunday the climax of annoyance was reached when the whole flock
+gathered around the west door just as my father was beginning to
+read the first lesson. His voice, never at any time very strong,
+was completely drowned. Whereupon old Russell hastily left his
+seat, book in hand, and clattering as usual on his heels down the
+aisle disappeared through the door on vengeance bent. The
+discomfiture of the offending fowls was instantly apparent by the
+change in their cry to one more piercing still as they fled away in
+terror. Then all was still, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-262"></a>[pg 262]</span> and back comes old Russell, a gleam
+of triumph on his face and somewhat out of breath, but nevertheless
+able without much difficulty to take up the responses in the
+canticle which followed the lesson. Scarcely, however, had the
+congregation resumed their seats for the reading of the second
+lesson when the offending flock again gathered round the west door,
+and again, as if in defiant derision of Russell, raised their
+mocking cry of "Come back! come back! come back!" And back
+accordingly he went clatter, clatter down the aisle, a stern
+resolution flashing from his eye, and causing the little boys as he
+passed to quail before him. Now it so happened that the lesson was
+a short one, and, moreover, Russell took more time, making a
+farther excursion into the churchyard than before, in order if
+possible to be rid entirely of the noisy intruders. Just as he
+returned to the church door, this time completely breathless, the
+first verse of the canticle which followed was being read, but
+Russell was equal to the occasion. All breathless as he was,
+without a moment's hesitation, he opened his book at the place and
+bellowed forth the responses as he proceeded up the church to his
+seat. The scene may be imagined, but scarcely described: Russell's
+quaint little figure, the broad-rimmed spectacles on his nose, the
+ponderous book in his hands, the clatter of his heels, the choking
+gasps with which he bellowed out the words as he laboured for
+breath, and finally the sudden disappearance of the congregation
+beneath the shelter of their high pews with a view to giving vent
+to their feelings unobserved--all this requires to have been
+witnessed to be fully appreciated.</p>
+<p>It chanced one Sunday that a parishioner coming into church
+after the service had begun omitted to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-263"></a>[pg 263]</span> close the door,
+causing thereby an unseemly draught. My father directed Russell to
+shut it. Accordingly, book in hand and with a thumb between the
+leaves to keep the place, he sallied forth. But, alas! in shutting
+the door the thumb fell out and the place was lost, and after
+floundering about awhile to find, if possible, the proper response,
+he at length made known to the congregation the misfortune which
+had befallen him by exclaiming aloud, "I've lost my place or
+<i>summut</i>."</p>
+<p>A very amusing incident once took place at a baptism. The
+service proceeded with due decorum and regularity till my father
+demanded of the godfather the child's name. The answer was so
+indistinctly given that he had to repeat the question more than
+once, and even then the name remained a mystery. All he could make
+out was something which sounded like "Harmun," the godfather
+indignantly asserting the while that it was a "Scriptur" name. In
+his perplexity my father turned to Russell with the query: "Clerk,
+do you know what the name is?" "No, sir. I'm sure I don't know,
+unless it be he at the end of the prayer," meaning "Amen." The
+result was that the child was otherwise christened, and after the
+ceremony was over my father, placing a Bible in the godfather's
+hands, requested him to find the "Scriptur" name, as he called it,
+when, having turned over the leaves for some time, he drew his
+attention to <i>wicked Haman</i>. The child's escape, therefore,
+was most fortunate. Old Russell has now slept with his fathers for
+many years, and the few stories which I have related about him do
+not by any means exhaust the list of his oddities. Many of the
+parishioners to this day, no doubt, will call to mind the quaint
+way in which, if he thought any <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-264"></a>[pg 264]</span> one was misbehaving himself in
+church, he would rise slowly from his seat with such majesty as his
+diminutive stature could command, and shading his spectacles with
+his hand, gaze sternly in the offending quarter; how on a certain
+Communion Sunday he forgot the wine to be used in the sacred
+office, and when my father directed his attention to the omission,
+after sundry dives under the altar-cloth he at last produced a
+common rush basket, and from it a black bottle; how on another
+Sunday, being desirous to free the church from smoke which had
+escaped from a refractory stove, he deliberately mounted upon the
+altar and remained standing there while he opened a small lattice
+in the east window. All these circumstances will, no doubt, be
+recalled by some one or other in the parish. But, gentle reader, be
+not overharsh in passing judgment upon him. I verily believe that
+he had no more desire to be irreverent than you or I have. The
+fault lay rather in the religious coldness and carelessness of
+those days than in him. He was liked and respected by every one as
+a harmless, inoffensive, good-hearted old fellow, and I cannot
+better close this brief account of some of his peculiarities than
+by saying--as I do with all my heart--Peace to his ashes!</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Mr. Legge's baptismal story reminds me of a friend who was
+christening the child of a gipsy, when the name given was "Neptin."
+This puzzled him sorely, but suddenly recollecting that he had
+baptized another gipsy child "Britannia," without any hesitation he
+at once named the infant "Neptune." Mr. Eagles was once puzzled
+when the sponsor gave the name "Acts." "'Acts!' said I. 'What do
+you mean?' Thinks I to myself, I will <i>ax</i> the clerk to spell
+it. He did: <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-265"></a>[pg
+265]</span> A-C-T-S. So Acts was the babe, and will be while in
+this life, and will be doubly, trebly so registered if ever he
+marries or dies. Afterwards, in the vestry, I asked the good woman
+what made her choose such a name. Her answer <i>verbatim</i>: 'Why,
+sir, we be religious people; we've got your on 'em already, and
+they be caal'd Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and so my husband
+thought we'd compliment the apostles a bit.'"</p>
+<p>Mr. Legge adds the following stories:</p>
+<p>My first curacy was in Norfolk in the year 1858, a period when
+the old style of parish clerk had not disappeared. On one occasion
+I was asked by a friend in a neighbouring parish to take a funeral
+service for him. On arriving at the church I was received by a very
+eccentric clerk. It seemed as if his legs were hung upon wires, and
+before the service began he danced about the church in a most
+peculiar and laughable manner, and in addition to this he had a
+hideous squint, one eye looking north and the other south. The
+service proceeded with due decorum until we arrived at the grave,
+when those who were preparing to lower the coffin in it discovered
+that it had not been dug large enough to receive it. This of course
+created a very awkward pause while it was made larger, and the
+chief mourner utilised it by gently remonstrating with the clerk
+for his carelessness. In reply he gave a solemn shake of his head,
+cast one eye into the grave and the other at the chief mourner, and
+merely remarked, "Putty (pretty) nigh though," meaning that the
+offence after all was not so very great, as he had almost
+accomplished his task. Obliged to keep my countenance, I had, as
+may be imagined, some difficulty.</p>
+<p>A very amusing incident once took place when I had <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-266"></a>[pg 266]</span> a couple before me
+to be married. All went well until I asked the question, "Who
+giveth this woman to be married to this man?" when an individual
+stepped forward, and snatching the ring out of the bride-groom's
+hand, began placing it on a finger of the bride. As all was
+confusion I signed to the old clerk to put matters straight.
+Attired in a brown coat and leather gaiters, with spectacles on his
+nose, and a large Prayer Book in his hands, he came shuffling
+forward from the background, exclaiming out loud, "Bless me, bless
+me! never knew such a thing happen afore in all my life!" The
+service was completed without any further interruption, but again I
+had a sore difficulty in keeping my countenance.</p>
+<p>Many years ago ecclesiastical matters in Norfolk were in a very
+slack state--rectors and vicars lived away from their parishes,
+subscribing amongst them to pay the salary of a curate to undertake
+the church services. As his duties were consequently manifold some
+parishes were without his presence on Sunday for a month and
+sometimes longer. The parish clerk would stand outside the church
+and watch for the coming parson, and if he saw him in the distance
+would immediately begin to toll the bell; if not, the parish was
+without a service on that day.</p>
+<p>It happened on one of these monthly occasions that on the
+arrival of the parson at the church he was met by the clerk at the
+door, who, pulling his forelock, addressed him as follows: "Sir, do
+yew mind a prachin in the readin' desk to-day?" "Yes," was the
+reply; "the pulpit is the proper place." "Well, sir, you see we
+fare to have an old guse a-sittin' in the pulpit. She'll be arf her
+eggs to-morrow; 'twould be a shame to take her arf to-day."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-267"></a>[pg 267]</span>
+<p>The pulpit was considered as convenient a place as any for the
+"old guse" to hatch her young in.</p>
+<p>Canon Venables contributes the following:</p>
+<p>The first parish clerk I can in the least degree remember was
+certainly entitled to be regarded as a "character," albeit not in
+all moral respects what would be called a moral character. Shrewd,
+clever, and better informed than the inhabitants of his little
+village of some eighty folk, he was not "looked up to," but was
+regarded with suspicion, and, in short, was not popular, while
+treated with a certain amount of deference, being a man of some
+knowledge and ability. The clergyman was a man of excellent
+character, learned, a fluent <i>ex-tempore</i> preacher, and one
+who liked the services to be nicely conducted. He came over every
+Sunday and ministered two services. In those days the only organ
+was a good long pitch-pipe constructed principally of wood and, I
+imagine, about twelve inches in length. But upon the parish clerk
+devolved the onerous (and it may be added in this case sonorous)
+duty of starting the hymn and the singing. In those days few could
+read, and the method was adopted (and I know successfully adopted a
+few years later) of announcing two lines of the verse to be sung,
+and sometimes the whole verse. But Mr. W.M. was unpopular, and
+people did not always manifest a willingness to sing with him.</p>
+<p>At last a crisis came. The hymn and psalm were announced. The
+pitch-pipe rightly adjusted gave the proper keynote, and the clerk
+essayed to sing. But from some cause matters were not harmonious
+and none attempted to help the clerk.</p>
+<p>With a scowl not worthy of a saint, the offended official turned
+round upon the congregation and closed <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-268"></a>[pg 268]</span> all further
+attempts at psalm-singing by stating clearly and distinctly, "I
+shan't sing if nobody don't foller." This man was deposed ere long,
+and deservedly, if village suspicions were truthful.</p>
+<p>After which, I think, he usually came just inside the church
+once every Sunday, but never to get further than to take a seat
+close to the door. He died at a great age. Two or three of his
+successors were worthy men. One of them would carefully recite the
+Psalms for the coming Sunday within church or elsewhere during the
+week, and he read with proper feeling and good sense.</p>
+<p>Another of the same little parish, well up in his Bible, once
+helped the very excellent clergyman at a baptism in a critical
+moment. "Name this child." "Zulphur." This was not a correct name.
+Another effort, "Sulphur." The clergyman was in difficulty. The
+clerk was equal to the occasion, for the parson was well up in his
+Bible too.</p>
+<p>"Leah's handmaid," suggested the clerk. "Zilpah, I baptize
+thee," said the priest, and all was well.</p>
+<p>In that church the few farmers who met to levy a poor-rate and
+do other parochial work insisted on doing so within the chancel
+rails, using the holy table as the writing-desk, and the assigned
+reason for so doing was that, being apt to quarrel and dispute over
+parish matters, there would be no danger <i>at such a place</i> as
+this of using profane language. All in the diocese of Oxford.</p>
+<p>It was in the twenties that I must have seen old P.W. (the
+parish clerk) and two other men in the desk singing to "Hanover,"
+with a certain apparent self-complacency in nice smock-frocks, "My
+soul, praise the Lord, speak good of His Name," etc. The little
+congregation <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-269"></a>[pg
+269]</span> listened with seeming contentment, and it is worth
+recording that the parson always preached in the surplice. I
+suppose Pusey was a boy at that time, but the custom in this church
+was not a novelty, whether right or wrong.</p>
+<p>It was not the clerk's fault that the hour of service was
+hastened by some seventy minutes one afternoon, so that one or two
+invariably late worshippers were astounded to be driven backwards
+from the church by the congregation returning from service. But so
+it was. The really well-meaning kind-hearted parson was withal a
+keen sportsman and a worthy gentleman, and with his "long dogs" and
+man was on his horse and away for Illsley Downs race course to come
+off next day, and his dogs (they won) must not be fatigued. Old
+P.W., the clerk, reached a good age, an inoffensive man.</p>
+<p>I was rather interested when residing in my parish in grand old
+Yorkshire to observe two steady-looking and rather elderly men,
+each aided by a strong walking-stick, coming to church with
+praiseworthy regularity and reverence. I found, on making their
+acquaintance, that they were brothers who had recently come into
+the parish, natives of "the Peak," or of the locality near the
+Peak, which was not many miles distant from my parish.</p>
+<p>Since I heard from their lips the story which I am about to
+relate, I have heard it told, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, as happening
+in sundry other parishes, until one rather doubts the genuineness
+of the record at all. But as they recounted it it ran as follows,
+and I am sure they believed what they told me.</p>
+<p>Some malicious person or persons unknown entered the church, and
+having seized the rather large typed <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-270"></a>[pg 270]</span> Prayer Book used by the clerk, who
+was somewhat advanced in years, they observed that the words "the
+righteous shall flourish like" were the last words at the bottom of
+the page, whereupon they altered the next words on the top of the
+following page, and which were "the palm tree," into "a green bay
+horse"; and, the change being carefully made, the result on the
+Sunday following was that the well-meaning clerk, studiously
+uttering each word of his Prayer Book, found himself declaring very
+erroneous doctrine. "Hulloa," cried he; "I must hearken back.
+This'll never do." Now I cannot call to mind the name of the
+parish. It was not Chapel-in-the-Frith. Was it
+Mottram-in-Longdendale? I really cannot remember. But these two old
+men asserted that thenceforward it became a saying, "I must hearken
+back, like the clerk of--."</p>
+<p>I recollect preaching one weekday night (and people would crowd
+the churches on weekday evenings fifty years ago far more readily
+than they do now) at some wild place in Lancashire or Yorkshire, I
+think Lancashire. I was taken to see and stand upon a stepping
+stone outside the church, and close against the south wall of the
+sacred edifice, upon which almost every Sunday the clerk, as the
+people were leaving church, ascended and in a loud voice announced
+any matters concerning the parish which it appeared desirable to
+proclaim. In this way any intended sales were made known, the loss
+of sheep or cattle on the moors was announced, and almost anything
+appertaining to the secular welfare of the parishioners was made
+public. I do not state this to criticise it. It was in some degree
+a recognition of the charity which ought to realise the sympathy in
+each other's welfare which we ought all to display. It was in those
+primitive times and localities <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-271"></a>[pg 271]</span> a specimen of the simplicity and
+well-meant interest in the welfare of the neighbour as well as of
+oneself, although perhaps the secular sometimes did much to
+extinguish the spiritual.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image34.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image34.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image34.jpg" width="100%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Sunday Morning</b><br>
+From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co</p>
+<br>
+<p>Few people now realise what a business it was to light up a
+church, say, eighty years ago. But the worthy old clerk, in a wig
+bestowed on him by the pious and aged patron, is hastening to
+illuminate his church with old-fashioned candles, in which he is
+aided not a little by his faithful wife, who, like Abraham's wife,
+regarded her husband as her lord and responded to the name of
+Sarah. The good old man--and he was a good old man--was perhaps a
+little bit "flustered and flurried," for the folk were gathering
+within the sacred temple, and W.L. was anxious to complete his task
+of lighting the loft, or gallery. "I say, Sally, hand us up a
+little taste of candle," cried her lord, and Sarah obeyed, and the
+illumination was soon complete.</p>
+<p>But, really, few men "gave out" or announced a hymn with truer
+and more touching and devout feeling than did that old clerk. I am
+one of those who do not think that all the changes in the
+ministration of Church services are, after experience had,
+desirable. I think that in many instances the lay clerk ought to
+have been instructed in the performance of his duties, to the
+profit of all concerned. And I deem that this proceeding would have
+been a far wiser proceeding than any substitution of the man or his
+function. There is ancient authority for a clerk or clerks. It is
+wise to secure work to be attended to in the functions of divine
+service for as many laymen as possible, consistent with principle
+and propriety. W.L. was an old man when I saw him, but I can hear
+him now as with a pathos quite <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-272"></a>[pg 272]</span> touching and teaching, because done
+so simply and naturally, he announced, singing:</p>
+<blockquote>"Salvation, what a glorious theme,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;How suited to our need.<br>
+The grace that rescues fallen man<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Is wonderful indeed."</blockquote>
+<p>And though he pronounced the last word but one as if spelt
+"woonderful," I venture to say that the "giving out" of that verse
+by that aged clerk with his venerable wig and with a voice
+trembling a little by age, but more by natural emotion, was
+preferable to many modern modes of announcing a hymn.</p>
+<p>It was common to say "Let us sing, to the praise and glory of
+God." It is common to be shocked, nowadays, by such an invitation.
+Are we as reverent now as then? Do we sing praises with
+understanding better? I think it is not so.</p>
+<p>I knew a very respectable man, W.K., a tailor by trade, a
+well-conducted man, but who felt the importance of his office to an
+extent that made him nervous, or (what is as bad) made him fancy he
+was nervous. The church was capacious, and the population over two
+thousand.</p>
+<p>A large three-decker, though the pulpit was at a right angle
+with the huge prayer-desk and the clerk's citadel below, well
+stained and varnished, formed an important portion of the furniture
+of the church, the whole structure, as we were reminded by large
+letters above the chancel arch, having been "Adorn'd and beautified
+1814," the names of the churchwardens being also recorded. This
+clerk was observed frequently, during the service, to stoop down
+within his little "pew" as if to imbibe something. He was inquired
+of as to his strange proceeding, <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-273"></a>[pg 273]</span> when he frankly stated that he felt
+the trials of his duties to be so great, that he always fortified
+himself with a little bottle containing some gin and some water, to
+which bottle he made frequent appeals during the often rather
+lengthy services. He had to proclaim the notices of vestry meetings
+of all kinds, as well as to give out the hymns; but what astonishes
+me is that he baptized many infants at their homes instead of the
+most excellent vicar, when circumstances made it difficult for the
+really good vicar to attend.</p>
+<p>I saw him, one first Sunday in Lent, stand up on the edge of his
+square box or pew, and conduct a rather long consultation with the
+vicar, a very spiritually minded, excellent man, upon which we were
+put through the whole Commination Service which, though appointed
+for Ash Wednesday, was wholly neglected until it lengthened out the
+Sunday morning of the first <i>in</i> but not <i>of</i> Lent, and
+having nothing to do with the forty days of Lent.</p>
+<p>The well-conducted man lived to a good age, and after his death
+a rather costly stained glass window was erected to his memory
+under the active influence of a new vicar. When privately engaged
+in church he wore his usual silk hat, though not approving of any
+one so behaving.</p>
+<p>I recollect, in a large church in a large town, the clerk,
+arrayed (properly, I think) in a suitable black gown, giving out
+the hymn, in a tone to be regretted, but where the obvious remedy
+was not to dethrone the clerk, but rather to have just suggested
+the propriety of reading the entire verse, as well as of avoiding a
+tone lugubrious on the occasion.</p>
+<p>It was Easter Day, and the hymn quite appropriate, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-274"></a>[pg 274]</span> but not so
+<i>rendered</i> as the clerk heavily and drearily announced:</p>
+<blockquote>"The Lord is risen indeed,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And are the tidings true?"</blockquote>
+<p>as if there might exist a doubt about this glorious fact.</p>
+<p>Pity that he did not enter into the spirit of the verse and
+add:</p>
+<blockquote>"Yes! we beheld the Saviour bleed,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;And saw Him rising too."</blockquote>
+<p>Within about ten miles nearer to Windsor Castle the clerk of a
+church in which not a few nobility usually worshipped, was
+altogether at fault in his "H's," as he exhorted the people to
+sing, "The Heaster Im with the Allelujer, <i>h</i>et the
+<i>h</i>end of <i>h</i>every line." Other clerks may have done the
+same. He did it, I know well.</p>
+<p>Throughout the whole of my very imperfect ministry I have sought
+to practise catechising in church every Sunday afternoon, and very
+strongly desire to urge the practice of it in every church every
+Sunday.</p>
+<p>It is one of the most difficult parts of the glorious ministry
+since the time of St. Luke that can engage the attention of the
+ordained ministers of Christ's Church. It needs to be done well. It
+ought not to be a very nice, simple sermonette. This, though very
+beautiful, is not catechising. Perhaps, if at once followed by
+questions upon the sermonette, it might thus become very useful.
+But a catechesis in which the catechist simply tells a simple story
+or gives an amusing anecdote, or when questioning, so puts his
+inquiries that "yes" and "no" are the listless replies that are
+drawn forth from the lads and girls, is not interesting or
+profitable. Whenever I have the opportunity I go to an afternoon
+catechetical service. Some failed by being <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-275"></a>[pg 275]</span> made into the time
+of a small preachment; some because in a few minutes the catechist
+easily asked questions and then answered them himself. Others were
+really magnificent, securing the attention and drawing forth
+answers admirably. Was it the great bishop Samuel Wilberforce who
+said, "A boy may preach, but it takes a man to catechise"?</p>
+<p>I cannot boast of being a good catechist; but I know that
+catechising costs me more mental exhaustion (alas! with sad
+depression under a sense of trial of temper and failure) than any
+sermon. But I will say to any clergyman, <i>My dear brother,
+catechise; try, persevere, keep on. It will not be in vain. But
+secure an answer</i>. If need be, become a cross-examining advocate
+for Christ, and don't give up until you have made the catechumens,
+by dint of a variety of ways of putting the question, give the
+answer you desired. You have made them think and call memory into
+play, and made them feel that they "knew it all the time," if only
+they had reflected. And you have given them a "power of good."</p>
+<p>But what has all this to do with a clerk? Well, I want to tell
+what made me <i>try</i> to be a good catechist, and what makes me,
+over eighty-three years of age, <i>still wish</i> to become such,
+though the incident must have happened some seventy years ago, for
+I recollect that on the very Sunday we crossed the Greta my father
+whispered to me as we were on the bridge that it was the poet
+Southey who was close to us, as he as well as our little family and
+a goodly congregation were returning from Crosthwaite Church in the
+afternoon. For "oncers" were unknown in those times, neither by
+poets and historians like Southey, nor by travellers such as we
+were. We had attended morning service. <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-276"></a>[pg 276]</span> A stranger
+officiated. His name was <i>Bush</i>, and this is important. A
+family "riddle" impressed the name upon me. "Why were we all like
+Moses to-day?" "We had heard the word out of a Bush," was the
+reply. But at the afternoon service I was deeply impressed. The
+Rev. M. Bush having read the lessons, came out of the prayer-desk,
+and to my amazement and great interest catechised the children and
+others.</p>
+<p>I thought to myself that the practice was excellent, and felt
+that if ever I became a clergyman (of which honour there was very
+small probability), I would obey the Prayer Book and catechise.
+Since then I have catechised ten, twenty, fifty young people, and
+not infrequently five hundred to one thousand, and rarely two to
+three thousand on a Sunday afternoon, often, however, much
+exhausted (having to preach in the evening) and dreadfully cast
+down at my own failure in not catechising better.</p>
+<p>Decades rolled on. A lovely effigy of Southey occupied his place
+in Crosthwaite Church, and I found myself again amidst the
+enchanting views of and about Derwentwater. The morning was wet,
+but I resolved to go as soon as it cleared up in order to find "th'
+ould clerk," and inquire of him touching the catechising of perhaps
+forty years ago. I was told that he had resigned, that he lived
+still at no very great distance. I think he was succeeded by his
+son as clerk. After some trouble I found my aged friend, and told
+him that very many years ago I was at the church when Southey, the
+poet, was there, and I wanted to know if the catechising was
+continued. "There never has been any catechising here," said the
+worthy old sacristan. "Forgive me, I heard it myself." "I tell thee
+there never was no catechising here. I lived <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-277"></a>[pg 277]</span> here all these
+years, and was clerk for nearly all the time." "I cannot help
+that," I said; "I am sure there was catechising in your church on a
+Sunday when I, a boy, was here." The old Churchman became testy,
+and my pertinacity made him irate, as he thundered out that "never
+had there been catechising in that church in all his day." I rose
+to leave him, telling him that I was very disappointed, but that I
+was <i>confident</i> that I did not invent this story, and, I
+added, the name of the parson was Bush. "<i>Bush, Bush, Bush!</i>
+Well, there was a clergyman of that name come here four Sundays,
+many a year ago, when the vicar was from home; and now I come to
+think of it, he did catechise on the Sunday afternoon. But he is
+the only man that ever did so here. There's been no catechising in
+this church, except then." We parted good friends after what I felt
+to be a most singular interview, far more interesting, I fear, to
+me than to any who may read this unadorned tale, and especially the
+many folks who probably but for this I should never have
+catechised.</p>
+<p>But I hope the old clerk of Crosthwaite's declaration will not
+long be true of any church of the Anglican Communion, "There's been
+no catechising here." My success as a preacher, or catechist, or
+parish priest has not been great, but this does not greatly
+surprise me, while sorrowing that so it has been. But I think it
+likely that the incident at Crosthwaite Church was a chief cause of
+my trying to be a catechist, and I conclude by saying to any one in
+holy orders, or preparing to receive them. Make catechising an
+important effort in your ministry.</p>
+<p>It was a small parish. The vicar was a learned man, and an
+authority as an antiquary, and a man of high <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-278"></a>[pg 278]</span> character. On a
+certain Sunday morning I was detailed to perform all the "duties"
+of Morning Prayer. Doubtless I was too energetic in my efforts at
+preaching, for my "action" proved, almost to an alarming extent,
+that the huge pulpit cushion had not been "dusted" for a lengthy
+period. But it was at the very commencement of divine service that
+the clerk demonstrated his originality in the proper discharge of
+his duties. "I stands up in yonder corner to ring the bells, and as
+soon as you be ready you gives me a kind of nod like, and then I
+leaves off ringing and comes to my place as clerk." Nothing could
+work better, and the clerk of B----- d and I parted at the close of
+divine service on very amicable terms.</p>
+<p>Mr. F.S. Gill, aged 86, has many recollections of old clerks and
+their ways. In a parish in Nottinghamshire there was an old clerk
+who was nearly blind. There were two services on Sunday in summer,
+and only morning service in winter. The clerk knew the morning
+Psalms quite well by heart, but not so the evening Psalms. On one
+occasion when his verse should have been read, he was unable to
+recollect it. After a pause the clergyman began to read it, when
+the clerk, who occupied the box below that of the vicar, looked up,
+saying, "Nay, nay, master, I've got it now."</p>
+<p>Another time, when an absent-minded curate omitted the
+ante-Communion service and appeared in his black gown in the
+pulpit, the clerk was indignant, and went up to remonstrate.
+Knocking at the pulpit door and no notice being taken of him, he
+proceeded to pull the black gown, and made the curate come down,
+change his robes, and complete the service in the orthodox
+fashion.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-279"></a>[pg 279]</span>
+<p>In another Notts church, during service, there was an encounter
+between two clerks. The regular clerk having been taken ill was
+unequal to his duties for some weeks, and appointed a man to carry
+them out for him. On the restoration to health of the real clerk he
+came into church to resume his duties, but found the man he had
+appointed occupying the box--the so-called desk. Whereupon they had
+a scuffle in the aisle.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The Rev. William Selwyn recollects the following incidents in
+the parish of F-----, near Cambridge:</p>
+<p>Here up to the end of the sixties and well into the seventies a
+most quaint service was in fashion. The morning service began with
+a metrical Psalm--Tate and Brady--led by the clerk (of these more
+hereafter). This being ended, the vicar commenced the service
+always with the sentence "O Lord, correct me"--never any other.
+Then all things went on in the regular course till the end of the
+Litany, when the clerk would be heard stamping down the church and
+ascending the gallery in order to be ready for the second metrical
+Psalm. That ended, the vicar would commence with the ante-Communion
+service from the <i>reading-desk</i>. This went on in due course
+till the end of the Nicene Creed, when without sermon, prayers, or
+blessing, the morning service came to an abrupt termination. The
+afternoon service was identical, save that it ended with a sermon
+and the blessing.</p>
+<p>But the chief peculiarity was the clerk and the singing. The
+metrical Psalm chosen was invariably one for the day of the month
+whatever it might be. The clerk would give it out, "Let's sing to
+the praise and glory of God," and then would read the first two
+lines. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-280"></a>[pg 280]</span>
+The usual village band--fiddle, trombone, etc. etc.--would
+accompany him, which thing done, the next two lines would follow,
+and so on. Usually the number of verses was four, but sometimes the
+clerk would go on to six, or even seven. Once, I remember, this led
+to a somewhat ludicrous result. It was the seventh day of the
+month, consequently the thirty-fifth was the metrical Psalm to be
+sung. I think my late revered relative, Canon Selwyn, learnt then
+with astonishment, as I did myself, of the existence of the
+following lines within the folds of the Prayer Book:</p>
+<blockquote>"And when through dark and slippery ways<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;They strive His rage to shun,<br>
+His vengeful ministers of wrath<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Shall goad them as they run."</blockquote>
+<p>It is hard to think that such a service could have been possible
+within seven miles of a University town, and I need hardly say it
+was very trying to the younger ones.</p>
+<p>In the afternoon the band migrated to the dissenting chapel. On
+one occasion the band failed to appear, and the clerk was left
+alone. However, he made the best of it, with scant support from the
+congregation, so turning to them at the end, said in a loud voice,
+"Thank you for your help!"</p>
+<br>
+<p>THE PARISH OF BROMFIELD, SALOP.</p>
+<p>From these ludicrous scenes it is refreshing to turn to a
+service which, though primitive, was conducted with the utmost
+reverence and decency. When I was instituted in 1866 all the
+singing was conducted, and most reverently conducted, under the
+auspices of the clerk. He was a handsome man, with a flowing beard,
+magnificent bass voice, and a wooden leg. With two <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-281"></a>[pg 281]</span> or three sons,
+daughters, and others in the village he carried on the choir, and
+though there were only hymns, nothing could be better. Of its kind
+I have seldom heard anything better. They had to yield to the
+inexorable march of time, but I parted from them with regret.
+Though we now have a surpliced choir of men and boys, with a
+trained organist and choirmaster, I always look back to my good old
+friend with his daughters and their companions, who were the
+leaders of the singing in the early days of my incumbency.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image35.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image35.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image35.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>The Parish Clerk Of Quedgeley</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>The Rev. Canon Hemmans tell his reminiscences of Thomas Evison,
+parish clerk of Wragby, Lincolnshire, who died in 1865, aged
+eighty-two years. He speaks of him as "a dear old friend, for whom
+I had a profound regard, and to whom I was grateful for much help
+during my noviciate at my first and only curacy."</p>
+<p>Thomas Evison was a shoemaker, and in his early years a great
+pot-house orator. Settled on his well-known corner seat in the "Red
+Lion," he would be seen each evening smoking his pipe and laying
+down the law in the character of the village oracle. He must have
+had some determination and force of character, as one evening he
+laid down his pipe on the hob and said, "I'll smoke no more." He
+also retired from his corner seat at the inn, but he was true to
+his political opinions, and remained an ardent Radical to the last.
+This action showed some courage, as almost all the parish belonged
+to the squire, who was a strong Tory of the old school. Canon
+Hemmans was curate of Wragby with the Rev. G.B. Yard from 1851 to
+1860, succeeding the present Dean of St. Paul's. Mr. Yard was a
+High Churchman, a personal friend of Manning, the Wilberforces,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-282"></a>[pg 282]</span> R.
+Sibthorpe, and Keble, and when expounding then unaccustomed and
+forgotten truths, he found the clerk a most intelligent and
+attentive hearer. Evison used to attend the daily services, except
+the Wednesday and Friday Litany, which service was too short for
+him. During the vicar's absence Canon Hemmans, who was then a
+deacon, found the clerk a most reliable adviser and instructor in
+Lincolnshire customs and words and ways of thought. When he was
+baptizing a child privately, the name Thirza was given to the
+child, which he did not recognise as a Bible name. He consulted
+Evison, who said, "Oh, yes, it is so; it's the name of Abel's
+wife." On the next day Evison bought a book, Gesner's <i>Death of
+Abel</i>, a translation of some Swedish or German work, in which
+the tragedy of the early chapters of Genesis is woven into a story
+with pious reflections. This is not an uncommon book, and the clerk
+said these people believed it was as true as the Bible, because it
+claimed to be about Bible characters.</p>
+<p>Evison was a diligent reader of newspapers, which were much
+fewer in his day, and studied diligently the sermons reported in
+the local Press. He was much puzzled by the reference to "the leg
+end" of the story of the raising of Lazarus in a sermon preached by
+the Bishop of London, afterwards Archbishop Tait. A reference to
+Bailey's Dictionary and the finding of the word <i>legend</i> made
+matters clear. Of course he miscalled words. During the Russian War
+he told Mr. Hemmans that we were not fighting for "territororial
+possessions," and he always read "Moabites and Hungarians" in his
+rendering of the sixth verse of the 83rd Psalm.</p>
+<p>After the resignation of Mr. Yard in 1859 a Low <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-283"></a>[pg 283]</span> Churchman was
+appointed, who restored the use of the black gown. Mr. Hemmans had
+to preach in the evening of the first Sunday, and was undecided as
+to whether he ought to continue to use the surplice. He consulted
+Evison, whose brave advice was, "Stick to your colours."</p>
+<p>The clerk stuck stoutly to his Radical principles, and one day
+went to Lincoln to take part in a contested election. On the
+following Sunday the vicar spoke of "the filthy stream of
+politics." The old man was rather moved by this, and said
+afterwards, "Well, I am not too old to learn." Though staunch to
+his own principles, he was evidently considerate towards the
+opinions of others. He used to keep a pony and gig, and his
+foreman, one Solomon Bingham, was a local preacher. When there came
+a rough Sunday morning the kind old clerk would say: "Well,
+Solomon, where are you going to seminate your schism to-day? You
+may have my trap." Canon Hemmans retains a very affectionate regard
+for the memory of the old clerk.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Mrs. Ellen M. Burrows sends me a charming description of an
+old-fashioned service, and some clerkly manners which are worth
+recording.</p>
+<p>From twenty-five to thirty years ago the small Bedfordshire
+village of Tingrith had quaint customs and ceremonies which to-day
+exist only in the memory of the few.</p>
+<p>The lady of the manor was perhaps best described by a
+neighbouring squire as a "potentate in petticoats."</p>
+<p>Being sole owner of the village, she found employment for all
+the men, enforced cleanliness on all the women, greatly encouraged
+the industry of lace-making <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-284"></a>[pg 284]</span> and hat-sewing, paid for the
+schooling of the children, and looked after the morals of everybody
+generally.</p>
+<p>Legend has it that one ancient schoolmaster whom this good lady
+appointed was not overgood at spelling, and would allow a pupil to
+laboriously spell out a word and wait for him to explain. If the
+master could not do this he would pretend to be preoccupied, and
+advise the pupil to "say 'wheelbarrow' and go on."</p>
+<p>On a Sunday each and every cottager was expected at church. The
+women sat on one side of the centre aisle and the men on the other,
+the former attired in clean cotton gowns and the latter in their
+Sunday smocks.</p>
+<p>The three bells were clanged inharmoniously until a boy who was
+stationed at a point of vantage told the ringer "she's a-comin'."
+Then one bell only was rung to announce the near arrival of the
+lady of the manor.</p>
+<p>The rector would take his place at the desk, and the occupants
+of the centre aisle would rise respectfully to their feet in
+anticipation.</p>
+<p>A white-haired butler and a younger footman--with many brass
+buttons on their coat-tails--would fling wide the double doors and
+stand one on either side until the old lady swept in; then one door
+was closed and the other only left open for less-important
+worshippers to enter. As she passed between the men and women to
+the big pew joining the chancel screen, they all touched their
+forelocks or dropped curtsies before resuming their seats. Before
+this aristocratic personage began her devotions she would face
+round and with the aid of a large monocle, which hung round her
+neck on a broad black ribbon, would make a silent call over, and
+for the tardy, or non-arrivals, there was a lecture in store. The
+servants of her household had the whole of one side aisle allotted
+to their use. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-285"></a>[pg
+285]</span> farmers had the other. There were two "strangers'
+pews," two "christening pews," and the rest were for the children.
+When a hymn was given out the schoolmaster would vigorously apply a
+tuning-fork to his knee, and having thus got the key would start
+the tune, which was taken up lustily by the children round him.
+This was all the singing they had in the service. The clerk said
+all the amens except when he was asleep. The rector was never known
+to preach more than ten minutes at a time, and this was always so
+simple an exposition of the Scripture that the most illiterate
+could understand.</p>
+<p>But no pen can pay tribute enough to the sweet earnestness of
+those little sermons, or, having heard them, ever go away
+unimpressed.</p>
+<p>At the end of the service no one of the congregation moved until
+the lady of the manor sailed out of the great square pew. Then the
+men and women rose as before and bowed and bobbed as she passed
+down the aisle. The two menservants again flung wide the double
+doors and stood stiffly on either side as she passed out; then
+sedately walked home behind her at a respectful distance.</p>
+<p>On each Good Friday the male community of the villagers were
+given a holiday from their work, and a shilling was the reward for
+every man who made his appearance at the eleven o'clock service;
+needless to say, it was well attended.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Another church (Newport Pagnell, Bucks) in an adjoining
+county--probably some years previous to this date--was lighted by
+tallow candles stuck in tin sconces on the walls, and twice during
+the service the clerk went round with a pair of long-handled
+snuffers <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-286"></a>[pg
+286]</span> to "smitch," as he called it, the wicks of these
+evil-smelling lights.</p>
+<p>For his own better accommodation he had a candle all to himself
+stuck in a bottle, which he lighted when about to sing a hymn, and
+with candle in one hand and book in the other, and both held at
+arm's length, he would bellow most lustily and with reason, for he
+was supposed to lead the singing. This finished he would blow out
+his candle with most audible vigour, and every one in his
+neighbourhood would have their handkerchiefs ready to drop their
+noses into.</p>
+<p>This same clerk also took up his stand by the chancel steps with
+a black rod in his hand, and with tremendous importance marched in
+front of the rector down the aisle to the vestry under the belfry,
+and waited outside while the clergyman changed his surplice for a
+black cassock, then escorted him again to the pulpit stairs.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The Rev. E.H.L. Reeve, rector of Stondon Massey, Essex,
+contributes the following excellent stories of old-time
+services.</p>
+<p>The Rev. Thomas Wallace was rector of Listen, in Essex, from
+1783, the date of his father's death, onward. The following story
+is well authenticated in the annals of the family, and must belong
+to the latter part of the eighteenth century or the commencement of
+the nineteenth century.</p>
+<p>It was, of course, a well-established custom in those old times
+for the church clerk to give out the number of the hymn to be sung,
+which he did with much unction and long preamble. The moments thus
+employed would be turned to account in the afternoon by the
+officiating clergyman, who would take the opportunity <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-287"></a>[pg 287]</span> of retiring to the
+vestry to exchange his surplice for his academic gown wherein to
+preach.</p>
+<p>On one occasion Mr. Wallace left his sermon, through
+inadvertence, at home; and, finding himself in the vestry,
+considered, perhaps, that the chance of escape was too good to be
+lost. At any rate, he let himself out into the churchyard, and
+returned no more! He may possibly have been unable to find a
+discourse, but these are details with which we are not concerned.
+The clerk and congregation with becoming loyalty lengthened out the
+already dreary hymn by sundry additions and doxologies to give
+their pastor time to don his robes, and it was long ere they
+perceived the true cause of his delay. They were somewhat nettled,
+as one may suppose, at being thus befooled, and here lies the gist
+of our story. Next Sunday the clerk did not give out the second
+hymn at the usual time, but waited in solemn silence till Mr.
+Wallace had returned in his black gown from the vestry and ascended
+the pulpit stairs. Then, and not till then, he closed the pulpit
+door with a slam; and, <i>keeping his back against it</i>, called
+out significantly, and with a tone of exultation in his voice,
+"We've got him, my boys; <i>now</i> let us sing to the praise and
+glory of God," etc.</p>
+<p>William Wren held the office of church clerk at Stondon Massey
+in Essex for thirty-six years, from 1853 to 1889. He was a rough,
+uneducated man, but with a certain amount of native talent which
+raised him above the level of the majority of his class. I can see
+him now in his place Sunday after Sunday, rigged out in a suit of
+my father's cast-off clerical garments--a kind of "set-off" to him
+at the lower end of the church. In his earlier days Wren had played
+a flute in the village instrumental choir, and to the last he might
+be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-288"></a>[pg 288]</span>
+heard whiling away spare moments on a Sunday in the church (for he
+brought his dinner early in the morning and bivouacked there all
+day!) recalling to himself the departed glories of ancient time. He
+turned the handle of the barrel organ in the west gallery from the
+time of its purchase in 1850 to that of its disappearance in 1873,
+but I do not think that he ever appreciated this rude substitution
+of mechanical art for cornet, dulcimer, and pipe.</p>
+<p>He led the hymns and read the Psalms, and repeated the responses
+with much fervour; perpetuating (long after it had ceased to be
+correct) the idea that he alone could be relied upon. Should the
+preacher inadvertently close his discourse with the sacred name
+either as part of a text or otherwise, a fervent "Amun" was certain
+to resound through the building, either because long custom had led
+him to regard the appendage as indispensable to it, or because like
+an old soldier suddenly roused to "attention," he awoke from a
+stolen slumber to jerk himself into the mental attitude most
+familiar to him. This last supposition, however, is a libel upon
+his fair character. I cannot believe that Wren ever slept on duty.
+He kept near to him a long hazel stick, wherewith to overawe any of
+the younger members of the congregation who were inclined either to
+speak or titter. On Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, when the school
+attended morning service, and, in the absence of older people,
+occupied the principal seats instead of their Sunday places in the
+gallery, Wren's rod was frequently called into active play, and I
+have heard the stick resound on the luckless head of many an
+offending culprit.</p>
+<p>Let me give one closing story of him on one of those weekday
+mornings.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-289"></a>[pg 289]</span>
+<p>It was St. John the Evangelist's Day, and a few of us met at
+church for matins. It was thought well to introduce a hymn for the
+festival (our hymn book in those days was Mercer's Church Psalter
+and Hymn Book) and Wren was to take charge, as usual, of the
+barrel-organ. My father gave out hymn 292 at the appointed place,
+but only silence followed. Again "292," and then came a voice from
+the west gallery, "The 283rd!" My father did not take the hint, and
+again, rather unfortunately, hazarded "Hymn 292." This was too much
+for our organist, who called in still louder tones, "'Tis the 283rd
+I tell you!" Fortunately, we were a small company, but matters
+would have been the same, I dare say, on a Sunday.</p>
+<p>In the vestry subsequently Wren explained to my father, "You
+know there are <i>two Johns</i>; the 292nd hymn belongs to John the
+<i>Baptist's</i> Day; <i>this</i> is John the
+<i>Evangelist's</i>."</p>
+<p>The confusion once over my father was much amused with the
+incident, and frequently entertained friends with it afterwards,
+when I am bound to say it did not lose its richness of detail.
+"Don't I keep a-telling on you?" was the fully developed question,
+as I last remember hearing the story told. The above, however, I
+can vouch for as strictly correct, being one of the select party
+privileged to witness the occurrence.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Mr. Frederick W. Hackwood, the historian of Wednesbury, has
+kindly sent the following description of the famous clerks of that
+place:</p>
+<p>The office of parish clerk in Wednesbury has been held by at
+least two remarkable characters. "Old George Court," as he was
+called--and by some who are still alive--held the post in
+succession to his grandfather <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-290"></a>[pg 290]</span> for a great number of years. His
+grandfather was George Watkins, in his time one of the principal
+tradesmen in the town. His hospitable house was the place of
+entertainment for a long succession of curates-in-charge and other
+officiating ministers for all the long years that the vicar (Rev.
+A. Bunn Haden) was a non-resident pluralist. But the position
+created by this state of things was remarkable. Watkins and the
+small coterie who acted with him became the absolute and dominant
+authority in all parochial matters. One curate complained of him
+and his nominee wardens (in 1806) that "these men had been so long
+in office, and had become so cruel and oppressive," that some of
+the parishioners resolved at last to dismiss them. The little
+oligarchy, however, was too strong to be ousted at any vestry that
+ever was called. As to the elected officials, the same curate
+records in a pamphlet which he published in his indignation, that
+"on Christmas Day, during divine service, the churchwardens entered
+the workhouse with constables and bailiffs, and a multitude of men
+equally pious with themselves, and turned the governor and his wife
+into the snow-covered streets." Another measure of iniquity laid to
+their charge was their "cruelty to Mr. Foster," the master of the
+charity school held in the old Market Cross, "a man of amiable
+disposition, and a teacher of considerable merit." These aggressive
+wardens grazed the churchyard for profit, looked coldly upon a
+proposal to put up Tables of Benefactions in the church, and
+altogether acted in a manner so high-handed as to call forth this
+historic protest. Although the fabric of the church was in so
+ruinous a condition that the rain streamed through the roof upon
+the head of our clerical pamphleteer as he was preaching, all these
+complaints <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-291"></a>[pg
+291]</span> were to no purpose. When the absentee vicar was
+appealed to he declared his helplessness, and one sentence in his
+reply is significant; it was thus: "It is as much as my life is
+worth to come among them!" Allowance must be made for party
+rancour. It is probable that Watkins was but the official
+figure-head of this dominant party, and he is said to have been a
+man of real piety; and after holding the office of parish clerk for
+sixty years, he at last died in the vestry of the church he loved
+so much.</p>
+<p>As a certified clerk George Court held the office as long as his
+grandfather before him. He was a man of the bluff and hearty sort,
+thoroughly typical of old Wednesbury, of Dutch build, yet
+commanding presence, in language more forcible than polite, and not
+restrained in the use of his strong language even by the presence
+of an austere and iron-willed vicar. The tales told of him are
+numerous enough, but are scarcely of the kind that look well in
+cold print. Although fond of the good things of this world himself,
+he could occasionally be very severe on the high feeding and deep
+drinking proclivities of "You--singers and ringers"! He was never
+known to fail in scolding any funeral procession that had kept him
+waiting at the church gates too long, and that in language as loud
+as it was vigorous. He, like his predecessor, was the autocrat of
+the parish.</p>
+<p>The last of the long line of parish clerks who occupied the
+bottom desk of the fine old Jacobean three-decker was Thomas
+Parkes. He died in 1884. The peculiar resonant nasal twang with
+which he sang out the "Amens" gave rise to a sharp newspaper
+correspondence in the <i>Wednesbury Observer</i> of 1857. Another
+controversy provoked by him was at the opening <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-292"></a>[pg 292]</span> of the cemetery in
+1868, when as vestry clerk he claimed a fee of 9 d. on every
+interment. The resistance of the Nonconformists led to an amicable
+compromise.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Mr. Wise, of Weekley, the author of several works on Kettering
+and the neighbourhood, tells me of an extraordinary incident which
+happened in a Sussex parish church when he was a boy about seventy
+years ago. The clerk was a decayed farmer who had a fine voice, but
+who was noted for his intemperate habits. He went up as usual to
+the singers' gallery just before the sermon and gave out the
+metrical Psalm. The Psalm was sung, the sermon commenced, when
+suddenly from the gallery rose the words of a popular song, given
+by a splendid tenor voice:</p>
+<blockquote>"Oh, give my back my Arab steed,<br>
+My Prince defends his right,<br>
+And I will&nbsp;&nbsp;..."</blockquote>
+<p>"Some one, please, remove that drunken man from the gallery,"
+the clergyman quietly said. It was afterwards found that some
+mischievous persons had promised the clerk a gallon of ale if he
+would sing a song during the sermon.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Miss Elton, of Bath, tells me of the clerk of Bierton, near
+Aylesbury, of which her father had sole charge for a time at the
+end of the forties. His predecessor had been a Mr. Stephens. The
+place had been neglected, and church matters were at a low ebb. Mr.
+Elton instituted a service on Saints' Days, which was quite an
+innovation at that time, and the first of these was held on St.
+Stephen's Day. The old clerk came into the vestry after the service
+and said, "I be sorry, sir, to hear the unkid (= awful) tale of
+poor <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-293"></a>[pg 293]</span>
+Mussar (Mister) Stephens. He be come to a sad end surely." He had
+evidently confounded the first martyr, St. Stephen, with the late
+curate of the parish, having apparently never heard of the
+former.</p>
+<p>A new vicar had been appointed to a parish about eight miles
+from Oxford, who had been for many years a Fellow of his college,
+and in consequence knew little of village folk or parochial
+matters. Dr. A. was much disturbed to find that so few of the
+villagers attended church, and consulted the clerk on the subject,
+who suggested that it might encourage the people to attend if Dr.
+A. was to offer to give sixpence a Sunday to all who came to
+church. The plan was tried and found to succeed; the congregations
+improved rapidly, and the church was well filled, to Dr. A.'s
+satisfaction. But after a while the numbers fell off, and to Dr.
+A.'s chagrin people left off attending church. He again called the
+clerk into his counsels, and asked what could be the reason of the
+falling off of the congregation, as he had always given sixpence
+every Sunday, as he promised, to all who came to the service.
+"Well, sir," said the clerk, "it is like this: they tells me as how
+they finds they <i>can't do it for the money</i>."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The following reminiscences are supplied by the Rev. W.
+Frederick Green, and are worthy of record:</p>
+<p>I well remember the parish clerk of Woburn, in Bedfordshire,
+more than sixty years ago. His name was Joe Brewer--a bald-headed,
+short, stumpy man, who wore black knee-breeches, grey stockings,
+and shoes. He was also the town crier. He always gave out the hymns
+from the front of the west gallery. "Let us sing to the praise and
+glory of God, hymn--" Once I heard him call out instead, "O yes! O
+yes! O <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-294"></a>[pg 294]</span>
+yes! This is to give notice," and then, recollecting he was in
+church, with a loud "O crikey!" he began "Let us sing," etc.</p>
+<p>Collections in church were made by him in a china soup plate
+from each pew. Ours was a large square family pew. One Sunday my
+brother put into the plate a new coin (I think a florin), which
+Brewer had never seen before, and which he thought was a token or
+medal, and thinking my brother was playing a trick upon him, said
+in a loud voice, "Now, Master Charles, none of them larks
+here."</p>
+<p>I have also seen him at afternoon service (there was no evening
+service in those days), when it unexpectedly came on too dark for
+the clergyman to see his MS. in the pulpit, go to the altar--an
+ordinary table with drawers--throw up the cloth, open a drawer,
+take out two candles and a box of matches, go up the pulpit stairs,
+fix them in the candlesticks, and light them.</p>
+<p>During the winter months part of his duty was to tend the fire
+during service in the Duke of Bedford's large curtained, carpeted
+pew in the chancel.</p>
+<p>When I was a boy I was staying in Northamptonshire, and went one
+Sunday morning into a village church for service (I think it was
+Fotheringhay). There was a three-decker, and the clerk from his
+desk led the singing of the congregation, which he faced. There was
+no musical instrument of any kind. The hymn, which of course was
+from Tate and Brady, was the metrical version of Psalm xlii. The
+clerk gave out the Psalm, then read the first line to the
+congregation, then sang it solo, and then the congregation sang it
+altogether; and so on line after line for the whole eleven
+verses.</p>
+<p>More attention must have been paid in those days to <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-295"></a>[pg 295]</span> the requirement of
+the ninety-first Canon, that the clerk should be known, if may be,
+"for his competent skill in singing."</p>
+<p>In 1873 I was curate-in-charge of an out-of-the-way Norfolk
+village. On my first Sunday I had an early celebration at 8 a.m. I
+arrived in church about 7.45, and to my amazement saw five old men
+sitting round the stove in the nave with their hats on, smoking
+their pipes. I expostulated with them quite gently, but they left
+the church before service and never came again. I discovered
+afterwards that they had been regular communicants, and that my
+predecessor always distributed the offertory to the poor present
+immediately after the service. When these men in the course of my
+remonstrance found that I was not going to continue the custom,
+they no longer cared to be communicants.</p>
+<p>In 1870, in Norfolk, I went round with the rural dean visiting
+the churches. At one church the only person to receive the rural
+dean was the parish clerk, who was ready with the funeral pall to
+put over the rural dean's horse whilst waiting outside the
+church.</p>
+<p>It was this same church which, in preparation for the rural
+dean's visit, had been recently and completely whitewashed
+throughout. Not only the walls and pillars, but also the pews, the
+school forms, the pulpit, and also the altar itself, a very small
+four-legged deal table without any covering. I suppose this was
+done by the churchwardens to conceal the dilapidated condition of
+everything; but they had omitted to remove the grass which was
+growing in the crevices of the floor paving.</p>
+<p>Mr. Moxon (deceased), formerly rector of Hethersett, in Norfolk,
+told me that he had once preached for a friend in a Norfolk village
+church with the woman <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-296"></a>[pg 296]</span> clerk holding an umbrella over his
+head in the pulpit throughout the sermon, because of the
+"dreep."</p>
+<p>Miss E. Lloyd, of Woodburn, Crowborough, writes:</p>
+<p>About the year 1833 a gentleman bought an estate in North
+Yorkshire, seven miles from any town, and built a house there. The
+parish was small, having a population of about a hundred souls, the
+church old and tumbledown, reeking with damp; the rain came through
+the roof; the seats were worm-eaten, and centipedes, with other
+like vermin, roamed about them near the wall. The vicar was
+non-resident, and an elderly curate-in-charge ministered to this
+parish and another in the neighbourhood. The customs of the church
+were much the same as those described by Canon Atkinson in his
+<i>Forty Years in a Moorland Parish</i> as existing on his arrival
+at Danby. There was no vestry. The surplice (washed twice a year)
+was hung over the altar rails, within which the curate robed, his
+hat or any parcel he happened to have in his hand being put down
+for the time on the Holy Table. The men sat for the most part
+together, the farmers and young men in the singing-loft, the
+labourers below, and the women in front. The wife of the chief
+yeoman farmer--an excellent and superior woman--still kept up the
+habit of "making a reverence" to the altar before she entered her
+pew. The surplice, which hung in the church all through the week,
+was apt to get very damp. On one occasion, when a strange clergyman
+staying at the Hall took the service, he declined to wear it, as it
+was so wet.</p>
+<p>"He wadn't pit it on," said the old clerk Christopher (commonly
+called "Kitty") Hill. "I reckon he was afeard o' t' smittle"
+(infection).</p>
+<p>The same clergyman, when he went up to the altar <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-297"></a>[pg 297]</span> for the Communion
+Service, knelt down, as his habit was, at the north end for private
+prayer whilst the congregation were singing a metrical Psalm (Old
+or New Version). On looking up he saw that Kitty Hill had followed
+him within the rails and was kneeling at the opposite end of the
+Holy Table staring at him with round eyes full of amazement at this
+unusual act of devotion. Both the curate and the clerk spoke the
+broadest Yorkshire. Psalm xxxii. 4 was thus rendered by Kitty:
+"Ma-maasture is like t' doong i' summer." He was an old man and
+quite bald, and used to sit in his desk with a blue-spotted
+pocket-handkerchief spread over his head, occasionally drawing down
+a corner of it for use, and then pulling it straight again. If the
+squire happened to come late to church--a thing which did not often
+happen--the curate would pause in his reading and apologise: "Good
+morning, Mr. ----. I am sorry, sir, that I began the service. I
+thought you were not coming this morning." One sentence of the
+sermon preached on the death of King William IV long remained in
+the memory of some of his young hearers: "Behold the King in all
+his pomp and glory, soodenly toombled from his high elevation, and
+mingled wi' the doost!"</p>
+<p>In 1845 a new church was built on the old site, a new curate
+came, Kitty Hill died, and was succeeded in his office by his
+widow, who did all that she could do of the clerk's work, and
+showed remarkable taste in decorating the church at Christmas. No
+clerk was needed for the responses, as the congregation joined
+heartily in the service, and there was a much better attendance
+than there is now. She died in the early fifties.</p>
+<p>Amongst other varied readings of the Psalms that <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-298"></a>[pg 298]</span> of an old parish
+clerk at Hartlepool may be given. He had been a sailor, and used to
+render Psalm civ. 26 as "There go the ships, and there is that
+lieutenant whom Thou hast made to take his pastime therein."</p>
+<p>The late Dr. Gatty, in his record of <i>A Life at One
+Living</i>, mentions that at Ecclesfield, as in many other places,
+the office of parish clerk was hereditary. The last holder of the
+office, who used to sit in his desk clad in a black bombazine gown,
+was a publican by trade, a decent, honest man, who during the
+fifty-one years he was clerk was only twice absent from service. He
+died in 1868, and the offices of clerk and sexton were then united
+and held by one person.</p>
+<p>The register books of Weybridge, Surrey, were kept for a great
+part of the eighteenth century by the parish clerks, the son
+succeeding his father in office for three or four generations.</p>
+<p>Now probably the clerks are no more clerks but vergers; and as a
+Yorkshireman remarked, "<i>Verging</i> is a very honourable
+profession."</p>
+<p>The portrait of John Gray, sometime clerk in Eton College
+Chapel, taken in his gown as he stood in his desk, has been
+engraved, and is well known to old Etonians.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Few people possess the gift of humour in the same degree as the
+late Bishop Walsham How, and his stories of the race of parish
+clerks and vergers must not be omitted, and are here published by
+permission of his son, Mr. F.D. How, editor of <i>Lighter
+Moments</i>.</p>
+<p>When I was a deacon, and naturally shy, I was visiting my aunts
+at Workington, where my grandfather had been rector, and was asked
+to preach on Sunday evening in St. John's, a wretched modern
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-299"></a>[pg 299]</span>
+church--a plain oblong with galleries, and a pulpit like a very
+tall wineglass, with a very narrow little straight staircase
+leading up to it, in the middle of the east part of the church.
+When the hymn before the sermon was given out I went as usual to
+the vestry to put on the black gown. Not knowing that the clergyman
+generally stayed there till the end of the hymn, I emerged as soon
+as I had vested myself and walked to the pulpit and ascended the
+stairs. When nearly at the summit, to my horror I discovered a very
+fat beadle in the pulpit lighting the candles. We could not
+possibly pass on the stairs, and the eyes of the whole congregation
+were upon me. It would be ignominious to retreat. So after a few
+minutes' reflection I saw my way out of the difficulty, which I
+overcame by a very simple mechanical contrivance. I entered the
+pulpit, which exactly fitted the beadle and myself, and then face
+to face we executed a rotary movement to the extent of a
+semicircle, when the beadle finding himself next the door of the
+pulpit was enabled to descend, and I remained master of the
+situation.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>At Uffington, near Shrewsbury, during the incumbency of the Rev.
+J. Hopkins, the choir and organist, having been dissatisfied with
+some arrangement, determined not to take part in the service. So
+when the clerk, according to the usual custom of those days, gave
+out the hymn, there was a dead silence. This lasted a little while,
+and then the clerk, unable to bear it, rose up and appealed to the
+congregation, saying most imploringly, "Them as <i>can</i> sing
+<i>do</i> ye sing: it's misery to be a this'n" (Shropshire for "in
+this way").</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>At Wolstanton, in the Potteries, there was a somewhat fussy
+verger called Oakes. On one occasion, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-300"></a>[pg 300]</span> just at the time
+of the year when it was doubtful whether lights would be wanted or
+no, and when they had not yet been lighted for evening service, a
+stranger, who was a very smart young clergyman, was reading the
+lessons and had some difficulty in seeing. He had on a pair of
+delicate lavender kid gloves. The verger, perceiving his
+difficulty, went to the vestry, got two candles, lighted them, and
+walked to the lectern, before which he stood solemnly holding the
+candles (without candlesticks) in his hands. This was sufficiently
+trying to the congregation, but suddenly some one rattled the latch
+of the west door, when Oakes, feeling that it was absolutely
+necessary to go and see what was the matter, thrust the two candles
+into the poor young clergyman's delicately gloved hands, and left
+him!</p>
+<p>At the church of Stratfieldsaye, where the Duke of Wellington
+was a regular attendant, a stranger was preaching, and the verger
+when he ended came up the stairs, opened the pulpit door a little
+way, slammed it to, and then opened it wide for the preacher to go
+out. He asked in the vestry why he had shut the door again while
+opening it, and the verger said, "We always do that, sir, to wake
+the duke."</p>
+<p>A former young curate of Stoke being very anxious to do things
+rubrically, insisted on the ring being put on the "fourth finger"
+at a wedding he took. The woman resisted and said, "I would sooner
+die than be married on my little finger." The curate said, "But the
+rubric says so," whereupon the <i>deus ex machin&acirc;</i>
+appeared in the shape of the parish clerk, who stepped forward and
+said, "In these cases, sir, the thoomb counts as a digit."</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-301"></a>[pg 301]</span>
+<p>A gentleman going to see a ritualistic church in London was
+walking into the chancel when an official stepped forward and said,
+"You mustn't go in there." "Why not?" said the gentleman. "I'm put
+here to stop you," said the man. "Oh! I see," said the gentleman;
+"you're what they call the <i>rude</i> screen, aren't you?"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>A clergyman in the diocese of Wakefield told me that when first
+he came to the parish he found things in a very neglected state,
+and among other changes he introduced an early celebration of the
+Holy Communion. An old clerk collected the offertory, and when he
+brought it up to the clergyman he said, "There's eight on 'em, but
+two 'asn't paid."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>A verger was showing a lady over a church when she asked him if
+the vicar was a married man. "No, ma'am," he answered, "he's a
+chalybeate."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>A verger showing a large church to a stranger, pointed out
+another man and said, "That is the other verger." The gentleman
+said, "I did not know there were two of you," and the verger
+replied, "Oh, yes, sir, he werges up one side of the church and I
+werges up the other."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>On my first visit to Almondbury to preach, the verger came to me
+in the vestry and said, "A've put a platform in t' pulpit for ye;
+you'll excuse me, but a little man looks as if he was in a toob."
+(N.B. To prevent undue inferences I am five feet nine inches in
+height.)</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>One of the speakers at the meeting of the Catholic Truth Society
+at Bristol (Sept., 1895) told a story of a pious Catholic visiting
+Westminster Abbey, and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-302"></a>[pg 302]</span> kneeling in a quiet corner for
+private devotion, when he was summoned in stentorian tones to come
+and view the royal tombs and chapels. "But I have seen them," said
+the stranger, "and I only wish to say my prayers." "Prayers is
+over," said the verger. "Still, I suppose," said the stranger,
+"there can be no objection to my saying my prayers quietly here?"
+"No objection, sir!" said the irate verger. "Why, it would be an
+insult to the Dean and Chapter."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The Rev. M.E. Jenkins writes his remembrances of several old
+clerks.</p>
+<p>There was dear old Robert Livesay, of Blackburn parish church,
+whom every one knew, his large rubicund face beaming with good
+nature and humour--a very kindly old soul. In 1870 I was appointed
+to an old-world Dale's parish, which had one of the real old
+Yorkshire clerks, Frank Hutchinson. He was lame and blind in one
+eye, and well do I recall his sonorous and tremulous response, his
+love for the Psalms (Tate and Brady's); he "reckoned nought o'
+<i>Hymns Ancient and Modern</i>." I used generally to find him with
+a long pipe in the vestry on my return from afternoon service. He
+was a great authority on the ancient history of the parish, and was
+formerly schoolmaster. He had brought up most respectably a large
+family of sons and daughters on the smallest means, many of whom
+still survive. I had a great respect for the old man, and so he had
+for me. He was very great at leading that peculiarly dirge-like
+wail at the huge Yorkshire funerals. I never could quite make out
+any words, but as a singularly effective and musical cadence in a
+minor key, it was no doubt a survival, as I once heard Canon
+Atkinson say, the famous vicar of Danby, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-303"></a>[pg 303]</span> my immediate
+neighbour on the moors. At last I attended Frank Hutchinson daily
+in his prolonged decay, and received his solemn blessing and
+commendation on my work; and he received at my hand a few hours
+before his death his last communion, surrounded by all his children
+and grandchildren, in his small bedroom, by the light of a single
+candle. I can still see his thin face uplifted. It is thirty-five
+years ago, and I can still hear the striking of his lucifer match
+in the midst of the afternoon service, and see him holding up close
+to his own eye the candle and the book, and can hear his tremulous
+"Amen," quite independent of the choral one sung by a small choir
+in the chancel. He was great in epitaphs. A favourite one, which he
+would recite <i>ore rotunda</i>, was:</p>
+<blockquote>"Let this record, what few vain marbles can,<br>
+Here lies an honest man."</blockquote>
+<p>Another, which, by the way, is in Egton churchyard, ran as
+follows:</p>
+<blockquote>"Life is but a winter's day;<br>
+Some breakfast and away,<br>
+Others to dinner stop and are full fed,<br>
+The oldest man but sups and goes to bed."</blockquote>
+<p>He was a genuine old Dalesman of a type passed away. His spirits
+really never survived the abolition of the stringed instruments in
+the western gallery with its galaxy of village musicians. "I hugged
+bass fiddle for many a year," he once told me. Peace be to his
+memory.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Canon Atkinson tells of his good and harmless but "feckless"
+parish clerk and schoolmaster at Danby, whom, when about to take a
+funeral, he discovered sitting in the sunny embrasure of the west
+window, with his hat on, of course, and comfortably smoking his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-304"></a>[pg 304]</span> pipe.
+The clerk was a brother of the old vicar of Danby, and they seem to
+have been a curious and irreverent pair. The historian of Danby, in
+his <i>Forty Years in a Moorland Parish</i>, fully describes his
+first visit to the clerk's school, and the strange custom of weird
+singing at funerals to which Mr. Jenkins alludes.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Another north-country clerk-schoolmaster was obliged to
+relinquish his scholastic duties and make way for a certified
+teacher. One day he heard the new master tell his pupils: "'A' is
+an indefinite article. 'A' is one, and can only be applied to one
+thing. You cannot say a cats or a dogs; but only a cat, a dog." The
+clerk at once reported the matter to his rector. "Here's a pretty
+fellow you've got to keep school! He says that you can only apply
+the article 'a' to nouns of the singular number; and here have I
+been singing 'A--men' all my life, and your reverence has never
+once corrected me."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Communicated by Mrs. Williamson, Lydgate Vicarage:</p>
+<p>The old parish clerk of Radcliffe was secretary of the races
+committee, and would hurry out of church to attend these meetings.
+Mr. Foxley, the rector, was told of this weakness of his clerk, so
+one Wednesday evening, when the rector knew there was a meeting, he
+got into the pulpit (a three-decker was then in the church), and
+began his sermon. Half an hour went by, then the clerk began to be
+restless. Another half-hour passed; the clerk looked up from his
+seat under the pulpit, but still the rector went on preaching. It
+was too late then for the race-course meeting. So when the sermon
+was at length finished, the clerk got up and gave out "the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-305"></a>[pg 305]</span>
+'undred and nineteenth Psalm from yend to yend. He's preached all
+day, and we'll sing all neet" (night).</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>At Westhoughton Church, Lancashire, there was a clerk of the old
+school, one Platt, who just before the sermon would stretch his
+long arm and offer his snuff-box to his old friend Betty, and to
+other cronies who happened to be in his immediate
+neighbourhood.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The clerk at Stratfieldsaye, who was a character, once
+astonished a strange clergyman who was taking the duty. The choir
+sat in the gallery, and the numbers were few on that Sunday. "Mon I
+'elp them chaps? they be terrible few," said the clerk. The
+clergyman quite agreed that he should render them his valuable
+assistance, and sit in the gallery. Presently a man came in late,
+and was kneeling down to say his private prayer, when the clergyman
+was horrified to see the clerk deliberately rise in the gallery and
+throw a book at the man's head. When remonstrated with after
+service the clerk replied carelessly, "Oh, it were only my way o'
+telling him to sing up, as we were terrible short this
+marning."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-306"></a>[pg 306]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<h3>CURIOUS STORIES</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The old clerk of Clapham, Bedford, Mr. Thomas Maddams, always
+used to read his own version of Psalm xxxix. 12: "Like as it were a
+moth fretting in a garment." Apparently his idea was of a moth
+annoyed at being in a garment from which it could not escape.</p>
+<p>A parish clerk (who prided himself upon being well read)
+occupied his seat below the old "three-decker" pulpit, and whenever
+a quotation or an extract from the classics was introduced into the
+sermon he, in an undertone, muttered its source, much to the
+annoyance of the preacher and amusement of the congregation.
+Despite all protests in private, the thing continued, until one
+day, the vicar's patience being exhausted, he leant over the pulpit
+side and immediately exclaimed, "Drat you; shut up!" Immediately,
+in the clerk's usual sententious tone, came the reply, "His own."
+(William Haggard, <i>Liverpool Daily Post</i>.)</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>N.B. I have heard this story before, and in a different key:</p>
+<p>The preacher was a young, bumptious fellow, fond of quoting the
+classics, etc. One day a learned classic scholar attended his
+service, and was heard to say, after each quotation, "That's
+Horace," "That's Plato," <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-307"></a>[pg 307]</span> and such-like, until the preacher
+was at his "wits' ends" how to quiet the man. At last, leaning over
+the pulpit, he looked the man in the face, and is reported to have
+said, "Who the devil are you?" "That's his own!" was the prompt
+response.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>In one of the village churches near Honiton, in 1864, the usual
+duet between the parson and clerk had been the custom, when the
+vicar appealed to the congregation to take their part. In a little
+while they took courage, and did so. This annoyed the clerk, and he
+could not make the responses, and made so many mistakes that the
+vicar drew his attention to the matter. He replied, with much
+irritation, "How can <i>I</i> do the service with a lot of men and
+women a-buzzing and a-fizzing about me?"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>A somewhat similar story is told of another church:</p>
+<p>An old gentleman, now in his eightieth year, remembers attending
+Romford Church when a youth, and says that at that time (1840) the
+parish clerk was a person who greatly magnified his office. On one
+occasion he checked the young man for audibly responding, on the
+ground that he, the clerk, was the person to respond audibly, and
+that other people were to respond inaudibly.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Communicated by Miss Emily J. Heaton, of Sitting-bourne:</p>
+<p>My father lived and worked as the clergyman of a parish until he
+was eighty-nine years of age. He remembered a clerk in a Yorkshire
+parish in the time of one of the Georges. The clergyman said the
+versicle, "O Lord, save the King," and the clerk made no reply. The
+prayer was repeated, but still no <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-308"></a>[pg 308]</span> answer. He then touched the clerk,
+who sat in the desk below, and who replied:</p>
+<p>"A we'ant! He won't tak tax off 'bacca!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Communicated by Mr. Frederick Sherlock:</p>
+<p>I remember as a lad attending a church which owned a magnificent
+specimen of the parish clerk. He used to wear a dress-coat, and it
+was his practice to follow the clergy from the vestry, and while
+the vicar and curate were saying their private prayers in the
+reading-desk in which they both sat together, the venerable clerk
+with measured tread passed down the centre of the church affably
+smiling and bowing right and left to such of the parishioners as
+were in his favour. In due course he arrived in the singers'
+gallery, where he had the place of honour under the organ: the good
+old man was leading soloist, which we well knew when Jackson's
+<i>Te Deum</i> was sung on the greater festivals, for there was
+always a solemn pause before the venerable worthy quavered forth
+his solo.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>It was a pew-rented church, and once a quarter strangers were
+startled, when the vicar from his place in the reading-desk had
+announced the various engagements of the week, to hear the clerk's
+majestic voice from his place in the gallery add, "And <i>I</i> beg
+to announce" (with a marked emphasis on the <i>I</i>) "that the
+churchwardens will attend in the vestry on Monday, Tuesday, and
+Wednesday next, at eight o'clock, for the purpose of receiving pew
+rents and letting seats for the ensuing quarter."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>As touching parish clerks, it is of interest to recall that
+William Maybrick was clerk of St. Peter's, Liverpool, from 1813-48.
+He had two sons, William, who <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-309"></a>[pg 309]</span> became clerk, and Michael, who was
+organist at St. Peter's for many years. William Maybrick, junior,
+had also two sons, James, whose name was so much before the public
+owing to the circumstances surrounding his death, and Michael,
+better known as "Stephen Adams," the famous composer and
+singer.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The following is a curious letter from a parish clerk to his
+vicar after giving notice to quit the latter's service. He was
+clerk of the parish of Maldon, Essex.</p>
+<p>DEAR AND REV. SIR,</p>
+<p>I avail myself of the opportunity of troubling your honour with
+these lines, which I hope you will excuse, which is the very
+sentiments of your humble servant's heart. Ignorantly, rashly, but
+reluctantly, I gave you warning to leave your highly respected
+office and most amiable duty, as being your servant, and clerk of
+this your most well wished parish, and place of my succour and
+support.</p>
+<p>But, dear Sir, I well know it was no fault of yours nor from any
+of my most worthy parishioners. It were because I thought I were
+not sufficiently paid for the interments of the silent dead. But
+will I be a Judas and leave the house of my God, the place where
+His Honour dwelleth for a few pieces of money? No. Will I be a
+Peter and deny myself of an office in His Sanctuary and cause me to
+weep bitterly? No. Can I be so unreasonable as to deny, if I like
+and am well, to ring that solemn bell that speaks the departure of
+a soul? No. Can I leave digging the tombs of my neighbours and
+acquaintances which have many a time made me shudder and think of
+my mortality, when I have dug up the mortal remains of some perhaps
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-310"></a>[pg 310]</span> as I
+well knew? No. And can I so abruptly forsake the service of my
+beloved Church of which I have not failed to attend every Sunday
+for these seven and a half years? No. Can I leave waiting upon you
+a minister of that Being that sitteth between the Cherubim and
+flieth upon the wings of the wind? No. Can I leave the place where
+our most holy services nobly calls forth and says, "Those whom God
+have joined together" (and being as I am a married man) "let no man
+put asunder"? No. And can I leave that ordinance where you say then
+and there "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son
+and of the Holy Ghost," and he becomes regenerate and is grafted
+into the body of Christ's Church? No. And can I think of leaving
+off cleaning at Easter the House of God in which I take such
+delight, in looking down her aisles and beholding her sanctuaries
+and the table of the Lord? No. And can I forsake taking part in the
+service of Thanksgiving of women after childbirth when mine own
+wife has been delivered ten times? No. And can I leave off waiting
+on the congregation of the Lord which you well know, Sir, is my
+delight? No. And can I forsake the Table of the Lord at which I
+have feasted I suppose some thirty times? No. And, dear Sir, can I
+ever forsake you who have been so kind to me? No. And I well know
+you will not entreat me to leave, neither to return from following
+after you, for where you pray there will I pray, where you worship
+there will I worship. Your Church shall be my Church, your people
+shall be my people and your God my God. By the waters of Babylon am
+I to sit down and weep and leave thee, O my Church! and hang my
+harp upon the trees that grow therein? No. One thing have I desired
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-311"></a>[pg 311]</span> of the
+Lord that I will require even that I may dwell in the House of the
+Lord and to visit His temple. More to be desired of me, O my
+Church, than gold, yea than fine gold, sweeter to me than honey and
+the honeycomb.</p>
+<p>Now, kind Sir, the very desire of my heart is still to wait upon
+you. Please tell the Churchwardens all is reconciled, and if not, I
+will get me away into the wilderness, and hide me in the desert, in
+the cleft of the rock. But I hope still to be your Gehazi and when
+I meet my Shunamite to say "All, all is well." And I will conclude
+my blunders with my oft-repeated prayer, "Glory be to the Father
+and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning,
+is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."</p>
+<p>P.S. Now, Sir, I shall go on with my fees the same as I found
+them, and will make no more trouble about them, but I will not, I
+cannot leave you, nor your delightful duties.</p>
+<p>Your most obedient servant,</p>
+<p>GEORGE G---- G.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p><i>The Rev. E. G----, Vicar of Maldon.</i></p>
+<p>Communicated by the Rev. D. C. Moore:</p>
+<p>In the parish of Belton, Suffolk, there died in 1837 a man named
+Noah Pole. He had been clerk for sixty years. He wore a
+smock-frock; gave out all notices--strayed horse, a found sheep,
+etc. He was known by the nickname of "<i>Never, never</i> shall
+be," for in this way he had for sixty years perverted the last part
+of the "Gloria," "now and ever shall be."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>In the parish of Lowestoft, Suffolk, in the forties the parish
+clerk's name was Newson (would-be wits called him "Nuisance"). He
+was arrayed in a velvet-trimmed <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-312"></a>[pg 312]</span> robe and bore himself bravely. The
+way in which he mouthed "Let us sing to the glory of God" was
+wonderful. But the chief amusement he afforded was the habit of
+hiding his face in his hands during each prayer, then towards the
+ending his head would rise till it rested on his thumbs, and then
+came out sonorously, "Awl-men."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>At St. Mary's, Southtown (near Great Yarmouth), in the late
+thirties, etc., a man named Nolloth was clerk. He was celebrated
+for the uncertainty of his "H's." For example: "Let us sing to the
+praise and glory of God the Heighty-heighth ymn."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>At Gorleston (the mother church of St. Mary's, named above) a
+tailor named Bristow was clerk. He was a very small man, and he had
+a son he wished to succeed him. The clerk's desk was pretty wide
+and they sat together. I can see them (sixty years after), one
+leaning on his right arm, the other on his left; and when the time
+came, the duet was <i>Ah</i>-men from the elder and A-men from the
+younger, one in "tenor" the other "treble." We schoolboys used to
+say "Big pig, little pig."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Nicholson, the clerk of St. Bees, if any student was called away
+in term, invariably gave out Psalm cvii., fourth part, "They that
+in ships with courage bold." In those days there were no trains and
+no hymns.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>At Barkham there is an old clerk who succeeded his father half a
+century ago.</p>
+<p>During the rebuilding of the church his sire, whose name was
+Elijah, once visited a neighbouring parish church, and arrived
+rather late, just when the rector was giving out the text: "What
+doest thou here, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-313"></a>[pg
+313]</span> Elijah?" Elijah gave a respectful salute, and replied:
+"Please, sur, Barkham Church is undergoing repair, so I be cumed
+'ere!"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Canon Rawnsley tells a pathetic little story of an old clerk who
+begged him not to read the service so fast: "For you mo&ograve;st
+gie me toime, Mr. Rawnsley, you mo&ograve;st i'deed. You
+mo&ograve;st gie me toime, for I've a graaceless wife an' two
+godless soons to pra&agrave;y for."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Hawker tells a story of the parish clerk at Morwenstow whose
+wife used to wash the parson's surplices. He came home one night
+from a prolonged visit at the village inn, the "Bush," and finding
+his wife's scolding not to his mind and depressing, he said, "Look
+yere, my dear, if you doan't stop, I'll go straight back again."
+She did not stop, so he left the house; but the wife donned one of
+the surplices and, making a short cut, stood in front of her
+approaching husband. He was terrified; but at last he remembered
+his official position, and the thought gave him courage.</p>
+<p>"Avide, Satan!" he said in a thick, slow voice.</p>
+<p>The figure made no answer.</p>
+<p>"Avide, Satan!" he shouted again. "Doan't 'e knaw I be clerk of
+the parish, bass-viol player, and taicher of the singers?"</p>
+<p>When the apparition failed to be impressed the clerk turned tail
+and fled. The ghost returned by a short cut, and the clerk found
+his wife calmly ironing the parson's surplice. He did not return to
+the "Bush" that night.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>The old parish clerk of Dagenham had a habit when stating the
+names to be entered into the register of saying, <i>Plain</i>
+Robert or John, etc., meaning that Robert, etc., was the only
+Christian name. On one <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-314"></a>[pg 314]</span> occasion a strange clergyman
+baptized a child there, and being unable to hear the name as given
+by the parents, looked inquiringly at the clerk. "Plain Jane, sir,"
+he called out in a stentorian voice. "What a pity to label the
+child thus," the clergyman rejoined; "she might grow up to be a
+beautiful girl." "Jane <i>only</i>, I mean," explained the
+clerk.</p>
+<p>All clergymen know the difficulty of changing the names of the
+sovereign and the Royal Family at the commencement of the reign of
+a new monarch.</p>
+<p>In a certain parish in the south of England (the name of which I
+do not know, or have forgotten), at the time of the accession of
+Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, the rector charged his clerk to
+make the necessary alterations in the Book of Common Prayer
+required by the sex of the new sovereign. The clerk made all the
+needed alterations with the greatest care as regards both titles
+and pronouns; but not only this, he carried on the changes
+throughout the Psalter. Consequently, on the morning of the fourth
+day of the month, for instance, the rector found Psalm xxi.
+rendered thus: "The Queen shall rejoice in Thy strength, O Lord:
+exceeding glad shall She be of Thy salvation," and so on throughout
+the course of the Psalms and the whole of the Psalter. Also in the
+prayer for the Church Militant, when prayer is made for all
+Christian kings, princes, etc., the distracted vicar found the
+words changed into "Queen, Princesses, etc." After all, the clerk
+showed his thoroughness, but nothing short of a new Prayer Book
+could satisfy the needs of the vicar <a name=
+"FNanchor94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94">[94]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_94"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor94">[94]</a> From the information of Miss Marion
+Stirling, who heard the story from Prebendary
+Thornton.</blockquote>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-315"></a>[pg 315]</span>
+<p>Canon Gregory Smith tells the following story of a clerk in
+Herefordshire, who flourished half a century ago:</p>
+<p>In the west-end gallery of the old-fashioned little church were
+musicians with fifes, etc. etc. Sometimes, if they started badly in
+a hymn, the clerk would say to the congregation, "Beg pardon,
+gents; we'll try again."</p>
+<p>As I left home one day, the clerk ran after me. "But, sir,
+who'll take the duty on St. Swithin's Day?"</p>
+<p>Once or twice, being somnolent, on a hot afternoon he woke up
+suddenly with a loud "Amen" in the middle of the sermon.</p>
+<p>When I said good-bye to him, having resigned the benefice, he
+said, very gravely, "God will give us another comforter."</p>
+<p>An old country clerk in showing visitors round the churchyard
+used to stop at a certain tombstone and say:</p>
+<p>"This 'ere is the tomb of Thomas 'Ooper and 'is eleven
+wives."</p>
+<p>One day a lady remarked: "Eleven? Dear me, that's rather a lot,
+isn't it?"</p>
+<p>The old man looked at her gravely and replied: "Well, mum, yer
+see it wus an' 'obby of 'is'n."</p>
+<p>The Rev. W.D. Parish, in his <i>Dictionary of the Sussex
+Dialect</i>, tells of a friend of his who had been remonstrating
+with one of his parishioners for abusing the parish clerk beyond
+the bounds of neighbourly expression, and who received the
+following answer: "You be quite right, sir; you be quite right. I'd
+no ought to have said what I did; but I d&ouml;ant mind telling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-316"></a>[pg 316]</span> you to
+your head what I've said so many times behind your back. We've got
+a good shepherd, I says, an excellent shepherd, but he's got an
+unaccountable bad dog."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Some seventy or eighty years ago at Thame Church,
+Buckinghamshire, the old-fashioned clerk had a much-worn Prayer
+Book, and the parson and he made a duet of the responses, the
+congregation not considering it necessary or even proper to
+interfere. When the clerk happened to come to a verse of the Psalms
+with words missing he said "riven out" (pronounced oot), and the
+parson finished the verse; this was taken quite as a matter of
+course by the congregation.</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>In a Lancashire church, when the rector was about to publish the
+banns of marriage, the book was not in its usual place. However, he
+began: "I publish the banns of marriage ... I publish ... the
+banns"--when the clerk looked up from the lowest box of the
+"three-decker," and said in a tone not <i>sotto voce</i>, "'Twixt
+th' cushion and th' desk, sur."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Prayer Book words are sometimes a puzzle to illiterate clerks.
+At the present time in a Berkshire church the clerk always speaks
+of "Athanasian's Creed," and of "the Anthony-Communion hymn."</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>His views of art are occasionally curious. An odd specimen of
+his race was showing to some strangers a stained-glass window
+recently erected in memory of a gentleman and lady who had just
+died. It was a two-light window with figures of Moses and Aaron.
+"There they be, sir, but they don't much feature the old couple,"
+said the clerk, who regarded them as likenesses of the
+deceased.</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-317"></a>[pg 317]</span>
+<p>A clergyman on one occasion had some trouble with his dog. This
+dog emulated the achievements of Newton's "Fido," and tore and
+devoured some leaves of the parson's sermon. The parson was taking
+the duty of a neighbour, and feared lest his mutilated discourse
+would be too short for the edification of the congregation. So
+after the service he consulted the clerk. "Was my sermon too long
+to-day?" "No," replied the clerk. "Then was it too short?" "Nay,
+you was jist about right." Much relieved, the parson then told the
+clerk the story of the dog's misdemeanours, and of his fear lest
+the sermon should prove too short. The old clerk scratched his head
+and then exclaimed, with a very solemn face, "Ah! maister ----, our
+parson be a grade sight too long to plaise us. Would you just give
+him a pup?"</p>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>A writer in <i>Notes and Queries</i> tells a story of an
+old-fashioned service, and with this we will conclude our
+collection of curious tales.</p>
+<p>A lady friend of the writer still living, and the daughter of a
+clergyman, assured him that in a country parish, where the church
+service was conducted in a very free-and-easy, go-as-you-please
+sort of way, the clerk, looking up at the parson, asked, "What
+shall we do next, zurr?"</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-318"></a>[pg 318]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<h3>LONGEVITY AND HEREDITY--THE DEACON-CLERKS OF BARNSTAPLE</h3>
+<br>
+<p>There are numerous instances of the hereditary nature of the
+clerk's office, which has frequently been passed on from father to
+son through several generations. I have already mentioned the
+Osbornes of Belbroughton, Worcestershire, who were parish clerks
+and tailors in the village from the time of Henry VIII, and the
+Worralls of Wolverley in the same county, whose reign extended over
+a century.</p>
+<p>David Clarkson, the parish clerk of Feckenham, died in 1854, and
+his ancestors occupied the same office for two centuries. King's
+Norton had a famous race of clerks, of the name of Ford, who also
+served for the same period. The Fords were a long-lived family, as
+two of them held the office for 102 years. Cuthbert Bede mentions
+also the following remarkable instances of heredity:</p>
+<p>The Roses were parish clerks at Bromsgrove from "time out of
+mind." The Bonds were parish clerks at St. Michael's, Worcester,
+for a century. John Tustin had in 1856 been clerk of Broadway for
+fifty-two years, his father and grandfather having previously held
+the office. Charles Orford died at Oldswinford December 28th, 1855,
+aged seventy-three years, having <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-319"></a>[pg 319]</span> been parish clerk from his youth,
+and having succeeded his father in that capacity: he was succeeded
+by his son Thomas Orford, who was again succeeded by his own son
+William, one of the present vergers in this church, aged seventy
+years. All these examples are taken from parishes in
+Worcestershire. An extraordinary instance of longevity and heredity
+occurs in the annals of the parish of Chapel-en-le-Frith,
+Derbyshire. Peter Bramwell, clerk of the parish, died in 1854,
+after having held the office for forty-three years. His father
+Peter Bramwell was clerk for fifty years, his grandfather George
+Bramwell for thirty-eight years, his great-great-grandfather George
+Bramwell for forty years, and his great-great-great-grandfather
+Peter Bramwell for fifty-two years. The total number of years
+during which the parish was served by this family of clerks was
+223, and by only five members of it, giving an average of
+forty-four years and nine months for each--a wonderful record
+truly!</p>
+<p>Nor are these instances of the hereditary nature of the office,
+and of the fact that the duties of the position seem to contribute
+to the lengthened days of the holders of it, entirely passed away.
+The riverside town of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, furnishes an example
+of this. Mr. H.W. Badger has occupied the position of parish clerk
+for half a century, and a few months ago was presented by the
+townspeople with an illuminated address, together with a purse of
+fifty-five sovereigns, in recognition of his long term of service
+and of the esteem in which he is held. He was appointed in 1855 in
+succession to his father, Henry Badger, appointed in 1832, who
+succeeded his grandfather, Wildsmith Badger, who became parish
+clerk in 1789.</p>
+<p>The oldest parish clerk living is James Carne, who <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-320"></a>[pg 320]</span> serves in the
+parish of St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, and has held the office for
+fifty-eight years. He is now in his hundred and first year, and
+still is unremitting in attention to duty, and regularly attends
+church. He followed in the wake of his father and grandfather, who
+filled the same position for fifty-four years and fifty years
+respectively.</p>
+<p>Mr. Edward J. Lupson is the much-respected parish clerk of Great
+Yarmouth, who is a great authority on the history of the important
+church in which he officiates, and is the author of several books.
+He has written an excellent guide to the church of St. Nicholas,
+and a volume entitled <i>Cupid's Pupils</i>, compiled from the
+personal "recollections of a parish clerk who assisted at ten
+thousand four hundred marriages and gave away eleven hundred and
+thirty brides"--a wonderful record, which, as the book was
+published seven years ago, has now been largely exceeded. The book
+is brightly written, and abounds in the records of amusing
+instances of nervous and forgetful brides and bride-grooms, of
+extraordinary blunders, of the failings of inexperienced clergy,
+and is a full and complete guide to those who contemplate
+matrimony. His guide to the church he loves so well is admirable.
+It appears there is a clerks' book at Great Yarmouth, which
+contains a number of interesting notes and memoranda. The clerks of
+this church were men of importance and position in the town. In
+1760 John Marsh, who succeeded Sampson Winn, was a town councillor.
+He was succeeded in 1785 by Mr. Richard Pitt, the son of a former
+mayor, and he and his wife and sixteen children were interred in
+the north chancel aisle, where a mural monument records their
+memories. The clerks at this period, until 1831, were appointed by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-321"></a>[pg 321]</span> the
+corporation and paid by the borough. In 1800 Mr. Richard Miller
+resigned his aldermanic gown to accept the office. Mr. David
+Absolon (1811-31) was a member of the corporation before receiving
+the appointment. Mr. John Seaman reigned from 1831 to 1841, and was
+followed by Mr. James Burman, who was the last clerk who took part
+in that curious duet with the vicar, to which we have often
+referred. He was an accomplished campanologist and composed several
+peals. In 1863 Mr. Lupson was appointed, who has so much honoured
+his office and earned the respect of all who know him. The old
+fashion of the clerk wearing gown and bands is continued at Great
+Yarmouth.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image36.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image36.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image36.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>James Carne, Parish Clerk Of St. Columb-Minor, Cornwall.<br>
+The Oldest Living Clerk.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Mr. Lupson tells of his strange experiences when conducting
+visitors round the church, and explaining to them the varied
+objects of interest. What our clerks have to put up with may be
+news to many. I will give it in his own words:</p>
+<p>Although a congenial and profitable engagement, it was often
+felt to be weary work, talking about the same things many times
+each day week after week: and anything but easy to exhibit the
+freshness and retain the vivacity that was desirable. Fortunately
+the monotony of the recital found considerable relief from the
+varied receptions it met with. Among the many thousand individuals,
+of all grades and classes, from the highest to the lowest, thus
+come in contact with, a diversified and wide range of characters
+was inevitable. The vast majority happily consisted of persons with
+whom it was pleasant to spend half an hour within the sacred walls,
+so gratified were they with what they saw and heard: some proving
+so enthusiastic, and showing such absorbing interest, that at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-322"></a>[pg 322]</span> every
+convenient halting-place they would take a seat, and comfortably
+adjust themselves as if preparing to hear an address from a
+favourite preacher. Occasionally, however, we had to endure the
+presence of persons who appeared to be suffering from disordered
+livers, or had nettles in their boots, so restless and dissatisfied
+were they. Scarcely anything pleased them. Undesirable individuals
+would sometimes be discovered in the midst of otherwise pleasant
+parties. Of such may be mentioned those who knew of much finer
+churches they could really admire. Whenever we heard the
+preface--"There's one thing strikes me in this church"--we were
+prepared to hear a depreciatory remark of some kind. Some would
+take pleasure in breaking the sequence of the story by anticipating
+matters not then reached, and causing divers interruptions. Others
+would annoy by preferring persistent speaking to listening. It was
+trying work going round with, and explaining to, persons from whom
+nothing but mono-syllables could be drawn, either through
+nervousness, or from realising their exalted status to be miles
+above the person who was supposing himself able to interest them.
+Anything but desirable persons were they who, after going round the
+church, returned with other friends, and then posed as men whose
+knowledge of the building was equal, if not a shade superior, to
+that of the guide. Some parties would waste the time, and try one's
+patience by having amongst them laggards, to whom explanations
+already given had to be repeated. But we must pass by others, and
+proceed. The mind would sometimes find diversion by observing the
+idiosyncrasies, and detecting the pretensions of individuals.
+Gradually gaining acquaintance as we proceeded, we occasionally
+discovered some were aping <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-323"></a>[pg 323]</span> gentility: some assuming positions
+that knew them not, and some claiming talents they did not possess.
+We will unmask a specimen of the latter class. A man, who was
+unaccompanied by friends, wished to see the church he had heard so
+much of. He seemed about thirty years of age; was a made-up
+exquisite, looking very imposing, peering as he did through
+gold-rimmed spectacles. His talents were of such an order he could
+not think of hiding them. He had learned Hebrew, not from printed
+books, as ordinary scholars are wont to do, but from MSS., and
+found it so easy a matter, it "only took two hours," and it was
+simply "out of curiosity" that he undertook it. Before mentally
+placing this paragon among the classics, we showed him our MS. Roll
+(exquisitely written, as many visitors are aware, in unpointed
+Hebrew), and asked him to read a few words. This was indeed
+pricking the bubble. Tell it not in Gath, but publish we will, the
+discovery we instantly made. Our Hebrew scholar had forgotten that
+Hebrew ran from right to left! and worse still, he even shook his
+intellectual head, and gravely confessed that he "wasn't quite sure
+but that the Roll was written in Greek."</p>
+<p>Other sources of relief to the mind jaded with constant
+repetition arose from the peculiar remarks that were made, and the
+strange questions that were often asked.</p>
+<p>The organ has been a source of wonderment to multitudes who had
+never seen or heard of a divided organ. Wonderful stories had
+reached the ears of some respecting it.</p>
+<p>"Is this the organ that was wrecked?" "Is this the organ that
+was dug out of the sea?" "Is this the organ that was taken out of
+the Spanish galleon?" <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-324"></a>[pg 324]</span> "Wasn't this organ smuggled out of
+some ship?" "Didn't it belong to Handel?" "Wasn't this organ made
+for St. Peter's at Rome?" With confidence says one, "This organ
+really belongs to the continent; it was confiscated in some war."
+Whilst another as confidently asserts that "it was built in Holland
+for one of the English cathedrals, and the vessel that conveyed it
+was caught in a storm and wrecked upon Yarmouth beach; it was then
+taken possession of by the inhabitants and erected in this church."
+Others, wishing to show their intimate knowledge of this
+instrument, have told their friends that the trumpet, which is a
+solid piece of wood, held by the angel at the summit of the
+northern organ-case, is only blown at the death of a royal person.
+And a lady, instead of informing her friend that it was a <i>vox
+humana</i> stop, called it a <i>vox populi</i>.</p>
+<p>We were asked by one, "Did this organ break the windows? I was
+told a festival service was going on, the organist blew the trumpet
+stop, and broke the windows." Another inquiry was, "Who invented
+the pedals of this organ? We were told that quite a youth believed
+that pedals would improve it. He added them, and to the day of his
+death, whenever he was within a few miles of Yarmouth, he would
+come and hear them." In our hearing one man informed another that
+"this organ has miles of piping running somewhere about the town
+underground." The queries we have had to answer have been
+exceedingly numerous. Looking at the enclosure containing the
+console of the organ, a visitor wished to know whether the organist
+sat inside there. Another asked whether it was the vestry. One who
+saw great possibilities in such an organ inquired, <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-325"></a>[pg 325]</span> "Can he play this
+organ in any other place beside the key-board?" The pulpit being of
+so unique a character has had a full share of attention, and no
+lack of admirers. Gazing at it with eyes filled with wonderment, a
+woman said to her daughter, "Maria, you're not to touch not even
+the pews." Everything within sight of such a structure she held
+sacred. Astonished at its internal capacity, another asked, "Do all
+the clergy sit in it?" Not realising its true character and intent,
+a lady wished to know, "By whom was this monument erected?" As we
+had long since ascertained how impossible it was to please
+everybody, we were not surprised to find dissatisfied critics
+presenting themselves. One of this class said, "It looks like a
+tomb, and smells like a coffin." Another, with sarcastic wit, said,
+"Moses looks like some churchwarden who would have to be careful
+how he ate his soup." We append a few more questions we have had to
+answer:</p>
+<p>"Was this church built by St. Nicholas?"</p>
+<p>"Does this church stand in four parishes?"</p>
+<p>"How many miles is it round the walls of this church?"</p>
+<p>"How many does this hold? We were told it holds 12,000."</p>
+<p>A clergyman asked, "Where are the bells? Are they in the
+tower?"</p>
+<p>"Haven't you a Bible 3000 years old?"</p>
+<p>"Haven't you a Bible that turns over its own leaves?"</p>
+<p>"Who had the missing leaves of this (Cranmer's) Bible?"</p>
+<p>"Is this the Bible that was chained in Brentwood Church?"</p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-326"></a>[pg 326]</span>
+<p>A lady pointing to the font asked, "Is that the Communion
+Table?"</p>
+<p>An elderly lady at the brass lectern inquired, "Is this the
+clerk's seat?"</p>
+<p>A man standing looking over the Communion rails wished to know,
+"What part of the church do you call this?"</p>
+<p>"Was one of the giants buried in the churchyard?"</p>
+<p>"Where is the gravestone where a man, his wife, and twenty-five
+children were buried? I saw it when I was here some years ago, and
+forget on which side of the church it is."</p>
+<p>A young man gazing at the top of the lofty flagstaff just inside
+the churchyard gates, asked, "Was that erected to the memory of a
+shipwrecked crew?"</p>
+<p>With such extraordinary exhibitions of blatant ignorance can a
+worthy clerk regale himself, but they must be very trying at
+times.</p>
+<p>Mr. Lupson has also written <i>The Friendly Guide to the Parish
+Church and other places of interest in the neighbourhood, The Rows
+of Great Yarmouth; why so constructed</i>, and some devotional
+works.</p>
+<p>He is also the author of the following additional verse to the
+National Anthem, sung on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of
+Queen Victoria:</p>
+<blockquote>"Long life our Queen has seen:<br>
+Glorious her reign has been:<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Secure her throne!<br>
+Her subjects' joy and pride,<br>
+God's Word be still her guide:<br>
+Long may she yet abide<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Empress and Queen!"</blockquote>
+<p>The sons of parish clerks have sometimes attained to high
+dignity in the Church. The clerk of Totnes, Devonshire, had a son
+who was born in 1718, and <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-327"></a>[pg 327]</span> who became the distinguished author
+and theologian, Dr. Kennicott. On one occasion he went to preach at
+the church in his native village, where his father was still acting
+as clerk. The old man insisted upon performing his accustomed
+duties, placing the surplice or black gown on his son's shoulders,
+and sitting below him in the clerk's lowly desk. The mother of the
+scholar was so overcome with joy at hearing him preach, that she
+fainted and was carried out of the church insensible. Cuthbert Bede
+records that he was acquainted with two eminent clergymen who were
+the sons of parish clerks. One of them was a learned professor of a
+college and an author of repute, and the other was attended by his
+father in the same manner as Dr. Kennicott was by his.</p>
+<p>Sometimes our failures are the stepping-stones to success in
+life. The celebrated Dr. Prideaux, Regius Professor of Divinity at
+Oxford and Bishop of Worcester in 1641, was the son of poor parents
+at Harford, near Totnes. He applied for the post of parish clerk at
+Ugborough, but failed to obtain the appointment. He was much
+disappointed, and in despair wandered to Oxford, where he became a
+servitor at Exeter College, and ultimately attained to the position
+of rector or head of his college. When he became bishop, he was
+accustomed to say, "If I could have been clerk of Ugborough, I had
+never been bishop of Worcester."</p>
+<p>The history of the clerks of Barnstaple (1500-1900) has been
+traced by the Rev. J.F. Chanter <a name="FNanchor95"></a><a href=
+"#Footnote_95">[95]</a>, and the record is remarkable as showing
+their important status, and how some were raised to the diaconate,
+and in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-328"></a>[pg 328]</span>
+difficult times rendered good service to the Church and the
+incumbents. The first clerk of whom any trace can be found was
+Thomas Hunt (1540-68). He appears in the register books as
+<i>clericus de hoc opido</i>, and in the churchwardens' accounts
+for 1564 there is an entry, "Item to Hunt the clerke paid for
+lights 2 s. 8 d." He was succeeded by his son, John Hunt (1564-84).
+Robert Langdon flourished as clerk from 1584 to 1625, when
+spiritual matters were at a low ebb in the parish. The vicar was
+excommunicated in 1589. His successor quickly resigned, and the
+next vicar was soon involved in feuds with some of his
+puritanically inclined parishioners. The quarrel was increased by
+the unworthy conduct of Robert Smyth, a preacher and lecturer who
+was appointed and paid by the corporation, and cared little for
+vicar or bishop. He was an extreme Puritan, and had a considerable
+following in the parish. His refusal to wear a surplice, though
+ordered to do so by the bishop, brought the dispute to a head. He
+was inhibited, but his followers retorted by accusing the vicar of
+being a companion of tipplers and fooling away his time with pipe
+and tabor, and finally bringing an accusation against him, on
+account of which the poor man was cited before the High Commission
+Court. The charge came to nothing, and Smyth for a time conformed
+and wore his surplice. Then some of the Puritan faction refused to
+accept the vicar's ministrations, and two of them were tried at the
+assizes and sent to gaol. "If they would rather go to gaol than
+church," said the town clerk, "much good may it do them. I am not
+of their mind." Passive resisters were not encouraged in those
+days. But the relations between vicar and lecturer continued
+strained, and the former bethought him of his faithful <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-329"></a>[pg 329]</span> clerk, Robert
+Langdon, as a helper in the ministry. He applied to the bishop to
+raise him to the diaconate, and this was done, Langdon being
+ordained deacon on 21 September, 1606, by William Cotton, Bishop of
+Exeter. The record of this notable event, the ordination of a
+parish clerk, thus appears in the ordination register of the
+diocese:</p>
+<blockquote>"In festo Matth&aelig;i Apostoli Dominus Episcopus in
+ecclesia parochiali de Silfertone xxi mo die Septembris 1606
+ordines sacros celebrando ordinavit, sequuntur Diaconi tunc et
+ibidinem ordinati videlicet Robertus Langdon de
+Barnestapli."</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_95"></a><a href=
+"#FNanchor95">[95]</a> <i>Transactions of the Devonshire
+Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and
+Art</i>, 1904, xxxvi. pp. 390-414.</blockquote>
+<p>Langdon remained parish clerk and deacon nineteen years, and the
+register contained the record of his burial, "Robert Langdon deacon
+5th July 1625." He seems to have brought peace to the troubled mind
+of his vicar, whose tombstone declares:</p>
+<blockquote>"Many are the troubles of the Righteous<br>
+But the Lord delivereth out of all."</blockquote>
+<p>Langdon used to keep the registers, and he began to record in
+them a series of notes on passing events which add greatly to the
+interest of such volumes. Thus we find an account of a grievous
+fire at Tiverton in 1595, a violent storm at Barnstaple in 1606,
+and a great frost in the same year; another fire at Tiverton in
+1612, and the scraps of Latin which appear show that he was a man
+of some education.</p>
+<p>Anthony Baker reigned from 1625 to 1646, who had also been
+ordained deacon prior to his appointment to Barnstaple, and
+belonged to an old yeoman family. He was popular with the people,
+who presented him with a new gown. He saw the suspension of his
+vicar by the Standing Committee, and probably died of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-330"></a>[pg 330]</span> plague
+in 1646, when the town found itself without vicar, deacon, or
+clerk. The plague was raging, people dying, and no one to minister
+to them. No clergyman would come save the old vicar, Martyn Blake,
+who was at length allowed by the Puritan rulers to return, to the
+great joy of the inhabitants. He appointed Symon Sloby (1647-81),
+but could not get him ordained deacon, as bishops and ordination
+were abhorred and abolished by the Puritan rulers. Sloby was
+appointed "Register of Barnestapell" during the Commonwealth
+period. He saw his vicar ejected and carried off to Exeter by some
+of the Parliamentary troopers and subsequently restored to the
+living, and records with much joy and loyalty the restoration of
+the monarchy. He served three successive vicars, records many items
+of interest, including certain gifts to himself with a pious wish
+for others to go and do likewise, and died in a good old age.</p>
+<p>Richard Sleeper succeeded him in 1682, and reigned till 1698. He
+conformed to the more modern style of clerk of an important parish,
+a dignified official who attended the vicar and performed his
+duties on Sunday, occupying the clerk's desk. Of his successors
+history records little save their names. William Bawden, a weaver,
+was clerk from 1708 to 1726, William Evans 1726 to 1741, John
+Taylor 1741 to 1760, John Comer 1760 to 1786, John Shapcote 1786 to
+1795, Joseph Kimpland 1795 to 1798, who was a member of an old
+Barnstaple family and was succeeded by his son John (1798-1832),
+John Thorne (1832-1859), John Hartnoll (1859-1883), and William
+Youings 1883 to 1901.</p>
+<p>This is a remarkable record, and it would be well if in all
+parishes a list of clerks, with as much information as the
+industrious inquirer can collect, could be so <span class=
+"pagenum"><a name="Page-331"></a>[pg 331]</span> satisfactorily
+drawn up and recorded, as Mr. Chanter has so successfully done for
+Barnstaple. The quaint notes in the registers written by the clerk
+give some sort of key to his character, and the recollections of
+the oldest inhabitants might be set down who can tell us something
+of the life and character of those who have lived in more modern
+times. We sometimes record in our churches the names of the bishops
+of the see, and of the incumbents of the parish; perhaps a list of
+the humbler but no less faithful servants of the Church, the parish
+clerks, might be added.</p>
+<p>Often can we learn much from them of old-world manners,
+superstitions, folk-lore, and the curious form of worship practised
+in the days of our forefathers. My own clerk is a great authority
+on the lore of ancient days, of bygone hard winters, of
+weather-lore, of the Russian war time, and of the ways of the
+itinerant choir and orchestra, of which he was the noted leader.
+Strange and curious carols did he and his sons and friends sing for
+us on Christmas Eve, the words and music of which have been handed
+down from father to son for several generations, and have somewhat
+suffered in their course. His grandson still performs for us the
+Christmas Mumming Play. The clerk is seventy years of age, and
+succeeded his father some forty years ago. Save for "bad legs," the
+curse of the rustic, he is still hale and hearty, and in spite of
+an organ and surpliced choir, his powerful voice still sounds with
+a resonant "Amen." Never does he miss a Sunday service.</p>
+<p>We owe much to our faithful clerks. Let us revere their
+memories. They are a most interesting race, and your "Amen clerk"
+is often more celebrated and better known than the rector, vicar,
+patron or squire. The <span class="pagenum"><a name=
+"Page-332"></a>[pg 332]</span> irreverence, of which we have given
+many alarming instances, was the irreverence of the times in which
+they lived, of the bad old days of pluralist rectors and itinerant
+clerics, when the Church was asleep and preparing to die with what
+dignity she could. We may not blame the humble servitor for the
+faults and failings of his masters and for the carelessness and
+depravity of his age. We cannot judge his homely ways by the higher
+standard of ceremonial and worship to which we have become
+accustomed. Charity shall hide from us his defects, while we
+continue to admire the virtues, faithfulness and devotion to duty
+of the old parish clerk, who retains a warm place in our hearts and
+is tenderly and affectionately remembered by the elder generation
+of English Churchpeople.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-333"></a>[pg 333]</span>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<h3>CONCLUSION</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The passing of the parish clerk causes many reflections. For a
+thousand years he has held an important position in our churches.
+We have seen him robed in his ancient dignity, a zealous and
+honoured official, without whose aid the services of the Church
+could scarcely have been carried on. In post-Reformation times he
+continued his career without losing his rank or status, his dignity
+or usefulness. We have seen him the life and mainstay of the
+village music, the instructor of young clerics, the upholder of
+ancient customs and old-established usages. We have regretted the
+decay in his education, his irreverence and absurdities, and have
+amused ourselves with the stories of his quaint ways and strange
+eccentricities. His unseemly conduct was the fault of the dullness,
+deadness, and irreverence of the age in which he lived, rather than
+of his own personal defects. In spite of all that can be said
+against him, he was often a very faithful, loyal, pious, and worthy
+man.</p>
+<p>His place knows him no more in many churches. We have a
+black-gowned verger in our towns; a humble temple-sweeper in our
+villages. The only civil right which he retains is that the
+prospectors of new railways are obliged to deposit their plans and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-334"></a>[pg 334]</span> maps
+with him, and well do I remember the indignation of my own parish
+clerk when the plans of a proposed railway, addressed to "the
+Parish Clerk," were delivered by the postman to the clerk of the
+Parish Council. It was a wrong that could scarcely be righted.</p>
+<p>I would venture to suggest, in conclusion, that it might be
+worth while for the authorities of the Church to consider the
+possibility of a revival of the office. It would be a great
+advantage to the Church to restore the parish clerk to his former
+important position, and to endeavour to obtain more learned and
+able men for the discharge of the duties. The office might be made
+again a sphere of training for those who wish to take Holy Orders,
+wherein a young man might be thoroughly educated in the duties of
+the clerical profession. It would be an immense assistance to an
+incumbent to have an active and educated layman associated with him
+in the work of the parish, in teaching, in reading and serving in
+church, and in visiting the sick. Like the clerk of old, he would
+be studying and preparing for ordination, and there could be no
+better school for training than actual parish work under the
+supervision of an earnest and wise rector.</p>
+<p>The Church has witnessed vast changes and improvements during
+the last fifty years. The poor clerk has been left to look after
+himself. The revival of the office and an improvement in the
+position and education of the holders of it would, I fully believe,
+be of an immense advantage to the Church and a most valuable
+assistance to the clergy.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-335"></a>[pg 335]</span>
+<h2><a name="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2>
+Absolon, Chaucer's portrait of, <a href="#Page-26">26</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;David, clerk of Great Yarmouth, <a href=
+"#Page-185">185</a><br>
+"Acts," a Christian name, <a href="#Page-264">264</a><br>
+Addison, on clerks, <a href="#Page-64">64</a><br>
+Advent, a carol for, <a href="#Page-168">168</a><br>
+"Ales," clerk's, <a href="#Page-42">42</a><br>
+Allington, Kent, <a href="#Page-230">230</a><br>
+Alnwick, Turner, clerk of, <a href="#Page-232">232</a><br>
+"Amen" epitaph, <a href="#Page-97">97</a><br>
+<i>Ancient Mysteries</i>, <a href="#Page-137">137</a><br>
+Andrews, W., <i>Curious Epitaphs</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-100">100</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Curiosities of the Church</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-188">188</a><br>
+Antiquity of clerk's office, <a href="#Page-16">16</a>, etc.<br>
+Apostles, complimenting the, <a href="#Page-265">265</a><br>
+Appointment, the right of, <a href="#Page-246">246</a><br>
+<i>Aqu&aelig;bajalus</i>, <a href="#Page-27">27</a><br>
+Arms of the Company of Clerks, <a href="#Page-111">111</a><br>
+<i>Art of Politicks</i>, <a href="#Page-184">184</a><br>
+Art, the clerk in, <a href="#Page-195">195</a>, etc.<br>
+Ashford, Isaac, the story of, <a href="#Page-68">68</a><br>
+Aston, Yorks, <a href="#Page-5">5</a><br>
+Astronomical clerks, <a href="#Page-209">209</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-258">258</a><br>
+Atchley, Dr. Cuthbert, <a href="#Page-49">49</a><br>
+Atkinson, Rev. Canon, <a href="#Page-302">302</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-303">303</a><br>
+Atkins, Thomas of Chillenden, <a href="#Page-236">236</a><br>
+Augustine of Canterbury, St., <a href="#Page-16">16</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-35">35</a><br>
+Avington, female clerk at, <a href="#Page-202">202</a><br>
+<br>
+Badger, H.W., of Mallow, <a href="#Page-319">319</a><br>
+Baker, Anthony, deacon-clerk, <a href="#Page-329">329</a><br>
+Bakewell, the Roe family of, <a href="#Page-93">93</a><br>
+Barkham, <a href="#Page-143">143</a>, <a href="#Page-312">312</a>,
+<a href="#Page-331">331</a><br>
+Barnet, East, clerk of, <a href="#Page-60">60</a><br>
+Barnstaple, clerks of, <a href="#Page-61">61</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-327">327</a><br>
+Barrel-organs, <a href="#Page-5">5</a><br>
+Barton Turf, Norfolk, dog-whippers land at, <a href=
+"#Page-34">34</a><br>
+Beating the bounds at Ringmer, <a href="#Page-34">34</a><br>
+Bede Roll of the Company, <a href="#Page-113">113</a><br>
+Bede, Cuthbert, <a href="#Page-91">91</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-161">161</a>, <a href="#Page-201">201</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-317">317</a>, <a href="#Page-327">327</a><br>
+Bells to warn travellers, <a href="#Page-83">83</a><br>
+Belbroughton, <a href="#Page-96">96</a><br>
+<i>Belts Life</i>, in the pulpit, <a href="#Page-231">231</a><br>
+Belton, Suffolk, Noah Pole, clerk of, <a href=
+"#Page-311">311</a><br>
+Bennet, John, of Woodstock, <a href="#Page-163">163</a><br>
+Beresford Hope on old services, <a href="#Page-8">8</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-170">170</a><br>
+Besant, Sir W., description of old clerk, <a href=
+"#Page-21">21</a><br>
+Bilby, Thomas, author of hymn, <a href="#Page-154">154</a><br>
+Bills of Mortality, <a href="#Page-123">123</a><br>
+Bingley, Hezekiah Briggs, of, <a href="#Page-100">100</a><br>
+Bletchley, clerk of, <a href="#Page-59">59</a><br>
+Bly, Sarah, sexton, <a href="#Page-201">201</a><br>
+"Bobber," or sluggard-waker, <a href="#Page-204">204</a><br>
+Bond family of Worcester, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Boniface, Archbishop, constitutions of, <a href=
+"#Page-30">30</a><br>
+Borne, Hooker's parish, <a href="#Page-24">24</a><br>
+<i>Borough, The</i>, by G. Crabbe, <a href="#Page-66">66</a><br>
+Bradford-on-Avon, <a href="#Page-158">158</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-194">194</a><br>
+Bramwells of Chapel-en-le-Frith, <a href="#Page-319">319</a><br>
+Bristol, St. Nicholas, <a href="#Page-28">28</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-50">50</a><br>
+Broadway, the Tustins of, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Bromfield, Salop, <a href="#Page-280">280</a><br>
+Bromham, the clerk of, <a href="#Page-190">190</a><br>
+Bromsgrove, Rose family of, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Burrows, Mrs., recollections of, <a href="#Page-283">283</a><br>
+Buxted, clerk of, <a href="#Page-55">55</a><br>
+<br>
+Caistor, Lincolnshire, <a href="#Page-227">227</a><br>
+Calculating clerk, a, <a href="#Page-211">211</a><br>
+Cambridgeshire curate, a, <a href="#Page-15">15</a><br>
+Canes in churches, <a href="#Page-190">190</a><br>
+Canterbury, Guild of Clerks at, <a href="#Page-105">105</a><br>
+Carley, Thomas, of Grafton Underwood, <a href=
+"#Page-152">152</a><br>
+Carne, James, oldest living parish clerk, <a href=
+"#Page-319">319</a><br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-336"></a>[pg 336]</span>
+Carshalton, register of, <a href="#Page-141">141</a><br>
+Catechising, <a href="#Page-228">228</a><br>
+Catechising in church by the clerk, <a href="#Page-59">59</a>,
+<a href="#Page-274">274</a><br>
+Catwick, Thomas Dixon, of, <a href="#Page-206">206</a><br>
+Celibacy of clerks, <a href="#Page-18">18</a><br>
+Chanter, Rev. J.F., on clerks of Barnstaple, <a href=
+"#Page-327">327</a><br>
+Chapel-en-le-Frith, <a href="#Page-319">319</a><br>
+Chapple, William, of Swymbridge, <a href="#Page-174">174</a><br>
+Charman Dean, smuggling at, <a href="#Page-84">84</a><br>
+Charters of Company of Clerks, <a href="#Page-106">106</a>,
+<a href="#Page-109">109</a><br>
+Chaucer's portrait of frivolous clerk, <a href=
+"#Page-26">26</a><br>
+Cheshire clerk, an old, <a href="#Page-225">225</a><br>
+Chess in a village, <a href="#Page-242">242</a><br>
+Chester, plays at, <a href="#Page-134">134</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Sir Robert, spoliator of Clerks' Company, <a href=
+"#Page-108">108</a><br>
+Chillenden, Kent, <a href="#Page-236">236</a><br>
+Choirs, old-time, <a href="#Page-1">1</a>, <a href="#Page-3">3</a>,
+<a href="#Page-4">4</a>, <a href="#Page-198">198</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-213">213</a><br>
+"Chosen people," 235<br>
+Church, description of an old, <a href="#Page-1">1</a><br>
+Churching of women, <a href="#Page-231">231</a><br>
+Churchwardens' Account books, <a href="#Page-19">19</a><br>
+Clark, John, the register book of, <a href="#Page-145">145</a><br>
+Clarke, John, <a href="#Page-111">111</a><br>
+Clarkson, David, of Feckenham, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Claverley, Shropshire, <a href="#Page-188">188</a><br>
+Clergy, defective readers, <a href="#Page-58">58</a><br>
+Clerk's ale, <a href="#Page-42">42</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;house, <a href="#Page-33">33</a><br>
+<i>Clerks Book, The</i>, <a href="#Page-52">52</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-248">248</a><br>
+Clerks, too clerical, <a href="#Page-79">79</a>, etc.<br>
+Clerk's Latin, <a href="#Page-242">242</a><br>
+Clerkenwell and clerks' plays, <a href="#Page-130">130</a>,
+etc.<br>
+Clerkship, stepping-stone to higher preferment, <a href=
+"#Page-32">32</a><br>
+Coaching days, <a href="#Page-241">241</a><br>
+Collis family of clerks, <a href="#Page-91">91</a><br>
+Collumpton, female clerk at, <a href="#Page-202">202</a><br>
+Company of parish clerks, <a href="#Page-104">104</a>, etc.<br>
+Cornish parsons, <a href="#Page-180">180</a><br>
+Cornish wreckers, <a href="#Page-84">84</a><br>
+Coronation changes in the Prayer Book, <a href=
+"#Page-314">314</a><br>
+Council of Merida, <a href="#Page-17">17</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Toledo, <a href="#Page-17">17</a><br>
+Court, George, of Wednesbury, <a href="#Page-289">289</a><br>
+Coventry, Trinity Church, <a href="#Page-28">28</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-36">36</a>, <a href="#Page-50">50</a><br>
+Coventry, plays at, <a href="#Page-134">134</a><br>
+Cowper's mortuary verses, <a href="#Page-69">69</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>The Sofa</i>, <a href="#Page-71">71</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>The Task</i>, <a href="#Page-184">184</a><br>
+Crabbe's sketch of old clerics, <a href="#Page-13">13</a><br>
+Crabbe's sketch of old clerks, <a href="#Page-66">66</a><br>
+Crayford, Kent, "Amen" epitaph at, <a href="#Page-97">97</a><br>
+Cromer, David Vial of, <a href="#Page-92">92</a><br>
+Cropthorne, Worcestershire, <a href="#Page-102">102</a><br>
+Crosthwaite and catechising, <a href="#Page-277">277</a><br>
+Curious stories, <a href="#Page-307">307</a>, etc.<br>
+<br>
+Dagenham and its clerk, <a href="#Page-313">313</a><br>
+Dean, West, Sussex, <a href="#Page-233">233</a><br>
+Decline of clerks, <a href="#Page-61">61</a><br>
+Decorating the church, <a href="#Page-193">193</a><br>
+Deputations, <a href="#Page-217">217</a><br>
+Descent into Hell, <a href="#Page-136">136</a><br>
+Dickenson, Thomas, licensed to officiate, <a href=
+"#Page-81">81</a><br>
+Dicker, Robert, of Crediton, <a href="#Page-257">257</a><br>
+Diggs, David, <a href="#Page-6">6</a>, <a href="#Page-58">58</a>,
+<a href="#Page-162">162</a><br>
+Dismissing a clerk, <a href="#Page-247">247</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-250">250</a><br>
+Dixon, Thomas, a curious character, <a href="#Page-206">206</a><br>
+Dog, an archbishop's, <a href="#Page-189">189</a><br>
+Dogs fighting in church, <a href="#Page-85">85</a><br>
+Dog-whippers, <a href="#Page-34">34</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-188">188</a><br>
+Dogs lost, notices of, <a href="#Page-176">176</a><br>
+Dogs in churches, <a href="#Page-189">189</a><br>
+Duke's present of game, a, <a href="#Page-177">177</a><br>
+Dunstable, <a href="#Page-20">20</a><br>
+Dunstan, St., <a href="#Page-16">16</a><br>
+<br>
+Easter cakes, <a href="#Page-41">41</a><br>
+Eastham, clerk of, <a href="#Page-55">55</a><br>
+Ecclesfield, clerks at, <a href="#Page-298">298</a><br>
+Eccleshall's cricketing clerk, <a href="#Page-182">182</a><br>
+<i>Ecclesiastical Law</i>, by Sir R. Phillimore, <a href=
+"#Page-247">247</a><br>
+Edgar, King, canons of, <a href="#Page-16">16</a><br>
+Elliott, Rev. E.K., recollections of, <a href="#Page-83">83</a><br>
+Elmstead, <a href="#Page-49">49</a><br>
+Elton, Miss, recollections of, <a href="#Page-292">292</a><br>
+Epitaphs of clerks, <a href="#Page-90">90</a>, etc.<br>
+Epworth and John Wesley, <a href="#Page-193">193</a><br>
+Ethelbert, King, <a href="#Page-16">16</a><br>
+Evison, Thomas, of Wragsby, <a href="#Page-281">281</a><br>
+Exeter, Synod of, <a href="#Page-17">17</a><br>
+<br>
+Faithfulness of clerks, <a href="#Page-23">23</a><br>
+Fairfield, <a href="#Page-80">80</a><br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-337"></a>[pg 337]</span>
+Fasting Communion, a tradition, <a href="#Page-237">237</a><br>
+Faversham, <a href="#Page-28">28</a>, <a href="#Page-45">45</a>,
+<a href="#Page-50">50</a><br>
+Feckenham, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Feudal customs, <a href="#Page-284">284</a><br>
+Fewson, Richard, a curious clerk, <a href="#Page-208">208</a><br>
+Fielding's clerics, <a href="#Page-11">11</a><br>
+Fighting in church, <a href="#Page-49">49</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-279">279</a><br>
+Finch, Betty, "bobber," <a href="#Page-204">204</a><br>
+Flore, carol by the clerk of, <a href="#Page-167">167</a><br>
+Ford family of King's Norton, <a href="#Page-102">102</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Foster, Joshua, of Caistor, <a href="#Page-227">227</a><br>
+Foston-le-Clay and Sydney Smith, <a href="#Page-216">216</a><br>
+Fressingfield, clerk's house at, <a href="#Page-34">34</a><br>
+Frith's Vicar of Wakefield, <a href="#Page-199">199</a><br>
+Funerals, London clerks at, <a href="#Page-116">116</a><br>
+Funerals, old time, <a href="#Page-218">218</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-222">222</a><br>
+Furness, Richard, clerk of Dore, <a href="#Page-164">164</a><br>
+<br>
+Gadara, swine of, <a href="#Page-238">238</a><br>
+Gainsborough's portrait of Orpin, <a href="#Page-195">195</a><br>
+Gargrave, York, <a href="#Page-157">157</a><br>
+Gay's allusion to clerks, <a href="#Page-72">72</a><br>
+George IV and Queen Caroline, <a href="#Page-183">183</a><br>
+Ghost story, <a href="#Page-313">313</a><br>
+Gill, Mrs., recollections of, <a href="#Page-170">170</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-278">278</a><br>
+"God speed 'em well," <a href="#Page-215">215</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-230">230</a><br>
+Goldsmith's <i>Vicar of Wakefield</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-12">12</a><br>
+Goose in the pulpit, <a href="#Page-266">266</a><br>
+Grafton Underwood, <a href="#Page-152">152</a><br>
+Gray, John, clerk at Eton College,<br>
+Green, Rev. W.F., recollections of, <a href="#Page-293">293</a><br>
+Gregory IX, decretals of, <a href="#Page-17">17</a><br>
+Gregory Smith, Rev. Canon, recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-315">315</a><br>
+Grindal, Archbishop, injunctions of, <a href="#Page-54">54</a>,
+<a href="#Page-80">80</a><br>
+Grosseteste, Bishop, <a href="#Page-17">17</a><br>
+Guild of Clerks, <a href="#Page-18">18</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-104">104</a>, etc.<br>
+Guinea-fowls, disturbing congregation, <a href=
+"#Page-261">261</a><br>
+Gunpowder Plot, <a href="#Page-161">161</a><br>
+<br>
+Haddon, West, <a href="#Page-91">91</a><br>
+Halls of the Clerks' Company, <a href="#Page-107">107</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-110">110</a>, etc.<br>
+"Harmun," a Christian name, <a href="#Page-263">263</a><br>
+Hartlepool, clerk of, <a href="#Page-59">59</a><br>
+Harvey, Christopher, <a href="#Page-63">63</a><br>
+Haw of Halton Holgate, <a href="#Page-236">236</a><br>
+Hawker, Rev. R.S., recollections of, <a href="#Page-85">85</a>,
+<a href="#Page-313">313</a><br>
+Hayes, disgraceful scenes at, <a href="#Page-187">187</a><br>
+Hebrew scholar, a <a href="#Page-323">323</a><br>
+Hemmans, Rev. Canon, recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-281">281</a><br>
+Herbert, George, on responding, <a href="#Page-68">68</a><br>
+Herbert, George, clerk of Eye, <a href="#Page-93">93</a><br>
+Heredity of the clerk's office, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, <a href="#Page-17">17</a><br>
+Hinton, William, a Wilts clerk, <a href="#Page-239">239</a><br>
+Hobbes, William, clerk at Plymouth, <a href="#Page-25">25</a><br>
+Hobby, a matrimonial, <a href="#Page-315">315</a><br>
+Hogarth's <i>Sleeping Congregation</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-131">131</a><br>
+Holy loaf, <a href="#Page-38">38</a>, etc.<br>
+Holy water, <a href="#Page-27">27</a><br>
+Hone's <i>Year Book</i> and <i>Book of Days</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-87">87</a>, <a href="#Page-99">99</a><br>
+Hooker, the Judicious, <a href="#Page-24">24</a><br>
+Hopkins, John, clerk at Salisbury, <a href="#Page-162">162</a><br>
+Houses for clerks, <a href="#Page-33">33</a><br>
+How, Bishop Walsham, recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-298">298</a><br>
+Hust, Richard, portrait of, <a href="#Page-111">111</a><br>
+Hutchinson, F., a Yorkshire clerk, <a href="#Page-302">302</a><br>
+Hutton, William, verses by, <a href="#Page-73">73</a><br>
+Huyk, John, of Hull, <a href="#Page-35">35</a><br>
+Hymn in praise of William III, <a href="#Page-160">160</a><br>
+<br>
+Illuminated MSS., <a href="#Page-197">197</a><br>
+Ingenious clerk, an, <a href="#Page-259">259</a><br>
+Ingham, James, of Whalley, <a href="#Page-236">236</a><br>
+<br>
+Jachin, the story of, <a href="#Page-66">66</a><br>
+Jenkins, Rev. M.E., recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-302">302</a><br>
+Jenner's "Mount Sion," <a href="#Page-185">185</a><br>
+Jerry and the "Northern Lights," <a href="#Page-218">218</a><br>
+John of Althon, <a href="#Page-32">32</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-49">49</a><br>
+Johnson's definition and opinion of clerks, <a href=
+"#Page-66">66</a><br>
+<br>
+Kennicott, Dr., a clerk's son, <a href="#Page-326">326</a><br>
+Kent, John, clerk of St. Albans, <a href="#Page-87">87</a><br>
+Kenwyn, dogs fighting in church, <a href="#Page-85">85</a><br>
+Kilbrogan, Ireland, <a href="#Page-159">159</a><br>
+King's Norton, the Fords of, <a href="#Page-102">102</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-318">318</a><br>
+<br>
+Lainston, romance of parish register of, <a href=
+"#Page-151">151</a><br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-338"></a>[pg 338]</span>
+Langdon, Robert, deacon-clerk, <a href="#Page-329">329</a><br>
+Langhorne, Rev. W.H., recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-231">231</a><br>
+Langport, Somerset, <a href="#Page-41">41</a><br>
+Laracor, Meath, <a href="#Page-180">180</a><br>
+Latin, a clerk's, <a href="#Page-242">242</a><br>
+Lavant, East, Russell of, <a href="#Page-260">260</a><br>
+Law and the clerk, the, <a href="#Page-245">245</a>, etc.<br>
+Lawton, Cheshire, <a href="#Page-225">225</a><br>
+Leckhampton, <a href="#Page-235">235</a><br>
+"Leg end, the," <a href="#Page-282">282</a><br>
+Legg, Dr. J. Wickham, <a href="#Page-52">52</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-169">169</a>, <a href="#Page-248">248</a><br>
+Legge, Rev. A.G., recollections of, <a href="#Page-259">259</a>,
+<a href="#Page-265">265</a><br>
+Lessons, right of reading, <a href="#Page-53">53</a><br>
+Licence granted to clerk to officiate, <a href=
+"#Page-81">81</a><br>
+Liston, Essex, <a href="#Page-286">286</a><br>
+Literature, the clerk in, <a href="#Page-63">63</a>, etc.<br>
+London, St. Peter-the-Less, <a href="#Page-35">35</a><br>
+London, St. Stephen, Coleman Street, <a href="#Page-46">46</a>,
+<a href="#Page-142">142</a><br>
+London, St. Michael, Cornhill, <a href="#Page-50">50</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-111">111</a><br>
+London, St. Margaret, Westminster, <a href="#Page-53">53</a>,
+<a href="#Page-200">200</a><br>
+London, the clerks of, <a href="#Page-115">115</a>, etc.<br>
+London, Guildhall chapel, <a href="#Page-115">115</a><br>
+London, St. Margaret, Lothbury, <a href="#Page-142">142</a><br>
+London, Lambeth parish, <a href="#Page-147">147</a><br>
+London, Battersea, <a href="#Page-147">147</a><br>
+London, St. Mary's, Islington, <a href="#Page-154">154</a><br>
+London, St. Matthew's Chapel, Spring Gardens, <a href=
+"#Page-191">191</a><br>
+London, parishes, <a href="#Page-129">129</a><br>
+Longevity of clerks, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Lowestoft, Suffolk, Newson of, <a href="#Page-311">311</a><br>
+Lupson, E.J. of Great Yarmouth, <a href="#Page-320">320</a><br>
+Lyndewoode, William, on married clerks, <a href="#Page-18">18</a>,
+<a href="#Page-35">35</a>, <a href="#Page-49">49</a><br>
+<br>
+Machyn's Diary, <a href="#Page-117">117</a><br>
+Maldon, Essex, a curious letter, <a href="#Page-309">309</a><br>
+Mangotsfield, Bamford, clerk of, <a href="#Page-230">230</a><br>
+Marlow, Bucks, <a href="#Page-319">319</a><br>
+Marriage Act of 1653, <a href="#Page-81">81</a><br>
+Marriages by clerks, <a href="#Page-81">81</a><br>
+Matthew Paris, <a href="#Page-43">43</a><br>
+Maundy Thursday, <a href="#Page-37">37</a><br>
+Maybrick, William, and his sons, <a href="#Page-308">308</a><br>
+Medi&aelig;val clerk, <a href="#Page-31">31</a>, etc.<br>
+Milston, clerk at, <a href="#Page-64">64</a><br>
+Milverton, Somerset, <a href="#Page-41">41</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-59">59</a><br>
+Moody, clerk at Redbourn, <a href="#Page-172">172</a><br>
+More, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page-32">32</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-109">109</a><br>
+Morebath, dispute at, <a href="#Page-29">29</a><br>
+Mortality, Bills of, <a href="#Page-123">123</a><br>
+Morwenstow and its ghost story, <a href="#Page-313">313</a><br>
+Myre, John, instructions to parish priests, <a href=
+"#Page-45">45</a><br>
+<br>
+<i>New Remarks of London</i>, <a href="#Page-127">127</a><br>
+Newport Pagnell, Bucks, <a href="#Page-285">285</a><br>
+Northampton, All Saints, <a href="#Page-69">69</a><br>
+"Northern Lights," <a href="#Page-217">217</a><br>
+Notices, the clerk giving out, <a href="#Page-169">169</a>,
+etc.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;curious, <a href="#Page-270">270</a><br>
+<br>
+Oldswinford, the Orfords of, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Orchestra, village, <a href="#Page-4">4</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-213">213</a><br>
+Orpin, portrait by Gainsborough, <a href="#Page-195">195</a><br>
+Osbornes of Belbroughton, <a href="#Page-96">96</a><br>
+Overy, St. Mary, <a href="#Page-80">80</a><br>
+<br>
+Pageantry of clerks, <a href="#Page-119">119</a><br>
+Pall used as horsecloth, <a href="#Page-295">295</a><br>
+<i>The Parish Clerk</i>, a new comic song, <a href=
+"#Page-73">73</a><br>
+<i>Parish Clerk's Guide, The</i>, <a href="#Page-46">46</a>,
+<a href="#Page-57">57</a><br>
+<i>Parish Clerk</i>, by Hewett, <a href="#Page-6">6</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-58">58</a>, <a href="#Page-162">162</a><br>
+<i>Parish Clerks, Some Account of</i>, by J. Christie, <a href=
+"#Page-107">107</a><br>
+<i>Parish Register, The</i>, by Crabbe, <a href=
+"#Page-67">67</a><br>
+Parish registers and the clerks, <a href="#Page-140">140</a>,
+etc.<br>
+<i>Parish Registers, History of</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-148">148</a><br>
+Parsons, old-time, <a href="#Page-1">1</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-10">10</a>-15<br>
+Parson and Clerk, rocks so named, <a href="#Page-86">86</a><br>
+Pattishall, clerk's register of, <a href="#Page-145">145</a><br>
+Perquisites of clerks, <a href="#Page-41">41</a><br>
+Pews, old-fashioned, <a href="#Page-2">2</a><br>
+Pierce, Bishop of Bath and Wells, <a href="#Page-43">43</a><br>
+Plague in London, <a href="#Page-125">125</a><br>
+Playford, John, <a href="#Page-56">56</a><br>
+Plays performed by clerks, <a href="#Page-131">131</a>, etc.<br>
+Pluralism, evil effects of, <a href="#Page-14">14</a><br>
+Plymouth, St. Andrew, <a href="#Page-25">25</a><br>
+Poet, the clerk as a, <a href="#Page-154">154</a>, etc.<br>
+Poor rates levied on the altar, <a href="#Page-268">268</a><br>
+Pope, Alexander, <i>Memoir of P.P.</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-75">75</a><br>
+Portraits in the hall of the Company, <a href=
+"#Page-112">112</a><br>
+Prideaux, Dr., <a href="#Page-327">327</a><br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-339"></a>[pg 339]</span>
+Priestly, Peter, clerk of Wakefield, <a href="#Page-86">86</a><br>
+Printing press, the clerks', <a href="#Page-125">125</a><br>
+Pup wanted, a, <a href="#Page-317">317</a><br>
+Puritanism, effects of, <a href="#Page-7">7</a><br>
+<br>
+Radcliffe, Lancashire, <a href="#Page-304">304</a><br>
+Radcliffe-on-Sour, <a href="#Page-100">100</a><br>
+Railways, the advent of, <a href="#Page-242">242</a><br>
+Raw, Frank, of Selby, epitaph of, <a href="#Page-100">100</a><br>
+Rawsley, Miss, recollections of, <a href="#Page-236">236</a><br>
+Rawsley, Canon, story told by, <a href="#Page-313">313</a><br>
+Reading, duty of, <a href="#Page-48">48</a>, etc.<br>
+Reading, St. Giles, <a href="#Page-19">19</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-33">33</a>, <a href="#Page-45">45</a><br>
+Reading, St. Lawrence, <a href="#Page-21">21</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-39">39</a><br>
+Reading, St. Mary, <a href="#Page-33">33</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-39">39</a><br>
+<i>Rectores chori</i>, <a href="#Page-36">36</a><br>
+Recollections of old clerks, <a href="#Page-255">255</a>, etc.<br>
+Redbourn, Herts, <a href="#Page-172">172</a><br>
+Reeve, Rev. E.H.L., recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-286">286</a><br>
+Reformation changes, <a href="#Page-51">51</a><br>
+Rempstone, wages of clerk at, <a href="#Page-248">248</a><br>
+"Responding inaudibly," <a href="#Page-307">307</a><br>
+Revival of office of clerk, <a href="#Page-334">334</a><br>
+Rex <i>v.</i> Erasmus Warren, <a href="#Page-251">251</a><br>
+Richard I as <i>rector chori</i>, <a href="#Page-32">32</a><br>
+Ringmer, <a href="#Page-34">34</a><br>
+Rival clerks, <a href="#Page-49">49</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-211">211</a>, <a href="#Page-279">279</a><br>
+Rivington family, <a href="#Page-127">127</a><br>
+Robinson, Daniel, of Flore, <a href="#Page-167">167</a><br>
+Rochester and its parish register, <a href="#Page-150">150</a><br>
+Rochester, Earl of, epigram by, <a href="#Page-3">3</a><br>
+Roe family at Bakewell, <a href="#Page-93">93</a><br>
+Romford, <a href="#Page-307">307</a><br>
+Roper, William, of Clerks' Company, <a href="#Page-109">109</a><br>
+Rose family of Bromsgrove, <a href="#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Rugby, St. Andrew, <a href="#Page-91">91</a><br>
+Russell, Rev. J., of Swymbridge, <a href="#Page-174">174</a><br>
+Russell, clerk of East Lavant, <a href="#Page-260">260</a><br>
+<br>
+St. Albans, clerk of, <a href="#Page-87">87</a><br>
+St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, <a href="#Page-320">320</a><br>
+St. Nicholas, patron saint of clerks, <a href=
+"#Page-105">105</a><br>
+Salehurst, wages of clerk, <a href="#Page-249">249</a><br>
+Salisbury, St. Edmund, clerk's house at, <a href=
+"#Page-34">34</a><br>
+Salisbury, John Hopkins of, <a href="#Page-162">162</a><br>
+Saltwood, Kent, clerk's house at, <a href="#Page-34">34</a><br>
+Sapiston and the Duke's hare, <a href="#Page-177">177</a><br>
+Scarlett, Old, of Peterborough, <a href="#Page-98">98</a><br>
+Schoolmaster, clerk as, <a href="#Page-44">44</a><br>
+Scothorne, Blackburn's epitaph, <a href="#Page-103">103</a><br>
+Selwyn, Rev. W., recollections of, <a href="#Page-279">279</a><br>
+Sermon forgotten, <a href="#Page-287">287</a><br>
+Sexton and clerk, <a href="#Page-22">22</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-64">64</a>, <a href="#Page-253">253</a><br>
+Shakespeare's allusion to clerks, <a href="#Page-63">63</a><br>
+Shenley, Rogers of, <a href="#Page-92">92</a><br>
+Sherlock, F., recollections of, <a href="#Page-308">308</a><br>
+Shoes in church, <a href="#Page-226">226</a><br>
+Sidbury, clerk of, <a href="#Page-59">59</a><br>
+Singing, duty of, <a href="#Page-48">48</a>, etc.<br>
+Singing, efforts to improve, <a href="#Page-121">121</a><br>
+Skinners' Well, <a href="#Page-131">131</a><br>
+<i>Sleeping Congregation</i>, by Hogarth, <a href=
+"#Page-181">181</a><br>
+Sleepy church and sleepy clerks, <a href="#Page-179">179</a>,
+etc.<br>
+Sluggard-waker, <a href="#Page-187">187</a><br>
+Smuggling days and smuggling ways, <a href="#Page-79">79</a>,
+<a href="#Page-83">83</a>, etc.<br>
+Smoking in church, <a href="#Page-228">228</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-295">295</a>, <a href="#Page-303">303</a><br>
+Snell, Peter, of Crayford, <a href="#Page-97">97</a><br>
+Soberton, Hants, smuggling at, <a href="#Page-84">84</a><br>
+<i>Social Life as told by Parish Registers</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-142">142</a>, <a href="#Page-148">148</a><br>
+Solomon Daisy of <i>Barnaby Rudge</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-72">72</a><br>
+Song during the sermon, a, <a href="#Page-292">292</a><br>
+<i>Spectator, The</i>, <a href="#Page-64">64</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-65">65</a><br>
+Spoliation of Clerks' Company, <a href="#Page-108">108</a><br>
+Sporting parsons, <a href="#Page-171">171</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-269">269</a><br>
+Sporting clerks, <a href="#Page-211">211</a><br>
+Squire's pew, the, <a href="#Page-2">2</a><br>
+Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berks, <a href="#Page-40">40</a><br>
+Staple-next-Wingham, <a href="#Page-101">101</a><br>
+Sternhold and Hopkins's Psalter, <a href="#Page-3">3</a><br>
+Stoke, <a href="#Page-300">300</a><br>
+Story, Robert, poet, <a href="#Page-157">157</a><br>
+Stoulton, epitaph at, <a href="#Page-103">103</a><br>
+Stratfieldsaye, <a href="#Page-300">300</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-305">305</a><br>
+Surplices objected to, <a href="#Page-118">118</a><br>
+Swanscombe, Kent, <a href="#Page-8">8</a><br>
+Swift on old pews, <a href="#Page-2">2</a><br>
+Swift and his clerk Roger, <a href="#Page-180">180</a><br>
+Syntax, Dr., <a href="#Page-14">14</a><br>
+<br>
+Tait, Archbishop, on old services, <a href="#Page-8">8</a><br>
+Teeth, story of "artful,", <a href="#Page-174">174</a><br>
+Tennyson's allusion to clerks, <a href="#Page-72">72</a><br>
+Tenterden, John Hopton of, <a href="#Page-80">80</a><br>
+Thame, curious banns at, <a href="#Page-316">316</a><br>
+Thirza, a Christian name, <a href="#Page-282">282</a><br>
+Tingrith and its potentate, <a href="#Page-283">283</a><br>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page-340"></a>[pg 340]</span>
+Totnes, Devon, <a href="#Page-326">326</a><br>
+Tourists' queries, <a href="#Page-321">321</a><br>
+Town crier as clerk, <a href="#Page-293">293</a><br>
+Tunbridge Wells, Jenner's "Mount Sion," <a href=
+"#Page-185">185</a><br>
+<br>
+Uffington, Salop, <a href="#Page-299">299</a><br>
+Upton, near Droitwich, <a href="#Page-179">179</a><br>
+<br>
+Venables, Rev. Canon, recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-267">267</a><br>
+Verney, Lady, <i>Essays and Tales</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-74">74</a><br>
+Vickers, Rev. W.V., recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-255">255</a><br>
+Visitation of the sick, <a href="#Page-46">46</a><br>
+<br>
+Wages of clerks, <a href="#Page-248">248</a><br>
+Wakefield, <a href="#Page-87">87</a><br>
+Walker, Rev. Robert, the "Wonderful," <a href="#Page-11">11</a><br>
+Waltham, <a href="#Page-79">79</a><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;Holy Cross, <a href="#Page-81">81</a><br>
+Walton, Isaac, story of faithful clerk, <a href=
+"#Page-24">24</a><br>
+Warrington and its "bobber," <a href="#Page-204">204</a><br>
+<i>Way to find Sunday without an Almanack, The</i>, <a href=
+"#Page-73">73</a><br>
+Webster's <i>Village Choir</i>, <a href="#Page-198">198</a><br>
+Wednesbury, <a href="#Page-145">145</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-191">191</a>, <a href="#Page-289">289</a><br>
+Wesley and his clerk, <a href="#Page-193">193</a><br>
+Westbere, <a href="#Page-79">79</a><br>
+Westhoughton, <a href="#Page-305">305</a><br>
+Westley, <a href="#Page-228">228</a><br>
+Whalley, clerk at, <a href="#Page-236">236</a><br>
+Wheatley, female clerk at, <a href="#Page-202">202</a><br>
+Whitewashed church, a, <a href="#Page-295">295</a><br>
+Whittingdon, Thomas Evans of, <a href="#Page-92">92</a><br>
+"Wicked man, the," <a href="#Page-256">256</a><br>
+Wilberforce, Bishop, on squire's pew, <a href="#Page-2">2</a><br>
+Willoughton, Betty Wells of, <a href="#Page-203">203</a><br>
+Wills containing bequests to clerks, <a href="#Page-31">31</a><br>
+Wimborne Minster, <a href="#Page-55">55</a>, <a href=
+"#Page-233">233</a><br>
+Windermere, clerk of, <a href="#Page-230">230</a><br>
+Wise, Mr., of Weekley, recollections of, <a href=
+"#Page-292">292</a><br>
+Witch as parish clerk, <a href="#Page-203">203</a><br>
+Woburn, J. Brewer of, <a href="#Page-293">293</a><br>
+Wolstanton, <a href="#Page-299">299</a><br>
+Wolverley, Worcestershire, <a href="#Page-96">96</a><br>
+Women as parish clerks, <a href="#Page-200">200</a>, etc.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;as sextons, <a href="#Page-254">254</a><br>
+Woodmancote, old clerk at, <a href="#Page-233">233</a><br>
+Woodstock, J. Bennet, clerk of, <a href="#Page-163">163</a><br>
+Wootton, Paul, clerk at Bromham, <a href="#Page-190">190</a><br>
+Worcester, St. Michael, clerk's house at, <a href=
+"#Page-34">34</a><br>
+Worcester, St. Michael, the Bond family of, <a href=
+"#Page-318">318</a><br>
+Wordsworth, on the "Wonderful Walker," <a href=
+"#Page-11">11</a><br>
+Workington and its beadle, <a href="#Page-299">299</a><br>
+Worrall family of Wolverley, <a href="#Page-96">96</a><br>
+Worthing, smuggling at, <a href="#Page-83">83</a><br>
+Worth, John Alcorn of, <a href="#Page-101">101</a><br>
+Wragby, clerk of, <a href="#Page-281">281</a><br>
+Wren, William, of Stondon Massey, <a href="#Page-287">287</a><br>
+<br>
+Yarmouth, Great, the clerk of, <a href="#Page-320">320</a><br>
+York, mystery plays at, <a href="#Page-133">133</a><br>
+Yorkshire clerks, <a href="#Page-206">206</a>, etc., <a href=
+"#Page-302">302</a><br>
+Young, Rev. J.C., recollections of, <a href="#Page-239">239</a><br>
+<br>
+"Zulphur," a Christian name, <a href="#Page-258">258</a><br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Parish Clerk (1907)
+by Peter Hampson Ditchfield
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Parish Clerk (1907), by Peter Hampson Ditchfield
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Parish Clerk (1907)
+
+Author: Peter Hampson Ditchfield
+
+Release Date: September 3, 2004 [EBook #13363]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PARISH CLERK (1907) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE PARISH CLERK
+
+BY
+
+P.H. DITCHFIELD
+
+M.A., F.S.A.
+
+WITH THIRTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_First Published in 1907_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                               PAGE
+
+I. OLD-TIME CHOIRS AND PARSONS                           1
+
+II. THE ANTIQUITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE OFFICE OF
+CLERK                                                   16
+
+III. THE MEDIAEVAL CLERK                                 31
+
+IV. HIS DUTIES OF READING AND SINGING                   48
+
+V. THE CLERK IN LITERATURE                              63
+
+VI. CLERKS TOO CLERICAL--SMUGGLING DAYS AND
+SMUGGLING WAYS                                          79
+
+VII. THE CLERK IN EPITAPH                               90
+
+VIII. THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS          104
+
+IX. THE CLERKS OF LONDON: THEIR DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES  115
+
+X. CLERKENWELL AND CLERKS' PLAYS                       130
+
+XI. THE CLERKS AND THE PARISH REGISTERS                140
+
+XII. THE CLERK AS A POET                               154
+
+XIII. THE CLERK GIVING OUT NOTICES                     169
+
+XIV. SLEEPY CHURCH AND SLEEPY CLERKS                   179
+
+XV. THE CLERK IN ART                                   195
+
+XVI. WOMEN AS PARISH CLERKS                            201
+
+XVII. SOME YORKSHIRE CLERKS                            206
+
+XVIII. AN OLD CHESHIRE CLERK AND SOME OTHER WORTHIES   225
+
+XIX. THE CLERK AND THE LAW                             245
+
+XX. RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD CLERKS AND THEIR WAYS         255
+
+XXI. CURIOUS STORIES                                   306
+
+XXII. LONGEVITY AND HEREDITY--THE DEACON-CLERKS OF
+BARNSTAPLE                                             318
+
+XXIII. CONCLUSION                                      333
+
+INDEX                                                  335
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+THE PARISH CLERK. By Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.  _Frontispiece_
+  _From the original in the National Gallery_
+
+                                                           PAGE
+
+THE VILLAGE CHOIR. By Thomas Webster                          8
+  _From the original in the Victoria and Albert Museum_
+
+THE MEDIAEVAL CLERK: THE CLERK IN PROCESSION                  18
+  _From old engravings_
+
+THE CLERK BEARING HOLY WATER AND ASPERGING THE COOK,
+AND OTHERS                                                   28
+  _From old engravings_
+
+THE OLD CHURCH-HOUSES AT HURST AND UFFINGTON, BERKS          42
+  _By permission of Messrs. G.J. Palmer and Sons_
+
+THE CLERK AND PRIEST VISITING THE SICK AND ADMINISTERING
+THE LAST SACRAMENT                                           46
+  _By permission of the S.P.C.K._
+
+OLD BECKENHAM CHURCH. By David Cox                           60
+  _From the drawing at the Tate Gallery_
+
+OLD SCARLETT                                                 98
+  _From_ "_The Book of Days_"
+  _By permission of Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, Ltd_.
+
+ENTRANCE TO THE HALL OF THE COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS.       104
+
+THE MASTER'S CHAIR AT THE PARISH CLERKS' HALL               106
+
+PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM ROPER, SON-IN-LAW AND BIOGRAPHER OF
+  SIR THOMAS MORE, BENEFACTOR OF THE CLERKS' COMPANY        110
+
+THE GRANT OF ARMS TO THE COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS           111
+
+STAINED GLASS WINDOW AT THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS'
+COMPANY, SHOWING PORTRAITS OF JOHN CLARKE AND STEPHEN
+PENCKHURST                                                  112
+
+A PAGE OF THE BEDE ROLL OF THE PARISH CLERKS' COMPANY.      114
+
+THE ORGAN AT THE PARISH CLERKS' HALL                        121
+
+A PAGE OF AN EARLY BILL OF MORTALITY PRESERVED AT THE
+HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS' COMPANY                          122
+
+INTERIOR OF THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS' COMPANY          126
+
+PORTRAIT OF JOHN CLARKE, PARISH CLERK OF THE CHURCH OF
+ST. MICHAEL, CORNHILL                                       128
+
+OLD MAP OF CLERKENWELL                                      130
+
+A MYSTERY PLAY AT CHESTER                                   132
+  _From a print after a painting by T. Uwins_
+
+THE DESCENT INTO HELL                                       136
+  _From William Hone's "Ancient Mysteries_"
+
+THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION. By W. Hogarth                    182
+  _From an engraving at the British Museum_
+
+THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST AT HOLY BAPTISM              196
+  _By permission of the S.P.C.K._
+
+THE DUTIES OF A CLERK AT A DEATH AND FUNERAL                198
+  _By permission of the S.P.C.K._
+
+THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. By W. P. Frith                      199
+  _From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co_.
+
+PORTRAIT OF RICHARD HUST, THE RESTORER OF THE CLERKS'
+  ALMSHOUSES                                                200
+
+THE CHURCH OF ST. MARGARET, WESTMINSTER                     210
+  _After an engraving from a photograph by Messrs.
+  W.A. Mansell and Co_.
+
+WILLIAM HINTON, A WILTSHIRE WORTHY. Drawn by the Rev.
+  Julian Charles Young                                      239
+    _By permission of Messrs. Macmillan and Co_.
+
+SUNDAY MORNING. By John Absolon                             270
+  _From a photograph by Messrs. W.A. Mansell and Co_.
+
+THE PARISH CLERK OF QUEDGELEY                               280
+  _By permission of Miss Isabel Barnett_
+
+JAMES CARNE, PARISH CLERK OF ST. COLUMB MINOR, CORNWALL,
+  THE OLDEST LIVING CLERK                                   320
+    _From a photograph by Mr. R.P. Griffith, Newquay_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+The race of parish clerks is gradually becoming extinct. Before the
+recollection of their quaint ways, their curious manners and customs,
+has quite passed away, it has been thought advisable to collect all that
+can be gathered together concerning them. Much light has in recent years
+been thrown upon the history of the office. The learned notes appended
+to Dr. Wickham Legg's edition of _The Parish Clerk's Book_, published by
+the Henry Bradshaw Society, Dr. Atchley's _Parish Clerk and his Right to
+Read the Liturgical Epistle_ (Alcuin Club Tracts), and other works, give
+much information with regard to the antiquity of the office, and to the
+duties of the clerk of mediaeval times; and from these books I have
+derived much information. By the kindness of many friends and of many
+correspondents who are personally unknown to me, I have been enabled to
+collect a large number of anecdotes, recollections, facts, and
+biographical sketches of many clerks in different parts of England, and
+I am greatly indebted to those who have so kindly supplied me with so
+much valuable information. Many of the writers are far advanced in
+years, when the labour of putting pen to paper is a sore burden. I am
+deeply grateful to them for the trouble which they kindly took in
+recording their recollections of the scenes of their youth. I have been
+much amused by the humorous stories of old clerkly ways, by the
+_facetiae_ which have been sent to me, and I have been much impressed by
+the records of faithful service and devotion to duty shown by many
+holders of the office who won the esteem and affectionate regard of both
+priest and people. It is impossible for me to publish the names of all
+those who have kindly written to me, but I wish especially to thank the
+Rev. Canon Venables, who first suggested the idea of this work, and to
+whom it owes its conception and initiation[1]; to the Rev. B.D.
+Blyn-Stoyle, to Mr. F.W. Hackwood, the Rev. W.V. Vickers, the Rev. W.
+Selwyn, the Rev. E.H. L. Reeve, the Rev. W.H. Langhorne, Mr. E.J.
+Lupson, Mr. Charles Wise, and many others, who have taken a kindly
+interest in the writing of this book. I have also to express my thanks
+to the editors of the _Treasury_ and of _Pearson's Magazine_ for
+permission to reproduce portions of some of the articles which I
+contributed to their periodicals, to the editor of _Chambers's Journal_
+for the use of an article on some north-country clerics and their clerks
+by a writer whose name is unknown to me, and to the Rev. J. Gaskell
+Exton for sending to me an account of a Yorkshire clerk which, by the
+kindness of the editor of the _Yorkshire Weekly Post_, I am enabled to
+reproduce.
+
+[Footnote 1: Since the above was written, and while this book has been
+passing through the press, the venerable clergyman, Canon Venables, has
+been called away from earth. A zealous parish priest, a voluminous
+writer, a true friend, he will be much missed by all who knew him. Some
+months ago he sent me some recollections of his early days, of the
+clerks he had known, and his reflections on his long ministry, and these
+have been recorded in this book, and will now have a pathetic interest
+for his many friends and for all who admired his noble, earnest, and
+strenuous life.]
+
+
+
+THE PARISH CLERK
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+OLD-TIME CHOIRS AND PARSONS
+
+A remarkable feature in the conduct of our modern ecclesiastical
+services is the disappearance and painless extinction of the old parish
+clerk who figured so prominently in the old-fashioned ritual dear to the
+hearts of our forefathers. The Oxford Movement has much to answer for!
+People who have scarcely passed the rubicon of middle life can recall
+the curious scene which greeted their eyes each Sunday morning when life
+was young, and perhaps retain a tenderness for old abuses, and, like
+George Eliot, have a lingering liking for nasal clerks and top-booted
+clerics, and sigh for the departed shades of vulgar errors.
+
+Then and now--the contrast is great. Then the hideous Georgian
+"three-decker" reared its monstrous form, blocking out the sight of the
+sanctuary; immense pews like cattle-pens filled the nave. The woodwork
+was high and panelled, sometimes richly carved, as at Whalley Church,
+Lancashire, where some pews have posts at the corners like an
+old-fashioned four-posted bed. Sometimes two feet above the top of the
+woodwork there were brass rods on which slender curtains ran, and were
+usually drawn during sermon time in order that the attention of the
+occupants of the pew might not be distracted from devout meditations on
+the preacher's discourse--or was it to woo slumber? A Berkshire dame
+rather admired these old-fashioned pews, wherein, as she naively
+expressed it, "a body might sleep comfortable without all the parish
+knowin' on it."
+
+It was of such pews that Swift wrote in his _Baucis and Philemon_:
+
+     "A bedstead of the antique mode,
+     Compact of timber many a load,
+     Such as our ancestors did use
+     Was metamorphosed into pews;
+     Which still their ancient nature keep
+     By lodging folks disposed to sleep."
+
+The squire's pew was a wondrous structure, with its own special
+fire-place, the fire in which the old gentleman used to poke vigorously
+when the parson was too long in preaching. It was amply furnished, this
+squire's pew, with arm-chairs and comfortable seats and stools and
+books. Such a pew all furnished and adorned did a worthy clerk point out
+to the witty Bishop of Oxford, Bishop Wilberforce, with much pride and
+satisfaction. "If there be ought your lordship can mention to mak' it
+better, I'm sure Squire will no mind gettin' on it."
+
+The bishop, with a merry twinkle in his eye, turned round to the vicar,
+who was standing near, and maliciously whispered:
+
+"A card table!"
+
+Such comfortable squires' pews still exist in some churches, but
+"restoration" has paid scanty regard to old-fashioned notions and ideas,
+and the squire and his family usually sit nowadays on benches similar to
+those used by the rest of the congregation.
+
+Then the choir sat in the west gallery and made strange noises and sang
+curious tunes, the echoes of which we shall try to catch. No organ then
+pealed forth its reverent tones and awaked the church with dulcet
+harmonies: a pitch-pipe often the sole instrument. And then--what
+terrible hymns were sung! Well did Campbell say of Sternhold and
+Hopkins, the co-translators of the Psalms of David into English metre,
+"mistaking vulgarity for simplicity, they turned into bathos what they
+found sublime." And Tate and Brady's version, the "Dry Psalter" of
+"Samuel Oxon's" witticism, was little better. Think of the poetical
+beauties of the following lines, sung with vigour by a bald-headed
+clerk:
+
+     "My hairs are numerous, but few
+     Compared to th' enemies that me pursue."
+
+It was of such a clerk and of such psalmody that John Wilmot, Earl of
+Rochester, in the seventeenth century wrote his celebrated epigram:
+
+     "Sternhold and Hopkins had great qualms
+      When they translated David's Psalms,
+         To make the heart more glad;
+      But had it been poor David's fate
+      To hear thee sing and them translate,
+         By Jove, 'twould have drove him mad."
+
+When the time for singing the metrical Psalm arrived, the clerk gave out
+the number in stentorian tones, using the usual formula, "Let us sing to
+the praise and glory of God the one hundred and fourth Psalm, first,
+second, seving (seven), and eleving verses with the Doxology." Then,
+pulling out his pitch-pipe from the dusty cushions of his seat, he would
+strut pompously down the church, ascend the stairs leading to the west
+gallery, blow his pipe, and give the basses, tenors, and soprano voices
+their notes, which they hung on to in a low tone until the clerk
+returned to his place in the lowest tier of the "three-decker" and
+started the choir-folk vigorously. Those Doxologies at the end! What a
+trouble they were! You could find them if you knew where to look for
+them at the end of the Prayer Book after Tate and Brady's metrical
+renderings of the Psalms of David. There they were, but the right one
+was hard to find. Some had two syllables too much to suit the tune, and
+some had two syllables too little. But it did not matter very greatly,
+and we were accustomed to add a word here, or leave out one there; it
+was all in a day's work, and we went home with the comfortable
+reflection that we had done our best.
+
+But a pitch-pipe was not usually the sole instrument. Many village
+churches had their band, composed of fiddles, flutes, clarionets, and
+sometimes bassoons and a drum. "Let's go and hear the baboons," said a
+clerk mentioned by the Rev. John Eagles in his Essays. In order to
+preserve strict historical accuracy, I may add that this invitation was
+recorded in the year 1837, and therefore could have no reference to
+evolutionary theories and the Descent of Man. This clerk, who invariably
+read "Cheberims and Sepherims," and was always "a lion to my mother's
+children," looking not unlike one with his shaggy hair and beard, was
+not inviting a neighbour to a Sunday afternoon at the Zoo, but only to
+hear the bassoons.
+
+When the clerk gave out the hymn or Psalm, or on rare occasions the
+anthem, there was a strange sound of tuning up the instruments, and then
+the instruments wailed forth discordant melody. The clerk conducted the
+choir, composed of village lads and maidens, with a few stalwart basses
+and tenors. It was often a curious performance. Everybody sang as loud
+as he could bawl; cheeks and elbows were at their utmost efforts, the
+bassoon vying with the clarionet, the goose-stop of the clarionet with
+the bassoon--it was Babel with the addition of the beasts. And they were
+all so proud of their performance. It was the only part of the service
+during which no one could sleep, said one of them with pride--and he was
+right. No one could sleep through the terrible din. They were the most
+important officials in the church, for did not the Psalms make it clear,
+"The singers go before, and the minstrels" (which they understood to
+mean ministers) "follow after"? And then--those anthems! They were
+terrible inflictions. Every bumpkin had his favourite solo, and oh! the
+murder, the profanation! "Some put their trust in charrots and some in
+'orses," but they didn't "quite pat off the stephany," as one of the
+singers remarked, meaning symphony. It was all very strange and curious.
+
+Then followed the era of barrel-organs, the clerk's duty being to turn
+the handle and start the singing. He was the only person who understood
+its mechanism and how to change the barrels. Sometimes accidents
+happened, as at Aston Church, Yorkshire, some time in the thirties. One
+Sunday morning during the singing of a hymn the music came to a sudden
+stop. There was a solemn pause, and then the clerk was seen to make his
+way to the front of the singing gallery, and was heard addressing the
+vicar in a loud tone, saying, "Please, sor, an-ell 'as coom off." The
+handle had come off the instrument. At another church, in
+Huntingdonshire, the organ was hidden from view by drawn curtains,
+behind which the clerk used to retire when he had given out the Psalm.
+On one occasion, however, no sound of music issued from behind the
+curtains; at last, after a solemn pause, the clerk's quizzical face
+appeared, and his harsh voice shouted out, "Dang it, she 'on't speak!"
+The "grinstun organ," as David Diggs, the hero of Hewett's _Parish
+Clerk_ calls it, was not always to be depended on. Every one knows the
+Lancashire dialect story of the "Barrel Organ" which refused to stop,
+and had to be carried out of church and sat upon, and yet still
+continued to pour forth its dirge-like melody.
+
+David Diggs may not have been a strictly historical character, but the
+sketch of him was doubtless founded upon fact, and the account of the
+introduction of the barrel-organ into the church of "Seatown" on the
+coast of Sussex is evidently drawn from life. A vestry meeting was held
+to consider about having a _quire_ in church, and buying a barrel-organ
+with half a dozen simple Psalm tunes upon it, which Davy was to turn
+while the parson put his gown on, and the children taught to sing to.
+The clerk was ordered to write to the squire and ask him for a liberal
+subscription. This was his letter:
+
+     "Mr Squir, sur,
+
+     "Me & Farmer Field & the rest of the genelmen In vestri
+     sembled Thinks the parson want parish Relif in shape of A
+     Grindstun orgin betwin Survisses--i am to grind him & the
+     sundy skool kildren is to sing to him wile he Gos out of
+     is sete.
+
+     "We liv It to yuresef wart to giv as we dont wont to limit
+     yur malevolens
+
+     "Your obedunt servunt
+
+     "DAVY DIGGS."
+
+Of course this worthy scribe taught the children in the school, though
+writing was happily considered a superfluous accomplishment. He taught
+little beyond the Church Catechism and the Psalms, which he knew from
+frequent repetition, though he often wanted to imbue the infant minds
+entrusted to his charge with the Christening, Marriage, and Burial
+Services, and the Churching of Women, because he "know'd um by
+heart himself."
+
+The barrel-organ was scarcely a great improvement upon the "cornet,
+flute, sackbut, psaltery"--I mean the violins, 'cellos, clarionets, and
+bassoons which it supplanted. The music of the village musicians in the
+west gallery was certainly not of the highest order. The instruments
+were often out of tune, and the fiddle-player and the flutist were often
+at logger-heads; but it was a sad pity when their labours were brought
+to an end, and the mechanical organ took their place. The very fact that
+all these players took a keen interest in the conduct of Divine service
+was in itself an advantage.
+
+The barrel-organ killed the old musical life of the village. England was
+once the most musical nation in Europe. Puritanism tried to kill music.
+Organs were broken everywhere in the cathedrals and colleges, choirs
+dispersed and musical publications ceased. The professional players on
+violins, lutes, and flutes who had performed in the theatres or at Court
+wandered away into the villages, taught the rustics how to play on their
+beloved instruments in the taverns and ale-houses, and bequeathed their
+fiddles and clarionets to their rustic friends. Thus the rural orchestra
+had its birth, and right heartily did they perform not only in church,
+but at village feasts and harvest homes, wakes and weddings. The parish
+clerk was usually their leader, and was a welcome visitor in farm or
+cottage or at the manor when he conducted his companions to sing the
+Christmas carols.
+
+The barrel-organ sealed the fate of the village orchestra. The old
+fiddles were wanted no more, and were hung up in the cottages as relics
+of the "good old times." For a time the clerk preserved his dignity and
+continued to take his part in the music, turning the handle of
+the organ.
+
+Then the harmonium came, played by the school-mistress or some other
+village performer. No wonder the clerk was indignant. His musical
+autocracy had been overthrown. At one church--Swanscombe, Kent--when, in
+1854, the change had taken place, and a kind lady, Miss F----, had
+consented to play the new harmonium, the clerk, village cobbler and
+leader of parish orchestra, gave out the hymn in his accustomed fashion,
+and then, with consummate scorn, bellowed out, "Now, then, Miss F----,
+strike up!"
+
+It would have been a far wiser policy to have reformed the old village
+orchestra, to have taught the rustic musicians to play better, than to
+have silenced them for ever and substituted the "grinstun" instrument.
+
+[Illustration: THE VILLAGE CHOIR]
+
+Archbishop Tait once said that there is no one who does not look back
+with a kind of shame to the sort of sermons which were preached, the
+sort of clergymen who preached them, the sort of building in which they
+preached them, and the sort of psalmody with which the service was
+ushered in. The late Mr. Beresford Hope thus describes the kind of
+service that went on in the time of George IV in a market town of Surrey
+not far from London. It was a handsome Gothic church, the chancel being
+cut off from the nave by a solid partition covered with verses and
+strange paintings, among which Moses and Aaron show in peculiar
+uncouthness. The aisles were filled with family pews or private boxes,
+raised aloft, and approached by private doors and staircases. These were
+owned by the magnates of the place, who were wont to bow their
+recognitions across the nave. There was a decrepit west gallery for the
+band, and the ground floor was crammed with cranky pews of every shape.
+A Carolean pulpit stood against a pillar, with reading-desk and clerk's
+box underneath. The ante-Communion Service was read from the desk,
+separated from the liturgy and sermon by such renderings of Tate and
+Brady as the unruly gang of volunteers with fiddles and wind instruments
+in the gallery pleased to contribute. The clerk, a wizened old fellow in
+a brown wig, repeated the responses in a nasal twang, and with a
+substitution of _w_ for _v_ so constant as not even to spare the
+Beliefs; while the local rendering of briefs, citations, and
+excommunications included announcements by this worthy, after the Nicene
+Creed, of meetings at the town inn of the executors of a deceased duke.
+Two hopeful cubs of the clerk sprawled behind him in the desk, and the
+back-handers occasionally intended to reduce them to order were apt to
+resound against the impassive boards. During the sermon this zealous
+servant of the sanctuary would take up his broom and sweep out the
+middle alley, in order to save himself the fatigue of a weekday visit.
+Soon, however, the clerk and his broom followed Moses and Aaron, the
+fiddles and the bassoons into the land of shadows.
+
+No sketch of bygone times, in which the clerk flourished in all his
+glory, would be complete without some reference to the important person
+who occupied the second tier in the "three-decker," and decked in gown
+and bands delivered somnolent sermons from its upper storey. Curious
+stories are often told of the careless parsons of former days, of their
+irreverence, their love of sport, their neglect of their parishes, their
+quaint and irreverent manners; but such characters, about whom these
+stories were told, were exceptional. By far the greater number lived
+well and did their duty and passed away, and left no memories behind
+except in the tender recollections of a few simple-minded folk. There
+were few local newspapers in those days to tell their virtues, to print
+their sermons or their speeches at the opening of bazaars or
+flower-shows. They did their duty and passed away and were forgotten;
+while the parsons, like the wretch Chowne of the _Maid of Sker_, live on
+in anecdote, and grave folk shake their heads and think that the times
+must have been very bad, and the clergy a disgrace to their cloth. As
+with the clerk, so with his master; the evil that men do lives after
+them, the good is forgotten. There has been a vast amount of
+exaggeration in the accounts that have come down to us of the
+faithlessness, sluggishness, idleness, and base conduct of the clergy of
+the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and perhaps a little too
+much boasting about the progress which our age has witnessed.
+
+It would be an easy task to record the lives of many worthy country
+clergymen of the much-abused Hanoverian period, who were exemplary
+parish priests, pious, laborious, and beloved. In recording the
+eccentricities and lack of reverence of many clerics and their faithful
+servitors, it is well to remember the many bright lights that shone like
+lamps in a dark place.
+
+It would be a difficult task to write a history of our parish
+priesthood, for reasons which have already been stated, and such a
+labour is beyond our present purpose. But it may be well to record a few
+of the observations which contemporary writers have made upon the
+parsons of their day in order to show that they were by no means a set
+of careless, disreputable, and unworthy men.
+
+During the greater part of the eighteenth century there lived at
+Seathwaite, Lancashire, as curate, the famous Robert Walker, styled "the
+Wonderful," "a man singular for his temperance, industry, and
+integrity," as the parish register records.
+
+Wordsworth alludes to him in his eighteenth sonnet on Durdon as a worthy
+compeer of the country parson of Chaucer, and in the seventh book of the
+_Excursion_ an abstract of his character is given:
+
+     "A priest abides before whose lips such doubts
+     Fall to the ground, as in those days
+     When this low pile a gospel preacher knew
+     Whose good works formed an endless retinue;
+     A pastor such as Chaucer's verse portrays,
+     Such as the heaven-taught skill of Herbert drew,
+     And tender Goldsmith crown'd with deathless praise."
+
+The poet also gives a short memoir of the Wonderful Walker. In this
+occurs the following extract from a letter dated 1775:
+
+"By his frugality and good management he keeps the wolf from the door,
+as we say; and if he advances a little in the world it is owing more to
+his own care than to anything else he has to rely upon. I don't find his
+inclination in running after further preferment. He is settled among the
+people that are happy among themselves, and lives in the greatest
+unanimity and friendship with them; and, I believe, the minister and
+people are exceedingly satisfied with each other: and indeed, how should
+they be dissatisfied, when they have a person of so much worth and
+probity for their pastor? A man who for his candour and meekness, his
+sober, chaste, and virtuous conversation, his soundness in principle and
+practice, is an ornament to his profession and an honour to the country
+he is in; and bear with me if I say, the plainness of his dress, the
+sanctity of his manners, the simplicity of his doctrine, and the
+vehemence of his expression, have a sort of resemblance to the pure
+practice of primitive Christianity."
+
+The income of his chapelry was the munificent sum of L17 10 s. He reared
+and educated a numerous family of twelve children. Every Sunday he
+entertained those members of his congregation who came from a distance,
+taught the village school, acted as scrivener and lawyer for the
+district, farmed, and helped his neighbours in haymaking and
+sheep-shearing, spun cloth, studied natural history, and, in spite of
+all this, was throughout a devoted and earnest parish priest. He was
+certainly entitled to his epithet "the Wonderful."
+
+Goldsmith has given us a charming picture of an old-world parson in his
+_Vicar of Wakefield_, and Fielding sketches a no less worthy cleric in
+his portrait of the Rev. Abraham Adams in _his Joseph Andrews_. As a
+companion picture he drew the character of the pig-keeping Parson
+Trulliber, no scandalous cleric, though he cared more for his cows and
+pigs than he did for his parishioners.
+
+"Hawks should not peck out hawks' e'en," and parsons should not scoff at
+their fellows; yet Crabbe was a little unkind in his description of
+country parsons, though he could say little against the character of
+his vicar.
+
+     "Our Priest was cheerful and in season gay;
+     His frequent visits seldom fail'd to please;
+     Easy himself, he sought his neighbour's ease.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Simple he was, and loved the simple truth,
+     Yet had some useful cunning from his youth;
+     A cunning never to dishonour lent,
+     And rather for defence than conquest meant;
+     'Twas fear of power, with some desire to rise,
+     But not enough to make him enemies;
+     He ever aim'd to please; and to offend
+     Was ever cautious; for he sought a friend.
+     Fiddling and fishing were his arts, at times
+     He alter'd sermons, and he aimed at rhymes;
+     And his fair friends, not yet intent on cards,
+     Oft he amused with riddles and charades,
+     Mild were his doctrines, and not one discourse
+     But gained in softness what it lost in force;
+     Kind his opinions; he would not receive
+     An ill report, nor evil act believe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Now rests our vicar. They who knew him best
+     Proclaim his life t' have been entirely--rest.
+     The rich approved--of them in awe he stood;
+     The poor admired--they all believed him good;
+     The old and serious of his habits spoke;
+     The frank and youthful loved his pleasant joke;
+     Mothers approved a safe contented guest,
+     And daughters one who backed each small request;
+     In him his flock found nothing to condemn;
+     Him sectaries liked--he never troubled them;
+     No trifles failed his yielding mind to please,
+     And all his passions sunk in early ease;
+     Nor one so old has left this world of sin
+     More like the being that he entered in."
+
+A somewhat caustic and sarcastic sketch, and perhaps a little
+ill-natured, of a somewhat amiable cleric. Dr. Syntax is a good example
+of an old-world parson, whose biographer thus describes his
+laborious life:
+
+     "Of Church preferment he had none;
+     Nay, all his hope of that was gone;
+     He felt that he content must be
+     With drudging-in a curacy.
+     Indeed, on ev'ry Sabbath-day,
+     Through eight long miles he took his way,
+     To preach, to grumble, and to pray;
+     To cheer the good, to warn the sinner,
+     And if he got it,--eat a dinner:
+     To bury these, to christen those,
+     And marry such fond folks as chose
+     To change the tenor of their life,
+     And risk the matrimonial strife.
+     Thus were his weekly journeys made,
+     'Neath summer suns and wintry shade;
+     And all his gains, it did appear,
+     Were only thirty pounds a-year."
+
+And when the last event of his hard-working life was over--
+
+     "The village wept, the hamlets round
+     Crowded the consecrated ground;
+     And waited there to see the end
+     Of Pastor, Teacher, Father, Friend."
+
+Who could write a better epitaph?
+
+Doubtless the crying evil of what is called "the dead period" of the
+Church's history was pluralism. It was no uncommon thing for a clergyman
+to hold half a dozen benefices, in one of which he would reside, and
+appoint curates with slender stipends to the rest, only showing himself
+"when tithing time draws near."
+
+When Bishop Stanley became Bishop of Norwich in 1837 there were six
+hundred non-resident incumbents, a state of things which he did a vast
+amount of work to remedy. Mr. Clitherow tells me of a friend who was
+going to be married and who requested a neighbour to take his two
+services for him during his brief honeymoon. The neighbour at first
+hesitated, but at last consented, having six other services to take on
+the one Sunday.
+
+An old clergyman named Field lived at Cambridge and served three country
+parishes--Hauxton, Newton, and Barnington. On Sunday morning he used to
+ride to Hauxton, which he could see from the high road to Newton. If
+there was a congregation, the clerk used to waggle his hat on the top of
+a long pole kept in the church porch, and Field had to turn down the
+road and take the service. If there was no congregation he went on
+straight to Newton, where there was always a congregation, as two old
+ladies were always present. Field used to turn his pony loose in the
+churchyard, and as he entered the church began the Exhortation, so that
+by the time he was robed he had progressed well through the service. My
+informant, the Rev. M.J. Bacon, was curate at Newton, and remembers well
+the old surplice turned up and shortened at the bottom, where the old
+parson's spurs had frayed it.
+
+It was this pluralism that led to much abuse, much neglect, and much
+carelessness. However, enough has been said about the shepherd, and we
+must return to his helper, the clerk, with whose biography and history
+we are mainly concerned.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE ANTIQUITY AND CONTINUITY OF THE OFFICE OF CLERK
+
+The office of parish clerk can claim considerable antiquity, and dates
+back to the times of Augustine and King Ethelbert. Pope Gregory the
+Great, in writing to St. Augustine of Canterbury with regard to the
+order and constitution of the Church in new lands and under new
+circumstances, laid down sundry regulations with regard to the clerk's
+marriage and mode of life. King Ethelbert, by the advice of his
+Witenagemote, introduced certain judicial decrees, which set down what
+satisfaction should be given by those who stole anything belonging to
+the church. The purloiner of a clerk's property was ordered to restore
+threefold[2]. The canons of King Edgar, which may be attributed to the
+wise counsel of St. Dunstan, ordered every clergyman to attend the synod
+yearly and to bring his clerk with him.
+
+[Footnote 2: Bede's _Hist. Eccles_., ii. v.]
+
+Thus from early Saxon times the history of the office can be traced.
+
+His name is merely the English form of the Latin _clericus_, a word
+which signified any one who took part in the services of the Church,
+whether he was in major or minor orders. A clergyman is still a "clerk
+in Holy Orders," and a parish clerk signified one who belonged to the
+rank of minor orders and assisted the parish priest in the services of
+the parish church. We find traces of him abroad in early days. In the
+seventh century, the canons of the Ninth Council of Toledo and of the
+Council of Merida tell of his services in the worship of the sanctuary,
+and in the ninth century he has risen to prominence in the Gallican
+Church, as we gather from the inquiries instituted by Archbishop
+Hincmar, of Rheims, who demanded of the rural deans whether each
+presbyter had a clerk who could keep school, or read the epistle, or was
+able to sing.
+
+In the decretals of Gregory IX there is a reference to the clerk's
+office, and his duties obtain the sanction of canon law. Every incumbent
+is ordered to have a clerk who shall sing with him the service, read the
+epistle and lesson, teach in the school, and admonish the parishioners
+to send their children to the church to be instructed in the faith. It
+was thus in ancient days that the Church provided for the education of
+children, a duty which she has always endeavoured to perform. Her
+officers were the schoolmasters. The weird cry of the abolition of tests
+for teachers was then happily unknown.
+
+The strenuous Bishop Grosseteste (1235-53), for the better ordering of
+his diocese of Lincoln, laid down the injunction that "in every church
+of sufficient means there shall be a deacon or sub-deacon; but in the
+rest a fitting and honest clerk to serve the priest in a comely habit."
+The clerk's office was also discussed in the same century at a synod at
+Exeter in 1289, when it was decided that where there was a school within
+ten miles of any parish some scholar should be chosen for the office of
+parish clerk. This rule provided for poor scholars who intended to
+proceed to the priesthood, and also secured suitable teachers for the
+children of the parishes.
+
+It appears that an attempt was made to enforce celibacy on the holders
+of minor orders, an experiment which was not crowned with success.
+William Lyndewoode, Official Principal of the Archbishop of Canterbury
+in 1429, speaks thus of the married clerk:--
+
+"He is a clerk, not therefore a layman; but if twice married he must be
+counted among laymen, because such an one is deprived of all clerical
+privilege. If, however, he were married, albeit not twice, yet so long
+as he wears the clerical habit and tonsure he shall be held a clerk in
+two respects, to wit, that he may enjoy the clerical privilege in his
+person, and that he may not be brought before the secular judges. But in
+all other respects he shall be considered as a layman."
+
+In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the parish clerks became
+important officials. We shall see presently how they were incorporated
+into fraternities or guilds, and how they played a prominent part in
+civic functions, in state funerals, and in ecclesiastical matters. The
+Reformation rather added to than diminished the importance of the office
+and the dignity of the holder of it.
+
+[Illustration: THE MEDIAEVAL CLERK]
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK IN PROCESSION]
+
+The continuity of the office is worthy of record. From the days of
+Augustine to the present time it has never ceased to exist. The clerk is
+the last representative of the minor orders which the ecclesiastical
+changes wrought in the sixteenth century have left us. Prior to the
+Reformation there were sub-deacons who wore alb and maniple, acolytes,
+the tokens of whose office were a taper staff and small pitcher,
+ostiaries or doorkeepers corresponding to our verger or clerk, readers,
+exorcists, _rectores chori_, etc. This full staff would, of course,
+be not available for every country church, and for such parishes a clerk
+and a boy acolyte doubtless sufficed, though in large churches there
+were representatives of all these various officials. They disappeared in
+the Reformation; only the clerk remained, incorporating in his own
+person the offices of reader, acolyte, sub-deacon.
+
+Indeed, if in these enlightened days any proof were needed of the
+historical continuity of the English Church, it would be found in the
+permanence of the clerk's office. Just as in many instances the same
+individual rector or vicar continued to hold his living during the whole
+period of the Reformation era, witnessing the spoliation of his church
+by the greedy Commissioners of Henry VIII and Edward VI, the
+introduction of the First Prayer Book of Edward VI, the revival of the
+"old religion" under Queen Mary, the triumph of Reformation principles
+under Queen Elizabeth; so did the parish clerk continue to hold office
+also. The Reformation changed many of his functions and duties, but the
+office remained. The old churchwardens' account books bear witness to
+this fact. Previous to the Reformation he received certain wages and
+many "perquisites" from the inhabitants of the parish for distributing
+the holy loaf and the holy water. At St. Giles's, Reading, in the year
+1518-19, appears the item:
+
+EXPENS. In p'mis paid for the dekays of the Clark's wages vis.
+
+In the following year we notice:
+
+     WAGE. Paid to Harry Water Clerk for his wage for a yere ended
+     at thannacon of our lady a deg. xi deg. ... xxvi s. viii d.
+
+In 1545-6, Whitborne, the clerk, received 12 s. towards his wages, and
+he "to be bound to teche ij children free for the quere."
+
+After the Reformation, in the same town we find the same clerk
+continuing in office. He no longer went round the parish bearing holy
+water, but the collecting of money for the holy loaf continued, the
+proceeds being devoted to the necessary expenses of the church. Thus in
+the Injunctions given by the King's Majesty's visitors to the clergy and
+laity resident in the Deanery of Doncaster in the second year of the
+reign of King Edward VI, appears the following:
+
+"_Item_. The churchwardens of every Parish-Church shall, some one
+_Sunday_, or other Festival day, every month, go about the Church, and
+make request to every of the Parish for their charitable Contribution to
+the Poor; and the sum so collected shall be put in the Chest of Alms for
+that purpose provided. And for as much as the Parish-Clerk shall not
+hereafter go about the Parish with his Holy Water as hath been
+accustomed, he shall, instead of that labour, accompany the said
+Church-Wardens, and in a Book Register the name and Sum of every man
+that giveth any thing to the Poor, and the same shall intable; and
+against the next day of Collection, shall hang up somewhere in the
+Church in open place, to the intent the Poor having knowledge thereby,
+by whose Charity and Alms they be relieved, may pray for the increase
+and prosperity of the same[3]."
+
+[Footnote 3: _The Clerk's Book of 1549_, edited by J. Wickham Legg,
+Appendix IX, p. 95.]
+
+This is only one instance out of many which might be quoted to prove
+that the clerk's office by no means ceased to exist after the
+Reformation changes. I shall refer later on to the survival of the
+collection of money for the holy loaf and to its transference to
+other uses.
+
+The clerk, therefore, appears to have continued to hold his office
+shorn of some of his former duties. He witnessed all the changes of that
+changeful time, the spoliation of his church, the selling of numerous
+altar cloths, vestments, banners, plate, and other costly furniture,
+and, moreover, took his part in the destruction of altars and the
+desecration of the sanctuary. In the accounts for the year 1559 of the
+Church of St. Lawrence, Reading, appear the items:
+
+"Itm--for taking-downe the awlters and laying the stones, vs.
+
+"To Loryman (the clerk) for carrying out the rubbish x d[4]."
+
+[Footnote 4: Rev. C. Kerry's _History of S. Lawrence's Church, Reading_,
+p. 25.]
+
+Indeed, the clerk can claim a more perfect continuity of office than the
+rector or vicar. There was a time when the incumbents were forced to
+leave their cure and give place to an intruding minister appointed by
+the Cromwellian Parliament. But the clerk remained on to chant his
+"Amen" to the long-winded prayers of some black-gowned Puritan. That is
+a very realistic scene sketched by Sir Walter Besant when he describes
+the old clerk, an ancient man and rheumatic, hobbling slowly through the
+village, key in hand, to the church door. It was towards the end of the
+Puritan regime. After ringing the bell and preparing the church for the
+service, he goes into the vestry, where stood an ancient black oak
+coffer, the sides curiously graven, and a great rusty key in the lock.
+The clerk (Sir Walter calls him the sexton, but it is evidently the
+clerk who is referred to) turns the key with difficulty, throws open the
+lid, and looks in.
+
+"Ay," he says, chuckling, "the old surplice and the old Book of Common
+Prayer. Ye have had a long rest; 'tis time for you both to come out
+again. When the surplice is out, the book will stay no longer locked
+up." He draws forth an old and yellow roll. It was the surplice which
+had once been white. "Here you be," he says; "put you away for a matter
+of twelve year and more, and you bide your time; you know you will come
+back again; you are not in any hurry. Even the clerk dies; but you die
+not, you bide your time. Everything comes again. The old woman shall
+give you a taste o' the suds and the hot iron. Thus we go up and thus we
+go down." Then he takes up the old book, musty and damp after twelve
+years' imprisonment. "Fie," he says, "thy leather is parting from thy
+boards, and thy leaves they do stick together. Shalt have a pot of
+paste, and then lie in the sun before thou goest back to the desk.
+Whether 'tis Mass or Common Prayer, whether 'tis Independent or
+Presbyterian, folk mun still die and be buried--ay, and married and
+born--whatever they do say. Parson goes and Preacher comes; Preacher
+goes and Parson comes; but Sexton stays." He chuckles again, puts back
+the surplice and the book, and locks the coffer[5].
+
+[Footnote 5: _For Faith and Freedom_, by Sir Walter Besant, chap. 1.]
+
+Like many of his brethren, he had seen the Church of England displaced
+by the Presbyterians, and the Presbyterians by the Independents, and the
+restoration of the Church. His father, who had been clerk before him,
+had seen the worship of the "old religion" in Queen Mary's time, and all
+the time the village life had been going on, and the clerk's work had
+continued; his office remained. In village churches the duties of clerk
+and sexton are usually performed by the same person. Not long ago a
+gentleman was visiting a village church, and was much struck by the
+remarks of an old man who seemed to know each stone and tomb and legend.
+The stranger asking him what his occupation was, he replied:
+
+"I hardly know what I be. First vicar he called me clerk; then another
+came, and he called me virgin; the last vicar said I were the Christian,
+and now I be clerk again."
+
+The "virgin" was naturally a slight confusion for verger, and the
+"christian" was a corrupt form of sacristan or sexton. All the duties of
+these various callings were combined in the one individual.
+
+That story reminds one of another concerning the diligent clerk of
+R----, who, in addition to the ordinary duties of his office, kept the
+registers and acted as groom, gardener, and footman at the rectory. A
+rather pompous rector's wife used to like to refer at intervals during a
+dinner-party to "our coachman says," "our gardener always does this,"
+"our footman is ...," leaving the impression of a somewhat large
+establishment. The dear old rector used to disturb the vision of a large
+retinue by saying, "They are all one--old Corby, the clerk."
+
+One of the chief characteristics of old parish clerks, whether in
+ancient or modern times, is their faithfulness to their church and to
+their clergyman. We notice this again and again in the biographies of
+many of these worthy men which it has been a privilege to study. The
+motto of the city of Exeter, _Semper fidelis_, might with truth have
+been recorded as the legend of their class. This fidelity must have been
+sorely tried in the sad days of the Commonwealth period, when the
+sufferings of the clergy began, and the poor clerk had to bid farewell
+to his beloved pastor and welcome and "sit under" some hard-visaged
+Presbyterian or Puritan preacher.
+
+Isaac Walton tells the pathetic story of the faithful clerk of the
+parish of Borne, near Canterbury, where the "Judicious" Hooker was
+incumbent. The vicar and clerk were on terms of great affection, and
+Hooker was of "so mild and humble a nature that his poor clerk and he
+did never talk but with both their hats on, or both off, at the
+same time."
+
+This same clerk lived on in the quiet village until the third or fourth
+year of the Long Parliament. Hooker died and was buried at Borne, and
+many people used to visit his monument, and the clerk had many rewards
+for showing his grave-place, and often heard his praises sung by the
+visitors, and used to add his own recollections of his holiness and
+humility. But evil days came; the parson of Borne was sequestered, and a
+Genevan minister put into his good living. The old clerk, seeing so many
+clergymen driven from their homes and churches, used to say, "They have
+sequestered so many good men, that I doubt if my good Master Hooker had
+lived till now, they would have sequestered him too."
+
+Walton then describes the conversion of the church into a Genevan
+conventicle. He wrote: "It was not long before this intruding minister
+had made a party in and about the said parish that was desirous to
+receive the sacrament as at Geneva: to which end, the day was appointed
+for a select company, and forms and stools set about the altar or
+communion table for them to sit and eat and drink; but when they went
+about this work, there was a want of some joint-stools which the
+minister sent the clerk to fetch, and then to fetch cushions. When the
+clerk saw them begin to sit down, he began to wonder; but the minister
+bade him cease wondering and lock the church door: to whom he replied,
+'Pray take you the keys, and lock me out: I will never more come into
+this church; for men will say my Master Hooker was a good man and a
+great scholar; and I am sure it was not used to be thus in his days':
+and report says this old man went presently home and died; I do not say
+died immediately, but within a few days after. But let us leave this
+grateful clerk in his quiet grave."
+
+Another faithful clerk was William Hobbes, who served in the church and
+parish of St. Andrew, Plymouth. Walker, in his _Sufferings of the
+Clergy_, records the sad story of his death. During the troubles of the
+Civil War period, when presumably there was no clergyman to perform the
+last rites of the Church on the body of a parishioner, the good clerk
+himself undertook the office, and buried a corpse, using the service for
+the Burial of the Dead contained in the Book of Common Prayer. The
+Puritans were enraged, and threatened to throw him into the same grave
+if he came there again with his "Mass-book" to bury any body: which
+"worked so much upon his Spirits, that partly with Fear and partly with
+Grief, he Died soon after." He died in 1643, and the accounts of the
+church show that the balance of his salary was paid to his widow.
+
+Many such faithful clerks have devoted their years of active life to the
+service of God in His sanctuary, both in ancient and modern times; and
+it will be our pleasurable duty to record some of the biographies of
+these earnest servants of the Church, whose services are too often
+disregarded.
+
+I have mentioned the continuity of the clerk's office, unbroken by
+either Reformation changes or by the confusion of the Puritan regime. We
+will now endeavour to sketch the appearance of the mediaeval clerk, and
+the numerous duties which fell to his lot.
+
+Chaucer's gallery of ancient portraits contains a very life-like
+presentment of a mediaeval clerk in the person of "Jolly Absolon," a
+somewhat frivolous specimen of his class, who figures largely in _The
+Miller's Tale_.
+
+     "Now was ther of that churche a parish clerk
+     The which that was y-cleped[6] Absolon.
+     Curl'd was his hair, and as the gold it shone,
+     And strutted[7] as a fanne large and broad;
+     Full straight and even lay his folly shode.[8]
+     His rode[9] was red, his eyen grey as goose,
+     With Paule's windows carven on his shoes.[10]
+     In hosen red he went full febishly.[11]
+     Y-clad he was full small and properly,
+     All in a kirtle of a light waget;[12]
+     Full fair and thicke be the pointes set.
+     And thereupon he had a gay surplice,
+     As white as is the blossom on the rise.[13]
+     A merry child he was, so God me save;
+     Well could he letten blood, and clip, and shave,
+     And make a charter of land and a quittance.
+     In twenty manners could he trip and dance,
+     After the school of Oxenforde tho',[14]
+     And with his legges caste to and fro;
+     And playen songes or a small ribible;[15]
+     Thereto he sung sometimes a loud quinible.[16]
+     And as well could he play on a gitern.[17]
+     In all the town was brewhouse nor tavern
+     That he not visited with his solas,[18]
+     There as that any gaillard tapstere[19] was.
+       This Absolon, that jolly was and gay
+       Went with a censor on the holy day,
+       Censing the wives of the parish fast:
+       And many a lovely look he on them cast,
+
+      *       *       *       *       *
+
+       Sometimes to show his lightness and mast'ry
+       He playeth Herod on a scaffold high."
+
+[Footnote 6: Called.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Stretched.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Head of hair.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Complexion.]
+
+[Footnote 10: His shoes were decked with an ornament like a rose-window
+in old St. Paul's.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Daintily.]
+
+[Footnote 12: A kind of cloth.]
+
+[Footnote 13: A bush.]
+
+[Footnote 14: The Oxford school of dancing is satirised by the poet.]
+
+[Footnote 15: A kind of fiddle.]
+
+[Footnote 16: Treble.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Guitar.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Sport, mirth.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Tavern-wench.]
+
+I fear me Master Absolon was a somewhat frivolous clerk, or his memory
+has been traduced by the poet's pen, which lacked not satire and a
+caustic but good-humoured wit. Here was a parish clerk who could sing
+well, though he did not confine his melodies to "Psalms and hymns and
+spiritual songs." He wore a surplice; he was an accomplished scrivener,
+and therefore a man of some education; he could perform the offices of
+the barber-surgeon, and one of his duties was to cense the people in
+their houses. He was an actor of no mean repute, and took a leading part
+in the mysteries or miracle-plays, concerning which we shall have more
+to tell. He even could undertake the prominent part of Herod, which
+doubtless was an object of competition among the amateurs of the period.
+Such is the picture which Chaucer draws of the frivolous clerk, a sketch
+which is accurate enough as far as it goes, and one that we will
+endeavour to fill in with sundry details culled from medieval sources.
+
+Chaucer tells us that Jolly Absolon used to go to the houses of the
+parishioners on holy days with his censer. His more usual duty was to
+bear to them the holy water, and hence he acquired the title of
+_aquaebajalus_. This holy water consisted of water into which, after
+exorcism, blest salt had been placed, and then duly sanctified with the
+sign of the cross and sacerdotal benediction. We can see the clerk clad
+in his surplice setting out in the morning of Sunday on his rounds. He
+is carrying a holy-water vat, made of brass or wood, containing the
+blest water, and in his hand is an _aspergillum_ or sprinkler. This
+consists of a round brush of horse-hair with a short handle. When the
+clerk arrives at the great house of the village he first enters the
+kitchen, and seeing the cook engaged on her household duties, he dips
+the sprinkler into the holy-water vessel and shakes it towards her, as
+in the accompanying illustration. Then he visits the lord and lady of
+the manor, who are sitting at meat in their solar, and asperges them in
+like manner. For his pains he receives from every householder some gift,
+and goes on his way rejoicing. Bishop Alexander, of Coventry, however,
+in his constitutions drawn up in the year 1237, ordered that no clerk
+who serves in a church may live from the fees derived from this source,
+and the penalty of suspension was to be inflicted on any one who should
+transgress this rule. The constitutions of the parish clerks at Trinity
+Church, Coventry, made in 1462, are a most valuable source of
+information with regard to the clerk's duties.
+
+The following items refer to the orders relating to the holy water:
+
+     "Item, the dekyn shall bring a woly water stoke with water
+     for hys preste every Sonday for the preste to make
+     woly water.
+
+     "Item, the said dekyn shall every Sonday beyr woly water of
+     hys chyldern to euery howse in hys warde, and he to have hys
+     duty off euery man affter hys degre quarterly."
+
+At the church of St. Nicholas, Bristol, in 1481, it was ordered that the
+"Clerke to ordeynn spryngals[20] for the church, and for him that
+visiteth the Sondays and dewly to bere his holy water to euery howse
+Abyding soo convenient a space that every man may receive hys Holy water
+under payne of iiii d. tociens quociens."
+
+[Footnote 20: Bunches of twigs for sprinkling holy water.]
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK BEARING HOLY WATER AND ASPERGING THE COOK]
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK BEARING HOLY WATER AND ASPERGING THE LORD AND
+LADY]
+
+At Faversham a set of parish clerk's duties of the years 1506, 1548, and
+1593 is preserved. In the rules ordained for his guidance in the
+first-mentioned year he with his assistant clerk is ordered to bear holy
+water to every man's house, as of old time hath been accustomed; in case
+of default he shall forfeit 8 d.; but if he shall be very much occupied
+on account of a principal feast falling on a Sunday or with any pressing
+parochial business, he is to be excused.
+
+A mighty dissension disturbed the equanimity of the little parish of
+Morebath in the year 1531 and continued for several years. The quarrel
+arose concerning the dues to be paid to the parish clerk, a small number
+of persons refusing to pay the just demands. After much disputing they
+finally came to an agreement, and one of the items was that the clerk
+should go about the parish with his holy water once a year, when men had
+shorn their sheep to gather some wool to make him a coat to go in the
+parish in his livery. There are many other items in the agreement to
+which we shall have occasion again to refer. Let us hope that the good
+people of Morebath settled down amicably after this great "storm in a
+tea-cup"; but this godly union and concord could not have lasted very
+long, as mighty changes were in progress, and much upsetting of
+old-established custom and practice.
+
+The clerk continued in many parishes to make his accustomed round of the
+houses, and collected money which was used for the defraying of the
+expenses of public worship; but he left behind him his sprinkler and
+holy-water vat, which accorded not with the principles and tenets, the
+practice and ceremonies of the reformed Church of England.
+
+This was, however, one of the minor duties of the mediaeval clerk, and
+the custom of giving offerings to him seems to have started with a
+charitable intent. The constitutions of Archbishop Boniface of
+Canterbury issued in 1260 state:
+
+"We have often heard from our elders that the benefices of holy water
+were originally instituted from a motive of charity, in order that one
+of their proper poor clerks might have exhibitions to the schools, and
+so advance in learning, that they might be fit for higher preferment."
+
+He had many other and more important duties to perform, duties requiring
+a degree of education far superior to that which we are accustomed to
+associate with the holders of his office. We will endeavour to obtain a
+truer sketch of him than even that drawn by Chaucer, and to realise the
+multitudinous duties which fell to his lot, and the great services he
+rendered to God and to his Church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MEDIAEVAL CLERK
+
+At the present time loud complaints are frequently heard of a lack of
+clergy. Rectors and vicars are sighing for assistant curates, the vast
+populations of our great cities require additional ministration, and the
+mission field is crying out for more labourers to reap the harvests of
+the world. It might be well in this emergency to inquire into the
+methods of the mediaeval Church, and observe how the clergy in those days
+faced the problem, and gained for themselves tried and trusty helpers.
+
+One method of great utility was to appoint poor scholars to the office
+of parish clerk, by a due discharge of the duties of which they were
+trained to serve in church and in the parish, and might ultimately hope
+to attain to the ministry. This is borne out by the evidence of wills
+wherein some good incumbent, grateful for the faithful services of his
+clerk, bequeaths either books or money to him, in order to enable him to
+prepare himself for higher preferment. Thus in 1389 the rector of Marum,
+one Robert de Weston, bequeaths to "John Penne, my clerk, a missal of
+the New Use of Sarum, if he wishes to be a priest, otherwise I give him
+20 s." In 1337 Giles de Gadlesmere leaves "to William Ockam, clerk, two
+shillings, unless he be promoted before my death." Evidently it was no
+unusual practice in early times for the clerk to be raised to Holy
+Orders, his office being regarded as a stepping-stone to higher
+preferment. The status of the clerk was then of no servile character.
+
+A canon of Newburgh asked for Sir William Plumpton's influence that his
+brother might have a clerkship[21]. Even the sons of kings and lords did
+not consider it beneath the dignity of their position to perform the
+duties of a clerk, and John of Athon considered the office of so much
+importance that he gave the following advice to any one who held it:
+
+[Footnote 21: _Plumpton Correspondence_, Camden Society, 1839, P. 66,
+_temp_. Henry VII.]
+
+"Whoever you may be, although the son of king, do not blush to go up to
+the book in church, and read and sing; but if you know nothing of
+yourself, follow those who do know."
+
+It is recorded in the chronicle of Ralph de Coggeshall that Richard I
+used to take great delight in divine service on the principal festivals;
+going hither and thither in the choir, encouraging the singers by voice
+and hand to sing louder. In the _Life of Sir Thomas More_, written by
+William Roper, we find an account of that charming incident in the
+career of the great and worthy Lord Chancellor, when he was discovered
+by the Duke of Norfolk, who had come to Chelsea to dine with him,
+singing in the choir and wearing a surplice during the service of the
+Mass. After the conclusion of the service host and guest walked arm in
+arm to the house of Sir Thomas More.
+
+"God's body, my Lord Chancellor, what turned Parish Clerk? You dishonour
+the King and his office very much," said the Duke.
+
+"Nay," replied Sir Thomas, smiling, "your grace may not think that the
+King, your master and mine, will be offended with me for serving his
+Master, or thereby account his service any way dishonoured."
+
+We will endeavour to sketch the daily and Sunday duties of a parish
+clerk, follow in his footsteps, and observe his manners and customs, as
+they are set forth in mediaeval documents.
+
+He lived in a house near the church which was specially assigned to him,
+and often called the clerk's house. He had a garden and glebe. In the
+churchwardens' accounts of St. Giles's Church, Reading, there is an item
+in 1542-3:--"Paid for a latice to the clerkes hous ii s. x d." There was
+a clerk's house in St. Mary's parish, in the same town, which is
+frequently mentioned in the accounts (A.D. 1558-9).
+
+"RESOLUTES for the guyet Rent of the Clerkes Howse xii d. 1559-60.
+
+"RENTES to farme and at will. Of the tenement at Cornyshe Crosse called
+the clerkes howse by the yere vi s. viii d."
+
+It appears that the house was let, and the sum received for rent was
+part of the clerk's stipend. This is borne out by the following entry:--
+
+"Md' that yt ys aggreed that the clerke most have for the office of the
+sexten But xx s. That ys for Ringing of the Bell vs for the quarter and
+the clerkes wayges by the howse[22]."
+
+[Footnote 22: _Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary's, Reading_, by
+F.N.A. and A.G. Garry, p. 42.]
+
+Doubtless there still remain many such houses attached to the clerkship,
+as in the Act of 7 & 8 Victoria, c. 59, sect. 6, it is expressly stated
+that any clerk dismissed from his office shall give up any house,
+building, land, or premises held or occupied by virtue or in respect of
+such office, and that if he fail to do so the bishop can take steps for
+his ejection therefrom. Mr. Wickham Legg has collected several other
+instances of the existence of clerks' houses. At St. Michael's
+Worcester, there was one, as in 1590 a sum was paid for mending it. At
+St. Edmund's, Salisbury, the clerk had a house and garden in 1653. At
+Barton Turf, Norfolk, three acres are known as "dog-whipper's land," the
+task of whipping dogs out of churches being part of the clerk's duties,
+as we shall notice more particularly later on. The rent of this land was
+given to the clerk. At Saltwood, Kent, the clerk had a house and garden,
+which have recently been sold[23].
+
+[Footnote 23: _The Clerk's Book of 1549_, edited by J. Wickham Legg,
+lvi.]
+
+Archbishop Sancroft, at Fressingfield, caused a comfortable cottage to
+be built for the parish clerk, and also a kind of hostelry for the
+shelter and accommodation of persons who came from a distant part of
+that large scattered parish to attend the church, so that they might
+bring their cold provisions there, and take their luncheon in the
+interval between the morning and the afternoon service.
+
+There was a clerk's house at Ringmer. In the account of the beating of
+the bounds of the parish in Rogation week, 1683, it is recorded that at
+the close of the third day the procession arrived at the Crab Tree, when
+the people sang a psalm, and "our minister read the epistle and gospel,
+to request and supplicate the blessing of God upon the fruits of the
+earth. Then did Mr. Richard Gunn invite all the company to _the clerk's
+house_, where he expended at his own charge a barrell of beer, besides a
+plentiful supply of provisions: and so ended our third and last day's
+perambulation[24]."
+
+[Footnote 24: _Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, by T.F.
+Thiselton-Dyer, p. 197.]
+
+In his little house the clerk lived and tended his garden when he was
+not engaged upon his ecclesiastical duties. He was often a married man,
+although those who were intending to proceed to the higher orders in the
+Church would naturally be celibate. Pope Gregory, in writing to St.
+Augustine of Canterbury, offered no objections to the marriage of
+clerks. Lyndewoode shows a preference for the unmarried clerk, but if
+such could not be found, a married clerk might perform his duties.
+Numerous wills are in existence which show that very frequently the
+clerk was blest with a wife, inasmuch as he left his goods to her; and
+in one instance, at Hull, John Huyk, in 1514, expresses his wish to be
+buried beside his wife in the wedding porch of the church[25].
+
+[Footnote 25: Injunction by John Bishop of Norwich (1561), B. i b.,
+quoted by Mr. Legg in _The Parish Clerk's Book_, p. xlii.]
+
+One courageous clerk's wife did good service to her husband, who had
+dared to speak insultingly of the high and mighty John of Gaunt. He held
+office in the church of St. Peter-the-Less, in the City of London, in
+1378. His wife was so persevering in her behests and so constant in her
+appeals for justice, that she won her suit and obtained her husband's
+release[26].
+
+[Footnote 26: Riley's _Memorials of London_, 1868, p. 425.]
+
+We have the picture, then, of the mediaeval clerk in his little house
+nigh the church surrounded by his wife and children, or as a bachelor
+intent upon preferment poring over his Missal, if he did not sometimes
+emulate the frivolous feats of Chaucer's "Jolly Absolon."
+
+At early dawn he sallied forth to perform his earliest duty of opening
+the church doors and ringing the day-bell. The ringing of bells seems to
+have been a fairly constant employment of the clerk, though in some
+churches this duty was mainly performed by the sexton, but the aid of
+the clerk was demanded whenever it was needed. According to the
+constitution of the parish clerks at Trinity Church, Coventry, made in
+1462, he was ordered every day to open the church doors at 6 a.m., and
+deliver to the priest who sang the Trinity Mass a book and a chalice and
+vestment, and when Mass was finished to see that these goods of the
+church be deposited in safety in the vestry. He had to ring all the
+people in to Matins, together with his fellow-clerk, at every
+commemoration and feast of IX lessons, and see that the books were ready
+for the priest. Again for High Mass he rang and sang in the choir. At 3
+p.m. he rang for Evensong, and sang the service in the south side of the
+choir, his assistant occupying the north side. On weekdays they sang the
+Psalms and responses antiphonally, and on Sundays and holy-days acted as
+_rectores chori_, each one beginning the verses of the Psalms for his
+own side. He had to be very careful that the books were all securely
+locked up in the vestry, and the church locked at a convenient hour,
+having searched the building to see lest any one was lying in any seat
+or corner. On Sundays and holidays he had to provide a clerk or "dekyn"
+to read the gospel at High Mass. The sweeping of the floor of the
+church, the cleaning of the leaden roofs, and sweeping away the snow
+from the gutters "leste they be stoppyd," also came under his care. The
+bells he also kept in order, examining the clappers and bawdricks and
+ropes, and reporting to the churchwardens if they required mending. His
+assistant had to grease the bells when necessary, and find the
+materials. He had to tend the lamp and to fetch oil and rychys
+(rushes), and fix banners on holidays, fold up the albs and vestments.
+On Saturdays and on the eve of saints' days he had to ring the noon-tide
+bell, and to ring the sanctus bell every Sunday and holy-day, and during
+processions.
+
+Special seasons brought their special duties, and directions are
+minutely given with regard to every point to be observed. On Palm Sunday
+he was ordered to set a form at the priory door for the stations of the
+Cross, so that a crucifix or rood should be set there for the priest to
+sing _Ave rex_. He had to provide palms for that Sunday, watch the
+Easter sepulchre "till the resurrecion be don," and then take down the
+"lenten clothys" about the altar and the rood. In Easter week, when a
+procession was made, he bore the chrismatory. At the beginning of Lent
+he was ordered to help the churchwardens to cover the altar and rood
+with "lentyn clothys" and to hang the vail in the choir. The pulley
+which worked this vail is still to be seen in some churches, as at
+Uffington, Berks. For this labour the churchwardens were to give money
+to the clerk for drink. The great bell had to be rung for compline every
+Saturday in Lent. At Easter and Whit-Sunday the clerk was required to
+hang a towel about the font, and see that three "copys" (copes) be
+brought down to the font for the priests to sing _Rex sanctorum_.
+
+It was evidently considered the duty of the churchwardens to deck the
+high altar for great festivals, but they were to have the assistance of
+the clerk at the third peel of the first Evensong "to aray the hye awter
+with clothys necessary for it." Perhaps this duty of the churchwardens
+might with advantage be revived.
+
+Sheer Thursday or Maundy Thursday was a special day for cleansing the
+altars and font, which was done by a priest; but the clerk was required
+to provide a birch broom and also a barrel in order that water might be
+placed in it for this purpose. On Easter Eve and the eve of Whit-Sunday
+the ceremony of cleaning the altar and font was repeated. Flagellation
+was not obsolete as a penance, and the clerk was expected to find three
+discipline rods.
+
+In mediaeval times it was a common practice for rich men to leave money
+or property to a church with the condition that Masses should be said
+for the repose of their souls on certain days. The first Latin word of a
+verse in the funeral psalm was _dirige_ ("direct my steps," etc.), and
+this verse was used as an antiphon to those psalms in the old English
+service for the dead. Hence the service was called a _dirige_, and we
+find mention of "Master Meynley's dirige," or as it is spelt often
+"derege," the origin of the word "dirge." Those who attended were often
+regaled with refreshments--bread and ale--and the clerk's duty was to
+serve them with these things.
+
+We have already referred to his obligations as regards his bearing of
+holy water to the parishioners, a duty which brought him into close
+relationship with them. Another custom which has long since passed away
+was that of blessing a loaf of bread by the priest, and distributing
+portions of it to the parishioners. Sometimes this distribution took
+place in church, as at Coventry, where one of the clerks, having seen
+the loaf duly cut, gave portions of it to the assembled worshippers in
+the south aisle, and the other clerk performed a like duty in the north
+aisle. The clerk received some small fee for this service, usually a
+halfpenny. Berkshire has several evidences of the existence of the
+holy loaf.
+
+In the accounts of St. Lawrence's Church, Reading, in 1551, occurs the
+following notice:
+
+"At this day it was concluded and agreed that from henceforth every
+inhabitant of the parish shall bear and pay every Sunday in the year 5
+d. for every tenement as of old time the Holy Loaf was used to be paid
+and be received by the parish clerk weekly, the said clerk to have every
+Sunday for his pains 1 d. And 4 d. residue to be paid and delivered
+every Sunday to the churchwardens to be employed for bread and wine for
+the communion. And if any overplus thereof shall be of such money so
+received, to be to the use of the church; and if any shall lack, to be
+borne and paid by the said churchwardens: provided always, that all such
+persons as are poor and not able to pay the whole, be to have aid of
+such others as shall be thought good by the discretion of the
+churchwardens."
+
+With the advent of Queen Mary the old custom was reverted to, as the
+following item for the year 1555 plainly shows:
+
+"Rec. of money gathered for the holy lofe ix s. iiij d."
+
+At St. Mary's Church there is a constant allusion to this practice from
+the year 1566-7 to 1617-18, after which date the payment for the
+"holilofe" seems to have been merged in the charge for seats. In 1567-8
+the following resolution was passed:
+
+"It is agreed that the clerk shall hereafter gather the Holy Loaf money,
+or else to have nothing of that money, and to gather all, or else to
+inform the parish of them that will not pay."
+
+There seems to have been some difficulty in collecting this money; so it
+was agreed in 1579-80 that "John Marshall shall every month in the year
+during the time that he shall be clerk, gather the holy loaf and thereof
+yield an account to the churchwardens."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Subsequently we constantly meet with such records as the following:
+
+"It'm for the holy loffe xiii s. vi d."
+
+Ultimately, however, this mode of collecting money for the providing of
+the sacred elements and defraying other expenses of the church was, as
+we have said, abandoned in favour of pew-rents. The clerk had long
+ceased to obtain any benefit from the custom of collecting this curious
+form of subscription to the parochial expenses.
+
+An interesting document exists in the parish of Stanford-in-the-Vale,
+Berkshire, relating to the holy loaf. It was evidently written during
+the reign of Queen Mary, and runs as follows:--
+
+"Here following is the order of the giving of the loaves to make holy
+bread with videlicit of when it beginneth and endeth, what the whole
+value is, in what portions it is divided, and to whom the portions be
+due, and though it be written in the fifth part of the division of the
+book before in the beginning with these words (how money shall be paid
+towards the charges of the communion) ye shall understand that in the
+time of the Schism when this Realm was divided from the Catholic Church,
+the which was in the year of our Lord God in 1547, in the second year of
+King Edward the Sixth, all godly ceremonies and good uses were taken out
+of the church within this Realm, and then the money that was bestowed on
+the holy bread was turned to the use of finding bread and wine for the
+communion, and then the old order being brought unto his [its] pristine
+state before this book was written causeth me to write with this
+term[27]."
+
+[Footnote 27: The spelling of the words I have ventured to modernise.]
+
+The order of the giving of the loaves is then set forth, beginning at a
+piece of ground called Ganders and continuing throughout the parish,
+together with names of the parishioners. The collecting of this sum must
+have been an arduous part of the clerk's duty. "And thus I make an end
+of this matter," as the worthy clergyman at Stanford-in-the-Vale wrote
+at the conclusion of his carefully drawn up document[28].
+
+[Footnote 28: A relic of this custom existed in a small town in Dorset
+fifty years ago. At Easter the clerk used to leave at the house of each
+pew-holder a packet of Easter cakes--thin wafery biscuits, not unlike
+Jewish Pass-over cakes. The packet varied according to the size of the
+family and the depth of the master's purse. When the fussy little clerk
+called for his Easter offering, at one house he found 5 s. waiting for
+him, as a kind of payment for five cakes. The shilling's were quickly
+transferred to the clerk's pocket, who remarked, "Five shilling's is
+handsome for the clerk, sir; but the vicar only takes gold."
+
+The custom of the clerk carrying round the parish Easter cakes prevailed
+also at Milverton, Somerset, and at Langport in the same county.]
+
+In addition to his regular wages and to the dues received for delivering
+holy water and in connection with the holy loaf, the clerk enjoyed
+sundry other perquisites. At Christmas he received a loaf from every
+house, a certain number of eggs at Easter, and some sheaves when the
+harvest was gathered in. Among the documents in the parish chest at
+Morebath there is a very curious manuscript relating to a prolonged
+quarrel with regard to the dues to be paid to the clerk. This took place
+in the year 1531 and lasted until 1536. This document throws much light
+on the customary fees and gifts paid to the holder of this office. After
+endless wrangling the parishioners decided that the clerk should have "a
+steche of clene corn" from every household, if there should be any corn;
+if not, a "steche of wotis" (oats), or 3 d. in lieu of corn. Also 1 d.
+a quarter from every household; at every wedding and funeral 2 d.; at
+shearing time enough wool for a coat. Moreover, it was agreed that he
+should have a clerk's ale in the church house. It is well known that
+church ales were very common in medieval times, when the churchwardens
+bought, and received presents of, a large quantity of malt which they
+brewed into beer. The village folk collected other provisions, and
+assembled in the church house, where there were spits and crocks and
+other utensils for dressing a feast. Old and young gathered together;
+the churchwardens' ale was sold freely. The young folk danced, or played
+at bowls or practised archery, the old people looking gravely on and
+enjoying the merry-making. Such were the old church ales, the proceeds
+of which were devoted to the maintenance of the poor or some other
+worthy object. An arbour of boughs was erected in the churchyard called
+Robin Hood's Bower, where the maidens collected money for the "ales."
+The clerk in some parishes, as at Morebath, had "an ale" at Easter, and
+it was agreed that "the parish should help to drink him a cost of ale in
+the church house," which duty doubtless the village folk carried out
+with much willingness and regularity.
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD CHURCH-HOUSE AT HURST. BERKSHIRE NOW THE CASTLE
+INN]
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD CHURCH-HOUSE AT UFFINGTON. BERKS NOW USED AS A
+SCHOOL]
+
+Puritanism gradually killed these "ales." Sabbatarianism lifted up its
+voice against them. The gatherings waxed merry, sometimes too merry, so
+the stern Puritan thought, and the ballad-singer sang profane songs, and
+the maidens danced with light-footed step, and it was all very wrong
+because they were breaking the Sabbath; and the ale was strong, and
+sometimes people drank too much, so the critics said. But all
+reasonable and sober-minded folk were not opposed to them, and in
+reply to some inquiries instituted by Archbishop Laud, the Bishop of
+Bath and Wells made the following report:
+
+     "Touching clerke-ales (which are lesser church-ales) for the
+     better maintenance of Parish-clerks they have been used
+     (until of late) in divers places, and there was great reason
+     for them; for in poor country parishes, where the wages of
+     the clerk is very small, the people thinking it unfit that
+     the clerk should duly attend at church and lose by his
+     office, were wont to send in Provisions, and then feast with
+     him, and give him more liberality than their quarterly
+     payments would amount unto in many years. And since these
+     have been put down, some ministers have complained unto me,
+     that they are afraid they shall have no parish clerks for
+     want of maintenance for them."
+
+Mr. Wickham Legg has investigated the subsequent history of this good
+Bishop Pierce, and shows how the Puritans when they were in power used
+this reply as a means of accusation against him, whereby they attempted
+to prove that "he profanely opposed the sanctification of the Lord's Day
+by approving and allowing of profane wakes and revels on that day," and
+was "a desperately profane, impious, and turbulent Pilate."
+
+It is well known that the incomes of the clergy were severely taxed by
+the Pope, who demanded annates or first-fruits of one year's value on
+all benefices and sundry other exactions. The poor clerk's salary did
+not always escape from the rapacity of the Pope's collectors, as the
+story told by Matthew Paris clearly sets forth:
+
+"It happened that an agent of the Pope met a petty clerk carrying water
+in a little vessel, with a sprinkler and some bits of bread given him
+for having sprinkled some holy water, and to him the deceitful Roman
+thus addressed himself:
+
+"'How much does the profits yielded to you by this church amount to in a
+year?' To which the clerk, ignorant of the Roman's cunning, replied:
+
+"'To twenty shillings, I think.'
+
+"Whereupon the agent demanded the percentage the Pope had just demanded
+on all ecclesiastical benefices. And to pay that sum this poor man was
+compelled to hold school for many days, and by selling his books in the
+precincts, to drag on a half-starved life."
+
+This story discloses another duty which fell to the lot of the mediaeval
+clerk. He was the parish schoolmaster--at least in some cases. The
+decretals of Gregory IX require that he should have enough learning in
+order to enable him to keep a school, and that the parishioners should
+send their children to him to be taught in the church. There is not much
+evidence of the carrying out of this rule, but here and there we find
+allusions to this part of a clerk's duties. Inasmuch as this may have
+been regarded as an occupation somewhat separate from his ordinary
+duties as regards the church, perhaps we should not expect to find
+constant allusion to it. However, Archbishop Peckham ordered, in 1280,
+that in the church of Bakewell and the chapels annexed to it there
+should be _duos clericos scholasticos_ carefully chosen by the
+parishioners, from whose alms they would have to live, who should carry
+holy water round in the parish and chapels on Lord's Days and
+festivals, and minister _in divinis officiis_, and on weekdays should
+keep school[29]. It is said that Alexander, Bishop of Coventry, in 1237,
+directed that there should be in country villages parish clerks who
+should be schoolmasters.
+
+[Footnote 29: If that is the correct translation of _profestis diebus
+disciplinis scolasticis indulgentes_. Dr. Legg thinks that it may refer
+to their own education.]
+
+It is certain--for the churchwarden accounts bear witness to the
+fact--that in several parishes the clerks performed this duty of
+teaching. Thus in the accounts of the church of St. Giles, Reading,
+occurs the following:
+
+     Pay'd to Whitborne the clerk towards his wages and he to be
+     bound to teach ij children for the choir ... xij s.
+
+At Faversham, in 1506, it was ordered that "the clerks or one of them,
+as much as in them is, shall endeavour themselves to teach children to
+read and sing in the choir, and to do service in the church as of old
+time hath been accustomed, they taking for their teaching as belongeth
+thereto"; and at the church of St. Nicholas, Bristol, in 1481, this duty
+of teaching is implied in the order that the clerk ought not to take any
+book out of the choir for children to learn in without licence of the
+procurators. We may conclude, therefore, that the task of teaching the
+children of the parish not unusually devolved upon the clerk, and that
+some knowledge of Latin formed part of the instruction given, which
+would be essential for those who took part in the services of
+the church.
+
+Nor were his labours yet finished. In John Myrc's _Instructions to
+Parish Priests_, a poem written not later than 1450, a treatise
+containing good sound morality, and a good sight of the ecclesiastical
+customs of the Middle Ages, we find the following lines:
+
+     "When thou shalt to seke[30] _gon_
+     Hye thee fast and _go_ a-non;
+     For if thou tarry thou dost amiss,
+     Thou shalt guyte[31] that soul I wys.
+     When thou shalt to seke gon,
+     A clene surples caste thee on;
+     Take thy stole with thee ry't,[32]
+     And put thy hod ouer thy sy't[33]
+     Bere thyne ost[34] a-nout thy breste
+     In a box that is honeste;
+     Make thy clerk before thee synge,
+     To bere light and belle ringe."
+
+[Footnote 30: Sick.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Quiet.]
+
+[Footnote 32: Right.]
+
+[Footnote 33: Sight.]
+
+[Footnote 34: Host.]
+
+It was customary, therefore, for the clerk to accompany the priest to
+the house of the sick person, when the clergyman went to administer the
+Last Sacrament or to visit the suffering. The clerk was required to
+carry a lighted candle and ring a bell, and an ancient MS. of the
+fourteenth century represents him marching before the priest bearing his
+light and his bell. In some town parishes he was ordered always to be at
+hand ready to accompany the priest on his errands of mercy. It was a
+grievous offence for a clerk to be absent from this duty. In the parish
+of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, the clerks were not allowed "to go or
+ride out of the town without special licence had of the vicar and
+churchwardens, and at no time were they to be out of the way, but one of
+them had always to be ready to minister sacraments and sacramentals, and
+to wait upon the Curate and to give him warning." This custom of the
+clerk accompanying the priest when visiting the sick was not abolished
+at the Reformation. _The Parish Clerk's Guide_, published by the
+Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks in 1731, the history of which it
+will be our privilege to investigate, states that the holders of the
+office "are always conversant in Holy Places and Holy Things, such as
+are the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; yea and in the
+most serious Things too, such as the Visitation of the Sick, when we do
+often attend, and at the Burial of the Dead."
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK ACCOMPANYING THE PRIEST WHEN VISITING THE SICK]
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST, WHO IS ADMINISTERING THE
+LAST SACRAMENT]
+
+Occupied with these numerous duties, engaged in a service which
+delighted him, his time could never have hung heavy on his hands.
+Faithful in his dutiful services to his rector, beloved by the
+parishioners, a welcome guest in cot and hall, and serving God with all
+his heart, according to his lights, he could doubtless exclaim with
+David, _Laetus sorte mea_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE DUTIES OF READING AND SINGING
+
+The clerk's highest privilege in pre-Reformation times was to take his
+part in the great services of the church. His functions were very
+important, and required considerable learning and skill. When the songs
+of praise echoed through the vaulted aisles of the great church, his
+voice was heard loud and clear leading the choirmen and chanting the
+opening words of the Psalm. As early as the time of St. Gregory this
+duty was required of him. In giving directions to St. Augustine of
+Canterbury the Pope ordered that clerks should be diligent in singing
+the Psalms. In the ninth century Pope Leo IV directed that the clerks
+should read the Psalms in divine service, and in 878 Archbishop Hincmar
+of Rheims issued some articles of inquiry to his Rural Deans, asking,
+among other questions, "Whether the presbyter has a clerk who can keep
+school, or read the epistle, or is able to sing as far as may seem
+needful to him?"
+
+A canon of the Council of Nantes, embodied in the Decretals of Pope
+Gregory IX, settled definitely that every presbyter who has charge of a
+parish should have a clerk, who should sing with him and read the
+epistle and lesson, and who should be able to keep school and admonish
+the parishioners to send their children to church to learn the
+faith[35]. This ordinance was binding upon the Church in this country as
+in other parts of Western Christendom, and William Lyndewoode, Official
+Principal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, when laying down the law with
+regard to the marriage of clerks, states that the clerk has "to wait on
+the priest at the altar, to sing with him, and to read the epistle." A
+notable quarrel between two clerks, which is recorded by John of Athon
+writing in the years 1333-1348, gives much information upon various
+points of ecclesiastical usage and custom. The account says:
+
+[Footnote 35: Decr. Greg. IX. Lib. III. tit. i. cap. iii., quoted by Dr.
+Cuthbert Atchley in _Alcuin Club Tracts_, IV.]
+
+"Lately, when two clerks were contending about the carrying of holy
+water, the clerk appointed by the parishioners against the command of
+the priest, wrenched the book from the hands of the clerk who had been
+appointed by the rector, and who had been ordered to read the epistle by
+the priest, and hurled him violently to the ground, drawing blood[36]."
+
+[Footnote 36: John of Athon, _Constit. Dom. Othoboni_, tit. _De
+residentia archipreb. et episc._: cap. _Pastor bonus_: verb _sanctae
+obedientiae_.]
+
+A very unseemly disturbance truly! Two clerks righting for the book in
+the midst of the sanctuary during the Eucharistic service! Still their
+quarrel teaches us something about the appointment and election of
+clerks in the Middle Ages, and of the duty of the parish clerk with
+regard to the reading of the epistle.
+
+In 1411 the vicar of Elmstead was enjoined by Clifford, Bishop of
+London, to find a clerk to help him at private Masses on weekdays, and
+on holy days to read the epistle.
+
+In the rules laid down for the guidance of clerks at the various
+churches we find many references to the duties of reading and singing.
+At Coventry he is required to sing in the choir at the Mass, and to sing
+Evensong on the south side of the choir; on feast days the first clerk
+was ordered to be _rector chori_ on the south side, while his fellow
+performed a like duty on the north side. On every Sunday and holy day
+the latter had to read the epistle. At Faversham the clerk was required
+to sing at every Mass by note the Grail at the upper desk in the body of
+the choir, and also the epistle, and to be diligent to sing all the
+office of the Mass by note, and at all other services. Very careful
+instructions were laid down for the proper musical arrangements in this
+church. The clerk was ordered "to set the choir not after his own brest
+(= voice) but as every man being a singer may sing conveniently his
+part, and when plain song faileth one of the clerks shall leave
+faburdon[37] and keep plain song unto the time the choir be set again."
+A fine of 2 d. was levied on all clerks as well as priests at St.
+Michael's, Cornhill, who should be absent from the church, and not take
+their places in the choir in their surplices, singing there from the
+beginning of Matins, Mass and Evensong unto the end of the services. At
+St. Nicholas, Bristol, the clerk was ordered "to sing in reading the
+epistle daily under pain of ii d."
+
+[Footnote 37: _Faburdon_ = faux-bourdon, a simple kind of counterpoint
+to the church plain song-, much used in England in the fifteenth
+century. Grove's _Dictionary of Music_.]
+
+These various rules and regulations, drawn up with consummate care,
+together with the occasional glimpses of the mediaeval clerk and his
+duties, which old writers afford, enable us to picture to ourselves what
+kind of person he was, and to see him engaged in his manifold
+occupations within the same walls which we know so well. When the
+daylight is dying, musing within the dim mysterious aisle, we can see
+him folding up the vestments, bearing the books into their place of safe
+keeping in the vestry, singing softly to himself:
+
+     "_Et introibo ad altare Dei; ad Deum qui loetificat
+     juventutem meam_."
+
+The scene changes. The days of sweeping reform set in. The Church of
+England regained her ancient independence and was delivered from a
+foreign yoke. Her children obtained an open Bible, and a liturgy in
+their own mother-tongue. But she was distressed and despoiled by the
+rapacity of the commissioners of the Crown, by such wretches as
+Protector Somerset, Dudley and the rest, private peculation eclipsing
+the greediness of royal officials. Froude draws a sad picture of the
+halls of country houses hung with altar cloths, tables and beds quilted
+with copes, and knights and squires drinking their claret out of
+chalices and watering their horses in marble coffins. No wonder there
+was discontent among the people. No wonder they disliked the despoiling
+of their heritage for the enrichment of the Dudleys and the _nouveaux
+riches_ who fattened on the spoils of the monasteries, and left the
+church bare of brass and ornament, chalice and vestment, the
+accumulation of years of the pious offerings of the faithful. No wonder
+there were risings and riots, quelled only by the stern and powerful
+hand of a Tudor despot.
+
+But in spite of all the changes that were wrought in that tumultuous
+time, the parish clerk remained, and continued to discharge many of the
+functions which had fallen to his lot before the Reformation had begun.
+As I have already stated, his duties with regard to bearing holy water
+and the holy loaf were discontinued, although the collecting of money
+from the parishioners was conducted in much the same way as before, and
+the "holy loaf" corrupted into various forms--such as "holy looff,"
+"holie loffe," "holy cake," etc.--appears in churchwardens' account
+books as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century.
+
+As regards his main duties of reading and singing we find that they were
+by no means discontinued. From a study of the First Prayer Book of
+Edward VI, it is evident that his voice was still to be heard reading in
+reverent tones the sacred words of Holy Scripture, and chanting the
+Psalms in his mother-tongue instead of in that of the Vulgate. The
+rubric in the communion service immediately before the epistle directs
+that "the collectes ended, the priest, or he that is appointed, shall
+read the epistle, in a place assigned for the purpose." Who is the
+person signified by the phrase "he that is appointed"? That question is
+decided for us by _The Clerk's Book_ recently edited by Dr. J. Wickham
+Legg, wherein it is stated that "the priest or clerk" shall read the
+epistle. The injunctions of 1547 interpret for us the meaning of "the
+place assigned for the purpose" as being "the pulpit or such convenient
+place as people may hear." Ability to read the epistle was still
+therefore considered part of the functions of a parish clerk, and the
+whole lesson derived from a study of _The Clerk's Book_ is the very
+important part which he took in the services. As the title of the book
+shows, it contains "All that appertein to the clerkes to say or syng at
+the Ministracion of the Communion, and when there is no Communion. At
+Confirmacion. At Matrimonie. The Visitacion of the Sicke. The Buriall of
+the Dedde. At the Purification of Women. And the first daie of Lent."
+
+He began the service of Holy Communion by singing the Psalm appointed
+for the introit. In the book only the first words of the part taken by
+the priest are given, whereas all the clerk's part is printed in full.
+He leads the responses in the Lesser Litany, the _Gloria in excelsis_,
+the Nicene Creed. He reads the offertory sentences and says the _Ter
+Sanctus_, sings or says the _Agnus Dei_, besides the responses. In the
+Marriage Service he said or sang the Psalm with the priest, and
+responded diligently. As in pre-Reformation times he accompanied the
+priest in the visitation of the sick, and besides making the responses
+sang the anthems, "Remember not, Lord, our iniquities," etc., and "O
+Saviour of the world, save us, which by thy crosse and precious blood
+hast redeemed us, help us, we beseech thee, O God." In the Communion of
+the Sick the epistle is written out in full, showing that it was the
+clerk's privilege to read it. A great part of the service for the Burial
+of the Dead was ordered to be said or sung by the "priest or clerk," and
+"at the communion when there was a burial" he apparently sang the
+introit and read the epistle. In the Communion Service the clerk with
+the priest said the fifty-first Psalm and the anthem, "Turn thou us, O
+good Lord," etc. In Matins and Evensong the clerk sang the Psalms and
+canticles and made responses, and from other sources we gather that he
+used to read either one or both of the lessons. In some churches he was
+called the dekyn or deacon, and at Ludlow, in 1551, he received 3 s. 4
+d. for reading the first lesson.
+
+In the accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, there is an item in the
+year 1553 for the repair of the pulpit where, it is stated, "the curate
+and the clark did read the chapters at service time."
+
+Archbishop Grindal, in 1571, laid down the following injunction for his
+province of York: "That no parish clerk be appointed against the
+goodwill or without the consent of the parson, vicar, or curate of any
+parish, and that he be obedient to the parson, vicar, and curate,
+specially in the time of celebration of divine service or of sacraments,
+or in any preparation thereunto; and that he be able also to read the
+first lesson, the Epistle, and the Psalms, with answers to the suffrages
+as is used, and also that he endeavour himself to teach young children
+to read, if he be able so to do." When this archbishop was translated to
+Canterbury he issued very similar injunctions in the southern province.
+Other bishops followed his example, and issued questions in their
+dioceses relating to clerkly duties, and these injunctions show that to
+read the first lesson and the epistle and to sing the Psalms constituted
+the principal functions of a parish clerk.
+
+Evidences of the continuance of this practice are not wanting[38].
+Indeed, within the memory of living men at one church at least the
+custom was observed. At Keighley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, some
+thirty or forty years ago the parish clerk wore a black gown and bands.
+He read the first lesson and the epistle. To read the latter he left his
+seat below the pulpit and went up to the altar and took down the book:
+after reading the epistle within the altar rails he replaced the book
+and returned to his place. At Wimborne Minster the clerk used to read
+the Lessons.
+
+[Footnote 38: cf. _The Parish Clerk's Book_, edited by Dr. J. Wickham
+Legg, F.S.A., and _The Parish Clerk and his right to read the Liturgical
+Epistle_, by Cuthbert Atchley, L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S. _(Alcuin Club
+Tracts_, IV).]
+
+Although it is evident that at the present time the clerk has a right to
+read the epistle and one of the lessons, as well as the Psalms and
+responses when they are not sung, it was perhaps necessary that his
+efforts in this direction should have been curtailed. When we remember
+the extraordinary blunders made by many holders of the office in the
+last century, their lack of education, and strange pronunciation, we
+should hardly care to hear the mutilation of Holy Scripture which must
+have followed the continuance of the practice. Would it not be possible
+to find men qualified to hold the office of parish clerk by education
+and powers of elocution who could revive the ancient practice with
+advantage to the church both to the clergyman and the people?
+
+Complaints about the eccentricities and defective reading and singing of
+clerks have come down to us from Jacobean times. There was one Thomas
+Milborne, clerk of Eastham, who was guilty of several enormities;
+amongst others, "for that he singeth the psalms in the church with such
+a jesticulous tone and altisonant voice, viz: squeaking like a gelded
+pig, which doth not only interrupt the other voices, but is altogether
+dissonant and disagreeing unto any musical harmony, and he hath been
+requested by the minister to leave it, but he doth obstinately persist
+and continue therein." Verily Master Milborne must have been a sore
+trial to his vicar, almost as great as the clerk of Buxted, Sussex, was
+to his rector, who records in the parish register with a sigh of relief
+his death, "whose melody warbled forth as if he had been thumped on the
+back with a stone."
+
+The Puritan regime was not conducive to this improvement of the status
+or education of the clerk or the cultivation of his musical abilities.
+The Protectorate was a period of musical darkness. The organs of the
+cathedrals and colleges were taken down; the choirs were dispersed,
+musical publications ceased, and the gradual twilight of the art, which
+commenced with the accession of the Stuarts, faded into darkness. Many
+clerks, especially in the City of London, deserve the highest honour for
+having endeavoured to preserve the true taste for musical services in a
+dark age. Notable amongst these was John Playford, clerk of the Temple
+Church in 1652. Benjamin Payne, clerk of St. Anne's, Blackfriars, in
+1685, the author of _The Parish Clerk's Guide_, wrote of Playford as
+"one to whose memory all parish clerks owe perpetual thanks for their
+furtherance in the knowledge of psalmody." The _History of Music_, by
+Hawkins, describes him as "an honest and friendly man, a good judge of
+music, with some skill in composition. He contributed not a little to
+the art of printing music from letterpress types. He is looked upon as
+the father of modern psalmody, and it does not appear that the practice
+has much improved." The account which Playford gives of the clerks of
+his day is not very satisfactory, and their sorry condition is
+attributed to "the late wars" and the confusion of the times. He says:
+
+"In and about this great city, in above a hundred parishes there are but
+few parish clerks to be found that have either ear or understanding to
+set one of these tunes musically, as it ought to be, it having been a
+custom during the late wars, and since, to chuse men into such places
+more for their poverty than skill and ability, whereby that part of
+God's service hath been so ridiculously performed in most places, that
+it is now brought into scorn and derision by many people." He goes on to
+tell us that "the ancient practice of singing the psalms in church was
+for the clerk to repeat each line, probably because, at the first
+introduction of psalms into our service great numbers of the common
+people were unable to read." The author of _The Parish Clerk's Guide_
+states that "since faction prevailed in the Church, and troubles in the
+State, Church music has laboured under inevitable prejudices, more
+especially by its being decried by some misguided and peevish sectaries
+as popery and anti-Christ, and so the minds of the common people are
+alienated from Church music, although performed by men of the greatest
+skill and judgment, under whom was wont to be trained up abundance of
+youth in the respective cathedrals, that did stock the whole kingdom at
+one time with good and able songsters." The Company of Parish Clerks of
+London [to the history and records of which we shall have occasion
+frequently to refer] did good service in promoting the musical training
+of the members and in upholding the dignity of their important office.
+In the edition of _The Parish Clerk's Guide_ for 1731, the writer
+laments over the diminished status of his order, and states that "the
+clerk is oftentimes chosen rather for his poverty, to prevent a charge
+to the parish, than either for his virtue or skill; or else for some
+by-end or purpose, more than for the immediate Honour and Service of
+Almighty God and His Church."
+
+If that was the case in rich and populous London parishes, how much more
+was it true in poor village churches? Hence arose the race of country
+clerks who stumbled over and miscalled the hard words as they occurred
+in the Psalms, who sang in a strange and weird fashion, and brought
+discredit on their office. Indeed, the clergy were not always above
+suspicion in the matter of reading, and even now they have their
+detractors, who assert that it is often impossible to hear what they
+say, that they read in a strained unnatural voice, and are generally
+unintelligible. At any rate, modern clergy are not so deficient in
+education as they were in the early years of Queen Elizabeth, when, as
+Fuller states in his _Triple Reconciler_, they were commanded "to read
+the chapters over once or twice by themselves that so they might be the
+better enabled to read them distinctly to the congregation." If the
+clergy were not infallible in the matter of the pronunciation of
+difficult words, it is not surprising that the clerk often puzzled or
+amused his hearers, and mangled or skipped the proper names, after the
+fashion of the mistress of a dame-school, who was wont to say when a
+small pupil paused at such a name as Nebuchadnezzar, "That's a bad word,
+child! go on to the next verse."
+
+Of the mistakes in the clerk's reading of the Psalms there are many
+instances. David Diggs, the hero of J. Hewett's _Parish Clerk_, was
+remonstrated with for reading the proper names in Psalm lxxxiii. 6,
+"Odommities, Osmallities, and Mobbities," and replied: "Yes, no doubt,
+but that's noigh enow. Seatown folk understand oi very well."
+
+He is also reported to have said, "Jeball, Amon, and Almanac, three
+Philistines with them that are tired." The vicar endeavoured to teach
+him the correct mode of pronunciation of difficult words, and for some
+weeks he read well, and then returned to his former method of making a
+shot at the proper names.
+
+On being expostulated with he coolly replied:
+
+"One on us must read better than t'other, or there wouldn't be no
+difference 'twixt parson and clerk; so I gives in to you. Besides, this
+sort of reading as you taught me would not do here. The p'rishioners
+told oi, if oi didn't gi' in and read in th' old style loike, as they
+wouldn't come to hear oi, so oi dropped it!"
+
+An old clerk at Hartlepool, who had been a sailor, used to render Psalm
+civ. 26, as "There go the ships and there is that lieutenant whom Thou
+hast made to take his pastime therein."
+
+"Leviathan" has been responsible for many errors. A shoemaker clerk used
+to call it "that great leather-thing." From various sources comes to me
+the story, to which I have already referred, of the transformation of
+"an alien to my mother's children" into "a lion to my mother's
+children."
+
+A clerk at Bletchley always called caterpillars _saterpillars_, and in
+Psalm lxviii. never read JAH, but spelt it J-A-H. He used to summon the
+children from their places to stand in single file along the pews during
+three Sundays in Lent, and say, "Children, say your catechayse."
+
+Catechising during the service seems to have been not uncommon. The
+clerk at Milverton used to summon the children, calling out, "Children,
+catechise, pray draw near."
+
+The clerk at Sidbury used to read, "Better than a bullock that has horns
+_enough_"; his name was Timothy Karslake, commonly called "Tim," and
+when he made a mistake in the responses some one in the church would
+call out, "You be wrong, Tim."
+
+Sometimes a little emphasis on the wrong word was used to express the
+feelings engendered by private piques and quarrels. There were in one
+parish some differences between the parson and the clerk, who showed his
+independence and proud spirit when he read the verse of the Psalm, "If I
+_be_ hungry, I will not tell _thee_," casting a rather scornful glance
+at the parson.
+
+Another specimen of his class used to read "Ananias, Azarias, and
+Mizzle," and one who was reading a lesson in church (Isaiah liv. 12),
+"And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles,"
+rendered the verse, "Thy window of a gate, and thy gates of
+crab ancles."
+
+Another clerk who was "not much of a scholard" used to allow no
+difficulty to check his fluency. If the right word did not fall to his
+hand he made shift with another of somewhat similar sound, the result
+frequently taxing to the uttermost the self-control of the better
+educated among his hearers. He was ill-mated to a shrewish wife, and one
+was sensible of a thrill of sympathy when, without a thought of
+irreverence, and in all simplicity, he rolled out, instead of "Woe is
+me, that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech!" "Woe is me, that I am
+constrained to dwell with _Missis_!"
+
+Old age at length puts an end to the power of the most stalwart clerks.
+That must have been a very pathetic scene in the church at East Barnet
+which few of those present could have witnessed without emotion. The
+clerk was a man of advanced age. He always conducted the singing, which
+must have been somewhat monotonous, as the 95th and the 100th Psalm (Old
+Version) were invariably sung. On one occasion, after several vain
+attempts to begin the accustomed melody, the poor old man exclaimed,
+"Well, my friends, it's no use. I'm too old. I can't sing any more."
+
+[Illustration: OLD BECKENHAM CHURCH]
+
+It was a bitter day for the old clerks when harmoniums and organs came
+into fashion, and the old orchestras conducted by them were abandoned.
+Dethroned monarchs could not feel more distressed.
+
+The period of the decline and fall of the status of the old parish
+clerks was that of the Commonwealth, from 1640 to 1660. During the
+spacious days of Elizabeth and the early Stuarts they were considered
+most important officials. In pre-Reformation times the incumbents used
+to receive assistance from the chantry priests who were required to help
+the parson when not engaged in their particular duties. After the
+suppression of the chantries they continued their good offices and acted
+as assistant curates. But the race soon died out. Then lecturers and
+special preachers were frequently appointed by corporations or rich
+private individuals. But these lecturers and preachers were a somewhat
+independent race who were not very loyal to the parsons and impatient of
+episcopal control, and proved themselves rather a hindrance than a help.
+In North Devon[39] and doubtless in many other places the experiment was
+tried of making use of the parish clerks and raising them to the
+diaconate. Such a clerk so raised to major orders was Robert Langdon
+(1584-1625), of Barnstaple, to whose history I shall have occasion to
+refer again. His successor, Anthony Baker, was also a clerk-deacon. The
+parish clerk then attained the zenith of his power, dignity, and
+importance.
+
+[Footnote 39: _The Parish Clerks of Barnstaple_, 1500-1900, by Rev. J.F.
+Chanter (Transactions of the Devonshire Association).]
+
+After the disastrous period of the Commonwealth rule he emerges shorn
+of his learning, his rank, and status. His name remained; his office was
+recognised by legal enactments and ecclesiastical usage; but in most
+parishes he was chosen on account of his poverty rather than for his
+fitness for the post. So long as the church rates remained he received
+his salary, but when these were abolished it was found difficult in many
+parishes to provide the funds. Hence as the old race died out, the
+office was allowed to lapse, and the old clerk's place knows him no
+more. Possibly it may be the delectable task of some future historian to
+record the complete revival of the office, which would prove under
+proper conditions an immense advantage to the Church and a valuable
+assistance to the parochial clergy.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE CLERK IN LITERATURE
+
+The parish clerk is so notable a character in our ecclesiastical and
+social life, that he has not escaped the attention of many of our great
+writers and poets. Some of them have with gentle satire touched upon his
+idiosyncrasies and peculiarities; others have recorded his many virtues,
+his zeal and faithfulness. Shakespeare alludes to him in his play of
+_Richard II_, in the fourth act, when he makes the monarch face his
+rebellious nobles, reproaching them for their faithlessness, and saying:
+
+     "God save the King! will no man say Amen?
+     Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, Amen.
+     God save the King! although I be not he;
+     And yet, Amen, if Heaven do think him me."
+
+An old ballad, _King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid_, contains an
+interesting allusion to the parish clerk, and shows the truth of that
+which has already been pointed out, viz. that the office of clerk was
+often considered to be a step to higher preferment in the Church. The
+lines of the old ballad run as follows:
+
+     "The proverb old is come to passe,
+     The priest when he begins his masse
+     Forgets that ever clarke he was;
+       He knoweth not his estate."
+
+Christopher Harvey, the friend and imitator of George Herbert, has some
+homely lines on the duties of clerk and sexton in his poem _The
+Synagogue_. Of the clerk he wrote:
+
+     "The Churches Bible-clerk attends
+       Her utensils, and ends
+       Her prayers with Amen,
+     Tunes Psalms, and to her Sacraments
+       Brings in the Elements,
+       And takes them out again;
+     Is humble minded and industrious handed,
+     Doth nothing of himself, but as commanded."
+
+Of the sexton he wrote:
+
+      "The Churches key-keeper opens the door,
+       And shuts it, sweeps the floor,
+     Rings bells, digs graves, and fills them up again;
+       All emblems unto men,
+       Openly owning Christianity
+       To mark and learn many good lessons by."
+
+In that delightful sketch of old-time manners and quaint humour, _Sir
+Roger de Coverley_, the editor of _The Spectator_ gave a life-like
+representation of the old-fashioned service. Nor is the clerk forgotten.
+They tell us that "Sir Roger has likewise added five pounds a year to
+the clerk's place; and that he may encourage the young fellows to make
+themselves perfect in the Church services, has promised, upon the death
+of the present incumbent, who is very old, to bestow it according to
+merit." The details of the exquisite picture of a rural Sunday were
+probably taken from the church of Milston on the Wiltshire downs where
+Addison's father was incumbent, and where the author was born in 1672.
+Doubtless the recollections of his early home enabled Joseph Addison to
+draw such an accurate picture of the ecclesiastical customs of his
+youth. The deference shown by the members of the congregation who did
+not presume to stir till Sir Roger had left the building was practised
+in much more recent times, and instances will be given of the
+observance of this custom within living memory.
+
+Two other references to parish clerks I find in _The Spectator_ which
+are worthy of quotation:
+
+     "_Spectator_, No. 372.
+
+     "In three or four taverns I have, at different times, taken
+     notice of a precise set of people with grave countenances,
+     short wigs, black cloaths, or dark camblet trimmed black,
+     with mourning gloves and hat-bands, who went on certain days
+     at each tavern successively, and keep a sort of moving club.
+     Having often met with their faces, and observed a certain
+     shrinking way in their dropping in one after another, I had
+     the unique curiosity to inquire into their characters, being
+     the rather moved to it by their agreeing in the singularity
+     of their dress; and I find upon due examination they are a
+     knot of parish clerks, who have taken a fancy to one another,
+     and perhaps settle the bills of mortality over their half
+     pints. I have so great a value and veneration for any who
+     have but even an assenting _Amen_ in the service of religion,
+     that I am afraid but these persons should incur some scandal
+     by this practice; and would therefore have them, without
+     raillery, advise to send the florence and pullets home to
+     their own homes, and not to pretend to live as well as the
+     overseers of the poor.
+
+     "HUMPHRY TRANSFER.
+
+     "_Spectator_, No. 338.
+
+     "A great many of our church-musicians being related to the
+     theatre, have in imitation of their epilogues introduced in
+     their favourite voluntaries a sort of music quite foreign to
+     the design of church services, to the great prejudice of
+     well-disposed people. These fingering gentlemen should be
+     informed that they ought to suit their airs to the place and
+     business; and that the musician is obliged to keep to the
+     text as much as the preacher. For want of this, I have found
+     by experience a great deal of mischief; for when the preacher
+     has often, with great piety and art enough, handled his
+     subject, and the judicious clerk has with utmost diligence
+     called out two staves proper to the discourse, and I have
+     found in myself and in the rest of the pew good thoughts and
+     dispositions, they have been all in a moment dissipated by a
+     merry jig from the organ loft."
+
+Dr. Johnson's definition of a parish clerk in his Dictionary does not
+convey the whole truth about him and his historic office. He is defined
+as "the layman who reads the responses to the congregation in church, to
+direct the rest." The great lexicographer had, however, a high
+estimation of this official. Boswell tells us that on one occasion "the
+Rev. Mr. Palmer, Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, dined with us. He
+expressed a wish that a better provision were made for parish clerks.
+Johnson: 'Yes, sir, a parish clerk should be a man who is able to make a
+will or write a letter for anybody in the parish.'" I am afraid that a
+vast number of our good clerks would have been sore puzzled to perform
+the first task, and the caligraphy of the letter would in many cases
+have been curious.
+
+That careful delineator of rural manners as they existed at the end of
+the eighteenth century, George Crabbe, devotes a whole poem to the
+parish clerk in his nineteenth letter of _The Borough_. He tells of the
+fortunes of Jachin, the clerk, a grave and austere man, fully orthodox,
+a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and detecter and opposer of the wiles of
+Satan. Here is his picture:
+
+     "With our late vicar, and his age the same,
+     His clerk, bright Jachin, to his office came;
+     The like slow speech was his, the like tall slender frame:
+     But Jachin was the gravest man on ground,
+     And heard his master's jokes with look profound;
+     For worldly wealth this man of letters sigh'd,
+     And had a sprinkling of the spirit's pride:
+     But he was sober, chaste, devout, and just,
+     One whom his neighbours could believe and trust:
+     Of none suspected, neither man nor maid
+     By him were wronged, or were of him afraid.
+       There was indeed a frown, a trick of state
+     In Jachin: formal was his air and gait:
+     But if he seemed more solemn and less kind
+     Than some light man to light affairs confined,
+     Still 'twas allow'd that he should so behave
+     As in high seat, and be severely grave."
+
+The arch-tempter tries in vain to seduce him from the right path. "The
+house where swings the tempting sign," the smiles of damsels, have no
+power over him. He "shuns a flowing bowl and rosy lip," but he is not
+invulnerable after all. Want and avarice take possession of his soul. He
+begins to take by stealth the money collected in church, putting bran in
+his pockets so that the coin shall not jingle. He offends with terror,
+repeats his offence, grows familiar with crime, and is at last detected
+by a "stern stout churl, an angry overseer." Disgrace, ruin, death soon
+follow; shunned and despised by all, he "turns to the wall and silently
+expired." A woeful story truly, the results of spiritual pride and greed
+of gain! It is to be hoped that few clerks resembled poor lost Jachin.
+
+A companion picture to the disgraced clerk is that of "the noble peasant
+Isaac Ashford[40]," who won from Crabbe's pen a gracious panegyric. He
+says of him:
+
+     "Noble he was, contemning all things mean,
+     His truth unquestioned, and his soul serene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     If pride were his, 'twas not their vulgar pride,
+     Who, in their base contempt, the great deride:
+     Nor pride in learning--though by Clerk agreed,
+     If fate should call him, Ashford might succeed."
+
+[Footnote 40: _The Parish Register_, Part III.]
+
+He paints yet another portrait, that of old Dibble[41], clerk and
+sexton:
+
+     "His eightieth year he reach'd still undecayed,
+     And rectors five to one close vault conveyed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     His masters lost, he'd oft in turn deplore,
+     And kindly add,--'Heaven grant I lose no more!'
+     Yet while he spake, a sly and pleasant glance
+     Appear'd at variance with his complaisance:
+     For as he told their fate and varying worth,
+     He archly looked--'I yet may bear thee forth.'"
+
+[Footnote 41: _The Parish Register_, Part III.]
+
+George Herbert, the saintly Christian poet, who sang on earth such hymns
+and anthems as the angels sing in heaven, was no friend of the
+old-fashioned duet between the minister and clerk in the conduct of
+divine service. He would have no "talking, or sleeping, or gazing, or
+leaning, or half-kneeling, or any undutiful behaviour in them."
+Moreover, "everyone, man and child, should answer aloud both Amen and
+all other answers which are on the clerk's and people's part to answer,
+which answers also are to be done not in a huddling or slubbering
+fashion, gaping, or scratching the head, or spitting even in the midst
+of their answer, but gently and pausably, thinking what they say, so
+that while they answer 'As it was in the beginning, etc.,' they meditate
+as they speak, that God hath ever had his people that have glorified
+Him as well as now, and that He shall have so for ever. And the like in
+other answers."
+
+Cowper's kindliness of heart is abundantly evinced by his treatment of a
+parish clerk, one John Cox, the official of the parish of All Saints,
+Northampton. The poet was living in the little Buckinghamshire village
+of Weston Underwood, having left Olney when mouldering walls and a
+tottering house warned him to depart. He was recovering from his dread
+malady, and beginning to feel the pleasures and inconveniences of
+authorship and fame. The most amusing proof of his celebrity and his
+good nature is thus related to Lady Hesketh:
+
+"On Monday morning last, Sam brought me word that there was a man in the
+kitchen who desired to speak with me. I ordered him in. A plain, decent,
+elderly figure made its appearance, and being desired to sit spoke as
+follows: 'Sir, I am clerk of the parish of All Saints in Northampton,
+brother of Mr. Cox the upholsterer. It is customary for the person in my
+office to annex to a bill of mortality, which he publishes at Christmas,
+a copy of verses. You will do me a great favour, sir, if you will
+furnish me with one.' To this I replied: 'Mr. Cox, you have several men
+of genius in your town, why have you not applied to some of them? There
+is a namesake of yours in particular, Cox, the Statuary, who, everybody
+knows, is a first-rate maker of verses. He surely is the man of all the
+world for your purpose.' 'Alas, sir, I have heretofore borrowed help
+from him, but he is a gentleman of so much reading that the people of
+our town cannot understand him.'
+
+"I confess to you, my dear, I felt all the force of the compliment
+implied in this speech, and was almost ready to answer, Perhaps, my
+good friend, they may find me unintelligible too for the same reason.
+But on asking him whether he had walked over to Weston on purpose to
+implore the assistance of my muse, and on his replying in the
+affirmative, I felt my mortified vanity a little consoled, and pitying
+the poor man's distress, which appeared to be considerable, promised to
+supply him. The waggon has accordingly gone this day to Northampton
+loaded in part with my effusions in the mortuary style. A fig for poets
+who write epitaphs upon individuals! I have written _one_ that serves
+_two hundred_ persons."
+
+Seven successive years did Cowper, in his excellent good nature, supply
+John Cox, the clerk of All Saints in Northampton, with his mortuary
+verses[42], and when Cox died, he bestowed a like kindness on his
+successor, Samuel Wright.
+
+[Footnote 42: Southey's _Works of Cowper_, ii. p. 283.]
+
+These stanzas are published in the complete editions of Cowper's poems,
+and need not be quoted here. They begin with a quotation from some Latin
+author--Horace, or Virgil, or Cicero--these quotations being obligingly
+translated for the benefit of the worthy townsfolk. The first of these
+stanzas begins with the well-known lines:
+
+     "While thirteen moons saw smoothly run
+       The Nen's barge-laden wave,
+     All these, life's rambling journey done,
+       Have found their home, the grave."
+
+Another verse which has attained fame runs thus:
+
+     "Like crowded forest trees we stand,
+       And some are mark'd to fall;
+     The axe will smite at God's command,
+       And soon will smite us all."
+
+And thus does Cowper, in his temporary role, point the moral:
+
+     "And O! that humble as my lot,
+       And scorned as is my strain,
+     These truths, though known, too much forgot,
+       I may not teach in vain.
+
+     "So prays your clerk with all his heart,
+       And, ere he quits his pen,
+     Begs you for once to take his part,
+       And answer all--Amen."
+
+Again, in another copy of verses he alludes to his honourable clerkship,
+and sings:
+
+     "So your verse-man I, and clerk,
+       Yearly in my song proclaim
+     Death at hand--yourselves his mark--
+       And the foe's unerring aim.
+
+     "Duly at my time I come,
+       Publishing to all aloud
+     Soon the grave must be our home,
+       And your only suit a shroud."
+
+On one occasion the clerk delayed to send a printed copy of the verses;
+so we find the poet writing to his friend, William Bagot:
+
+"You would long since have received an answer to your last, had not the
+wicked clerk of Northampton delayed to send me the printed copy of my
+annual dirge, which I waited to enclose. Here it is at last, and much
+good may it do the readers!"
+
+Let us hope that at least the clerk was grateful.
+
+Yet again does the poet allude to the occupant of the lowest tier of the
+great "three-decker," when he in the opening lines of _The Sofa_ depicts
+the various seekers after sleep. After telling of the snoring nurse, the
+sleeping traveller in the coach, he continues:
+
+     "Sweet sleep enjoys the curate in his desk,
+     The tedious rector drawling o'er his head;
+     And sweet the clerk below--"
+
+a pretty picture truly of a stirring and impressive service!
+
+Cowper, if he were alive now, would have been no admirer of _Who's Who_,
+and poured scorn upon any
+
+     "Fond attempt to give a deathless lot
+     To names ignoble, born to be forgot."
+
+Beholding some "names of little note" in the _Biographia Britannica_, he
+proceeded to satirise the publication, to laugh at the imaginary
+procession of worthies--the squire, his lady, the vicar, and other local
+celebrities, and chants in his anger:
+
+     "There goes the parson, oh! illustrious spark!
+     And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk."
+
+The poet Gay is not unmindful of the
+
+     "Parish clerk who calls the hymns so clear";
+
+and Tennyson, in his sonnet to J.M.K., wrote:
+
+     "Our dusty velvets have much need of thee:
+     Thou art no sabbath-drawler of old saws,
+     Distill'd from some worm-canker'd homily;
+     But spurr'd at heart with fiercest energy
+     To embattail and to wall about thy cause
+     With iron-worded proof, hating to hark
+     The humming of the drowsy pulpit-drone
+     Half God's good Sabbath, while the worn-out clerk
+     Brow-beats his desk below."
+
+In the gallery of Dickens's characters stands out the immortal Solomon
+Daisy of _Barnaby Rudge_, with his "cricket-like chirrup" as he took his
+part in the social gossip round the Maypole fire. Readers of Dickens
+will remember the timid Solomon's visit to the church at midnight when
+he went to toll the passing bell, and his account of the strange things
+that befell him there, and of the ringing of the mysterious bell that
+told the murder of Reuben Haredale.
+
+In the British Museum I discovered a fragmentary collection of ballads
+and songs, made by Mr. Ballard, and amongst these is a song relating to
+a very unworthy follower of St. Nicholas, whose memory is thus unhappily
+preserved:
+
+     THE PARISH CLERK
+
+     A NEW COMIC SONG
+
+     _Tune_--THE VICAR AND MOSES
+
+     Here rests from his labours, by consent of his neighbours,
+       A peevish, ill-natur'd old clerk;
+     Who never design'd any good to mankind,
+       For of goodness he ne'er had a spark.
+         Tol lol de rol lol de rol lol.
+
+     But greedy as Death, until his last breath,
+       His method he ne'er failed to use;
+     When interr'd a corpse lay, Amen he'd scarce say,
+       Before he cry'd Who pays the dues?
+
+     Not a tear now he's dead, by friend or foe shed;
+       The first they were few, if he'd any;
+     Of the last he had more, than tongue can count o'er,
+       Who'd have hang'd the old churl for a penny.
+
+     In Levi's black train, the clerk did remain
+       Twenty years, squalling o'er a dull stave;
+     Yet his mind was so evil, he'd swear like the devil,
+       Nor repented on this side the grave.
+
+         _Fowler, Printer, Salisbury_.
+
+That extraordinary man Mr. William Hutton, who died in 1813, and whose
+life has been written and his works edited by Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt,
+F.S.A., amongst his other poems wrote a set of verses on _The Way to
+Find Sunday without an Almanack_. It tells the story of a Welsh
+clergyman who kept poultry, and how he told the days of the week and
+marked the Sundays by the regularity with which one of his hens laid her
+eggs. The seventh egg always became his Sunday letter, and thus he
+always remembered to sally forth "with gown and cassock, book and
+band," and perform his accustomed duty. Unfortunately the clerk was
+treacherous, and one week stole an egg, with dire consequences to the
+congregation, which had to wait until the clergyman, who was engaged in
+the unclerical task of "soleing shoes," could be fetched. The poem is a
+poor trifle, but it is perhaps worth mentioning on account of the
+personality of the writer.
+
+There is a charming sketch of an old clerk in the _Essays and Tales_ of
+the late Lady Verney. The story tells of the old clerk's affection for
+his great-grandchild, Benny. He is a delightfully drawn specimen of his
+race. We see him "creeping slowly about the shadows of the aisle, in his
+long blue Sunday coat with huge brass buttons, the tails of which
+reached almost to his heels, shorts and brown leggings, and a
+low-crowned hat in his hand. He was nearly eighty, but wiry still,
+rather blind and somewhat deaf; but the post of clerk is one considered
+to be quite independent and irremovable, _quam diu se bene gesserit_,
+during good behaviour--on a level with Her Majesty's judges for that
+matter. Having been raised to this great eminence some sixty years
+before, when he was the only man in the parish who could read, he would
+have stood out for his rights to remain there as long as he pleased
+against all the powers and principalities in the kingdom--if, indeed, he
+could have conceived the possibility of any one, in or out of the
+parish, being sufficiently irreligious and revolutionary to dispute his
+sovereignty. He was part of the church, and the church was part of
+him--his rights and hers were indissolubly connected in his mind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The Psalms that day offered a fine field for his Anglo-Saxon plurals
+and south-country terminations; the 'housen,' 'priestesses,' 'beasteses
+of the field,' came rolling freely forth from his mouth, upon which no
+remonstrances by the curate had had the smallest effect. Was he, Michael
+Major, who had fulfilled the important office 'afore that young
+jackanapes was born, to be teached how 'twere to be done?' he had
+observed more than once in rather a high tone, though in general he
+patronised the successive occupants of the pulpit with much kindness.
+'And this 'un, as cannot spike English nayther,' he added superciliously
+concerning the north-country accent of his pastor and master."
+
+On weekdays he wore a smock-frock, which he called his surplice, with
+wonderful fancy stitches on the breast and back and sleeves. At length
+he had to resign his post and take to his bed, and was not afraid to die
+when his time came. It is a very tender and touching little story, a
+very faithful picture of an old clerk[43].
+
+[Footnote 43: _Essays and Tales_, by Frances Parthenope Lady Verney, p.
+67.]
+
+Passing from grave to gay, we find Tom Hood sketching the clerk
+attending on his vicar, who is about to perform a wedding service and
+make two people for ever happy. He christens the two officials "the
+joiners, no rough mechanics, but a portly full-blown vicar with his
+clerk, both rubicund, a peony paged by a pink. It made me smile to
+observe the droll clerical turn of the clerk's beaver, scrubbed into
+that fashion by his coat at the nape."
+
+Few people know Alexander Pope's _Memoir of P.P., Clerk of this Parish_,
+which was intended to ridicule Burnet's _History of His Own Time_, a
+work characterised by a strong tincture of self-importance and egotism.
+These are abundantly exposed in the _Memoir_, which begins thus:
+
+"In the name of the Lord, Amen. I, P.P., by the Grace of God, Clerk of
+this Parish, writeth this history.
+
+"Ever since I arrived at the age of discretion I had a call to take upon
+me the Function of a Parish Clerk, and to this end it seemed unto me
+meet and profitable to associate myself with the parish clerks of this
+land, such I mean as were right worthy in their calling, men of a clear
+and sweet voice, and of becoming gravity."
+
+He tells how on the day of his birth Squire Bret gave a bell to the ring
+of the parish. Hence that one and the same day did give to their own
+church two rare gifts, its great bell and its clerk.
+
+Leaving the account of P.P.'s youthful amours and bouts at
+quarter-staff, we next find that:
+
+"No sooner was I elected into my office, but I layed aside the
+gallantries of my youth and became a new man. I considered myself as in
+somewise of ecclesiastical dignity, since by wearing of a band, which is
+no small part of the ornaments of our clergy, might not unworthily be
+deemed, as it were, a shred of the linen vestments of Aaron.
+
+"Thou mayest conceive, O reader, with what concern I perceived the eyes
+of the congregation fixed upon me, when I first took my place at the
+feet of the Priest. When I raised the Psalm, how did my voice quiver
+with fear! And when I arrayed the shoulders of the minister with the
+surplice, how did my joints tremble under me! I said within myself,
+'Remember, Paul, thou standest before men of high worship, the wise Mr.
+Justice Freeman, the grave Mr. Justice Tonson, the good Lady Jones.'
+Notwithstanding it was my good hap to acquit myself to the good liking
+of the whole congregation, but the Lord forbid I should glory therein."
+
+He then proceeded to remove "the manifold corruptions and abuses."
+
+1. "I was especially severe in whipping forth dogs from the Temple, all
+except the lap-dog of the good widow Howard, a sober dog which yelped
+not, nor was there offence in his mouth.
+
+2. "I did even proceed to moroseness, though sore against my heart, unto
+poor babes, in tearing from them the half-eaten apple, which they
+privily munched at church. But verily it pitied me, for I remembered the
+days of my youth.
+
+3. "With the sweat of my own hands I did make plain and smooth the dog's
+ears throughout our Great Bible.
+
+4. "I swept the pews, not before swept in the third year. I darned the
+surplice and laid it in lavender."
+
+The good clerk also made shoes, shaved and clipped hair, and practised
+chirurgery also in the worming of dogs.
+
+"Now was the long expected time arrived when the Psalms of King David
+should be hymned unto the same tunes to which he played them upon his
+harp, so I was informed by my singing-master, a man right cunning in
+Psalmody. Now was our over-abundant quaver and trilling done away, and
+in lieu thereof was instituted the sol-fa in such guise as is sung in
+his Majesty's Chapel. We had London singing-masters sent into every
+parish like unto excisemen."
+
+P.P. was accused by his enemies of humming through his nostrils as a
+sackbut, yet he would not forgo the harmony, it having been agreed by
+the worthy clerks of London still to preserve the same. He tutored the
+young men and maidens to tune their voices as it were a psaltery, and
+the church on Sunday was filled with new Hallelujahs.
+
+But the fame of the great is fleeting. Poor Paul Philips passed away,
+and was forgotten. When his biographer went to see him, his place knew
+him no more. No one could tell of his virtues, his career, his
+excellences. Nothing remained but his epitaph:
+
+     "O reader, if that thou canst read,
+       Look down upon this stone;
+     Do all we can, Death is a man
+       That never spareth none."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CLERKS TOO CLERICAL. SMUGGLING DAYS AND SMUGGLING WAYS
+
+It is perhaps not altogether surprising that in times when ordained
+clergymen were scarce, and when much confusion reigned, the clerk should
+occasionally have taken upon himself to discharge duties which scarcely
+pertained to his office. Great diversity of opinion is evident as
+regards the right of the clerk to perform certain ecclesiastical
+services, such as his reading of the Burial Service, the Churching of
+Women, and the reading of the daily services in the absence of the
+incumbent. In the days of Queen Elizabeth, judging from the numerous
+inquiries issued by the bishops at their visitations, one would imagine
+that the parish clerk performed many services which pertained to the
+duties of the parish priest. It is not likely that such inquiries should
+have been made if some reports of clerks and readers exceeding their
+prescribed functions had not reached episcopal ears. They ask if readers
+presume to baptize or marry or celebrate Holy Communion. And the answers
+received in several cases support the surmise of the bishops. Thus we
+read that at Westbere, "When the parson is absent the parish clerk reads
+the service." At Waltham the parish clerk served the parish for the most
+as the vicar seldom came there. At Tenterden the service was read by a
+layman, one John Hopton, and at Fairfield a reader served the church.
+This was the condition of those parishes in 1569, and doubtless many
+others were similarly situated.
+
+The Injunctions of Archbishop Grindal, issued in 1571, are severe and
+outspoken with regard to lay ministration. He wrote as follows:
+
+     "We do enjoin and straitly command, that from henceforth no
+     parish clerk, nor any other person not being ordered, at the
+     least, for a deacon, shall presume to solemnize Matrimony, or
+     to minister the Sacrament of Baptism, or to deliver the
+     communicants the Lord's cup at the celebration of the Holy
+     Communion. And that no person, not being a minister, deacon,
+     or at least, tolerated by the ordinary in writing, do attempt
+     to supply the office of a minister in saying divine service
+     openly in any church or chapel."
+
+In the Lincoln diocese in 1588 the clerk was still allowed to read one
+lesson and the epistle, but he was forbidden from saying the service,
+ministering any sacraments or reading any homily. In some cases greater
+freedom was allowed. In the beautiful Lady Chapel of the Church of St.
+Mary Overy there is preserved a curious record relating to this:
+
+     "Touching the Parish Clerk and Sexton all is well; only our
+     clerk doth sometimes to ease the minister read prayers,
+     church women, christen, bury and marry, being allowed so
+     to do.
+
+     "December 9. 1634."
+
+Bishop Joseph Hall of Exeter asked in 1638 in his visitation articles,
+"Whether in the absence of the minister or at any other time the Parish
+Clerk, or any other lay person, said Common Prayer openly in the church
+or any part of the Divine Service which is proper to the Priest?"
+
+Archdeacon Marsh, of Chichester, in 1640 inquires: "Hath your Parish
+Clerk or Sexton taken upon him to meddle with anything above his office,
+as churching of women, burying of the dead, or such like?"
+
+During the troublous times of the Commonwealth period it is not
+surprising that the clerk often performed functions which were "above
+his office," when clergymen were banished from their livings. We have
+noticed already an example of the burial service being performed by the
+clerk when he was so rudely treated by angry Parliamentarians for using
+the Book of Common Prayer. Here is an instance of the ceremony of
+marriage being performed by the parish clerk:
+
+     "The marriages in the Parish of Dale Abbey were till a few
+     years previous to the Marriage Act, solemnized by the Clerk
+     of the Parish, at one shilling each, there being no
+     minister."
+
+This Marriage Act was that passed by the Little Parliament of 1653, by
+which marriage was pronounced to be merely a civil contract. Banns were
+published in the market-place, and the marriages were performed by
+Cromwell's Justices of the Peace whom, according to a Yorkshire vicar,
+"that impious and rebell appointed out of the basest Hypocrites and
+dissemblers with God and man." The clerks' marriage ceremony was no
+worse than that of the justices.
+
+Dr. Macray, of the Bodleian Library, has discovered the draft of a
+licence granted by Dr. John Mountain, Bishop of London, to Thomas
+Dickenson, parish clerk of Waltham Holy Cross, in the year 1621,
+permitting him to read prayers, church women, and bury the dead. This
+licence states that the parish of Waltham Holy Cross was very spacious,
+many houses being a long distance from the church, and that the curate
+was very much occupied with his various duties of visiting the sick,
+burying the dead, churching women, and other business belonging to his
+office; hence permission is granted to Thomas Dickenson to assist the
+curate in reading prayers in church, burying dead corpses, and to church
+women in the absence of the curate, or when the curate cannot
+conveniently perform the same duty in his own person.
+
+Doubtless this licence was no solitary exception, and it is fairly
+certain that other clerks enjoyed the same privileges which are here
+assigned to Master Thomas Dickenson. He must have been a worthy member
+of his class, a man of education, and of skill and ability in reading,
+or episcopal sanction would not have been given to him to perform these
+important duties.
+
+It is evident that parish clerks occasionally at least performed several
+important clerical functions with the consent of, or in the absence of
+the incumbents, and that in spite of the articles in the visitations of
+some bishops who were opposed to this practice, episcopal sanction was
+not altogether wanting.
+
+The affection with which the parishioners regarded the clerk is
+evidenced in many ways. He received from them many gifts in kind and
+money, such as eggs and cakes and sheaves of corn. Some of them were
+demanded in early times as a right that could not be evaded; but the
+compulsory payment of such goods was abolished, and the parishioners
+willingly gave by courtesy that which had been deemed a right.
+
+Sometimes land has been left to the clerk in order that he may ring the
+curfew-bell, or a bell at night and early morning, so that travellers
+may be warned lest they should lose their way over wild moorland or
+bleak down, and, guided by the sound of the bell, may reach a place
+of safety.
+
+An old lady once lost her way on the Lincolnshire wolds, nigh Boston,
+but was guided to her home by the sound of the church bell tolling at
+night. So grateful was she that she bequeathed a piece of land to the
+parish clerk on condition that he should ring one of the bells from
+seven to eight o'clock each evening during the winter months.
+
+There is a piece of land called "Curfew Land" at St.
+Margaret's-at-Cliffe, Kent, the rent of which was directed to be paid to
+the clerk or other person who should ring the curfew every evening in
+order to warn travellers lest they should fall over the cliff, as the
+unfortunate donor of the land did, for want of the due and constant
+ringing of the bell.
+
+In smuggling days, clerks, like many of their betters, were not
+immaculate. The venerable vicar of Worthing, the Rev. E. K. Elliott,
+records that the clerk of Broadwater was himself a smuggler, and in
+league with those who throve by the illicit trade. When a cargo was
+expected he would go up to the top of the spire, which afforded a
+splendid view of the sea, and when the coast was clear of preventive
+officers he would give the signal by hoisting a flag. Kegs of contraband
+spirits were frequently placed inside two huge tombs which have sliding
+tops, and which stand near the western porch of Worthing church.
+
+The last run of smuggled goods in that neighbourhood was well within the
+recollection of the vicar, and took place in 1855. Some kegs were taken
+to Charman Dean and buried in the ground, and although diligent search
+was made, the smugglers baffled their pursuers.
+
+At Soberton, Hants, there is an old vault near the chancel door. Now the
+flat stone is level with the ground; but in 1800 it rested on three feet
+of brickwork, and could be lifted off by two men. Here many kegs of
+spirit that paid no duty were deposited by an arrangement with the
+clerk, and the stone lifted on again. This secret hiding-place was never
+discovered, neither did the curate find out who requisitioned his horse
+when the nights favoured smugglers.
+
+In the wild days of Cornish wreckers and wrecking, both priest and clerk
+are said to have taken part in the sharing of the tribute of the sea
+cast upon their rockbound coast. The historian of Cornwall, Richard
+Polwhele, tells of a wreck happening one Sunday morning just before
+service. The clerk, eager to be at the fray, announced to the assembled
+parishioners that "Measter would gee them a holiday."
+
+I will not vouch for the truth of that other story told in the
+_Encyclopaedia of Wit_ (1801), which runs as follows:
+
+"A parson who lived on the coast of Cornwall, where one great business
+of the inhabitants is plundering from ships that are wrecked, being once
+preaching when the alarm was given, found that the sound of the wreck
+was so much more attractive than his sermon, that all his congregation
+were scampering out of church. To check their precipitation, he called
+out, 'My brethren, let me entreat you to stay for five words more'; and
+marching out of the pulpit, till he had got pretty near the door of the
+church, slowly pronounced, 'Let us all start fair,' and ran off with the
+rest of them."
+
+An old parishioner of the famous Rev. R. S. Hawker once told him of a
+very successful run of a cargo of kegs, which the obliging parish clerk
+allowed the smugglers to place underneath the benches and in the tower
+stairs of the church. The old man told the story thus:
+
+     "We bribed Tom Hockaday, the sexton, and we had the goods
+     safe in the seats by Saturday night. The parson did wonder at
+     the large congregation, for divers of them were not regular
+     churchgoers at other times; and if he had known what was
+     going on, he could not have preached a more suitable
+     discourse, for it was, 'Be not drunk with wine, wherein is
+     excess.' It was one of his best sermons; but, there, it did
+     not touch us, you see; for we never tasted anything but
+     brandy and gin."
+
+In such smuggling ways the clerk was no worse than his neighbours, who
+were all more or less involved in the illicit trade.
+
+The old Cornish clerks who used to help the smugglers were a curious
+race of beings, remarkable for their familiar ways with the parson. At
+St. Clements the clergyman one day was reading the verse, "I have seen
+the ungodly flourish like a _green bay_ tree," when the clerk looked up
+with an inquiring glance from the desk below, "How can that be,
+maister?" He was more familiar with the colour of a bay horse than the
+tints of a bay tree.
+
+At Kenwyn two dogs, one of which belonged to the parson, were fighting
+at the west end of the church; the parson, who was then reading the
+second lesson, rushed out of the pew and went down and parted them.
+Returning to his pew, and doubtful where he had left off, he asked the
+clerk, "Roger, where was I?" "Why, down parting the dogs, maister,"
+replied Roger.
+
+Two rocks stand out on the South Devon coast near Dawlish, which are
+known as the Parson and Clerk. A wild, weird legend is told about these
+rocks--of a parson who desired the See of Exeter, and often rode with
+his clerk to Dawlish to hear the latest news of the bishop who was nigh
+unto death. The wanderers lost their way one dark night, and the parson
+exhibited most unclerical anger, telling his clerk that he would rather
+have the devil for a guide than him. Of course, the devil or one of his
+imps obliged, and conducted the wanderers to an old ruined house, where
+there was a large company of disguised demons. They all passed a merry
+night, singing and carousing. Then the news comes that the bishop is
+dead. The parson and clerk determine to set out at once. Their steeds
+are brought, but will not budge a step. The parson cuts savagely at his
+horse. The demons roar with unearthly laughter. The ruined house and all
+the devils vanish. The waves are overwhelming the riders, and in the
+morning the wretches are found clinging to the rocks with the grasp of
+death, which ever afterwards record their villainy and their fate.
+
+Among tales of awe and weird mystery stands out the story of the
+adventures of Peter Priestly, clerk, sexton, and gravestone cutter, of
+Wakefield, who flourished at the end of the eighteenth century. He was
+an old and much respected inhabitant of the town, and not at all given
+to superstitious fears. One Saturday evening he went to the church to
+finish the epitaph on a stone which was to be in readiness for removal
+before Sunday. Arrived at the church, where he had his workshop, he set
+down his lantern and lighted his other candle, which was set in a
+primitive candlestick formed out of a potato. The church clock struck
+eleven, and still some letters remained unfinished, when he heard a
+strange sound, which seemed to say "Hiss!" "Hush!" He resumes his work
+undaunted. Again that awful voice breaks in once more. He lights his
+lantern and searches for its cause. In vain his efforts. He resolves to
+leave the church, but again remembers his promise and returns to his
+work. The mystic hour of midnight strikes. He has nearly finished, and
+bends down to examine the letters on the stone. Again he hears a louder
+"Hiss!" He now stands appalled. Terror seizes him. He has profaned the
+Sabbath, and the sentence of death has gone forth. With tottering steps
+Peter finds his way home and goes to bed. Sleep forsakes him. His wife
+ministers to him in vain. As morning dawns the good woman notices
+Peter's wig suspended on the great chair. "Oh, Peter," she cries, "what
+hast thou been doing to burn all t' hair off one side of thy wig?" "Ah!
+bless thee," says the clerk, "thou hast cured me with that word." The
+mysterious "hiss" and "hush" were sounds from the frizzling of Peter's
+wig by the flame of the candle, which to his imperfect sense of hearing
+imported things horrible and awful. Such is the story which a writer in
+Hone's _Year Book_ tells, and which is said to have afforded Peter
+Priestly and the good people of merry Wakefield many a joke.
+
+The _Year Book_ is always full of interest, and in the same volume I
+find an account of a most worthy representative of the profession, one
+John Kent, the parish clerk of St. Albans, who died in 1798, aged eighty
+years. He was a very venerable and intelligent man, who did service in
+the old abbey church, long before the days when its beauties were
+desecrated by Grimthorpian restoration, or when it was exalted to
+cathedral rank. For fifty-two years Kent was the zealous clerk and
+custodian of the minster, and loved to describe its attractions. He was
+the friend of the learned Browne Willis. His name is mentioned in
+Cough's _Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain_, and his intelligence
+and knowledge noticed, and Newcombe, the historian of the abbey,
+expressed his gratitude to the good clerk for much information imparted
+by him to the author. The monks could not have guarded the shrine of St.
+Alban with greater care than did Kent protect the relics of good Duke
+Humphrey. His veneration for all that the abbey contained was
+remarkable. A story is told of a gentleman who purloined a bone of the
+Duke. The clerk suspected the theft but could never prove it, though he
+sometimes taxed the gentleman with having removed the bone. At last,
+just before his death, the man restored it, saying to the clerk, "I
+could not depart easy with it in my possession."
+
+Kent was a plumber and glazier by trade, in politics a staunch partisan
+of "the Blues," and on account of his sturdy independence was styled
+"Honest John." He performed his duties in the minster with much zeal and
+ability, his knowledge of psalmody was unsurpassed, his voice was strong
+and melodious, and he was a complete master of church music. Unlike many
+of his confreres, he liked to hear the congregation sing; but when
+country choirs came from neighbouring churches to perform in the abbey
+with instruments, contemptuously described by him as "a box of
+whistles," the congregation being unable to join in the melodies, he
+used to give out the anthem thus: "Sing _ye_ to the praise and glory of
+God...." Five years before his death he had an attack of paralysis which
+slightly crippled his power of utterance, though this defect could
+scarcely be detected when he was engaged in the services of the church.
+Two days before his death he sang his "swan-song." Some colours were
+presented to the volunteers of the town, and were consecrated in the
+abbey. During the service he sang the 20th Psalm with all the strength
+and vivacity of youth. When his funeral sermon was preached the rector
+alluded to this dying effort, and said that on the day of the great
+service "Nature seemed to have reassumed her throne; and, as she knew it
+was to be his last effort, was determined it should be his best." The
+body of the good clerk, John Kent, rests in the abbey church which he
+loved so well, in a spot marked by himself, and we hope that the
+"restoration," somewhat drastic and severe, which has fallen upon the
+grand old church, has not obscured his grave or destroyed the memorial
+of this worthy and excellent clerk.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE CLERK IN EPITAPH
+
+The virtues of many a parish clerk are recorded on numerous humble
+tombstones in village churchyards. The gratitude felt by both rector and
+people for many years of faithful service is thus set forth, sometimes
+couched in homely verse, and occasionally marred by the misplaced humour
+and jocular expressions and puns with which our forefathers thought fit
+to honour the dead. In this they were not original, and but followed the
+example of the Greeks and Romans, the Italians, Spaniards, and French.
+This objectionable fashion of punning on gravestones was formerly much
+in vogue in England, and such a prominent official as the clerk did not
+escape the attention of the punsters. Happily the quaint fancies and
+primitive humour, which delighted our grandsires in the production of
+rebuses and such-like pleasantries, no longer find themselves displayed
+upon the fabric of our churches, and the "merry jests" have ceased to
+appear upon the memorials of the dead. We will glance at the clerkly
+epitaphs of some of the worthies who have held the office of parish
+clerk who were deemed deserving of a memorial.
+
+In the southern portion of the churchyard attached to St. Andrew's
+Church, Rugby, is a plain upright stone containing the following
+inscription:
+
+          In memory of
+          Peter Collis
+        33 years Clerk of
+           this Parish
+     who died Feb'y 28th 1818
+         Aged 82 years
+
+[Some lines of poetry follow, but these unfortunately are not now
+discernible.]
+
+At the time Peter held office the incumbent was noted for his
+card-playing propensities, and the clerk was much addicted to
+cock-fighting. The following couplet relating to these worthies is still
+remembered:
+
+     No wonder the people of Rugby are all in the dark,
+     With a card-playing parson and a cock-fighting clerk.
+
+Peter's father was clerk before him, and on a stone to his memory is
+recorded as follows:
+
+               In memory of
+          John Collis Husband of
+          Eliz: Collis who liv'd in
+          Wedlock together 50 years
+      he served as Parish Clerk 41 years
+     And died June 19th 1781 aged 69 years
+
+       Him who covered up the Dead
+       Is himself laid in the same bed
+       Time with his crooked scythe hath made
+       Him lay his mattock down and spade
+       May he and we all rise again
+       To everlasting life AMEN.
+
+The name Collis occurs amongst those who held the office of parish clerk
+at West Haddon. The Rev. John T. Page, to whom I am indebted for the
+above information[44], has gleaned the following particulars from the
+parish registers and other sources. The clerk who reigned in 1903 was
+Thomas Adams, who filled the position for eighteen years. He succeeded
+his father-in-law, William Prestidge, who died 24 March, 1886, after
+holding the office fifty-three years. His predecessor was Thomas Collis,
+who died 30 January, 1833, after holding the office fifty-two years, and
+succeeded John Colledge, who, according to an old weather-beaten stone
+still standing in the churchyard, died 12 September, 1781. How long
+Colledge held office cannot now be ascertained. Here are some remarkable
+examples of long years of service, Collis and Prestidge having held the
+office for 105 years.
+
+[Footnote 44: cf. _Notes and Queries_, Tenth Series, ii., 10 September,
+1904, p. 215.]
+
+In Shenley churchyard the following remarkable epitaph appears to the
+memory of Joseph Rogers, who was a bricklayer as well as parish clerk:
+
+     Silent in dust lies mouldering here
+     A Parish Clerk of voice most clear.
+     None Joseph Rogers could excel
+     In laying bricks or singing well;
+     Though snapp'd his line, laid by his rod,
+     We build for him our hopes in God.
+
+A remarkable instance of longevity is recorded on a tombstone in Cromer
+churchyard. The inscription runs:
+
+     Sacred to the memory of David Vial who departed this life the
+     26th of March, 1873, aged 94 years, for sixty years clerk of
+     this parish.
+
+At the village church of Whittington, near Oswestry, there is a
+well-known epitaph, which is worth recording:
+
+     March 13th 1766 died Thomas Evans, Parish Clerk, aged 72.
+
+     Old Sternhold's lines or "Vicar of Bray"
+     Which he tuned best 'twas hard to say.
+
+Another remarkable instance of longevity is that recorded on a
+tombstone in the cemetery of Eye, Suffolk, erected to the memory of a
+faithful clerk:
+
+     Erected to the memory of
+     George Herbert
+     who was clerk of this parish for more
+     than 71 years
+     and who died on the 17th May 1873
+     aged 81 years.
+
+     This monument
+     Is erected to his memory by his grateful
+     Friend
+     the Rev. W. Page Roberts
+     Vicar of Eye.
+
+Herbert must have commenced his duties very early in life; according to
+the inscription, at the age of ten years.
+
+At Scothorne, in Lincolnshire, there is a sexton-ringer-clerk epitaph on
+John Blackburn's tombstone, dated 1739-40. It reads thus:
+
+     Alas poor John
+     Is dead and gone
+     Who often toll'd the Bell
+     And with a spade
+     Dug many a grave
+     And said Amen as well.
+
+The Roes were a great family of clerks at Bakewell, and the two members
+who occupied that office at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of
+the nineteenth century seem to have been endowed with good voices, and
+with a devoted attachment to the church and its monuments. Samuel Roe
+had the honour of being mentioned in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, and
+receives well-deserved praise for his care of the fabric of Bakewell
+Church, and his epitaph is given, which runs as follows:
+
+     To
+     The memory of
+     SAMUEL ROE
+     Clerk
+     of the Parish Church of Bakewell,
+     which office
+     he filled thirty-five years
+     with credit to himself
+     and satisfaction to the inhabitants.
+     His natural powers of voice,
+     in clearness, strength, and sweetness
+     were altogether unequalled.
+     He died October 31st, 1792
+     Aged 70 years
+
+The correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ wrote thus of this
+faithful clerk:
+
+     "Mr. Urban,
+
+     "It was with much concern that I read the epitaph upon Mr.
+     Roe in your last volume, page 1192. Upon a little tour which
+     I made in Derbyshire in 1789, I met with that worthy and very
+     intelligent man at Bakewell, and in the course of my
+     antiquarian researches there, derived no inconsiderable
+     assistance from his zeal and civility. If he did not possess
+     the learning of his namesake, your old and valuable
+     correspondent[45], I will venture to declare that he was not
+     less influenced by a love and veneration for antiquity, many
+     proofs of which he had given by his care and attention to the
+     monuments of the church which were committed to his charge;
+     for he united the characters of sexton, clerk,
+     singing-master, will-maker, and schoolmaster. Finding that I
+     was quite alone, he requested permission to wait upon me at
+     the inn in the evening, urging as a reason for this request
+     that he must be exceedingly gratified by the conversation of
+     a gentleman who could read the characters upon the monument
+     of Vernon, the founder of Haddon House, a treat he had not
+     met with for many years. After a very pleasant gossip we
+     parted, but not till my honest friend had, after some
+     apparent struggle, begged of me to indulge him with my name."
+
+[Footnote 45: T. Row stands for T_he_ R_ector_ O_f_ W_hittington_, the
+Rev. Samuel Pegge. cf. _Curious Epitaphs_, by W. Andrews, p. 124.]
+
+To this worthy clerk's care is due the preservation of the Vernon and
+other monuments in Bakewell Church. Mr. Andrews tells us that "in some
+instances he placed a wooden framework to keep off the rough hands and
+rougher knives of the boys and young men of the congregation. He also
+watched with special care the Wenderley tomb, and even took careful
+rubbings of the inscriptions[46]."
+
+[Footnote 46: W. Andrews, _Curious Epitaphs_, p. 124.]
+
+The inscription on the tomb of the son of this worthy clerk proves that
+he inherited his father's talents as regards musical ability:
+
+     Erected
+     In remembrance of
+     PHILIP ROE
+     Who died 12th September, 1815,
+     Aged 52 years.
+
+     The vocal Powers here let us mark
+     Of Philip our late Parish Clerk,
+     In church none ever heard a Layman
+     With a clearer voice say 'Amen'!
+     Who now with Hallelujahs sound
+     Like him can make this roof rebound?
+     The Choir lament his Choral Tones
+     The Town--so soon Here lie his Bones.
+     Sleep undisturb'd within thy peaceful shrine
+     Till Angels wake thee with such notes as thine.
+
+The last two lines are a sweet and tender tribute truly to the memory
+of this melodious clerk.
+
+A writer in _All the Year Round_[47], who has been identified as
+Cuthbert Bede, the author of the immortal _Verdant Green_, tells of the
+Osbornes and Worrals, famous families of clerks, quoting instances of
+the hereditary nature of the office. He wrote as follows
+concerning them:
+
+[Footnote 47: No. 624, New Series, p. 83.]
+
+"As a boy I often attended the service at Belbroughton Church,
+Worcestershire, when the clerk was Mr. Osborne, tailor. His family had
+been parish clerks and tailors since the time of Henry VIII, and were
+lineally descended from William Fitz-Osborne, who in the twelfth century
+had been deprived by Ralph Fitz-Herbert of his right to the manor of
+Bellam, in the parish of Bellroughton. Often have I stood in the
+picturesque churchyard of Wolverley, Worcestershire, by the grave of the
+old parish clerk, whom I well remember, old Thomas Worrall, the
+inscription on whose monument is as follows:
+
+          Sacred to the memory of
+          THOMAS WORRALL,
+          parish clerk of Wolverley for a period of
+          forty-seven years.
+          Died A.D. 1854, February 23rd.
+          He served with faithfulness in humble sphere
+          As one who could his talents well employ,
+          Hope that when Christ his Lord shall reappear,
+          He may be bidden to his Master's joy.
+
+     This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceased
+     by a few parishioners in testimony of his worth, April 1855.
+
+          Charles R. Somers Cocks,
+               Vicar.
+
+It may be noted of this worthy clerk that, with the exception of a week
+or two before his death, he was never absent from his Sunday and weekday
+duties in the forty-seven years during which he held office.
+
+He succeeded his father, James Worrall, who died in 1806, aged
+seventy-nine, after being parish clerk of Wolverley for thirty years.
+His tombstone, near to that of his son, was erected "to record his worth
+both in his public and private character, and as a mark of personal
+esteem--p. 1. F.H. and W.C. p.c." I am told that these initials stand
+for F. Hustle, and the Rev. William Callow, and that the latter was the
+author of the following lines inscribed on the monument, which are well
+worth quoting:
+
+     If courtly bards adorn each statesman's bust
+     And strew their laurels o'er each warrior's dust,
+     Alike immortalise, as good and great,
+     Him who enslaved as him who saved the State,
+     Surely the Muse (a rustic minstrel) may
+     Drop one wild flower upon a poor man's clay.
+     This artless tribute to his mem'ry give
+     Whose life was such as heroes seldom live.
+     In worldly knowledge, poor indeed his store--
+     He knew the village, and he scarce knew more.
+     The worth of heavenly truth he justly knew--
+     In faith a Christian, and in practice too.
+     Yes, here lies one, excel him ye who can:
+     Go! imitate the virtues of that man!
+
+The famous "Amen" epitaph at Crayford, Kent, is well known, though the
+name of the clerk who is thus commemorated is sometimes forgotten. It is
+to the memory of one Peter Snell, who repeated his "Amens" diligently
+for a period of thirty years, and runs as follows:
+
+     Here lieth the body of
+     Peter Snell,
+     Thirty years clerk of this Parish.
+     He lived respected as a pious and mirthful man,
+     and died on his way to church to
+     assist at a wedding,
+     on the 31st of March, 1811,
+     Aged seventy years.
+
+     The inhabitants of Crayford have raised this stone to his
+     cheerful memory, and as a tribute to his long and faithful
+     services.
+
+     The life of this clerk was just threescore and ten,
+     Nearly half of which time he had sung out Amen.
+     In his youth he had married like other young men,
+     But his wife died one day--so he chanted Amen.
+     A second he took--she departed--what then?
+     He married and buried a third with Amen.
+     Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but then
+     His voice was deep base, as he sung out Amen.
+     On the horn he could blow as well as most men,
+     So his horn was exalted to blowing Amen.
+     But he lost all his wind after threescore and ten,
+     And here with three wives he waits till again
+     The trumpet shall rouse him to sing out Amen.
+
+[Illustration: OLD SCARLETT]
+
+The duties of sexton and parish clerk were usually performed by one
+person, as we have already frequently noticed, and therefore it is
+fitting that we should record the epitaph of Old Scarlett, most famous
+of grave-diggers, who buried two queens, both the victims of stern
+persecution, ill-usage, and Tudor tyranny--Catherine, the divorced wife
+of Henry VIII, and poor sinning Mary Queen of Scots. His famous picture
+in Peterborough Cathedral, on the wall of the western transept, usually
+attracts the chief attention of the tourist, and has preserved his name
+and fame. He is represented with a spade, pickaxe, keys, and a whip in
+his leathern girdle, and at his feet lies a skull. In the upper
+left-hand corner appear the arms of the see of Peterborough, save that
+the cross-keys are converted into cross-swords. The whip at his girdle
+appears to show that Old Scarlett occupied the position of dog-whipper
+as well as sexton. There is a description of this portrait in the _Book
+of Days_, wherein the writer says:
+
+     "What a lively effigy--short, stout, hardy, self-complacent,
+     perfectly satisfied, and perhaps even proud of his
+     profession, and content to be exhibited with all its insignia
+     about him! Two queens had passed through his hands into that
+     bed which gives a lasting rest to queens and to peasants
+     alike. An officer of death, who had so long defied his
+     principal, could not but have made some impression on the
+     minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and other magnates of the
+     cathedral, and hence, as we may suppose, the erection of this
+     lively portraiture of the old man, which is believed to have
+     been only once renewed since it was first put up. Dr. Dibdin,
+     who last copied it, tells us that 'old Scarlett's jacket and
+     trunkhose are of a brownish red, his stockings blue, his
+     shoes black, tied with blue ribbons, and the soles of his
+     feet red. The cap upon his head is red, and so also is the
+     ground of the coat armour.'" Beneath the portrait are these
+     lines:
+
+          YOU SEE OLD SCARLETTS PICTURE STAND ON HIE
+          BUT AT YOUR FEETE THERE DOTH HIS BODY LYE
+          HIS GRAVESTONE DOTH HIS AGE AND DEATH TIME SHOW
+          HIS OFFICE BY THEIS TOKENS YOU MAY KNOW
+          SECOND TO NONE FOR STRENGTH AND STURDYE LIMM
+          A SCARBABE MIGHTY VOICE WITH VISAGE GRIM
+          HEE HAD INTER'D TWO QUEENES WITHIN THIS PLACE
+          AND THIS TOWNES HOUSEHOLDERS IN HIS LIVES SPACE
+          TWICE OVER: BUT AT LENGTH HIS OWN TURNE CAME
+          WHAT HE FOR OTHERS DID FOR HIM THE SAME
+          WAS DONE: NO DOUBT HIS SOUL DOTH LIVE FOR AYE
+          IN HEAVEN: THOUGH HERE HIS BODY CLAD IN CLAY.
+
+On the floor is a stone inscribed "JULY 2 1594 R.S. aetatis 98." This
+painting is not a contemporary portrait of the old sexton, but a copy
+made in 1747.
+
+The sentiment expressed in the penult couplet is not uncommon, the idea
+of retributive justice, of others performing the last offices for the
+clerk who had so often done the like for his neighbours. The same notion
+is expressed in the epitaph of Frank Raw, clerk and monumental mason, of
+Selby, Yorkshire, which runs as follows:
+
+     Here lies the body of poor FRANK RAW
+       Parish clerk and gravestone cutter,
+     And this is writ to let you know
+     What Frank for others used to do
+       Is now for Frank done by another[48].
+
+[Footnote 48: _Curious Epitaphs_, by W. Andrews, p. 120.]
+
+The achievement of Old Scarlett with regard to his interring "the town's
+householders in his life's space twice over," has doubtless been
+equalled by many of the long-lived clerks whose memoirs have been
+recorded, but it is not always recorded on a tombstone. At
+Ratcliffe-on-Soar there is, however, the grave of an old clerk, one
+Robert Smith, who died in 1782, at the advanced age of eighty-two years,
+and his epitaph records the following facts:
+
+     Fifty-five years it was, and something more,
+       Clerk of this parish he the office bore,
+     And in that space, 'tis awful to declare,
+       Two generations buried by him were[49]!
+
+[Footnote 49: _Ibid_. p. 121.]
+
+It is recorded on the tomb of Hezekiah Briggs, who died in 1844 in his
+eightieth year, the clerk and sexton of Bingley, Yorkshire, that "he
+buried seven thousand corpses[50]."
+
+[Footnote 50: _Notes and Queries_, Ninth Series, xii. 453.]
+
+The verses written in his honour are worth quoting:
+
+     Here lies an old ringer beneath the cold clay
+     Who has rung many peals both for serious and gay;
+     Through Grandsire and Trebles with ease he could range,
+     Till death called Bob, which brought round the last change.
+
+       For all the village came to him
+         When they had need to call;
+       His counsel free to all was given,
+         For he was kind to all.
+
+     Ring on, ring' on, sweet Sabbath bell,
+     Still kind to me thy matins swell,
+     And when from earthly things I part,
+     Sigh o'er my grave and lull my heart.
+
+These last four lines strike a sweet note, and are far superior to the
+usual class of monumental poetry. I will not guarantee the correct
+copying of the third and fourth lines. Various copyists have produced
+various versions. One version runs:
+
+     Bob majors and trebles with ease he could bang,
+     Till Death called a bob which brought the last clang.
+
+In Staple-next-Wingham, Kent, there is a stone to the memory of the
+parish clerk who died in 1820, aged eighty-six years, and thus
+inscribed:
+
+     He was honest and just, in friendship sincere,
+     And Clerk of this Parish for sixty-seven years.
+
+At Worth Church, Sussex, near the south entrance is a headstone,
+inscribed thus:
+
+     In memory of John Alcorn, Clerk and Sexton of this parish,
+     who died Dec. 13: 1868 in the 81st year of his age.
+
+          Thine honoured friend for fifty three full years,
+          He saw each bridal's joy, each Burial's tears;
+          Within the walls, by Saxons reared of old,
+          By the stone sculptured font of antique mould,
+          Under the massive arches in the glow,
+          Tinged by dyed sun-beams passing to and fro,
+          A sentient portion of the sacred place,
+          A worthy presence with a well-worn face.
+          The lich-gate's shadow, o'er his pall at last
+          Bids kind adieu as poor old John goes past.
+          Unseen the path, the trees, the old oak door,
+          No more his foot-falls touch the tomb-paved floor,
+          His silvery head is hid, his service done
+          Of all these Sabbaths absent only one.
+          And now amidst the graves he delved around,
+          He rests and sleeps, beneath the hallowed ground.
+
+     Keep Innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right,
+     For that shall bring a man peace at the last. Psalm XXXVII.
+     38.
+
+There is an interesting memorial of an aged parish clerk in Cropthorne
+Church, Worcestershire, an edifice of considerable note. It consists of
+a small painted-glass window in the tower, containing a full-length
+portrait of the deceased official, duly apparelled in a cassock.
+
+There is in the King's Norton parish churchyard an old gravestone the
+existence of which I dare say a good many people had forgotten until
+recently, owing to the inscription having become almost illegible.
+Within the past few weeks it has been renovated, and thus a record has
+been prevented from dropping out of public memory. The stone sets forth
+that it was erected to the memory of Isaac Ford, a shoemaker, who was
+for sixty-two years parish clerk of King's Norton, and who died on 10
+July, 1755, aged eighty-five years. Beneath is another interesting
+inscription to the effect that Henry Ford, son of Isaac, who died on 11
+July, 1795, aged eighty-one, was also parish clerk for forty years. The
+two men thus held continuous office for one hundred and two years. This
+is a famous record of long service, though it has been surpassed by a
+few others, our parish clerks being a long-lived race.
+
+At Stoulton Church a clerk died in 1812, and it is recorded on his
+epitaph that "He was clerk of this parish more 30 years and much
+envied." It was not his office or his salary which was envied, but "a
+worn't much liked by the t'others," and yet followed the verse:
+
+     A loving' husband, father dear,
+     A faithful friend lies buried here.
+
+An epitaph without a "werse" was considered very degrading.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS
+
+The story of the City companies of London has many attractions for the
+historian and antiquary. When we visit the ancient homes of these great
+societies we are impressed by their magnificence and interesting
+associations. Portraits of old City worthies and royal benefactors gaze
+at us from the walls, and link our time with theirs, when they, too,
+strove to uphold the honour of their guild and benefit their generation.
+Many a quaint old-time custom and ceremonial usage linger on within the
+old halls, and there too are enshrined cuirass and targe, helmet, sword
+and buckler, which tell the story of the past, and of the part the
+companies played in national defence or in the protection of civic
+rights. Turning down some dark alley and entering the portals of one of
+their halls, we are transported at once from the busy streets and din of
+modern London into a region of old-world memories which has a
+fascination that is all its own.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+This is not the place to discuss the origin of guilds and City
+companies, which can trace back their descent to Anglo-Saxon times and
+were usually of a religious type. They were the benefit societies of
+ancient days, institutions of self-help, combining care for the needy
+with the practice of religion, justice, and morality. There were guilds
+exclusively religious, guilds of the calendars for the clergy, social
+guilds for the purpose of promoting good fellowship, benevolence, and
+thrift, merchant guilds for the regulation of trade, and frith guilds
+for the promotion of peace and the establishment of law and order.
+
+In this goodly company we find evidences at an early date of the
+existence of the Fraternity of Parish Clerks. Its long and important
+career, though it ranked not with the Livery Companies, and sent not its
+members to take part in the deliberations of the Common Council, is full
+of interest, and reflects the greatest credit on the worthy clerks who
+composed it.
+
+In other cities besides London the clerks seem to have formed their
+guilds. As early as the time of the _Domesday Survey_ there was a
+clerks' guild at Canterbury, wherein it is stated "_In civitate
+Cantuaria habet achiepiscopus_ xii burgesses and xxxii mansuras which
+the clerks of the town, _clerici de villa_, hold within their gild and
+do yield xxxv shillings."
+
+The first mention of the company carries us back to the early days of
+Henry III, when in the seventeenth year of that monarch's reign (A.D.
+1233), according to Stow, they were incorporated and registered in the
+books of the Guildhall. The patron saint of the company was St.
+Nicholas, who also extended his patronage to robbers and mariners.
+Thieves are dubbed by Shakespeare as St. Nicholas's clerks[51], and
+Rowley calls highwaymen by the same title. Possibly this may be
+accounted for by the association of the light-fingered fraternity with
+Nicholas, or Old Nick, a cant name for the devil, or because _The
+Golden Legend_ tells of the conversion of some thieves through the
+saint's agency. At any rate, the good Bishop of Myra was the patron
+saint of scholars, and therefore was naturally selected as tutelary
+guardian of clerks.
+
+[Footnote 51: _Henry IV_, act ii. sc. 1.]
+
+In 1442 Henry VI granted a charter to "the Chief or Parish Clerks of the
+City of London for the honour and glory of Almighty God and of the
+undefiled and most glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother, and on account of
+that special devotion, which they especially bore to Christ's glorious
+confessor, St. Nicholas, on whose day or festival we were first
+presented into this present world, at the hands of a mother of memory
+ever to be revered." The charter states that they had maintained a poor
+brotherhood of themselves, as well as a certain divine service, and
+divine words of charity and piety, devised and exhibited by them year by
+year, for forty years or more by part; and it conferred on them the
+right of a perpetual corporate community, having two roasters and two
+chaplains to celebrate divine offices every day, for the King's welfare
+whether alive or dead, and for the souls of all faithful departed, for
+ever. By special royal grace they were allowed, on petitioning His
+Majesty, to have the charter without paying any fine or fee.
+
+Seven years later a second charter was granted, wherein it is stated
+that their services were held in the Chapel of Mary Magdalene by the
+Guildhall. "Bretherne and Sisterne" were included in the fraternity. Bad
+times and the Wars of the Roses brought distress to the community, and
+they prayed Edward IV to refound their guild, allowing only the
+maintenance of one chaplain instead of two in the chapel nigh the
+Guildhall, together with the support of seven poor persons who daily
+offered up their prayers for the welfare of the King and the repose of
+the souls of the faithful. They provided "a prest, brede, wyne, wex,
+boke, vestments and chalise for their auter of S. Nicholas in the said
+chapel." The King granted their request.
+
+[Illustration: THE MASTER'S CHAIR AT THE PARISH CLERKS HALL.]
+
+The original home of the guild was in Bishopsgate. Brewers' Hall was, in
+1422, lent to them for their meetings. But the old deeds in the
+possession of the company show that as early as 1274 they acquired
+property "near the King's highway in the parish of St. Ethelburga,
+extending from the west side of the garden of the Nuns of St. Helen's to
+near the stone wall of Bishopsgate on the north, in breadth from the
+east side of William the Whit Tawyer's to the King's highway on the
+south." These two highways are now known as Bishopsgate Street and
+Camomile Street. They had property also at Finsbury on the east side of
+Whitecross Street. Inasmuch as the guild did not in those early days
+possess a charter and was not incorporated, it had no power to hold
+property; hence the lands were transmitted to individual members of the
+fraternity[52]. After their incorporation in 1442 the trustees of the
+lands and possessions were all clerks. Another property belonged to them
+at Enfield.
+
+[Footnote 52: The transmission of the property is carefully traced in
+_Some Account of Parish Clerks_, by Mr. James Christie, p. 78. He had
+access to the company's muniments.]
+
+The chief possession of the clerks was the Bishopsgate property. It
+consisted of an inn called "The Wrestlers," another inn which bore the
+sign of "The Angel," and a fair entry or gate near the latter which
+still bears the name Clerks' Place. Wrestlers' Court still marks the
+site of the old inn--so conservative are the old names in the city of
+London. Passing through the entry we should have seen seven modest
+almshouses for the brethren and sisters of the guilds. Beyond these was
+the hall of the company. It consisted of a parlour (36 ft. by 14 ft.),
+with three chambers over it. The east side with fan glasses overlooked
+the garden, 72 ft. in length by 21 ft. wide. The west side was lined
+with wainscot. The actual hall adjoined, a fine room 30 ft. by 25 ft.,
+with a gallery at the nether end, with a little parlour at the west end.
+A room for the Bedell, a kitchen with a vault under it, larder-rooms,
+buttery, and a little house called the Ewery, completed the buildings.
+It must have been a very delightful little home for the company, not so
+palatial as that of some of the greater guilds, but compact, charming,
+and altogether attractive.
+
+But evil days set in for the City companies of London. Spoliation,
+greed, destruction were in the air. Churches, monasteries, charities
+felt the rude hand of the spoiler, and it could scarcely be that the
+rich corporations of the City should fail to attract the covetous eyes
+of the rapacious courtiers. They were forced to surrender all their
+property which had been used for so-called "superstitious" purposes, and
+most of them bought this back with large sums of money, which went into
+the coffers of the King or his ministers. The Parish Clerks' Company
+fared no better than the rest. Their hall was seized by the King, or
+rather by the infamous courtiers of Edward VI, and sold, together with
+the almshouses, to Sir Robert Chester in 1548. He at once took
+possession of the property, but the clerks protested that they had been
+wrongfully despoiled, and again seized their rightful possessions. In
+spite of the sympathy and support of the Lord Mayor, who "communed with
+the wardens of the Great Companies for their gentle aid to be granted to
+the parish clerks towards their charges in defence of their title to
+their Common Hall and lands," the clerks lost their case, and were
+compelled to give up their home or submit to a heavy fine of 1000 marks
+besides imprisonment. The poor dispossessed clerks were defeated, but
+not disheartened. In the days of Queen Mary they renewed their suit, and
+"being likely to have prevailed, Sir Robert Chester pulled down the
+hall, sold the timber, stone and land, and thereupon the suit was
+ended"--very summary conclusion truly!
+
+The Lord Mayor and his colleagues again showed sympathy and compassion
+for the dispossessed clerks, and offered them the church of the Hospital
+of St. Mary of Bethlehem in 1552 for their meetings. They did not lack
+friends. William Roper, whose picture still hangs in the hall of the
+company, the son-in-law of Sir Thomas More, was a great benefactor, who
+bequeathed to them some tenements in Southwark on condition that they
+should distribute L4 among the poor prisoners in Newgate and other
+jails. He was the biographer of Sir Thomas More, and died in 1577.
+
+In 1610 the clerks applied for a new charter, and obtained it from James
+I, under the title of "The Parish Clerks of the Parishes and Parish
+Churches of the City of London, the liberties thereof and seven out of
+nine out-parishes adjoining." They were required to make returns for the
+bills of mortality and of the deaths of freemen. The masters and wardens
+had power granted to them to examine clerks as to whether they could
+sing the Psalms of David according to the usual tunes used in the parish
+churches, and whether they were sufficiently qualified to make their
+weekly returns. In 1636 a new charter was granted by Charles I, and
+again in 1640, this last charter being that by which the company is now
+governed. By this instrument their jurisdiction was extended so as to
+include Hackney and the other fifteen out-parishes, and they gained the
+right of collecting their own wages, and of suing for it in the
+ecclesiastical courts, and of printing the bills of mortality.
+
+Soon after the company lost their hall through the high-handed
+proceedings of Sir Robert Chester, they purchased or leased a new hall,
+which was situated at the north-east corner of Brode Lane, Vintry, where
+they lived from 1562, until the Great Fire in 1666 again made them
+homeless. The Sun Tavern in Leadenhall Street, the Green Dragon,
+Queenhythe, the Quest House, Cripplegate, the Gun, near Aldgate, and the
+Mitre in Fenchurch Street, afforded them temporary accommodation. In
+1669 they began to arrange for a new hall to be built off Wood Street,
+which was completed in 1671, and has since been their home. Various sums
+of money have been voted at different times for its repair or
+embellishment. It has once been damaged by fire, and on another occasion
+severely threatened. In 1825 the entrance into Wood Street was blocked
+up and the entrance into Silver Street opened. The hall has been a
+favourite place of meeting for several other companies--the Fruiterers'
+Company, the Tinplate Workers' Company, the Society of Porters, and
+other private companies have been their tenants.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM ROPER SON-IN-LAW AND BIOGRAPHER OF
+SIR THOMAS MORE, BENEFACTOR OF THE CLERKS' COMPANY]
+
+[Illustration: THE GRANT OF ARMS TO THE COMPANY OF PARISH CLERKS.]
+
+I had recently the privilege of visiting the Parish Clerks' Hall, and
+was kindly conducted there by Mr. William John Smith, the "Father" of
+the company, and a liberal benefactor, whose portrait hangs in the
+hall. He has been three times master, and his father and grandfather
+were members of the fraternity.
+
+The premises consist of a ground floor with cellars, which are let for
+private purposes, and a first floor with two rooms of moderate size. The
+old courtyard is now covered with business offices. Over the court-room
+door stands a copy of the Clerks' Arms, which are thus described: "The
+feyld azur, a flower de lice goulde on chieffe gules, a leopard's head
+betwen two pricksonge bookes of the second, the laces that bind the
+books next, and to the creast upon the healme, on a wreathe gules and
+azur, an arm, from the elbow upwards, holding a pricking book, 30th
+March, 1582." These are the arms "purged of superstition" by Robert
+Cook, Clarencieux Herald, on the aforementioned date. The company's
+motto is, _Unitas Societatis Stabilitas_. The arms over the court-room
+door have the motto _Pange lingua gloriosa_, which is accounted for by
+the fact that this copy of the clerks' heraldic achievement formerly
+stood over the organ in the hall. This organ is a small but pleasant
+instrument, and was purchased in 1737 in order to enable the members to
+practise psalmody. Several portraits of worthy clerks adorn the walls.
+Amongst them we notice that of William Roper, a benefactor of the
+company, whose name has been already mentioned.
+
+The portrait of John Clarke shows a firm, dignified old man, who was the
+parish clerk of St. Michael's, Cornhill, in 1805, and wrote extracts
+from the minute-books of the company. The picture was presented to the
+company in 1827. There are other portraits of worthy clerks, of Richard
+Hust, who died in 1835, and was a great benefactor of the company and
+the restorer of the almshouses; of James Mayhew (1896), and of William
+John Smith (1903).
+
+In one of the windows is the portrait, in stained glass, of John Clarke,
+parish clerk of Bartholomew-the-Less, London, master of the company,
+A.D. 1675, _aetatis suae_ 45. He is represented with a dark skull cap on
+his head, long hair, a moustache, and a large falling band or collar.
+
+There are also portraits in stained glass of Stephen Penckhurst, parish
+clerk of St. Mary Magdalene, Fish Street, London, master in 1685; of
+James Maddox, parish clerk of St. Olive's, Jury, master in 1684; of
+Nicholas Hudles, parish clerk of St. Andrew's, Undershaft, twice master,
+in 1674 and 1682; of Thomas Williams, parish clerk of St. Mary
+Magdalene, Bermondsey, master in 1680; of Robert Seal, parish clerk of
+St. Gregory, master in 1681; of William Disbrow, parish clerk of St.
+Vedast, Foster Lane, and of St. Michael Le Querne, master in 1674; and
+of William Hornbuck, parish clerk of St. James, Clerkenwell, master
+in 1679.
+
+One of the windows has a curious emblematical representation of music
+and its effects, showing King David surrounded by cherubs. The royal
+arms of the time of Charles II, the arms of the company, the arms of the
+Prince of Wales, and a portrait of Queen Anne also appear in
+the windows.
+
+The master's chair was presented by Samuel Andrews, master in 1716,
+which date appears on the back together with the arms of the company,
+the crest being an arm raised bearing a scroll on which is inscribed the
+ninety-fourth Psalm. The seat of the chair is cane webbing. Psalm x. is
+inscribed on the front, and below is the fleur-de-lis.
+
+[Illustration: STAINED GLASS WINDOW AT THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS'
+COMPANY]
+
+There is an interesting warden's or clerk's chair, made of mahogany,
+dating about the middle of the eighteenth century, and some walnut
+chairs fashioned in 1690.
+
+Amongst other treasures I noticed an old Dutch chest, an ancient clock,
+the gift of the master and wardens in 1786, a reprint of Visscher's View
+of London in 1616, the grant of arms to the company, a panel painting of
+the Flight into Egypt, and the Orders and Rules of the company in 1709.
+
+A snuff-box made of the wood of the _Victory_, mounted in silver, is one
+of the clerks' valued possessions, and they have a goodly store of
+plate, in spite of the fact that they, like many of their distinguished
+brethren, the Livery Companies of the City, have been obliged at various
+critical times in their history to dispose of their plate in order to
+meet the heavy demands upon their treasury. They still possess their
+pall, which is used on the occasion of the funeral of deceased members,
+and also "two garlands of crimson velvet embroidered" bearing the date
+1601, which were formerly used at the election of the two masters. The
+master now wears a silver badge, the gift of Richard Perkins in 1879,
+which bears the inscription: _Hoc insigne in usum Magistri D.D.
+Richardus Perkins, SS. Augustini et Fidis Clericus, his Magistri
+1878, 1879_.
+
+By far the most interesting document in the possession of the company is
+the Bede Roll, which contains a list of the members of the fraternity
+from the time of Henry VI. The writing is magnificent, and the lettering
+varies in colours--red, blue, and black ink having been used. Amongst
+the distinguished names of the honorary members I noticed John Mowbray,
+Duke of Norfolk, and Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury.
+
+The company, by the aid of generous benefactors, looks well after the
+poor widows of clerks and the decayed brethren, bestowing upon them
+adequate pensions for their support in their indigence and old age.
+These benefactions entrusted to the care of the company, and the gifts
+by its members of plate and other treasures, show the affectionate
+regard of the parish clerks for their ancient and interesting
+associations, which has done much to preserve the dignity of the office,
+to keep inviolate its traditions, and to improve the status of
+its members.
+
+[Illustration: A PAGE OF THE BEDE ROLL OF THE PARISH CLERKS' COMPANY]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CLERKS OF LONDON: THEIR DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES
+
+A brief study of the history of the Parish Clerks' Company has already
+revealed the important part which its members played in the old City
+life of London. They were intimately connected with the Corporation. The
+clerks held their services in the Guildhall Chapel, and were required on
+Michaelmas Day to sing the Mass before the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and
+commoners before they went to the election of a new Lord Mayor. As early
+as the days of the famous Richard Whittington, on the occasion of his
+first election to the mayoralty, which as the popular rhyme says he held
+three times, we hear of their services being required for this
+great function.
+
+In the year 1406 it was ordered that "a Mass of the Holy Ghost should be
+celebrated with solemn music in the chapel annexed to the Guildhall, to
+the end that the same commonalty by the grace of the Holy Spirit might
+be able peacefully and amicably to nominate two able and proper persons
+to be mayor of the City for the ensuing year, the same Mass, by the
+ordinance of the Chamberlain for the time being, to be solemnly chanted
+by the finest singers, in the chapel aforesaid and upon that feast."
+
+And when the Mass was no longer sung in the chapel of the Guildhall,
+they still chanted the Psalms and anthems before and after divine
+service and sermon, sometimes with the help of "two singing men of
+Paul's," who received twelvepence apiece for their pains; and sometimes
+the singing was done by a convenient number of the Clerks' Company most
+skilful in singing, and deemed most fit by the master and wardens to
+perform that service.
+
+They were in great request at the great and stately funerals of the
+sixteenth century, going before the hearse and singing with their
+surplices hanging on their arms till they came to the church. The
+changes wrought by the Reformation strongly affected their use. In the
+early years of the century we can hear them chanting anthems, dirige,
+and Mass; later on they sing "the Te Deum in English new fashion, Geneva
+wise--men, women and all do sing and boys."
+
+These splendid funerals were a fruitful source of income to the Clerks'
+Company. We see Masters William Holland and John Aungell, clerks of the
+Brotherhood of St. Nicholas, with twenty-four persons and three children
+singing the Masses of Our Lady, the Trinity and Requiem at the interment
+of Sir Thomas Lovell, the sage and witty counsellor of King Henry VIII
+and Constable of the Tower, while sixty-four more clerks met the body on
+its way and conducted it to its last resting-place at Holywell,
+Shoreditch. Perhaps it was not without some satisfaction that the clerks
+took a prominent part in the burial of the Duke of Somerset, the
+iniquitous spoiler of their goods. In the ordinances of the companies
+issued in 1553, very minute regulations are laid down with regard to
+the fees for funerals and the order in which each clerk should serve. At
+the burials of "noble honourable, worshipful men or women or citizens of
+the City of London," the attendance of the clerks was limited to the
+number asked for by the friends of the deceased. No person was to
+receive more than eight-pence. The beadle might charge fourpence for the
+use of the hearse cloth. An extra charge of fourpence could be made if
+the clerks were wanted both in the afternoon and in the forenoon for the
+sermon or other service. The bearers might have twopence more than the
+usual wage. Each clerk was to have his turn in attending funerals, so
+that no one man might be taken for favour or left out for displeasure.
+
+The records of these gorgeous funerals, which are preserved in Machyn's
+diary and other chronicles, reveal the changes wrought by the spread of
+Reformation principles and Puritan notions. In Mary's reign they were
+very magnificent, "priests and clerks chanting in Latin, the priest
+having a cope and the clerk the holy water sprinkle in his hand." The
+accession of Elizabeth seems at first to have wrought little change, and
+the services of the Clerks' Company were in great request. On 21
+October, 1559, "the Countess of Rutland was brought from Halewell to
+Shoreditch Church with thirty priests and clarkes singing," and "Sir
+Thomas Pope was buried at Clerkenwell with two services of pryke
+song[53], and two masses of requiem and all clerkes of London." "Poules
+Choir and the Clarkes of London" united their services on some
+occasions. Funeral sermons began to be considered an important part of
+the function, and Machyn records the names of the preachers. Even though
+such keen Protestants as Coverdale, Bishop Pilkington, Robert Crowley,
+and Veron preached the sermons, twenty clerks of the company were
+usually present singing. Machyn much disliked the innovations made by
+the Puritan party, their singing "Geneva wise" or "the tune of Genevay,"
+men, women, and children all singing together, without any clerk. Here
+is a description of such a funeral on 7 March, 1559: "And there was a
+great company of people two and two together, and neither priest nor
+clarke, the new preachers in their gowns like laymen, neither singing
+nor saying till they came to the grave, and afore she was put in the
+grave, a collect in English, and then put in the grave, and after, took
+some earth and cast it on the corse, and red a thyng ... for the sam,
+and contenent cast the earth into the grave, and contenent read the
+Epistle of St. Paul to the Stesselonyans the ... chapter, and after they
+sang _Pater noster_ in English, bothe preachers and other, and ... of a
+new fashion, and after, one of them went into the pulpit and made a
+sermon." Machyn especially disliked the preacher Veron, rector of St.
+Martin's, Ludgate, a French Protestant, who had been ordained by Bishop
+Ridley, and was "a leader in the change from the old ecclesiastical
+music for the services to the Psalms in metre, versified by Sternhold
+and Hopkins[54]."
+
+[Footnote 53: The notes of the harmony were pricked on the lines of
+music.]
+
+[Footnote 54: _Some Account of Parish Clerks_, by J. Christie, p. 153.]
+
+The clerks indirectly caused the disgrace and suspension of Robert
+Crowley, vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and prebendary of St. Paul's
+Cathedral, a keen Puritan and hater of clerkly ways. He loathed
+surplices as "rags of Popery," and could not bear to see the clerks
+marching in orderly procession singing and chanting. A funeral took
+place at his church on 1 April, 1566. A few days before, the Archbishop
+of Canterbury had issued his Advertisements ordering the use of the
+surplice. The friends of the deceased had engaged the services of the
+parish clerks, who, believing that the order with regard to the use of
+surplices applied to them as well as to the clergy, appeared at the door
+of the church attired according to their ancient usage. A scene
+occurred. The angry Crowley met them at the door and bade them take off
+those "porter's coats." The deputy of the ward supported the vicar and
+threatened to lay them up by the feet if they dared to enter the church
+in such obnoxious robes. There was a mighty disturbance. "Those who took
+their part according to the queen's prosedyngs were fain to give over
+and tarry without the church door." The Lord Mayor's attention was
+called to this disgraceful scene. He complained to the archbishop. The
+deputy of the ward was bound over to keep the peace, and Crowley was
+ordered to stay in his house, and for not wearing a surplice was
+deprived of his living, to which he was again appointed twelve years
+later[55]. The clerks triumphed, but their services at funerals soon
+ceased. Puritan opinions spread; no longer did the clerks lead the
+singing and processions at funereal pageants, and a few boys from
+Christ's Hospital or school children took their places in
+degenerate days.
+
+[Footnote 55: _Some Account of Parish Clerks_, by J. Christie, p. 154.]
+
+The Parish Clerks' Company were not a whit behind other City companies
+in their love of processions and pageantry, and their annual feasts and
+elections were conducted with great ceremony and magnificence. The
+elections took place on Ascension Day, and the feast on the following
+Monday. The clerks in 1529 were ordered to come to the Guildhall College
+on the Sunday before Whit-Sunday to Evensong clad in surplices, and on
+the following day to attend Mass, when each man offered one halfpenny.
+When Mass was over they marched in procession wearing copes from the
+Guildhall to Clerks' Hall, where the feast was held. Fines were levied
+for absence or non-obedience to these observances. Machyn describes the
+accustomed usages in Mary's reign as follows: "The sixth of May was a
+goodly evensong at Yeldhall College with singing and playing as you have
+heard. The morrow after was a great Mass at the same place by the same
+Fraternity, when every clerk offered a halfpenny. The Mass was sung by
+divers of the Queen's Chapel and children. And after Mass was done every
+clerk went their procession, two and two together, each having a
+surplice, a rich cope and a garland. After them fourscore standards,
+streamers and banners, and every one that bare had an albe, or else a
+surplice, and two and two together. Then came the waits playing, and
+then between, thirty Clarkes again singing _Salva festa dies_. So there
+were four quires. Then came a canopy, borne by four of the masters of
+the Clarkes over the Sacrament with a twelve staff torches burning, up
+St. Lawrence Lane and so to the further end of Cheap, then back again by
+Cornhill, and so down to Bishopsgate, into St. Albrose Church, and there
+they did put off their copes, and so to dinner every man, and then
+everyone that bare a streamer had money, as they were of bigness then."
+A very striking procession it must have been, and those who often
+traverse the familiar streets of the City to-day can picture to
+themselves the clerks' pageant of former times, which wended its way
+along the same accustomed thoroughfares.
+
+[Illustration: THE ORGAN AT THE PARISH CLERKS HALL]
+
+But times were changing, and religious ceremonies changed too. Less
+pomp and pageantry characterise the celebrations of the clerks. There is
+the Evensong as usual, and a Communion on the following day, followed by
+a dinner and "a goodly concert of children of Westminster, with viols
+and regals." A little later we read that the clerks marched clad in
+their liveries, gowns, and hoods of white damask. Copes are no longer
+recognised as proper vestments. Standards, banners, and streamers remain
+locked up in the City's treasure-house, and Puritan simplicity is duly
+observed. But the clerks lacked not feasting. Besides the election
+dinner, there were quarterly dinners, and dinners for the wardens and
+assistants. Time has wrought some changes in the mode of celebrating
+election day and other festive occasions. Sometimes "plain living and
+high thinking" were the watchwords that guided the principles of the
+company. Processions and gown-wearing have long been discontinued, but
+in its essential character the election day is still observed, though
+pomp and pageantry no longer form important features of its ceremonial.
+
+We have seen that the parish clerks of London were in great request on
+account of their musical abilities. In 1610 the masters and wardens were
+called upon to examine all those who wished to be admitted into the
+honourable company, as to whether they could read the Psalms of David
+according to the usual tunes used in the parish churches. The finest
+singers chanted Mass in pre-Reformation times in the Guildhall at the
+election of the Lord Mayor. In order to improve themselves in this part
+of their duties, the parish clerks soon after the Restoration of the
+monarchy, in 1660, provided themselves with an organ in order to perfect
+themselves in the art of chanting. The minute book of the company tells
+that it was acquired "the better to enable them to perform a service
+incumbent upon them before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City on
+Michaelmas Day, and also the better to enable them who already are, or
+hereafter shall be, parish clerks of the City in performing their duties
+in the several parishes to which they stand related." Here the clerks
+used to meet on Tuesday afternoons for a regular weekly practice in
+music, and for many years an organist was appointed by the company to
+assist the brethren in their cultivation of psalmody. The selection of
+psalms specially suited for each Sunday in the year was made by the
+company and set forth in _The Parish Clerks' Guide_, in order that the
+special teaching of the Sunday, as set forth in the Collect, Epistle,
+and Gospel, might be duly followed in the Psalms.
+
+Another important duty which the parish clerks of London, and also in
+some provincial towns, discharged was the publishing of the bills of
+mortality for the City. This duty is enjoined in their charter of 1610.
+The corporation required from them returns of the deaths of freemen in
+their respective parishes, and also returns of the number of deaths and
+christenings. The records of the City of London contain a copy of the
+agreement, made in 1545-6 between the Lord Mayor and the Parish Clerks'
+Company, which provides that "They shall cause all clerks of the City to
+present to the common crier the name and surname of any freeman that
+shall die having any children under the age of 21 years." The
+Chamberlain was instructed to pay to the company 13 s. 4 d. yearly for
+their services. The custody of all orphans, with that of their lands and
+goods, had been entrusted to the City by the charter of Richard III, and
+this agreement was made in order to enable the "City Fathers" to
+faithfully discharge their duties in looking after children of deceased
+freemen. In spite of many difficulties, especially after the Great Fire
+which rendered thousands homeless and scattered the population, the
+clerks continued to perform this duty, though not always to the
+satisfaction of their employers, until the beginning of the eighteenth
+century, when the custom seems to have lapsed.
+
+[Illustration: A PAGE OF AN EARLY BILL OF MORTALITY PRESERVED AT THE
+HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS COMPANY]
+
+The earliest bills of mortality now in existence date back to the time
+of Henry VIII, when the clerks were required to furnish information with
+regard to the deaths caused by plague, as well as those resulting from
+other causes. The returns of the victims of plague are occasionally very
+large. In 1562, 20,372 persons died, of which number 17,404 died from
+the plague. The burial grounds of the City became terribly overcrowded,
+and the parish clerks were ordered to report upon the space available in
+the City churchyards. They also were appointed to see to "the shutting
+up of infected houses and putting papers on the doors."
+
+An early "Bill of Mortality" is preserved at the Hall. It tells of "the
+Number of those who dyed in the Citie of London and Liberties of the
+same from the 28th of December 1581 to the 17th of December 1582, with
+the Christenings. And also the number of all those who have died of the
+plague in every parish particularly. Blessed are the Dead." There is
+also preserved a number of the weekly bills of mortality. Referring to
+the year of the Great Plague, 1665, these documents show that at the
+beginning of the pestilence in April, during one week only fifty-seven
+persons died; whereas in September the death-roll had reached the
+enormous number of 6544.
+
+The company seems to have been a useful agency for carrying out all
+kinds of duties connected with gathering the statistics of mortality,
+nor do they seem to have been overpaid for their trouble. In the early
+years of the seventeenth century L 3. 6 s. 8 d. was all that they
+received. In 1607 the sum was increased to L8, inasmuch as they were
+ordered to furnish a bill to the Queen and the Lord Chancellor as well
+as to the King. Some clerks endeavoured to make illicit gains by
+supplying the public with "false and untrue bills," or distributing some
+bills for each week before they had been sent to the Lord Mayor; and any
+brother who "by any cunning device gave away, dispersed, uttered, or
+declared, or by sinister device cast forth at any window, hole, or
+crevice of a wall any bills or notes" before the due returns had been
+sent to the Lord Mayor, was ordered to pay a fine of 10 s. and other
+divers penalties.
+
+The methods of making out these returns are very curious, and did not
+conduce to infallible accuracy. In each parish there were persons called
+searchers, ancient women who were informed by the sexton of a death, and
+whose duty it was to visit the deceased and state the cause of death.
+They had no medical knowledge, and therefore their diagnosis could only
+have been very conjectural. This they reported to the parish clerk. The
+clerk made out his bill for the week, took it to the Hall of the
+company, and deposited it in a box on the staircase. All the returns
+were then tabulated, arranged, and printed, and when copies had been
+sent to the authorities, others were placed in the hands of the
+clerks for sale.
+
+The system was all very excellent and satisfactory, but its carrying out
+was defective. Negligent clerks did not send their returns in spite of
+admonition, caution, fine, or brotherly persuasion. The searchers'
+information was usually unreliable. Complications arose on account of
+the Act of the Commonwealth Parliament requiring the registration of
+births instead of baptisms, of civil marriages, and banns published in
+the market place; also on account of the vast mortality caused by the
+Great Plague, the burials in the large common pits and public burial
+grounds, and the opposition of the Quakers to inspection and
+registration. All these causes contributed to the issuing of unreliable
+returns. The company did their best to grapple with all these
+difficulties. They did not escape censure, and were blamed on account of
+the faults of individual clerks. The contest went on for years, and was
+only finally settled in 1859, when the last bills of mortality were
+issued, and the Public Registration Act rendered the work of the clerks,
+which they had carried on for three centuries to the best of their skill
+and ability, unnecessary. In the Guildhall Library are preserved a large
+number of the volumes of these bills which the industry of the clerks of
+London had issued with so much perseverance and energy under difficult
+circumstances, and they form a valuable and interesting collection of
+documents illustrative of the old life of the City.
+
+One happy result of the duty laid upon the clerks of issuing bills of
+mortality in the City of London was that they were allowed to set up a
+printing press in the Hall of their company. The licence for this press
+was obtained in 1625, and in the following year it was duly established
+with the consent of the authorities. It was no easy task in the early
+Stuart times to obtain leave to have a printing press, and severe were
+the restrictions laid down, and the penalties for any violation of any
+of them. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London had
+mighty powers over the Press, and the clerks could not choose their
+printer save with the approval of these ecclesiastical dignitaries.
+
+Very strict regulations were laid down by the company in order to
+prevent any improper use being made of the productions of their press.
+The door of the chamber containing their printing machine was provided
+with three locks; the key of the upper lock was placed in the charge of
+the upper master, that of the middle lock was in the custody of the
+upper warden, while the key of the lower lock was kept by the under
+warden. They appointed one Richard Hodgkinson as their printer in 1630,
+with whom they had much disputing. Six years later one of their own
+company, Thomas Cotes, parish clerk of Cripplegate Without, was chosen
+to succeed him. Richard Cotes followed in 1641, and then a female
+printer carried on the work, Mrs. Ellinor Cotes, probably the widow
+of Richard.
+
+The Great Fire caused the destruction of the clerks' press; but a few
+years later a prominent member of the company, whose portrait we see in
+the Hall, Mr. John Clarke, procured for them another press with type,
+and Andrew Clarke was appointed printer. He was succeeded by Benjamin
+Motte, whose widow carried on the work after his death. An intruding
+printer, appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of
+London without the consent of the company, one Humphreys, made his
+appearance, much to the displeasure of the clerks, who objected to be
+dictated to with regard to the choice of their own official. Litigation
+ensued, but in the end Humphreys was appointed. He was not a
+satisfactory printer, and was careless and neglectful. The clerks
+reprimanded him and he promised amendment, but his errors continued,
+and after a petition was presented to the Archbishop and the Bishop of
+London by the company, he was compelled to resign.
+
+[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE HALL OF THE PARISH CLERKS COMPANY]
+
+The increase of newspapers and the publication of the bills of mortality
+in their sheets taken from the records of the clerks materially affected
+the sale of the company's issue of the same, and efforts were made in
+Parliament to obtain a monopoly for the company. This action was costly,
+and no benefit was derived. After the removal of the unsatisfactory
+Humphreys the printing of the company passed into the hands of the
+Rivingtons, a name honoured amongst printers and publishers for many
+generations. Mr. Charles Rivington was printer for the clerks in 1787,
+his brother being a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, to whose son's
+widow, Mrs. Anne Rivington, the office passed in 1790. The printing of
+the bills of mortality was carried on by the company until 1850, having
+been conducted by the Rivington family for over sixty years[56].
+
+[Footnote 56: I am indebted for this list of printers to Mr. James
+Christie's _Some Account of Parish Clerks_.]
+
+In addition to their statistical returns, the Company of Parish Clerks
+are responsible for some other and more important works which reflect
+great credit upon them. Foremost among them is a book entitled:
+
+"_New Remarks of London_; or, a Survey of the Cities of London and
+Westminster, of Southwark and part of Middlesex and Surrey within the
+circumference of the Bills of Mortality." It contains "an account of the
+situation, antiquity, and rebuilding of each church, the value of the
+Rectory or Vicarage, in whose gifts they are, and the names of the
+present incumbents or lecturers. Of the several vestries, Hours of
+Prayer, Parish and Ward Officers, Charity and other schools, the number
+of Charity Children, how maintained, educated and placed out
+apprentices, or put to service. Of the Almshouses, Workhouses and
+Hospitals. The remarkable Places and Things in each Parish, with the
+limits or Bounds, Streets, Lanes, Courts, and numbers of Houses. An
+alphabetical table of all the Streets, Courts, Lanes, Alleys, Yards,
+Rows, Rents, Squares, etc. within the Bills of Mortality, shewing in
+which Liberty or Freedom they are, and an easy method of finding them.
+Of the several Inns of Court, and Inns of Chancery, with their several
+Buildings, Courts, Lanes, etc.
+
+"Collected by the Company of Parish-Clerks to which is added the Places
+to which Penny Post Letters are sent, with proper Directions therein.
+The Wharfs, Keys, Docks, etc. near the River Thames, of water-carriage
+to several Cities, Towns, etc. The Rates of Watermen, Porters of all
+kinds and Carmen. To what Inns Stage Coaches, Flying Coaches, Waggons
+and Carriers come, and the days they go out. The whole being very useful
+for Ladies, Gentlemen, Clergymen, Merchants, Tradesmen, Coachmen,
+Chair-men, Car-men, Porters, Bailiffs and others.
+
+     "London, Printed for E. Midwinter at _the_
+
+          _Looking Glass and three Crowns_ in St Paul's
+
+               Churchyard MDCCXXXII."
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JOHN CLARKE, PARISH CLERK OF THE CHURCH OF
+ST. MICHAEL. CORNHILL]
+
+This is a wonderfully interesting little book. Each clerk compiled the
+information for his own parish and appended his name. Most carefully is
+the information contained in the book arranged, and the volume is a most
+creditable production of the worshipful company.
+
+Amongst the books preserved in the Hall is another volume, entitled
+"_London Parishes_; containing an account of the Rise, Corruption, and
+Reformation of the Church of England." This was published by the parish
+clerks in 1824.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+CLERKENWELL AND CLERKS' PLAYS
+
+Parish clerks are immortalised by having given their name to an
+important part of London. Clerkenwell is the _fons clericorum_ of the
+old chronicler, Fitz-Stephen. It is the Clerks' Well, the syllable _en_
+being the form of the old Saxon plural. Fitz-Stephen wrote in the time
+of King Stephen: "There are also round London on the northern side, in
+the suburbs, excellent springs, the water of which is sweet, clear,
+salubrious, 'mid glistening pebbles gliding playfully; amongst which
+Holywell, Clerkenwell, (_fons clericorum_), and St. Clement's Well are
+of most note, and most frequently visited, as well by the scholars from
+the schools as by the youth of the City when they go out to take air in
+the summer evenings."
+
+It was then, and for centuries later, a rural spot, not far from the
+City, just beyond Smithfield, a place of green sward and gently sloping
+ground, watered by a pleasant stream, far different from the crowded
+streets of the modern Clerkenwell. It was a spot famous for athletic
+contests, for wrestling bouts and archery, and hither came the Lord
+Mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen at Bartholomew Fair time to witness the
+sports, and especially the wrestling.
+
+[Illustration: OLD MAP OF CLERKENWELL]
+
+But that which gave to the place its name and chief glory was the
+fact that once a year at least the parish clerks of London came here to
+perform their mystery plays and moralities. "Their profession," wrote
+Warton[57], "employment and character, naturally dictated to this
+spiritual brotherhood the representation of plays, especially those of
+the scriptural kind, and their constant practice in shows, processions,
+and vocal music easily accounts for their address in detaining the best
+company which England afforded in the fourteenth century at a religious
+farce for more than a week." These plays were no ordinary performances,
+no afternoon or evening entertainment, but a protracted drama lasting
+from three to eight days. In the reign of Richard II, A.D. 1391, the
+clerks were acting before the King, his Queen, and many nobles. The
+performances continued for three days, and the representations were the
+"Passion of Our Lord and the Creation of the World," which so well
+pleased the King that he commanded L10, a very considerable sum of money
+in those days, to be paid to the clerks of the parish churches and to
+divers other clerks of the City of London. Here is the record of
+his gift:
+
+     "_Issue Roll_, Easter, 14 Ric. II.
+
+     "11 July. To the clerks of the parish churches and to divers
+     other clerks of the city of London. In money paid to them in
+     discharge of L10 which the Lord the King commanded to be paid
+     to them of his gift on account of the play of the 'Passion of
+     Our Lord and the Creation of the World' by them performed at
+     Skynnerwell after the feast of St. Bartholomew last past. By
+     writ of Privy Seal amongst the mandates of this term--L10."
+
+[Footnote 57: _English Poetry_, vol. ii. p. 397.]
+
+Skinners' Well was close to the Clerks' Well, and it was so called, so
+Stow informs us, "for that the Skinners of London held there certain
+plays yearly of Holy Scripture,"
+
+A few years later, in the succeeding reign, 10 Henry IV, A.D. 1409, the
+fraternity of clerks were again performing at the same place. Stow says:
+"In the year 1409 was a great play at Skynners' Welle, neere unto
+Clarkenwell, besides London, which lasted eight daies, and was of matter
+from the creation of the world; there were to see the same the most part
+of the nobles and gentles in England"--a mighty audience truly, which
+not even Sir Henry Irving could command in his farewell performances at
+Drury Lane.
+
+[Illustration: A MYSTERY PLAY AT CHESTER (FROM A PRINT AFTER A PAINTING
+BY T. UWINS)]
+
+These religious plays or mysteries were a powerful means for instructing
+the people; and if we had lived in mediaeval times, we should not have
+needed to fly to Ober-Ammergau in order to witness a Passion Play. In
+the streets of Coventry or Chester, York, or Tewkesbury, Witney, or
+Reading, or on the Green at Clerkenwell, we could have seen the
+appealing spectacle; and though sometimes the actors lapsed into
+buffoonery, and the red demons carrying souls to hell's mouth created
+merriment rather than terror, and though realism was carried to such a
+pitch that Adam and Eve appeared in a state of nature, yet many of the
+spectators would carry away with them pious thoughts and some grasp of
+the facts of Scripture history, and of the mysteries of the faith.
+Originally the plays were performed in churches, but owing to the
+gradually increased size of the stage and the more elaborate stage
+effects, the sacred buildings were abandoned as the scenes of mediaeval
+drama. Then the churchyard was utilised for the purpose. The clergy no
+longer took part in the pageants, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth
+centuries the people liked to act their plays in the highways and
+public places as at Clerkenwell. The guilds and fraternities in many
+places provided the chief actors, and in towns where there were many
+guilds and companies, each company performed part of the great drama,
+the movable stage being drawn about from street to street. Thus at York
+the story of the Creation and the Redemption was divided into
+forty-eight parts, each part being acted by a guild, or group of
+companies. The Tanners represented God the Father creating the heavens,
+angels and archangels, and the fall of Lucifer and the disobedient
+angels. Then the Plasterers showed the Creation of the Earth, and the
+work of the first five days. The Card-makers exhibited the Creation of
+Adam of the clay of the earth, and the making of Eve of Adam's rib, thus
+inspiring them with the breath of life. The Fall, the story of Cain and
+Abel, of Noah and the Flood, of Moses, the Annunciation and all Gospel
+history, ending with the Coronation of the Virgin and the
+Final Judgment.
+
+The stage upon which the clerks performed their plays, according to
+Strutt, consisted of three platforms, one above another. On the
+uppermost sat God the Father surrounded by His angels. He was
+represented in a white robe, and until it was discovered how injurious
+the process was, the actor who played the part used to have his face
+gilded. On the second platform were the glorified saints, and on the
+lowest men who had not yet passed from life. On one side of the lowest
+platform was hell's mouth, a dark pitchy cavern, whence issued the
+appearance of fire and flames, and sometimes hideous yellings and noises
+in imitation of the howlings and cries of wretched souls tormented by
+relentless demons. From this yawning cave the devils constantly ascended
+to delight the spectators and afford comic relief to the more serious
+drama. The three stages were not always used. Archdeacon Rogers, who
+died in 1595, left an account of the Chester play which he himself saw,
+and he wrote that the stage was a high scaffold with two rooms, a higher
+and a lower, upon four wheels. In the lower the actors apparelled
+themselves, and in the higher they played. But this was a movable stage
+on wheels. The clerks' stage would, doubtless, be a fixed structure, and
+of a more elaborate construction.
+
+The dresses used by the actors were very gorgeous and splendid, though
+little care was bestowed upon the appropriateness of the costumes. The
+words of the play of the Creation differ in the various versions which
+have come down to us. Strutt thinks that the clerks' play, acted before
+"the most part of the nobles and gentles in England," was very similar
+to the Coventry play, which cannot compare in grandeur and vigour with
+the York play discovered in the library of Lord Ashburnham, and edited
+by Miss Toulmin Smith[58]. But as the north-country dialect of the York
+version would have been difficult for the learned clerks of London to
+pronounce, their version would doubtless resemble more that of Coventry
+than that of York. The first act represents the Deity seated upon His
+throne and speaking as follows:
+
+       _Ego sum Alpha et Omega, principium et finis_.
+     My name is knowyn, God and Kynge;
+       My work to make now wyl I wende;
+     In myselfe resteth my reynenge,
+       It hath no gynnyng, ne no ende,
+     And all that evyr shall have beynge
+       Is closed in my mende;[59]
+     When it is made at my lykynge
+       I may it save, I may it shende[60]
+     After my plesawns."[61]
+
+[Footnote 58: Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1885. A portion of this is
+published in Mr. A.W. Pollard's _English Miracle Plays_.]
+
+[Footnote 59: Mind.]
+
+[Footnote 60: Destroy.]
+
+[Footnote 61: Pleasure.]
+
+At the close of this oration, which consists of forty lines, the angels
+enter upon the upper stage, surround the throne of the Deity, and sing
+from the _Te Deum_:
+
+     _Te Deum laudamus, te dominum confitemur_.
+
+The Father bestows much honour and brightness on Lucifer, who is full of
+pride. He demands of the good angels in whose honour they are singing
+their songs of praise. Are they worshipping God or reverencing him? They
+reply that they are worshipping God, the mighty and most strong, who
+made them and Lucifer. Then Lucifer daringly usurps the seat of the
+Almighty, and receives the homage of the rebellious angels. Then the
+Father orders them and their leader to fall from heaven to hell, and in
+His bliss never more to dwell. Then does Lucifer reply:
+
+     "At thy byddyng y wyl I werke,
+     And pass from joy to peyne and smerte.
+     Now I am a devyl full derke,
+     That was an angel bryght.
+     Now to Helle the way I take,
+     In endless peyn'y to be put;
+     For fere of fyr apart I quake
+     In Helle dongeon my dene is dyth."
+
+Then the Devil and his angels sink into the cavern of hell's mouth.
+
+We cannot follow all the scenes in this strange drama. The final
+representation included the Descent into Hell, or the Harrowing of Hell,
+as it was called, when the soul of Christ goes down into the infernal
+regions and rescues Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and the saints of old.
+The _Anima Christi_ says:
+
+     "Come forth, Adam and Eve, with the,
+     And all my fryends that herein be;
+     In Paradyse come forth with me,
+       In blysse for to dwell.
+     The fende of hell that is your foe,
+     He shall be wrappyd and woundyn in woo;
+     Fro wo to welth now shall ye go,
+       With myrth ever mo to melle."
+
+Adam replies:
+
+     "I thank the Lord of thy grete grace,
+     That now is forgiven my great trespase;
+     No shall we dwell in blyssful place."
+
+The accompanying print of the Descent into Hell was engraved by Michael
+Burghers from an ancient drawing for our Berkshire antiquary,
+Thomas Herne.
+
+Modern buildings have obliterated the scene of this ancient drama acted
+by the clerks of London, but some traces of the association of the
+fraternity with the neighbourhood can still be found. The two famous
+conventual houses, for which Clerkenwell was famous, the nunnery of St.
+Mary and the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, founded in 1100, have long
+since disappeared. Clerks' Close is mentioned in numerous documents, and
+formed part of the estate belonging to the Skinners' Company, where
+Skinner Street now runs. Clerks' Well was close to the modern church of
+St. James's, Clerkenwell, which occupies the site of the church and
+nunnery of St. Mary _de fonte clericorum_, which once possessed one of
+the six water-pots in which Jesus turned the water into wine. Vine
+Street formerly delighted in the name Mutton Lane, which is said to be a
+corruption of meeting or moteing lane, referring to the clerks' mote or
+meeting place by the well. When Mr. Pink wrote his history of
+Clerkenwell forty years ago, there was at the east side of Ray Street a
+broken iron pump let into the front wall of a dilapidated house which
+showed the site of Clerks' Well. In 1673 the spring and plot of ground
+were given by the Earl of Northampton to the poor of the parish, but the
+vestry leased the spring to a brewer. Strype, writing in 1720, states
+that "the old well at Clerkenwell, whence the parish had its name, is
+still known among the inhabitants. It is on the right hand of a lane
+that leads from Clerkenwell to Hockley-in-the-Hole, in a bottom. One Mr.
+Crosse, a brewer, hath this well enclosed; but the water runs from him,
+by means of a watercourse above-mentioned, into the said place. It is
+enclosed with a high wall, which was formerly built to bound in
+Clerkenwell Close; the present well (the conduit head) being also
+enclosed by another lower wall from the street. The way to it is through
+a little house, which was the watch-house. You go down a good many steps
+to it. The well had formerly ironwork and brass cocks, which are now cut
+off; the water spins through the old wall. I was there and tasted the
+water, and found it excellently clear, sweet, and well tasted."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+In 1800 a pump was erected on the east side of Ray Street to celebrate
+the parish clerks' ancient performances, which were immortalised in
+raised letters of iron with this inscription:
+
+     A.D. 1800. William Bound, Joseph Bird, Churchwardens. For the
+     better accommodation of the neighbourhood, this pump was
+     removed to the spot where it now stands. The spring by which
+     it is supplied is situated four feet eastward, and round it,
+     as history informs us, the Parish Clerks of London in remote
+     ages commonly performed sacred plays. That custom caused it
+     to be denominated Clerks'-Well, and from which this parish
+     derived its name. The water was greatly esteemed by the Prior
+     and Brethren of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and the
+     Benedictine Nuns in the neighbourhood.
+
+Hone, in his _Ancient Mysteries_, describes this pump, which in his day,
+A.D. 1832, stood between an earthenware shop and the abode of a
+bird-seller, and states that the monument denoting the histrionic fame
+of the place, and alluding to the miraculous powers of the water for
+healing incurable diseases, remains unobserved beneath its living
+attractions. "The present simplicity of the scene powerfully contrasts
+with the recollection of its former splendour. The choral chant of the
+Benedictine Nuns, accompanying the peal of the deep-toned organ through
+their cloisters, and the frankincense curling its perfume from priestly
+censers at the altar, are succeeded by the stunning sounds of numerous
+quickly plied hammers, and the smith's bellows flashing the fires of Mr.
+Bound's ironfoundry, erected upon the unrecognised site of the convent.
+The religious house stood about half-way down the declivity of the hill,
+which commencing near the church on Clerkenwell Green, terminates at the
+River Fleet. The prospect then was uninterrupted by houses, and the
+people upon the rising ground could have had an uninterrupted view of
+the performances at the well."
+
+In the parish there is a vineyard walk, which marks the site of the old
+vineyard attached to the priory of St. John. The cultivation of the vine
+was carried on in many monasteries. In 1859, in front of the old
+Vineyard Inn, a signboard was set up which stated that "This house is
+celebrated from old associations connected with the City of London.
+After the City clerks partook of the water of Clerks' Well, from which
+the parish derives its name, they repaired hither to partake of the
+fruit of the finest English grapes." This was an ingenious contrivance
+on the part of the landlord to solicit custom. It need hardly be stated
+that the information given on this signboard was incorrect. Before the
+Reformation there were few inns, and the old Vineyard Inn can scarcely
+claim such a remote ancestry.
+
+When miracle plays ceased to be performed the clerks did not desert
+their old quarters. It is, indeed, stated that the ancient society of
+parish clerks became divided; some turned their attention to wrestling
+and mimicry at Bartholomew Fair, whilst others, for their better
+administration, formed themselves into the Society of the Mayor,
+Aldermen, and Recorder of Stroud Green, assembling in the Old Crown at
+Islington; but still "saving their right to exhibit at the Old London
+Spaw, formerly Clerks' Well, when they might happen to have learned
+sheriffs and other officers to get up their sacred pieces as usual."
+Even so late as 1774 the members of this ancient society were accustomed
+to meet annually in the summer time at Stroud Green, and to regale
+themselves in the open air, the number of persons assembling on some
+occasions producing a scene similar to that of a country wake or fair.
+These assemblies had no connection with the Worshipful Company of
+Parish Clerks.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE CLERKS AND THE PARISH REGISTERS
+
+A study of an old parish register reveals a remarkable variation in the
+style and character of the handwriting. We see in the old parchment
+pages numerous entries recorded in a careless scribble, and others
+evidently written by the hand of a learned and careful scholar. The
+rector or vicar ever since the days of Henry VIII, when in 1536
+Vicar-General Thomas Cromwell ordered the keeping of registers, was
+usually supposed to have recorded the entries in the register. Cromwell
+derived the notion of ordering the keeping of the registers from his
+observation of the records kept by the Spanish priests in the Low
+Countries where he resided in his youth. Archbishop Ximenes of Toledo
+instituted a system of registration in Spain in 1497, and this was
+carried on by the Spanish priests in the Netherlands, and thus laid the
+foundation of that system which Thomas Cromwell introduced to this
+country and which has continued ever since.
+
+But not all these entries were made by the incumbents. There is good
+evidence that the parish clerks not infrequently kept the registers,
+especially in later times, and from the beginning they were responsible
+for the facts recorded. The entries do not seem to have been made when
+the baptism, marriage, or burial took place. Cromwell's edict required
+that the records of each week should be entered in the register on the
+following Sunday, in the presence of the churchwardens. It seems to have
+been the custom for the clerk or vicar to write down particulars of the
+baptism, marriage, or burial in a private memorandum book or on loose
+sheets of paper at the time of the ceremony. Afterwards these rough
+notes were copied into the register book. Sometimes this was done each
+week; but human nature is fallible; the clerk or his master forgot
+sometimes to make the required entries in the book. Days and weeks
+slipped by; note-books and scraps of paper were mislaid and lost; the
+spelling of the clerk was not always his strongest point; hence
+mistakes, omissions, inaccuracies were not infrequent. Sometimes the
+vicar did not make up his books until a whole year had elapsed. This was
+the case with the poor parson of Carshalton, who was terribly distressed
+because his clerk would not furnish him with the necessary notes, and
+mightily afraid lest he should incur the censure of his parishioners.
+Hence we find the following note in his register, dated 10 March, 1651:
+
+     "Good reader, tread gently:
+
+     "For though these vacant years may seem to make me guilty of
+     thy censure, neither will I excuse myself from all blemishe;
+     yet if thou doe but cast thine eye upon the former pages and
+     see with what care I have kept the Annalls of mine owne time,
+     and rectifyed sundry errors of former times, thou wilt begin
+     to think ther is some reason why he that began to build so
+     well should not be able to make an ende.
+
+     "The truth is that besyde the miserys and distractions of
+     these ptermitted years which it may be God in his owne
+     wisdom would not suffer to be kept uppon record, the special
+     ground of that permission ought to be imputed to Richard
+     Finch, the p'rishe Clarke, whose office it was by long
+     pscrition to gather the ephemeris or dyary by the dayly
+     passages, and to exhibit them once a year to be transcribed
+     into this registry; and though I have often called upon him
+     agayne and agayne to remember his chadge, and he always told
+     me that he had the accompts lying by him, yet at last
+     p'ceaving his excuses, and revolving upon suspicion of his
+     words to put him home to a full tryall I found to my great
+     griefe that all his accompts were written in sand, and his
+     words committed to the empty winds. God is witness to the
+     truth of this apologie, and that I made it knowne at some
+     parish meetings before his own face, who could not deny it,
+     neither do I write it to blemishe him, but to cleere my own
+     integritie as far as I may, and to give accompt of this
+     miscarryage to after ages by the subscription of my
+     hand[62]."
+
+[Footnote 62: _Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, by T.F.
+Thiselton-Dyer, p. 57.]
+
+We may hope that all clerks were not so neglectful as poor Richard
+Finch, whose name is thus handed down as an "awful example" to all
+careless clerks. The same practice of the parish clerks recording the
+particulars of weddings, christenings, and burials seems to have
+prevailed at St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, London, in 1542, as the
+following order shows:
+
+     "They shall every week certify to the curate and the
+     churchwardens all the names and sir-names of them that be
+     wedded, christened, and buried in the same parish that week
+     _sub pena_ of a 1 d. to be paid to the churche."
+
+In this case the curate doubtless entered the items in the register as
+they were delivered to him.
+
+At St. Margaret's, Lothbury, the clerk seems to have kept the register
+himself. Amongst the ordinances made by "the hole consent of the
+parrishiners" in 1571, appears the following:
+
+     "Item the Clarcke shall kepe the register of cristeninge
+     weddinge and burynge perfectlye, and shall present the same
+     everie Sondaie to the churche wardens to be perused by them,
+     and shall have for his paines in this behaufe yearelye 0. 03.
+     4."
+
+It is evident that in some cases in the sixteenth century the clerk kept
+the register. But in far the larger number of parishes the records were
+inserted by the vicar or rector, and in many books the records are made
+in Latin. The "clerk's notes" from which the entries were made are still
+preserved in some parishes.
+
+In times of laxity and confusion wrought by the Civil War and Puritan
+persecution, the clerk would doubtless be the only person capable of
+keeping the registers. In my own parish the earliest book begins in the
+year 1538, and is kept with great accuracy, the entries being written in
+a neat scholarly hand. As time goes on the writing is still very good,
+but it does not seem to be that of the rector, who signs his name at the
+foot of the page. If it be that of the clerk, he is a very clerkly
+clerk. The writing gradually gets worse, especially during the
+Commonwealth period; but it is no careless scribble. The clerk evidently
+took pains and fashioned his letters after the model of the old
+court-hand. An entry appears which tells of the appointment of a Parish
+Registrar, or "Register" as he was called. This is the announcement:
+
+     "Whereas Robt. Williams of the p ish of Barkham in the County
+     of Berks was elected and chosen by the Inhabitants of the
+     same P ish to be their p ish Register, he therefore ye sd Ro:
+     Wms was approved and sworne this sixteenth day of
+     Novemb.. 1653
+
+     Snd R. Bigg."
+
+Judging from the similarity of the writing immediately above and below
+this entry, I imagine that Robert Williams must have been the old clerk
+who was so beloved by the inhabitants that in an era of change, when the
+rector was banished from his parish, they elected him "Parish Register,"
+and thus preserved in some measure the traditions of the place. The
+children are now entered as "borne" and not baptised as formerly.
+
+The writing gradually gets more illiterate and careless, until the
+Restoration takes place. A little space is left, and then the entries
+are recorded in a scholarly handwriting, evidently the work of the new
+rector. Subsequently the register appears to have been usually kept by
+the rector, though occasionally there are lapses and indifferent writing
+appears. Sometimes the clerk has evidently supplied the deficiencies of
+his master, recording a burial or a wedding which the rector had
+omitted. In later times, when pluralism was general, and this living was
+held in conjunction with three or four other parishes, the rector must
+have been very dependent upon the clerk for information concerning the
+functions to be recorded. Moreover, when a former rector who was a noted
+sportsman and one of the best riders and keenest hunters in the county,
+sometimes took a wedding on his way to the meet, he would doubtless be
+so eager for the chase that he had little leisure to record the exact
+details of the names of the "happy pair," and must have trusted much to
+the clerk.
+
+Some of the private registers kept by clerks are still preserved. There
+is one at Pattishall which contains entries of births, marriages, and
+burials, and was probably commenced in 1774, that date being on the
+front page together with the inscription: "John Clark's Register Book."
+The writing is of a good round-hand character, and far superior to the
+caligraphy of many present-day clerks. The book is bound in vellum[63].
+The following entry, taken from the end of the volume, is worth
+recording:
+
+     "London, March 31th
+
+     "Yesterday the Rev'd Mr Hetherington ... transferred. 20,000
+     L. South-Sea Annuities into the Names of S'r Henry Banks
+     Kn't. Thos Burfoot, Joseph Eyre, Thos Coventry, and Samuel
+     Salt. Esqu'rs in Trust to pay always to 50 Blind people,
+     Objects of, Charity, not being Beggars, nor receiving, Alms
+     from the Parish, 10 L. each for their lives, it may be said
+     with great propriety of this truly benevolent Gentleman that
+     'he hath displeased abroad, and given to the poor and is
+     Righteousness remaineth for ever; his Horn shall exalted with
+     Honour.'"
+
+[Footnote 63: By the information of the Rev. B.W. Blyn-Stoyle, who has
+most kindly assisted me in many ways in discovering quaint records of
+old clerks.]
+
+Amongst the register books of Wednesbury there is a volume bound in
+parchment bearing this inscription:
+
+     "This Book seems to be the private register of Alexander
+     Bunn, Parish Clerk, because it corresponds with another
+     bearing the same dates; the private accounts written in this
+     book by the said A. Bunn seem to corroborate my opinion.
+
+     "A.B. Haden
+
+     "Vicar of Wednesbury
+
+     "August 7th 1782."
+
+These accounts appear to be of items incurred by the parish clerk in his
+official capacity, and which were due to him in repayment from the
+churchwardens. The accompanying remarks of this old Wednesbury parish
+clerk are often quaint and interesting.
+
+The following extracts will show the nature of the book and of the
+systematic record the good clerk kept of his expenditure. The only item
+about which there is some uncertainty is the amount "spent at Freeman's
+Coming from Visitation." Is it possible that he was so much excited or
+intoxicated that he could not remember?
+
+"1737. Land tax to hon. Adenbrook 0. 0. 11 Acount
+       What Mary Tunks as ad. Redy money 4/-, for a
+       hapern 2/-, for caps 1/6 and for shoes 2/6, and for
+       ye werk 6 d. Stokins and sues mendering 6 d, and
+       for string 2 d, and for a Gound 3/-, and for ale for
+       Hur father 2 d, for mending Gound 8 d, for stokens
+       10 d, for more Shuse strong 2/6, Shift mending
+       and maken 5 d, for Hur mother 1/6, for a Shift
+       2/7."
+
+To this day old Wednesbury natives say "hapern" for apron, and "sues"
+for shoes.
+
+"Sep. the 10th, 1745, then recd of Alex. Bunn the sum of
+        six pounds for one year's rent due at Midsmar.
+        Last past Ellin Moris. Wm. Selvester and his
+        man the first wick 14/-. Mr. Butler and Gilbut
+        Wrigh, church wardens for the year 1741, due to
+        Alex Bunn as under. Ringing for the Visitation
+        2/-, spent at Roshall, going to the visitation 1/6-,
+        spent at Henery Rutoll 1/-, paid at Litchfield to
+        the Horsbox (?) 6 d, Wm. Aston Had Ale at my
+        House 6 d, for Micklmas Supeles washing and
+        lining 1/8, for Ringing for the 11th of October
+        5/-, for Ringing for the 30th of October 5/-, for
+        half year's wages Due June ye 24 L 1 12 s. 6.
+        Ringing for the 5th November, for washing the
+        Supelis and Lining and Bread at Chrsmus 1/3,
+        for Easter Supelis washing and Lining and Bread
+        1/8, for Joyle for the Clock and Bells 2/6, for
+        Leader for the 4th Bell Clapper 5 d, Ringing for
+        the 23rd of April 5/-, for making the Levy 2/-,
+        for a hors to Lichfield 11/6, pd John Stack
+        going to Dudley 2 times for the Clockman 1/-.
+        For a monthly (?) meeting to Ralph Momford
+        Sep. the 15th 2/-, Spent at freeman's Coming from
+        the Visitation-----"[64]
+
+[Footnote 64: _Olden Wednesbury_, by F.W. Hackwood, who kindly sent me
+this information.]
+
+But we have grievous things to record with regard to the clerks and the
+registers, not that they were to blame so much as the proper custodians,
+who neglected their duties and left these precious books in the hands of
+ignorant clerks to be preserved in poor overcrowded cottages. But the
+parish clerks sinned grievously. One Phillips, clerk of Lambeth parish,
+ran away with the register book, so Francis Sadler tells us in his
+curious book, _The Exaction and Imposition of Parish Fees Discovered_,
+published in 1738, "whereby the parish became great sufferers; and in
+such a case no person that is fifty years old, and born in the parish,
+can have a transcript of the Register to prove themselves heir to an
+estate." Moreover, Master Sadler, who was very severe on parish clerks,
+tells of the iniquities of the Battersea clerk who used to register boys
+for girls and girls for boys, and not one-half of the register book, in
+his time, was correct and authentic, as it ought to be.
+
+What shall be said of the carelessness of an incumbent who allowed the
+register to be kept by the clerk in his poor cottage? When a gentleman
+called to obtain an extract from the book, the clerk produced the
+valuable tome from a drawer in an old table, where it was reposing with
+a mass of rubbish. Another old parchment register was discovered in a
+cottage in a Northamptonshire parish, some of the pages of which were
+tacked together as a covering for the tester of a bedstead. The clerk in
+another parish followed the calling of a tailor, and found the old
+register book useful for the purpose of providing himself with measures.
+With this object he cut out sixteen leaves of the old book, which he
+regarded in the light of waste paper.
+
+A gentleman on one occasion visited a church in order to examine the
+registers of an Essex parish. He found the record for which he was
+searching, and asked the clerk to make the extract for him.
+Unfortunately this official had no ink or paper at hand with which to
+copy out the entry, and casually observed:
+
+"Oh, you may as well have the leaf as it is," and without any hesitation
+took out his pocket-knife, cut out the leaf and gave the gentleman the
+two entire pages[65].
+
+[Footnote 65: _History of Parish Registers_, by Burn; _Social Life as
+told by Parish Registers_, by T.F. Thiselton-Dyer, p. 2.]
+
+Another scandalous case was that of the clerk who combined his
+ecclesiastical duties with those of the village grocer. The pages of the
+parish register he found most useful for wrapping up his goods for his
+customers. He was, however, no worse than the curate's wife, who ought
+to have known better, and who used the leaves of the registers for
+making her husband's kettle-holders.
+
+What shall be said for the guardians of the church documents of
+Blythburgh, Suffolk? The parish chest preserved in the church was at one
+time full of valuable documents in addition to very complete registers.
+So Suckling, the historian of Suffolk, reported. Alas! these have
+nearly all disappeared. Scarcely anything remains of the earliest volume
+of the register which concludes with the end of the seventeenth century,
+and the old deeds have gone also. How could this terrible loss have
+occurred? It appears that a parish clerk, "in showing this fine old
+church to visitors, presented those curious in old papers and autographs
+with a leaf from the register, or some other document, as a memento of
+their visit[66]."
+
+[Footnote 66: _Social Life as told by Parish Registers_; also
+_Standard_, 8 Jan., 1880.]
+
+Another clerk was extremely popular with the old ladies of the village,
+and used to cut out the parchment leaves of the registers and present
+them to his old lady friends for wrapping their knitting pins. He was
+also the village schoolmaster, as many of his predecessors had been, but
+this wretch used to cover the backs of his pupil's lesson-books with
+leaves of parchment taken from the parish chest. Another clerk found the
+leaves of the registers very useful for "singeing a goose."
+
+The value of old registers for proving titles to estates and other
+property is of course inestimable. Sometimes incomes of thousands of
+pounds depend upon a little entry in one of these old books, and it is
+terrible to think of the jeopardy in which they stand when they rest in
+the custody of a careless clerk or apathetic vicar.
+
+The present writer owes much to the faithful care of a good clerk, who
+guarded well the registers of a defunct City church of London. My father
+was endeavouring to prove his title to an estate in the north country,
+and had to obtain the certificates of the births, deaths, and marriages
+of the family during about a century. One wedding could not be proved.
+Report stated that it had been a runaway marriage, and that the bride
+and bridegroom had fled to London to be married in a City church. My
+father casually heard of the name of some church where it was thought
+that the wedding might have taken place. He wrote to the authorities of
+that church. It had, however, ceased to exist. The church had
+disappeared, but the old clerk was alive and knew where the books were.
+He searched, and found the missing register, and the chain of evidence
+was complete and the title to the property fully established, which was
+confirmed after much troublesome litigation by the Court of Chancery.
+
+Sometimes litigants have sought to remove troublesome entries in those
+invaluable books which record with equal impartiality the entrance into
+the world and the departure from it of peer or peasant. And in such
+dramas the clerk frequently appears. The old man has to be bribed or
+cajoled to allow the books to be tampered with. A stranger arrives one
+evening at Rochester, and demands of the clerk to be shown the
+registers. The stranger finds the entry upon which much depends. In its
+present form it does not support his case. It must be altered in order
+to meet his requirements. The clerk hovers about the vestry, alert,
+vigilant. He must be got rid of. The stranger proposes various
+inducements; the temptation of a comfortable seat in a cosy corner of
+the nearest inn, a stimulating glass, but all in vain. There is
+something suspicious about the stranger's looks and manners; so the
+clerk thinks. He sticks to his elbow like a leech, and nothing can shake
+him off. At length the stranger offers the poor clerk a goodly bribe if
+only he will help him to alter a few words in that all-important
+register. I am not sure whether the clerk yielded to the temptation.
+
+There was a still more dramatic scene in the old vestry of Lainston
+Church, where a few years previously a Miss Chudleigh had been married
+to Lieutenant Hervey. This young lady, who was not remarkable for her
+virtue, arrived one day at the church accompanied by a fascinating
+friend who, while Mrs. Hervey examined the register, exercised her
+blandishments on the clerk. She expressed much interest in the church,
+and asked him endless questions about its architecture, the state of his
+health, his family, his duties; and while this little by-play was
+proceeding Mrs. Hervey was carefully and noiselessly cutting out the
+page in the register which contained the entry of her marriage. Having
+removed the tell-tale page she hastily closed the book, summoned her
+fascinating friend, and hastened back to London. The clerk, still
+thinking of the beautiful lady who had been so friendly and given him
+such a handsome present, locked the safe, and never discovered the
+theft. But time brought its revenge. Lieutenant Hervey succeeded
+unexpectedly to the title of the earldom of Bristol. His wife was
+overcome with remorse. By her foolish scheme she had sacrificed a
+coronet. That missing paper must be restored; and so the lady pays
+another visit to Lainston Church, on this occasion in the company of a
+lawyer. The old clerk unlocks again the parish chest. The books are
+again produced; confession is made of the former theft; the lawyer looks
+threateningly at the clerk, and tells him that if it should ever be
+discovered he will suffer as an accomplice; and then, with the promise
+of a substantial bribe, the clerk consents to give his aid. The missing
+paper is produced and deftly inserted in its former place in the book,
+and Miss Chudleigh becomes the Countess of Bristol. It is a curious
+story, but it has the merit of being true. Many strange romances are
+bound up within the stained and battered parchment covers of an
+old register.
+
+Sometimes the clerk seems to have recorded in the register book some
+entries which scarcely relate to ecclesiastical usages or spiritual
+concerns. Agreements or bargains were inserted occasionally, and the
+fact that it was recorded in the church books testified to the binding
+nature of the transaction. Thus in the book of St. Mary Magdalene,
+Cambridge, in the year 1692, it is announced that Thomas Smith promises
+to supply John Wingate "with hatts for twenty shillings the yeare during
+life." Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, who records this transaction in his book on
+_Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, conjectures with evident
+truth that the aforenamed men made this bargain at an ale-house, and the
+parish clerk, being present, undertook to register the agreement.
+
+A most remarkable clerk lived at Grafton Underwood in the eighteenth
+century, one Thomas Carley, who was born in that village in 1755, having
+no hands and one deformed leg. Notwithstanding that nature seemed to
+have deprived him of all means of manual labour, he rose to the position
+of parish schoolmaster and parish clerk. He contrived a pair of leather
+rings, into which he thrust the stumps of his arms, which ended at the
+elbow, and with the aid of these he held a pen, ruler, knife and fork,
+etc. The register books of the parish show admirable specimens of his
+wonderful writing, and I have in my possession a tracing made by Mr.
+Wise, of Weekley, from the label fixed inside the cover of one of the
+large folio Prayer Books which used to be in the Duke of Buccleuch's
+pew before the church was restored, and were then removed to Boughton
+House. These books contain many beautifully written papers, chiefly
+supplying lost ones from the Psalms. The writing is simply like
+copper-plate engraving. In the British Museum, amongst the "additional
+MSS." is an interleaved edition of Bridge's _History of
+Northamptonshire_, bound in five volumes. In the fourth volume, under
+the account of Grafton Underwood, some particulars have been inserted of
+the life of this extraordinary man, with a water-colour portrait of him
+taken by one of his pupils, E. Bradley. There is also a specimen of his
+writing, the Lord's Prayer inscribed within a circle about the size of a
+shilling. There is also in existence "a mariner's compass," most
+accurately drawn by him. He died in 1823.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE CLERK AS A POET
+
+The parish clerk, skilled in psalmody, has sometimes shown evidences of
+true poetic feeling. The divine afflatus has occasionally inspired in
+him some fine thoughts and graceful fancies. His race has produced many
+writers of terrible doggerel of the monumental class of poetry; but far
+removed from these there have been some who have composed fine hymns and
+sweet verse.
+
+An obscure hymn-writer, whose verses have been sung in all parts of the
+world, was Thomas Bilby, parish clerk of St. Mary's Church, Islington,
+between the years 1842 and 1872. He was the parish schoolmaster also,
+and thus maintained the traditions of his office handed down from
+mediaeval times. Before the days of School Boards it was not unusual for
+the clerk to teach the children of the working classes the three R's and
+religious knowledge, charging a fee of twopence per week for each child.
+Mrs. Mary Strathern has kindly sent me the following account of the
+church wherein Thomas Bilby served as clerk, and of the famous hymn
+which he wrote.
+
+The church of St. Mary's, Islington, was not internally a thing of
+beauty. It was square; it had no chancel; the walls were covered with
+monuments and tablets to the praise and glory of departed parishioners.
+On three sides it had a wide gallery, the west end of which contained
+the organ, with the Royal Arms as large as life in front. On either side
+below the galleries were double rows of high pews, and down the centre
+passage a row of open benches for the poor. Between these benches and
+the altar, completely hiding the altar from the congregation, stood a
+huge "three-decker." The pulpit, on a level with the galleries, was
+reached by a staircase at the back; below that was "the reading desk,"
+from which the curate said the prayers; and below that again, a smaller
+desk, where, Sunday after Sunday, for thirty years, T. Bilby, parish
+clerk and schoolmaster, gave out the hymns, read the notices, and
+published the banns of marriage. He was short and stout; his hair was
+white; he wore a black gown with deep velvet collar, ornamented with
+many tassels and fringes; and he carried a staff of office.
+
+It was a great missionary parish. The vicar, Daniel Wilson, was a son of
+that well-known Daniel Wilson, sometime vicar of Islington, and
+afterwards Bishop of Calcutta. The Church Missionary College, where many
+young missionaries sent out by the Church Missionary Society are
+trained, stood in our midst; and it was within St. Mary's Church the
+writer saw the venerable Bishop Crowther, of the Niger, ordain his own
+son deacon. Mr. Bilby had at one time been a catechist and schoolmaster
+in Sierra Leone, and was full of interesting stories of the mission work
+amongst the freed slaves in that settlement. He had a magic lantern,
+with many views of Africa, and of the churches and schools in the
+mission fields, and often gave missionary lectures to the school
+children. It was on one of these occasions, when he had been telling us
+about his work abroad, and how he soon got to know when a black boy had
+a dirty face, that he said: "While I was in Africa, I composed a hymn,
+and taught the black children to sing it; and now there is not a
+Christian school in any part of the world where my hymn is not known and
+sung. I will begin it now, and you will all sing it with me." Then the
+old man began:
+
+     "Here we suffer grief and pain."
+
+Immediately every child in the room took it up, and sang with might and
+main:
+
+     "Here we meet to part again;
+     In heaven we part no more."
+
+We had always thought the familiar words were as old as the Bible
+itself, and could scarcely believe they had been written by our own
+old friend.
+
+Soon after that memorable night, the old man began to get feeble; his
+place in the church and schools was frequently filled by "Young Bilby,"
+as he was familiarly called; and in 1872, aged seventy-eight, the old
+parish clerk was gathered to his fathers, and his son reigned in
+his stead.
+
+The other day a copy of a Presbyterian hymn-book found its way into my
+house, and there I found "Here we suffer grief and pain." I turned up
+the index which gives the names of authors, wondering if the compilers
+knew anything of the source from whence it came, and found the name
+"Bilby"; but who "Bilby" was, and where he lived, is known to very few
+outside the parish, where the name is a household word, for Mr. Bilby's
+son is still the parish clerk of St. Mary, Islington, and through him we
+learn that his father composed the _tune_ as well as the words of "Here
+we suffer grief and pain."
+
+As the hymn is not included in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_ or some other
+well-known collection, perhaps it will be well to print the first two
+verses. It is published in John Curwen's _The Child's Own Hymn Book_:
+
+     "Here we suffer grief and pain;
+     Here we meet to part again:
+     In heaven we part no more.
+
+         O! that will be joyful,
+         Joyful, joyful, joyful,
+         O! that will be joyful!
+         When we meet to part no more!
+
+     "All who love the Lord below,
+     When they die to heaven will go,
+     And sing with saints above.
+         O! that," etc.
+
+A poet of a different school was Robert Story, schoolmaster and parish
+clerk of Gargrave, Yorkshire. He was born at Wark, Northumberland, in
+1795, but migrated to Gargrave in 1820, where he remained twenty years.
+Then he obtained the situation of a clerk in the Audit Office, Somerset
+House, at a salary of L90 a year, which he held till his death in 1860.
+His volume of poems, entitled _Songs and Lyrical Poems_, contains some
+charming verse. He wrote a pathetic poem on the death of the son of a
+gentleman at Malham, killed while bird-nesting on the rocks of Cam Scar.
+Another poem, _The Danish Camp_, tells of the visit of King Alfred to
+the stronghold of his foes, and has some pretty lines. "O, love has a
+favourite scene for roaming," is a tender little poem. The following
+example of his verse is of a humorous and festive type. It is taken from
+a volume of his productions, entitled _The Magic Fountain, and Other
+Poems_, published in 1829:
+
+     "Learn next that I am parish clerk:
+     A noble office, by St. Mark!
+     It brings me in six guineas clear,
+     Besides _et caeteras_ every year.
+     I waive my Sunday duty, when
+     I give the solemn deep Amen;
+     Exalted then to breathe aloud
+     The heart-devotion of the crowd.
+     But oh, the fun! when Christmas chimes
+     Have ushered in the festal times,
+     And sent the clerk and sexton round
+     To pledge their friends in draughts profound,
+     And keep on foot the good old plan,
+     As only clerk and sexton can!
+     Nor less the sport, when Easter sees
+     The daisy spring to deck her leas;
+     Then, claim'd as dues by Mother Church,
+     I pluck the cackler from the perch;
+     Or, in its place, the shilling clasp
+     From grumbling dame's slow opening grasp.
+     But, Visitation Day! 'tis thine
+     Best to deserve my native line.
+     Great day! the purest, brightest gem
+     That decks the fair year's diadem.
+     Grand day! that sees me costless dine
+     And costless quaff the rosy wine,
+     Till seven churchwardens doubled seem,
+     And doubled every taper's gleam;
+     And I triumphant over time,
+     And over tune, and over rhyme,
+     Call'd by the gay convivial throng,
+     Lead, in full glee, the choral song!"
+
+The writers of doggerel verses have been numerous. The following is a
+somewhat famous composition which has been kindly sent to me by various
+correspondents. My father used to tell us the rhymes when we were
+children, and they have evidently become notorious. The clerk who
+composed them lived in Somersetshire[67], and when the Lord Bishop of
+the Diocese came to visit his church, he thought that such an occasion
+ought not to be passed over without a fitting tribute to the
+distinguished prelate. He therefore composed a new and revised version
+of Tate and Brady's metrical rendering of Psalm lxvii., and announced
+his production after this manner:
+
+"Let us zing to the Praze an' Glory of God part of the zixty-zeventh
+Zalm; zspeshul varshun zspesh'ly 'dapted vur t'cazshun.
+
+     "W'y 'op ye zo ye little 'ills?
+       And what var du 'ee zskip?
+     Is it a'cause ter prach too we
+       Is cum'd me Lord Biship?
+
+     "W'y zskip ye zo ye little 'ills?
+       An' whot var du 'ee 'op?
+     Is it a'cause to prach too we
+       Is cum'd me Lord Bishop?
+
+     "Then let us awl arize an' zing,
+       An' let us awl stric up,
+     An' zing a glawrious zong uv praze;
+       An' bless me Lord Bishup."
+
+[Footnote 67: Another correspondent states that the incident occurred at
+Bradford-on-Avon in 1806. Mr. Francis Bevan remembers hearing a similar
+version at Dover about sixty years ago. Can it be that these various
+clerks were plagiarists?]
+
+A somewhat similar effusion was composed by Eldad Holland, parish clerk
+of Christ Church, Kilbrogan parish, Bandon, County Cork, in Ireland.
+This church was built in 1610, and has the reputation of being the first
+edifice erected in Ireland for the use of the Church of Ireland after
+the Reformation. Bandon was originally colonised by English settlers in
+the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and for a long time was a noted stronghold
+of Protestantism. This fact may throw light upon the opinions and
+sentiments of Master Holland, an original character, whose tombstone
+records that "he departed this life ye 29th day of 7ber 1722." When the
+news of the victory of William III reached Bandon there were great
+rejoicings, and Eldad paraphrased a portion of the morning service in
+honour of the occasion. After the first lesson he gave out the
+following notice:
+
+"Let us sing to the praise and glory of William, a psalm of my own
+composing:
+
+     "William is come home, come home,
+       William home is come,
+     And now let us in his praise
+       Sing a _Te Deum_."
+
+He then continued: "We praise thee, O William! we acknowledge thee to be
+our king!" adding with an impressive shake of the head, "And faith, a
+good right we have, for it was he who saved us from brass money, wooden
+shoes and Popery." He then resumed the old version, and reverently
+continued it to the end[68].
+
+[Footnote 68: This information was kindly sent to me by Mr. Robert
+Clarke, of Castle Eden, Durham, who states that he derived the
+information from _The History of Bandon_, by George Bennett (1869). My
+father used to repeat the following version:
+
+     "King William is come home,
+     Come home King William is come;
+     So let us then together sing
+     A hymn that's called _Te D'um_."
+
+I am not sure which version is the better poetry! The latter corresponds
+with the version composed by Wesley's clerk at Epworth, old John; so
+Clarke in his memoirs of the Wesley family records.]
+
+In a parish in North Devon[69] there was a poetical clerk who had great
+reverence for Bishop Henry Phillpotts, and on giving out the hymn he
+proclaimed his regard in this form: "Let us sing to the glory of God,
+and of the Lord Bishop of Exeter." On one occasion his lordship held a
+confirmation in the church on 5 November, when it is said the clerk
+gave out the Psalm in the usual way, adding, "in a stave of my own
+composing":
+
+     "This is the day that was the night
+       When the Papists did conspire
+     To blow up the King and Parliament House
+       With Gundy-powdy-ire."
+
+[Footnote 69: My kind correspondent, the Rev. J.B. Hughes, abstains from
+mentioning the name of the parish.]
+
+My informant cannot vouch for the truth of this story, but he can for
+the fact that when Bishop Phillpotts on another occasion visited the
+church his lordship was surprised to hear the clerk give out at the end
+of the service, "Let us sing in honour of his lordship, 'God save the
+King.'" The bishop rose somewhat hastily, saying to his chaplain, "Come
+along, Barnes; we shall have 'Rule, Britannia!' next."
+
+Cuthbert Bede tells the story of a poetical clerk who was much aggrieved
+because some disagreeable and naughty folk had maliciously damaged his
+garden fence. On the next Sunday he gave out "a stave of his own
+composing":
+
+     "Oh, Lord, how doth the wicked man;
+       They increases more and more;
+     They break the posts, likewise the rails
+       Around this poor clerk's door."
+
+He almost deserved his fate for barbarously mutilating a metrical Psalm,
+and was evidently a proper victim of poetical justice.
+
+A Devonshire clerk wrote the following noble effort:--
+
+     "Mount Edgcumbe is a pleasant place
+     Right o'er agenst the Ham-o-aze,
+     Where ships do ride at anchor,
+     To guard us agin our foes. Amen."
+
+Besides writing "hymns of his own composing," the parish clerk often
+used to give vent to his poetical talents in the production of epitaphs.
+The occupation of writing epitaphs must have been a lucrative one, and
+the effusions recording the numerous virtues of the deceased are quaint
+and curious. Well might a modern English child ask her mother after
+hearing these records read to her, "Where were all the bad people
+buried?" Learned scholars and abbots applied their talents to the
+production of the Latin verses inscribed on old brass memorials of the
+dead, and clever ladies like Dame Elizabeth Hobby sometimes wrote them
+and appended their names to their compositions. In later times this task
+seems to have been often undertaken by the parish clerk with not
+altogether satisfactory results, though incumbents and great poets,
+among whom may be enumerated Pope and Byron, sometimes wrote memorials
+of their friends. But the clerk was usually responsible for these
+inscriptions. Master John Hopkins, clerk at one of the churches at
+Salisbury at the end of the eighteenth century, issued an advertisement
+of his various accomplishments which ran thus:
+
+     "John Hopkins, parish clerk and undertaker, sells epitaphs of
+     all sorts and prices. Shaves neat, and plays the bassoon.
+     Teeth drawn, and the Salisbury Journal read gratis every
+     Sunday morning at eight. A school for psalmody every Thursday
+     evening, when my son, born blind, will play the fiddle.
+     Specimen epitaph on my wife:
+
+     My wife ten years, not much to my ease,
+     But now she is dead, in caelo quies.
+
+     Great variety to be seen within. Your humble servant, John
+     Hopkins."
+
+Poor David Diggs, the hero of Hewett's story of _The Parish Clerk_, used
+to write epitaphs in strange and curious English. Just before his death
+he put a small piece of paper into the hands of the clergyman of the
+parish, and whispered a request that its contents might be attended to.
+When the clergyman afterwards read the paper he found the following
+epitaph, which was duly inscribed on the clerk's grave:
+
+     "Reader Don't stop nor shed no tears
+     For I was parish clerk For 60 years;
+     If I lived on I could not now as Then
+     Say to the Parson's Prases A loud Amen."
+
+A very worthy poetical clerk was John Bennet, shoemaker, of Woodstock. A
+long account of him appears in the _Lives of Illustrious Shoemakers_,
+written by W.E. Winks. He inherited the office of parish clerk from his
+father, and with it some degree of musical taste. In the preface to his
+poems he wrote: "Witness my early acquaintance with the pious strains of
+Sternhold and Hopkins, under that melodious psalmodist my honoured
+Father, and your approved Parish Clerk." This is addressed to the Rev.
+Thomas Warton, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and sometime curate of
+Woodstock, to whose patronage and ready aid John Bennet was greatly
+indebted. Southey, who succeeded Warton in the Professorship, wrote that
+"This Woodstock shoemaker was chiefly indebted for the patronage which
+he received to Thomas Warton's good nature; for my predecessor was the
+best-hearted man that ever wore a great wig." Certainly the list of
+subscribers printed at the beginning of his early work is amazingly
+long. Noblemen, squires, parsons, great ladies, all rushed to secure the
+cobbler-clerk's poems, which were published in 1774. The poems consist
+mainly of simple rhymes or rustic themes, and are not without merit or
+humour. He is very modest and humble about his poetical powers, and
+tells that his reason for publishing his verses was "to enable the
+author to rear an infant offspring and to drive away all anxious
+solicitude from the breast of a most amiable wife." His humour is shown
+in the conclusion of his Dedication, where he wrote:
+
+"I had proceeded thus far when I was called to measure a gentleman of a
+certain college for a pair of fashionable boots, and the gentleman
+having insisted on a perusal of what I was writing, told me that a
+dedication should be as laconic as the boots he had employed me to make;
+and then, taking up my pen, added this scrap of Latin for a Heel-piece,
+as he called it, to my Dedication:
+
+     "_Jam satis est; ne me Crispini scrinia lippi
+     Compilasse putes, vertum non amplius_."
+
+The cobbler poet concludes his verses with the humorous lines:
+
+     "So may our cobler rise by friendly aid,
+     Be happy and successful in his trade;
+     His awl and pen with readiness be found,
+     To make or keep our understandings sound."
+
+Later in life John Bennet published another volume, entitled
+_Redemption_. It was dedicated to Dr. Mavor, rector of Woodstock. It is
+a noble poem, far exceeding in merit his first essay, and it is a
+remarkable and wonderful composition for a self-taught village
+shoemaker. The author-clerk died and was buried at Woodstock in 1803.
+
+A fine character and graceful poet was Richard Furness[70], parish clerk
+of Dore, five miles from Shalfield, a secluded hamlet. He was then
+styled "The Poet of the Peak," of sonorous voice and clear of speech,
+the author of many poems, and factotum supreme of the village and
+neighbourhood. Two volumes of his poems have been published. He
+combined, like many of his order, the office of parish clerk with that
+of schoolmaster, his schoolroom being under the same roof as his house.
+Thither crowds flocked. He was an immense favourite. The teacher of
+children, healer of all the lame and sick folk, the consoler and adviser
+of the troubled, he played an important part in the village life. His
+accomplishments were numerous. He could make a will, survey or convey an
+estate, reduce a dislocation, perform the functions of a parish clerk,
+lead a choir, and write an ode. This remarkable man was born at Eyam in
+1791, the village so famous for the story of its plague, in an old house
+long held by his family. Over the door is carved:
+
+     R. 1615. F
+
+[Footnote 70: _Biographical Sketches of Remarkable People_, by Spencer
+T. Hall.]
+
+When a boy he was very fond of reading, and studied mathematics and
+poetry. _Don Quixote_ was his favourite romance. His father would not
+allow him to read at night, but the student could not be prevented from
+studying his beloved books. In order to prevent the light in his bedroom
+from being seen in other parts of the house, he placed a candle in a
+large box, knelt by its side, and with the lid half closed few rays of
+the glimmering taper could reach the window or door. When he grew to be
+a man he migrated to Dore, and there set up a school, and began that
+active life of which an admirable account is given by Dr. G. Calvert
+Holland in the introduction of _The Poetical Works of Richard Furness_,
+published in 1858. In addition to other duties he sometimes discharged
+clerical functions. The vicar of the parish of Dore, Mr. Parker, was
+somewhat old and infirm, and sometimes found it difficult to tramp over
+the high moors in winter to privately baptize a sick child. So he often
+sent his clerk to perform the duty. On dark and stormy nights Richard
+Furness used to tramp over moor and fell, through snow and rain to some
+lonely farm or moorland cottage in order to baptize some suffering
+infant. On one occasion he omitted to ascertain before commencing the
+service whether the child was a boy or a girl. Turning to the father in
+the midst of a prayer, when the question whether he ought to use _his_
+or _her_ had to be decided, he inquired, "What sex?" The father, an
+ignorant labourer, did not understand the meaning of the question. "Male
+or female?" asked the clerk. Still the father did not comprehend. At
+last the meaning of the query dawned upon his rustic intelligence, and
+he whispered, "It's a mon childt."
+
+Thus does Richard Furness in his poems describe his many duties:
+
+     "I Richard Furness, schoolmaster, Dore,
+     Keep parish books and pay the poor;
+     Draw plans for buildings and indite
+     Letters for those who cannot write;
+     Make wills and recommend a proctor;
+     Cure wounds, let blood with any doctor;
+     Draw teeth, sing psalms, the hautboy play
+     At chapel on each holy day;
+     Paint sign-boards, cast names at command,
+     Survey and plot estates of land:
+     Collect at Easter, one in ten,
+     And on the Sunday say Amen."
+
+He wrote a poem entitled _Medicus Magus, or the Astrologer_, a droll
+story brimming over with quiet humour, folk-lore, philology and archaic
+lore. Also _The Ragbag_, which is dedicated to "John Bull, Esq." The
+style of his poetry was Johnsonian, or after the manner of Erasmus
+Darwin, a bard whom the present generation has forgotten, but whose
+_Botanic Garden_, published in 1825, is full of quaint plant-lore and
+classical allusions, if it does not reach the highest form of poetic
+talent. Here is a poem by our clerkly poet on the Old Year's funeral:
+
+     "The clock in oblivion's mouldering tower
+     By the raven's nest struck the midnight hour,
+     And the ghosts of the seasons wept over the bier
+     Of Old Time's last son--the departing year.
+
+     "Spring showered her daisies and dews on his bed,
+     Summer covered with roses his shelterless head,
+     And as Autumn embalmed his bodiless form,
+     Winter wove his snow shroud in his Jacquard of storm;
+     For his coffin-plate, charged with a common device,
+     Frost figured his arms on a tablet of ice,
+     While a ray from the sun in the interim came,
+     And daguerreotyped neatly his age, death, and name.
+       Then the shadowing months at call
+       Stood up to bear the pall,
+     And three hundred and sixty-five days in gloom
+     Formed a vista that reached from his birth to his tomb.
+     And oh, what a progeny followed in tears--
+     Hours, minutes, and moments--the children of years!
+       Death marshall'd th' array,
+       Slowly leading the way,
+     With his darts newly fashioned for New Year's Day."
+
+Richard Furness died in 1857, and was buried with his ancestors at Eyam.
+He thus sang his own requiem shortly before he passed away:
+
+     "To joys and griefs, to hopes and fears,
+       To all pride would, and power could do,
+     To sorrow's cup, to pity's tears,
+       To mortal life, to death adieu."
+
+I will conclude this chapter on poetical clerks with a sweet carol for
+Advent, written by Mr. Daniel Robinson, ex-parish clerk of Flore,
+Weedon, which is worthy of preservation:
+
+
+
+A CAROL FOR ADVENT
+
+"Behold, thy King cometh unto thee."--MATTHEW xxi. 5.
+
+     Behold, thy King is coming
+       Upon this earth to reign,
+     To take away oppression
+       And break the captive's chain;
+     Then trim your lamps, ye virgins,
+       Your oil of love prepare,
+     To meet the coming Bridegroom
+       Triumphant in the air.
+
+     Behold, thy King is coming,
+       Hark! 'tis the midnight cry,
+     The herald's voice proclaimeth
+       The hour is drawing nigh;
+     Then go ye forth to meet Him,
+       With lamps all burning bright,
+     Let sweet hosannahs greet Him,
+       And welcome Him aright.
+
+     Go decorate your churches
+       With evergreens and flowers,
+     And let the bells' sweet music
+       Resound from all your towers;
+     And sing your sweetest anthems,
+       For lo, your King is nigh,
+     While songs of praise are soaring
+       O'er vale and mountain high.
+
+     Let sounds of heavenly music
+       From sweet-voiced organs peal,
+     While old and young assembling
+       Before God's "Altar" kneel;
+     In humble adoration
+       Let each one praise and pray,
+     And give the King a welcome
+       This coming Christmas Day.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE CLERK GIVING OUT NOTICES
+
+After the Nicene Creed in the Book of Common Prayer occurs a rubric with
+regard to the giving out of notices, the observance of Holy-days or
+Feasting-days, the publication of Briefs, Citations and
+Ex-communications, which ends with the following words:
+
+"And nothing shall be proclaimed or published in the Church, during the
+time of Divine Service, but by the Minister; nor by him any thing but
+what is prescribed in the Rules of this Book, or enjoined by the King or
+by the Ordinary of the place."
+
+This rubric was added to the Prayer Book in the revision of 1662, and
+doubtless was intended to correct the undesirable practice of publishing
+all kinds of secular notices during the time of divine service. Dr.
+Wickham Legg has unearthed an inquiry made in an archidiaconal
+visitation in 1630, relating to the proclamation of lay businesses made
+in church, when the following question was asked:
+
+"Whether hath your Parish Clerk, or any other in Prayers time, or before
+Prayers or Sermon ended, before the people departed, made proclamation
+in your church touching any goods strayed away or wanting, or of any
+Leet court to be held, or of common-dayes-works to be made, or touching
+any other thing which is not merely ecclesiasticall, or a
+Church-businesse?"
+
+In times of Puritan laxity it was natural that notices sacred and
+profane should be indiscriminately mingled, and the rubric mentioned
+above would be sorely needed when church order and a reverent service
+were revived. But in spite of this direction the practice survived of
+not very strictly confining the notices to the concerns of the Church.
+
+An aged lady, Mrs. Gill, who is now eighty-four years of age, remembers
+that between the years 1825 and 1835, in a parish church near Welbeck
+Abbey, the clerk used to announce the date of the Duke of Rutland's
+rent-day. Another correspondent states that after service the clerk used
+to take his stand on one of the high flat tombstones and announce sales
+by auction, the straying of cattle, etc., and Sir Walter Scott wrote
+that at Hexham cattle-dealers used to carry their business letters to
+the church, "when after service the clerk was accustomed to read them
+aloud and answer them according to circumstances."
+
+Mr. Beresford Hope recollected that in a Surrey town church the notices
+given out by the clerk included the announcement of the meetings at the
+principal inn of the town of the executors of a deceased duke.
+
+In the days of that extraordinary free-and-easy go-as-you-please style
+of service which prevailed at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of
+the nineteenth century, the most extraordinary announcements were
+frequently made by the clerk, and very numerous stories are told of the
+laxity of the times and the quaintness of the remarks of the clerk.
+
+An old Shropshire clerk gave out on Easter Day the following
+extraordinary notice:
+
+"Last Friday was Good Friday, but we've forgotten un; so next Friday
+will be."
+
+Another clerk gave out a strange notice on Quinquagesima Sunday with
+regard to the due observance of Ash Wednesday. He said: "There will be
+no service on Wednesday--'coss why? Mester be going hunting, and so
+beeze I!" with triumphant emphasis. He is not the only sporting clerk of
+whom history speaks, and in the biographies of some worthies of the
+profession we hope to mention the achievements of a clerkly tailor who
+denied himself every luxury of life in order to save enough money to buy
+and keep a horse in order that he might follow the hounds "like a
+gentleman."
+
+Sporting parsons have furnished quite a crop of stories with regard to
+strange notices given out by their clerks. Some of them are well known
+and have often been repeated; but perhaps it is well that they should
+not be omitted here.
+
+About the year 1850 a clerk gave out in his rector's hearing this
+notice: "There'll be no service next Sunday, as the rector's going out
+grouse-shooting."
+
+A Devonshire hunting parson went to help a neighbouring clergyman in the
+old days when all kinds of music made up the village choir.
+Unfortunately some difficulty arose in the tuning of the instruments.
+The fiddles and bass-viol would not accord, and the parson grew
+impatient. At last, leaning over the reading-desk and throwing up his
+arms, he shouted out, "Hark away, Jack! Hark away, Jack! Tally-ho!
+Tally-ho![71]"
+
+[Footnote 71: _Mumpits and Crumpits_, by Sarah Hewitt, p. 175.]
+
+Another clerk caused amusement and consternation in a south-country
+parish and roused the rector's wrath. The young rector, who was of a
+sporting turn of mind, told him that he wanted to get to Worthing on a
+Sunday afternoon in time for the races which began on the following day,
+and that therefore there would be no service. This was explained to the
+clerk in confidence. The rector's horror may be imagined when he heard
+him give out in loud sonorous tones: "This is to give notice, no suvviss
+here this arternoon, becos measter meyans to get to Worthing to-night to
+be in good toime for reayces to-morrow mornin'."
+
+Old Moody, of Redbourn, Herts, was a typical parish clerk, and his
+vicar, Lord Frederick Beauclerk, and the curate, the Rev. W.S. Wade,
+were both hunting parsons of the old school. One Sunday morning Moody
+announced, just before giving out the hymn, that "the vicar was going on
+Friday to the throwing off of the Leicestershire hounds, and could not
+return home until Monday next week; therefore next Sunday there would
+not be any service in the church on that day." Moody was quite one of
+the leading characters of the place, whose words and opinions were law.
+
+No one in those days thought of disputing the right or questioning the
+conduct of a rector closing the church, and abandoning the accustomed
+services on a Sunday, in order to keep a sporting engagement.
+
+That other notice about the fishing parson is well known. The clerk
+announced: "This is to gi notus, there won't be no surviss here this
+arternoon becos parson's going fishing in the next parish." When he was
+remonstrated with after service for giving out such a strange notice,
+he replied:
+
+"Parson told I so 'fore church."
+
+"Surely he said officiating--not fishing?" said his monitor. "The bishop
+would not be pleased to hear of one of his clergy going fishing on a
+Sunday afternoon."
+
+The clerk was not convinced, and made a clever defence, grounded on the
+employment of some of the Apostles. The reader's imagination will supply
+the gist of the argument.
+
+Another rector, who had lost his favourite setter, told his clerk to
+make inquiries about it, but was much astonished to hear him give it out
+as a notice in church, coupled with the offer of a reward of three
+pounds if the dog should be restored to his owner.
+
+The clerk of the sporting parson was often quite as keen as his master
+in following the chase. It was not unusual for rectors to take
+"occasional services," weddings or funerals, on the way to a meet,
+wearing "pink" under their surplices. A wedding was proceeding in a
+Devonshire church, and when the happy pair were united and the Psalm was
+just about to be said, the clerk called out, "Please to make 'aste, sir,
+or he'll be gone afore you have done." The parson nodded and looked
+inquiringly at the clerk, who said, "He's turned into the vuzz bushes
+down in ten acres. Do look sharp, sir[72]."
+
+[Footnote 72: This story is told by Mrs. Hewett in her _Peasant Speech
+of Devon_, but I have ventured to anglicise the broad Devonshire a
+little, and to suggest that the scene could scarcely have taken place on
+a Sunday morning, as Mrs. Hewett suggests in her admirable book.]
+
+The story is told of a rector who, when walking to church across the
+squire's park during a severe winter, found a partridge apparently
+frozen to death. He placed the poor bird in the voluminous pocket of his
+coat. During the service the warmth of the rector's pocket revived the
+bird and thawed it back to life; and when during the sermon the rector
+pulled out his handkerchief, the revived bird flew vigorously away
+towards the west end of the church. The clerk, who sat in his seat
+below, was not unaccustomed to the task of beating for the squire's
+shooting parties, called out lustily:
+
+"It be all right, sir; I've marked him down in the belfry."
+
+The fame of the Rev. John Russell, the sporting parson of Swymbridge, is
+widespread, and his parish clerk, William Chapple, is also entitled to a
+small niche beneath the statue of the great man. The curate had left,
+and Mr. Russell inserted the following advertisement:
+
+"Wanted, a curate for Swymbridge; must be a gentleman of moderate and
+orthodox views."
+
+The word _orthodox_ rather puzzled the inhabitants of Swymbridge, who
+asked Chapple what it meant. The clerk did not know, but was unwilling
+to confess such ignorance, and knowing his master's predilections,
+replied, "I 'spects it be a chap as can ride well to hounds."
+
+The strangest notice ever given out in church that I ever have heard of,
+related to a set of false teeth. The story has been told by many.
+Perhaps Cuthbert Bede's version is the best. An old rector of a small
+country parish had been compelled to send to a dentist his set of false
+teeth, in order that some repairs might be made. The dentist had
+faithfully promised to send them back "by Saturday," but the Saturday's
+post did not bring the box containing the rector's teeth. There was no
+Sunday post, and the village was nine miles from the post town. The
+dentist, it afterwards appeared, had posted the teeth on the Saturday
+afternoon with the full conviction that their owner would receive them
+on Sunday morning in time for service. The old rector bravely tried to
+do that duty which England expects every man to do, more especially if
+he is a parson and if it be Sunday morning; but after he had mumbled
+through the prayers with equal difficulty and incoherency, he decided
+that it would be advisable to abandon any further attempts to address
+his congregation on that day. While the hymn was being sung he summoned
+his clerk to the vestry, and then said to him, "It is quite useless for
+me to attempt to go on. The fact is, that my dentist has not sent me
+back my artificial teeth; and as it is impossible for me to make myself
+understood, you must tell the congregation that the service is ended for
+this morning, and that there will be no service this afternoon." The old
+clerk went back to his desk; the singing of the hymn was brought to an
+end; and the rector, from his retreat in the vestry, heard the clerk
+address the congregation as follows:
+
+"This is to give notice! as there won't be no sarmon, nor no more
+service this mornin', so you'd better all go whum (home); and there
+won't be no sarvice this afternoon, as the rector ain't got his artful
+teeth back from the dentist!"
+
+This story so amused George Cruikshank that he wanted to make an
+illustration of it. But the journal in which it ought to have appeared
+was very short-lived. Hence Cruikshank's drawing was lost to the world.
+
+The clerk is a firm upholder of established custom. "We will now sing
+the evening hymn," said the rector of an East Anglian church in the
+sixties. "No, sir, it's doxology to-night." The preacher again said,
+"We'll sing the evening hymn." The clerk, however, persisted, "It's
+doxology to-night"; and doxology it was, in spite of the
+parson's protests.
+
+In the days when parish notices with reference to the lost, stolen, or
+strayed animals were read out in church at the commencement of the
+service, the clerk of a church [my informant has forgotten the name of
+the parish] rose in his place and said:
+
+"This is to give notice that my Lady ---- has lost her little dog; he
+comes to the name of Shock; he is all white except two patches of black
+on his sides and he has got--eh?--what?--yes--no--upon my soul he has
+got four eyes!" It should have been sore eyes, but the long _s_ had
+misled the clerk.
+
+The clerk does not always shine as an orator, but a correspondent who
+writes from the Charterhouse can vouch for the following effort of one
+who lived in a village not a hundred miles from Harrow about thirty
+years ago.
+
+There was a tea for the school children, at which the clerk, a farm
+labourer, spoke thus: "You know, my friends, that if we wants to get a
+good crop of anything we dungs the ground. Now what I say is, if we
+wants our youngsters to crop properly, we must see that they are
+properly dunged--- put the larning into them like dung, and they'll do
+all right."
+
+The subject of the Disestablishment of the Church was scarcely
+contemplated by a clerk in the diocese of Peterborough, who, after the
+amalgamation of two parishes, stated that he was desired by the vicar to
+announce that the services in each parish would be morning and evening
+to _all eternity_. It is thought that he meant to say _alternately_.
+
+I have often referred to the ancient clerkly method of giving out the
+hymns. It was a terrible blow to the clerk when the parsons began to
+interfere with his prerogative and give out the hymns themselves. All
+clerks did not revenge themselves on the usurpers of their ancient right
+as did one of their number, who was very indignant when a strange
+clergyman insisted on giving out the hymns himself. In due course he
+gave out "the fifty-third hymn," when out popped the old clerk's head
+from under the red curtains which hung round the gallery, and which gave
+him the appearance of wearing a nightcap, and he shouted, "That a baint!
+A be the varty-zeventh."
+
+The following account of a notice, which was scarcely authorised, shows
+the homely manners of former days. It was at Sapiston Church, a small
+village on the Duke of Grafton's estate. The grandfather of the present
+Duke was returning from a shooting expedition, and was passing the
+church on Sunday afternoon while service was going on. The Duke quietly
+entered the vestry, and signed to the clerk to come to him. The Duke
+gave the man a hare, and told him to put it into the parson's trap, and
+give a complimentary message about it at the end of the service. But the
+clerk, knowing his master would be pleased at the little attention,
+could not refrain from delivering both hare and message at once before
+the whole congregation. At the close of the hymn before the sermon he
+marched into a prominent position holding up the gift, and shouted out,
+"His Grace's compliments, and, please sir, he's sent ye a hare."
+
+In giving out the hymns or Psalms many difficulties of pronunciation
+would often arise. One clerk had many struggles over the line, "Awed by
+Thy gracious word." He could not manage that tiresome first word, and
+always called it "a wed." The old metrical version of the Psalm, "Like
+as the hart desireth the water-brooks," etc. is still with us, and a
+beautiful hymn it is:
+
+     "As pants the hart for cooling streams
+       When heated in the chase."
+
+A Northumbrian clerk used to give out the words thus:
+
+     "As pants the 'art for coolin' streams
+       When 'eated in the chaise,"
+
+which seems to foreshadow the triumph of modern civilisation, the carted
+deer, a mode of stag-hunting that was scarcely contemplated by Tate
+and Brady.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SLEEPY CHURCH AND SLEEPY CLERKS
+
+There was a time when the Church of England seemed to be asleep. Perhaps
+it may have been that "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," was
+only preparing her exhausted energies for the unwonted activities of the
+last half-century; or was it the sleep that presaged death? Her enemies
+told her so in plain and unvarnished language. Her friends, too, said
+that she was folding her robes to die with what dignity she could.
+Lethargy, sloth, sleep--a dead, dull, dreary sleep--fell like a leaden
+pall upon her spiritual life, darkening the light that shone but vaguely
+through the storied panes of her mediaeval windows, while a paralysing
+numbness crippled her limbs and quenched her activity.
+
+Such scenes as Archbishop Benson describes as his early recollection of
+Upton, near Droitwich, were not uncommon. The church was aisleless, and
+the middle passage, with high pews on each side, led up to the
+chancel-arch, in which was a "three-decker," fifteen feet high. The
+clerk wore a wig and immense horn spectacles. He was a shoemaker,
+dressed in black, with a white tie. In the gallery sat "the music"--a
+clarionet, flute, violin, and 'cello. The clerk gave out the "Twentieth
+Psalm of David," and the fiddlers tuned for a moment and then played at
+once. Then they struck up, and the clerk, absolutely alone, in a
+majestic voice which swayed up and down without regard to time or tune,
+sang it through like the braying of an ass; not a soul else joined in;
+the farmers amused and smiling at each other. Such scenes were
+quite usual.
+
+In Cornwall affairs were worse. In one church the curate-in-charge had
+to be chained to the altar rails while he read the service, as he had a
+harmless mania, which made him suddenly flee from the church if his own
+activities were for an instant suspended, as, for example, by a
+response. The churchwarden, a farmer, kept the padlock-key in his pocket
+till the service was safely over, and then released the imprisoned
+cleric. At another Cornish church the vicar's sister used to read the
+lessons in a deep bass voice.
+
+Congregations were often very sparse. Few people attended, and perhaps
+none on weekdays, unless the clerk was in his place. On such occasions
+the parson was tempted to emulate the humour of Dean Swift, who at the
+first weekday service that he held after his appointment to the living
+of Laracor, in the diocese of Meath, after waiting for some time in vain
+for a congregation, began the service, addressing his clerk, "Dearly
+beloved Roger, the scripture moveth you and me in sundry places," etc.
+
+When the Psalms were read, you heard the first verse read in a
+mellifluous and cultured voice. Perhaps it was the evening of the
+twenty-eighth day of the month, and you listened to the sacred words of
+Psalm cxxxvii., "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we
+remembered thee, O Sion." Then followed a bellow from a raucous throat:
+"Has fur ur 'arp, we 'anged 'em hup hupon the trees that hare thurin."
+And then at the end of the Lord's Prayer, after every one had finished,
+the same voice came drowsily cantering in: "For hever and hever,
+Haymen." Sometimes we heard, "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God
+the 'undred and sixtieth Psalm--_'Ymn 'ooever."_ The numbers of the
+hymns or Psalms were scored on the two sides of a slate. Sometimes the
+functionary in the gallery forgot to turn the slate after the first
+hymn. "Let us sing," began the clerk--(pause)--"Turn the slate, will
+you, if you please, Master Scroomes?" he continued, addressing the
+neglectful person.
+
+The singing was no mechanical affair of official routine--it was a
+drama. "As the moment of psalmody approached a slate appeared in front
+of the gallery, advertising in bold characters the Psalm about to be
+sung. The clerk gave out the Psalm, and then migrated to the gallery,
+where in company with a bassoon and two key-bugles, a carpenter
+understood to have an amazing power of singing 'counter,' and two lesser
+musical stars, formed the choir. Hymns were not known. The New Version
+was regarded with melancholy tolerance. 'Sternhold and Hopkins' formed
+the main source of musical tastes. On great occasions the choir sang an
+anthem, in which the key-bugles always ran away at a great pace, while
+the bassoon every now and then boomed a flying shot after them." It was
+all very curious, very quaint, very primitive. The Church was asleep,
+and cared not to disturb the relics of old crumbling inefficiency. The
+Church was asleep, the congregation slept, and the clerk often
+slept too.
+
+Hogarth's engraving of _The Sleeping Congregation_ is a parable of the
+state of the Church of England in his day. It is a striking picture
+truly. The parson is delivering a long and drowsy discourse on the text:
+"Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and I will give you rest." The
+congregation is certainly resting, and the pulpit bears the appropriate
+verse: "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in
+vain." The clerk is attired in his cassock and bands, contrives to keep
+one eye awake during the sermon, and this wakeful eye rests upon a
+comely fat matron, who is fast asleep, and has evidently been meditating
+"on matrimony," as her open book declares. A sleepy church, sleepy
+congregation, sleepy times!
+
+Many stories are told of dull and sleepy clerks.
+
+A canon of a northern cathedral tells me of one such clerk, whose duty
+it was, when the rector finished his sermon, to say "Amen." On a summer
+afternoon, this aged official was overtaken with drowsiness, and as soon
+as the clergyman had given out his text, slept the sleep of the just.
+Sermons in former years were remarkable for their length and many
+divisions.
+
+After the "firstly" was concluded, the preacher paused. The clerk,
+suddenly awaking, thought that the discourse was concluded, and
+pronounced his usual "Arummen." The congregation rose, and the service
+came to a close. As the gathering dispersed, the squire slipped half a
+crown into the clerk's hand, and whispered: "Thomas, you managed that
+very well, and deserve a little present. I will give you the same
+next time."
+
+[Illustration: THE SLEEPING CONGREGATION BY HOGARTH]
+
+At Eccleshall, near Sheffield, the clerk, named Thompson, had been, in
+the days of his youth, a good cricketer, and always acted as umpire for
+the village team. One hot Sunday morning, the sermon being very long,
+old Thompson fell asleep. His dream was of his favourite game; for when
+the parson finished his discourse and waited for the clerk's "Amen," old
+Thompson awoke, and, to the amazement of the congregation, shouted out
+"Over!" After all, he was no worse than the cricketing curate who, after
+reading the first lesson, announced: "Here endeth the first innings."
+
+Every one has heard of that Irish clerk who used to snore so loudly
+during the sermon that he drowned the parson's voice. The old vicar,
+being of a good-natured as well as a somewhat humorous turn of mind,
+devised a plan for arousing his lethargic clerk. He provided himself
+with a box of hard peas, and when the well-known snore echoed through
+the church, he quietly dropped one of the peas on the head of the
+offender, who was at once aroused to the sense of his duties, and
+uttered a loud "Amen."
+
+This plan acted admirably for a time, but unfortunately the parson was
+one day carried away by his eloquence, gesticulated wildly, and dropped
+the whole box of peas on the head of the unfortunate clerk. The result
+was such a strenuous chorus of "Amens," that the laughter of the
+congregation could not be restrained, and the peas were abolished and
+consigned to the limbo of impractical inventions. Possibly the story may
+be an invention too.
+
+One of the causes which tended to the unpopularity of the Church was the
+accession of George IV to the throne of England. "Church and King" were
+so closely connected in the mind of the people that the sins of the
+monarch were visited on the former, and deemed to have brought some
+discredit on it. Moreover, the King by his first act placed the loyal
+members of the Church in some difficulty, and that was the order to
+expunge the name of the ill-used, if erring, Queen Caroline from the
+Prayers for the Royal Family in the Book of Common Prayer.
+
+One good clergyman, Dr. Parr, vicar of Hatton, placed an interesting
+record in his Prayer Book after the required erasure: "It is my duty as
+a subject and as an ecclesiastic to read what is prescribed by my
+Sovereign as head of the Church, but it is not my duty to express my
+approbation." The sympathy of the people was with the injured Queen, and
+they knew not how much the clergy agreed with them. During the trial
+popular excitement ran high. In a Berkshire village the parish clerk
+"improved the occasion" by giving out in church "the first, fourth,
+eleventh, and twelfth verses of the thirty-fifth Psalm" in Tate and
+Brady's New Version:
+
+     "False witnesses with forged complaints
+       Against my truth combined,
+     And to my charge such things they laid
+       As I had ne'er designed."
+
+These words he sang most lustily.
+
+Cowper mentions a similar application of psalmody to political affairs
+in his _Task_:
+
+     "So in the chapel of old Ely House
+     When wandering Charles who meant to be the third,
+     Had fled from William, and the news was fresh,
+     The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce,
+     And eke did rear right merrily, two staves
+     Sung to the praise and glory of King George."
+
+It was not an unusual thing for a parish clerk to select a psalm suited
+to the occasion when any special excitement gave him an opportunity.
+Branston, the satirist, in his _Art of Politicks_ published in 1729,
+alluded to this misapplication of psalmody occasionally made by parish
+clerks in the lines:
+
+     "Not long since parish clerks with saucy airs
+     Apply'd King David's psalms to State affairs."
+
+In order to avoid this unfortunate habit, a country rector in Devonshire
+compiled in 1725 "Twenty-six Psalms of Thanksgiving, Praise, Love, and
+Glory, for the use of a parish church, with the omission of all the
+imprecatory psalms, lest a parish clerk or any other should be whetting
+his spleen, or obliging his spite, when he should be entertaining his
+devotion."
+
+Sometimes the clerks ventured to apply the verses of the Psalms to their
+own private needs and requirements, so as to convey gentle hints and
+suggestions to the ears of those who could supply their needs. Canon
+Ridgeway tells of the old clerk of the Church of King Charles the Martyr
+at Tunbridge Wells. His name was Jenner. He was a well-known character;
+he used to have a pipe and pitch the tune, and also select the hymns. It
+was commonly said that the congregation always knew when the lodgings in
+his house on Mount Sion were unlet; for when this was the case he was
+wont to give out the Psalm:
+
+     "Mount Sion is a pleasant place to dwell."
+
+At Great Yarmouth, until about the year 1850, the parish clerk was
+always invited to the banquets or "feasts" given by the corporation of
+the borough; and he was honoured annually with a card of invitation to
+the "mayor's feast" on Michaelmas Day. On one occasion the mayor-elect
+had omitted to send a card to the clerk, Mr. David Absolon, who was
+clerk from 1811 to 1831, and had been a member of the corporation and
+common councillor previous to his appointment to his ecclesiastical
+office. On the following Sunday, Master David Absolon reminded his
+worship of his remissness by giving out the following verse, directing
+his voice at the same time to the mayor-elect:
+
+     Let David his accustomed place
+       In thy remembrance find."
+
+The words in Tate and Brady's metrical version of Psalm cxxxii. run
+thus:
+
+     "Let David, Lord, a constant place
+       In Thy remembrance find[73]."
+
+[Footnote 73: _History of St. Nicholas' Church, Great Yarmouth_, by the
+present Clerk, Mr. Edward J. Lupson, p. 24.]
+
+In the same town great excitement used to attend the election of the
+mayor on 29 August in each year. Before the election the corporation
+attended service in the parish church, and the clerk on these occasions
+gave out for singing "the first two staves of the fifteenth Psalm:
+
+     "Lord, who's the happy man," etc.
+
+The passing of the Municipal Act changed the manner and time of the
+election, but it did not take away the interest felt in the event. As
+long as Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms was used in the church,
+that is until the year 1840, these "two staves" were annually sung on
+the Sunday preceding the election[74].
+
+[Footnote 74: _Ibid._, p. 23.]
+
+In these days of reverent worship it seems hardly possible that the
+beautiful expressions in the psalms of praise to Almighty God should
+ever have been prostituted to the baser purposes of private gain or
+municipal elections.
+
+Sleepy times and sleepy clerks--and yet these were not always sleepy; in
+fact, far too lively, riotous, and unruly. At least, so the poor rector
+of Hayes found them in the middle of the eighteenth century. Such
+conduct in church is scarcely credible as that which was witnessed in
+this not very remote parish church in not very remote times. The
+registers of the parish of Hayes tell the story in plain language. On 18
+March, 1749, "the clerk gave out the 100th Psalm, and the singers
+immediately opposed him, and sung the 15th, and bred a disturbance. _The
+clerk then ceased_." Poor man, what else could he have done, with a
+company of brawling, bawling singers shouting at him from the gallery!
+On another occasion affairs were worse, the ringers and others
+disturbing the service, from the beginning of the service to the end of
+the sermon, by ringing the bells and going into the gallery to spit
+below. On another occasion a fellow came into church with a pot of beer
+and a pipe, and remained smoking in his pew until the end of the
+sermon[75]. _O tempora! O mores!_ as some disconsolate clergymen wrote
+in their registers when the depravity of the times was worse than usual.
+The slumbering congregation of Hogarth's picture would have been a
+comfort to the distracted parson.
+
+[Footnote 75: _Antiquary_, vol. xviii, p. 65. Quoted in _Social Life as
+told by Parish Registers_, p. 54.]
+
+To prevent people from sleeping during the long sermons a special
+officer was appointed, in order to banish slumber when the parson was
+long in preaching. This official was called a sluggard-waker, and was
+usually our old friend the parish clerk with a new title. Several
+persons, perhaps reflecting in their last moments on all the good advice
+which they had missed through slumbering during sermon time, have
+bequeathed money for the support of an officer who should perambulate
+the church, and call to attention any one who, through sleep, was
+missing the preacher's timely admonition. Richard Dovey, of Farmcote, in
+1659 left property at Claverley, Shropshire, with the condition that
+eight shillings should be paid to, and a room provided for, a poor man,
+who should undertake to awaken sleepers, and to whip out dogs from the
+church of Claverley during divine service[76].
+
+[Footnote 76: _Old English Customs and Curious Bequests_, S.H. Edwards
+(1842), p. 220.]
+
+John Rudge, of Trysull, Staffordshire, left a like bequest to a poor man
+to go about the parish church of Trysull during sermon to keep people
+awake, and to keep dogs out of church[77]. Ten shillings a year is paid
+by a tenant of Sir John Bridges, at Chislett, Kent, as a charge on lands
+called Dog-whipper's Marsh, to a person for keeping order in the church
+during service[78], and from time immemorial an acre of land at
+Peterchurch, Herefordshire, was appropriated to the use of a person for
+keeping dogs out of church, such person being appointed by the minister
+and churchwardens.
+
+[Footnote 77: _Ibid._, p. 221.]
+
+[Footnote 78: _Ibid._, p. 222.]
+
+Mr. W. Andrews, Librarian of the Hull Institute, has collected in his
+_Curiosities of the Church_ much information concerning sluggard-wakers
+and dog-whippers. The clerk in one church used a long staff, at one end
+of which was a fox's brush for gently arousing a somnolent female, while
+at the other end was a knob for a more forcible awakening of a male
+sleeper. The Dunchurch sluggard-waker used a stout wand with a fork at
+the end of it. During the sermon he stepped stealthily up and down the
+nave and aisles and into the gallery marking down his prey. And no one
+resented his forcible awakenings.
+
+The sluggard-waker and dog-whipper appear in many old churchwardens'
+account-books. Thus in the accounts of Barton-on-Humber there is an
+entry for the year 1740: "Paid Brocklebank for waking sleepers 2 s. 0."
+At Castleton the officer in 1722 received 10 s. 0[79]. The clerk in his
+capacity of dog-whipper had often arduous duties to perform in the old
+dale churches of Yorkshire when farmers and shepherds frequently brought
+their dogs to church. The animals usually lay very quietly beneath their
+masters' seat, but occasionally there would be a scrimmage and fight,
+and the clerk's staff was called into play to beat the dogs and
+produce order.
+
+[Footnote 79: The reader will find numerous entries relating to this
+subject in the work of Mr. W. Andrews to which I have referred.]
+
+Why dogs should have been ruthlessly and relentlessly whipped out of
+churches I can scarcely tell. The Highland shepherd's dog usually lies
+contentedly under his master's seat during a long service, and even an
+archbishop's collie, named Watch, used to be very still and well-behaved
+during the daily service, only once being roused to attention and a
+stately progress to the lectern by the sound of his master's voice
+reading the verse "I say unto all, Watch." But our ancestors made war
+against dogs entering churches. In mediaeval and Elizabethan times such
+does not seem to have been the case, as one of the duties of the clerks
+in those days was to make the church clean from the "shomeryng of dogs."
+The nave of the church was often used for secular purposes, and dogs
+followed their masters. Mastiffs were sometimes let loose in the church
+to guard the treasures, and I believe that I am right in stating that
+chancel rails owe their origin to the presence of dogs in churches, and
+were erected to prevent them from entering the sanctuary. Old Scarlett
+bears a dog-whip as a badge of his office, and the numerous bequests to
+dog-whippers show the importance of the office.
+
+Nor were dogs the only creatures who were accustomed to receive
+chastisement in church. The clerk was usually armed with a cane or rod,
+and woe betide the luckless child who talked or misbehaved himself
+during service. Frequently during the course of a long sermon the sound
+of a cane (the Tottenham clerk had a split cane which made no little
+noise when used vigorously) striking a boy's back was heard and startled
+a sleepy congregation. It was all quite usual. No one objected, or
+thought anything about it, and the sermon proceeded as if nothing had
+happened. Paul Wootton, clerk at Bromham, Wilts, seventy years ago
+performed various duties during the service, taking his part in the
+gallery among the performers as bass, flute serpent, an instrument
+unknown now, etc., pronouncing his Amen _ore rotundo_ and during the
+sermon armed with a long stick sitting among the children to preserve
+order. If any one of the small creatures felt that _opere in longo fas
+est obrepere somnum_, the long stick fell with unerring whack upon the
+urchin's head. When Mr. Stracey Clitherow went to his first curacy at
+Skeyton, Norfolk, in 1845, he found the clerk sweeping the whole chancel
+clear of snow which had fallen through the roof. The font was of wood
+painted orange and red. The singers sat within the altar rails with a
+desk for their books inside the rails. There was a famous old clerk,
+named Bird, who died only a year or two ago, aged ninety, and, as Mr.
+Clitherow informed Bishop Stanley, was the best man in the parish, and
+was well worthy of that character.
+
+Even in London churches unfortunate events happened, and somnolent
+clerks were not confined to the country. A correspondent remembers that
+in 1860, when St. Martin's-in-the-Fields was closed for the purpose of
+redecorating, his family migrated to St. Matthew's Chapel, Spring
+Gardens (recently demolished), where one hot Sunday evening one of the
+curates of St. Martin's was preaching, and in the course of his sermon
+said that it was the duty of the laity to pray that God would "endue His
+ministers with righteousness." The clerk was at the moment sound asleep,
+but suddenly aroused by the familiar words, which acted like a bugle
+call to a slumbering soldier, he at once slid down on the hassock at his
+feet and uttered the response "And make Thy chosen people joyful." My
+informant remarks that the "chosen people" who were present became
+"joyful" to an unseemly degree, in spite of strenuous efforts to
+restrain their feelings.
+
+Sometimes the clerk was not the only sleeper. A tenor soloist of
+Wednesbury Old Church eighty years ago used to tell the story of the
+vicar of Wednesbury, who one very sultry afternoon retired into the
+vestry, which was under the western tower, to don his black gown while a
+hymn was being sung by the expectant congregation. The hymn having been
+sung through, and the preacher not having returned to ascend the pulpit,
+the clerk gave out the last verse again. Still no parson. Then he
+started the hymn, directing it to be sung all through again; but still
+the vicar returned not. At last in desperation he gave out that they
+"would now sing," etc. etc., the 119th Psalm. Mercifully before they had
+all sunk back into their seats exhausted the long-lost parson made his
+hurried reappearance. The poor old gentleman had dropped into an
+arm-chair in the vestry, and overcome by the heat had fallen soundly
+asleep. As to the clerk, he could not leave his seat to go in search of
+him; there was no precedent for both vicar and clerk to be away from the
+three-decker before the service was brought to a close.
+
+The old clerk is usually intensely loyal to the Church and to his
+clergyman, but there have been some exceptions. An example of a disloyal
+clerk comes from the neighbourhood of Barnstaple.
+
+A parish clerk, apparently religious and venerable, held his position in
+a village church in that district for thirty years. He carried out his
+duties with regularity and thoroughness equalled only by the parish
+priest. This old clerk would frequently make remarks--not altogether
+pleasing--about Nonconformists, whom he summed up as a lot of "mithudy
+nuezenses" (methodist nuisances).
+
+A new rector came and brought with him new ideas. The parish clerk would
+not be required for the future. As soon as the old clerk heard this he
+attached himself to a local dissenting body and joined with them to
+worship in their small chapel. This, after thirty years' service in the
+Church and a bitter feeling against Nonconformists, is rather
+remarkable.
+
+In the forties there was a sleepy clerk at Hampstead, a very portly man,
+who did ample justice to his bright red waistcoat and brass buttons. The
+church had a model old-time three-decker. The lower deck was occupied by
+the clerk, the upper deck by the reader, and the quarter-deck by the
+preacher. The clerk, during the sermon, would often fall asleep and make
+known his state by a snore. Then the reader would tap his bald head with
+a hymn-book, whereupon he would wake up and startle the congregation by
+a loud and prolonged "Ah-men."
+
+We are accustomed now to have our churches beautifully decorated with
+flowers and fruits and holly and evergreens at the great festivals and
+harvest thanksgiving services. Sometimes on the latter occasions our
+decorations are perhaps a little too elaborate, and remind one of a
+horticultural show. No such charge could be brought against the
+old-fashioned method of church decoration. Christmas was the only season
+when it was attempted, and sprigs of holly stuck at the corners of the
+old square pews in little holes made for the purpose were always deemed
+sufficient. This was always the duty of the clerk. Later on, when a
+country church was found to be elaborately decorated for Christmas and
+the clerk was questioned on the subject, he replied, shaking his head,
+"Ah! we're getting a little High Church now." At Langport, Somerset, the
+pews were similarly adorned on Palm Sunday with sprigs of the catkins
+from willow trees to represent palms.
+
+I have already mentioned some instances of clerks who were sometimes
+elated by the dignity of the office and full of conceit. Wesley enjoyed
+the experience of having a conceited clerk at Epworth, who not only was
+proud of his singing and other accomplishments, but also of his personal
+appearance. He delighted to wear Wesley's old clerical clothes and
+especially his wig, which was much too big for the insignificant clerk's
+head. John Wesley must have had a sense of humour, though perhaps it
+might have been exhibited in a more appropriate place. However, he was
+determined to humble his conceited clerk, and said to him one Sunday
+morning, "John, I shall preach on a particular subject this morning, and
+shall choose my own psalm, of which I will give out the first line, and
+you will proceed and repeat the next as usual." When the time for
+psalmody arrived Wesley gave out, "Like to an owl in ivy bush," and the
+clerk immediately responded, "That rueful thing am I." The members of
+the congregation looked up and saw his small head half-buried in his
+large wig, and could not restrain their smiles. The clerk was mortified
+and the rector gratified that he should have been taught a lesson and
+learned to be less vain.
+
+Old-fashioned ways die hard. Only seven years ago the incumbent of a
+small Somerset parish found when in the pulpit that he had left his
+spectacles at home. Casting a shrewd glance around, he perceived just
+below him, well within reach, one of his parishioners who was wearing a
+large pair of what in rustic circles are termed "barnacles" tied behind
+his head. Stretching down, the parson plucked them from the astonished
+owner's brow, and, fitting them on his clerical nose, proceeded to
+deliver his discourse. Thenceforward the clerk, doubtless fearing for
+his own glasses, never failed to carry to church a second pair wherewith
+to supply, if need be, his coadjutor's shortcomings.
+
+Another and final story of sleepy manners comes to us from the north
+country. A short-sighted clergyman of what is known as the "old school"
+was preaching one winter afternoon to a slumberous congregation. Dusk
+was falling, the church was badly lighted, and his manuscript difficult
+to decipher. He managed to stumble along until he reached a passage
+which he rendered as follows: "Enthusiasm, my brethren, enthusiasm in a
+good cause is an excellent--excellent quality, but unless it is tempered
+with judgment, it is apt to lead us--apt to lead us--Here, Thomas,"
+handing the sermon to the clerk, "go to the window and see what it is
+apt to lead us into."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE CLERK IN ART
+
+The finest portrait ever painted of a parish clerk is that of Orpin,
+clerk of Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts, whose interesting old house still
+stands near the grand parish church and the beautiful little Saxon
+ecclesiastical structure. This picture is the work of Thomas
+Gainsborough, R.A., and is now happily preserved in the National
+Gallery. Orpin has a fine and noble face upon which the sunlight is
+shining through a window as he turns from the Divine Book to see the
+glories of the blue sky.
+
+     "Some word of life e'en now has met
+       His calm benignant eye;
+     Some ancient promise breathing yet
+       Of immortality.
+     Some heart's deep language which the glow
+       Of faith unwavering gives;
+     And every feature says 'I know
+       That my Redeemer lives.'"
+
+The size of this canvas is four feet by three feet two inches. Orpin is
+wearing a blue coat, black vest, white neck-cloth, and dark breeches.
+His hair is grey and curly, and falls upon his shoulders. He sits on a
+gilt-nailed chair at a round wooden table, on which is a reading-easel,
+supporting a large volume bound in dark green, and labelled "Bible, Vol.
+I." The background is warm brown.
+
+Of this picture a critic states: "The very noble character of the
+worthy old clerk's head was probably an additional inducement to
+Gainsborough to paint the picture, Seldom does so fine a subject present
+itself to the portrait painter, and Gainsborough evidently sought to do
+justice to his venerable model by unusual and striking effect of
+lighting, and by more than ordinary care in execution. It might almost
+seem like impertinence to eulogise such painting, as this canvas
+contains painting which, unlike the works of Reynolds, seems fresh and
+pure as the day it left the easel; and it would be still more futile to
+attempt to define the master's method."
+
+The history of the portrait is interesting. It was painted at
+Shockerwick, near Bradford, where Wiltshire, the Bath carrier, lived,
+who loved art so much that he conveyed to London Gainsborough's pictures
+from the year 1761 to 1774 entirely free of charge. The artist rewarded
+him by presenting him with some of his paintings, _The Return from
+Harvest, The Gipsies' Repast_, and probably this portrait of Orpin was
+one of his gifts. It was sold at Christie's in 1868 by a descendant of
+the art-loving carrier, and purchased for the nation by Mr. Boxall for
+the low sum of L325.
+
+The mediaeval clerk appears in many ancient manuscripts and
+illuminations, which show us, better than words can describe, the actual
+duties which he was called upon to perform. The British Museum possesses
+a number of pontificals and other illustrated manuscripts containing
+artistic representations of clerks. We see him accompanying the priest
+who is taking the last sacrament to the sick. He is carrying a taper and
+a bell, which he is evidently ringing as he goes, its tones asking for
+the prayers of the faithful for the sick man's soul. This picture
+occurs in a fourteenth-century MS. [6 E. VI, f. 427], and in the same
+MS. we see another illustration of the priest administering the last
+sacrament attended by the clerk [6 E. VII, f. 70].
+
+[Illustration: THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST AT HOLY BAPTISM]
+
+[Illustration 2: THE CLERK ATTENDING THE PRIEST AT HOLY BAPTISM]
+
+Another illustration shows the priest baptizing an infant which the male
+sponsor holds over the font, while the priest pours water over its head
+from a shallow vessel. The faithful parish clerk stands by the priest.
+This appears in the fifteenth-century MS. Egerton, 2019, f. 135.
+
+In the MS. of Froissart's Chronicle there is an illustration of the
+coronation procession of Charles V of France. The clerk goes before the
+cross-bearer and the bishop bearing his holy-water vessel and his
+sprinkler for the purpose of aspersing the spectators. We have already
+given two illustrations taken from a fourteenth-century MS. in the
+British Museum, which depict the clerk, as the _aquaebajalus_, entering
+the lord's house and going first into the kitchen to sprinkle the cook
+with holy water, and then into the hall to perform a like duty to the
+lord and lady as they sit at dinner.
+
+There is a fine picture in a French pontifical of the fifteenth century,
+which is in the British Museum (Tiberius, B. VIII, f. 43), of the
+anointing and coronation of a king of France. An ecclesiastical
+procession is represented meeting the king and his courtiers at the door
+of the cathedral of Rheims, and amongst the dignitaries we see the clerk
+bearing the holy-water vessel, the cross-bearer, and the thurifer
+swinging his censer. The clerk wears a surplice over a red tunic.
+
+One other of these mediaeval representations of the clerk's duties may be
+mentioned. It is a fifteenth-century French MS. in the British Museum
+(Egerton, 2019, f. 142), and represents the last scenes of this mortal
+life. The absolution of the penitent, the administration of the last
+sacrament, the woman mourning for her husband and arranging the
+grave-clothes, the singing of the dirige, the burial, and the reception
+of the soul of the departed by our Lord in glory. The clerk appears in
+several of these scenes. He is kneeling behind the priest in the
+administration of the last sacrament. Robed in surplice and cope he is
+chanting the Psalms for the departed, and at the burial he is holding
+the holy-water vessel for the asperging of the corpse.
+
+There are several paintings by English artists which represent the
+old-fashioned clerk in all his glory in his throne in the lowest seat of
+the "three-decker." Perhaps the most striking is the satirical sketch of
+the pompous eighteenth-century clerk as shown in Hogarth's engraving of
+_The Sleeping Congregation_, to which I have already referred. As a
+contrast to Hogarth's _Sleeping Congregation_ we may place Webster's
+famous painting of a village choir, which is thoroughly life-like and
+inspiring. The old clerk with enrapt countenance is singing lustily. The
+musicians are performing on the 'cello, clarionet, and hautboy, and the
+singers are chanting very earnestly and very vigorously the strains of
+some familiar melody. The picture is a very exact presentment of an old
+village choir of the better sort.
+
+[Illustration: THE DUTIES OF A CLERK AT A DEATH AND FUNERAL]
+
+[Illustration: THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD BY W.P. FRITH]
+
+It was perhaps such a choir as this that an aged friend remembers in a
+remote Cornish village. It was a mixed choir, led by a 'cello, flute,
+and clarionet. Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms was used
+alternately with a favourite anthem arranged by some of the members.
+"We'll wash our hands," the basses led off in stentorian tones. Then the
+tenors followed. Then the trebles in shrill voices--"washed hands."
+Finally, after a pause, the whole choir shouted triumphantly, "in
+innocenc_ee_"; and the congregation bore it, my friend naively remarks.
+The orchestra on one occasion struck work. Only the clerk, who played
+his 'cello, remained faithful. To prove his loyalty he appeared as
+usual, gave out a hymn of many verses, and sang it through in his clear
+bass voice, to the accompaniment of his instrument.
+
+It was not an unusual thing for the clerk to be the only chorister in a
+village church, and then sometimes strange things happened. There was a
+favourite tune which required the first half of one of the lines to be
+repeated thrice. This led to such curious utterances as "My own sal,"
+called out lustily three times, and then finished with "My own
+salvation's rock to praise." The thrice-repeated "My poor poll" was no
+less striking, but it was only a prelude to "My poor polluted heart." A
+chorus of women and girls in the west gallery sang lustily, "Oh for a
+man," _bis, bis_--a pause--"A mansion in the skies." Another clerk sang
+"And in the pie" three times, supplementing it with "And in the pious He
+delights." Another bade his hearers "Stir up this stew," but he was only
+referring to "This stupid heart of mine." Yet another sang lustily "Take
+Thy pill," but when the line was completed it was heard to be "Take Thy
+pilgrim home."
+
+Returning to the artistic presentment of clerks, there is a fine sketch
+of one in Frith's famous painting of the Vicar of Wakefield, whose
+gentle manners and loving character as conceived by Goldsmith are
+admirably depicted by the artist. Near the vicar stands the faithful
+clerk, a dear old man, who is scarcely less reverend than his vicar.
+
+There is an old print of a portion of the church of St. Margaret,
+Westminster, which shows the Carolian "three-decker," a very elaborate
+structure, crowned by a huge sounding-board. The clergyman is
+officiating in the reading desk, and a very nice-looking old clerk, clad
+in his black gown with bands, sits below. There is a pompous beadle with
+his flowing wig and a mace in an adjoining pew, and some members of the
+congregation appear at the foot of the "three-decker," and in the
+gallery. It is a very correct representation of the better sort of
+old-fashioned service.
+
+The hall of the Parish Clerks' Company possesses several portraits of
+distinguished members of the profession, which have already been
+mentioned in the chapter relating to the history of the fraternity. By
+the courtesy of the company we are enabled to reproduce some of the
+paintings, and to record some of the treasures of art which the
+fraternity possesses.
+
+[Illustration (upside down, by the way): PORTRAIT OF RICHARD HUNT THE
+RESTORER OF THE CLERKS' ALMSHOUSES]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+WOMEN AS PARISH CLERKS
+
+A woman cannot legally be elected to the office of parish clerk, though
+she may be a sexton. There was the famous case of _Olive_ v. _Ingram_
+(12 George I) which determined this. One Sarah Bly was elected sexton of
+the parish of St. Botolph without Aldersgate by 169 indisputable votes
+and 40 which were given by women who were householders and paid to the
+church and poor, against 174 indisputable votes and 20 given by women
+for her male rival. Sarah Bly was declared elected, and the Court upheld
+the appointment and decreed that women could vote on such elections.
+
+Cuthbert Bede states that in 1857 there were at least three female
+sextons, or "sextonesses," in the City of London, viz.: Mrs. Crook at
+St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury; Mrs. E. Worley at St. Laurence,
+Jewry, King Street; and Mrs. Stapleton at St. Michael's, Wood Street. In
+1867 Mrs. Noble was sextoness of St. John the Baptist, Peterborough. The
+_Annual Register_ for 1759 mentions an extraordinary centenarian
+sextoness:
+
+     Died, April 30th, Mary Hall, sexton of Bishop Hill, York
+     City, aged one hundred and five; she walked about and
+     retained her senses till within three days of her death.
+
+Evidently the duties of her office had not worn out the stalwart old
+dame.
+
+Although legally a woman may not perform the duties of a parish clerk,
+there have been numerous instances of female holders of the office. In
+the census returns it is not quite unusual to see the names of women
+returned as parish clerks, and we have many who discharge the duties of
+churchwarden, overseer, rate-collector, and other parochial offices.
+
+One Ann Hopps was parish clerk of Linton about the year 1770, but
+nothing is known of her by her descendants except her name. Madame
+D'Arblay speaks in her diary of that "poor, wretched, ragged woman, a
+female clerk" who showed her the church of Collumpton, Devon. This good
+woman inherited her office from her deceased husband and received the
+salary, but she did not take the clerk's place in the services on
+Sunday, but paid a man to perform that part of her functions.
+
+The parish register of Totteridge tells of the fame of Elizabeth King,
+who was clerk of that place for forty-six years. The following extract
+tells its own story:
+
+     March 2nd, 1802, buried Elizabeth King, widow, for 46 years
+     clerk of this parish, in the 91st year of her age, who died
+     at Whetstone in the Parish of Finchley, Feb. 24th.
+
+     N.B.--This old woman, as long as she was able to attend, did
+     constantly, and read on the prayer-days, with great strength
+     and pleasure to the hearers, though not in the clerk's place;
+     the desk being filled on the Sunday by her son-in-law,
+     Benjamin Withall, who did his best[80].
+
+[Footnote 80: Burn's _History of Parish Registers_, p. 129.]
+
+Under the shade of the episcopal palace at Cuddesdon, at Wheatley, near
+Oxford, about sixty-five years ago, a female clerk, Mrs. Sheddon,
+performed the duties of the office which had been previously discharged
+by her husband. At Avington, near Hungerford, Berks, Mrs. Poffley was
+parish clerk for a period of twenty-five years at the beginning of the
+last century. About the same time Mary Mountford was parish clerk of
+Misterton, near Crewkerne, Somersetshire, for upwards of thirty years. A
+female clerk was acting at Igburgh, Norfolk, in 1853; and at Sudbrook,
+near Lincoln, in 1830, a woman also officiated and died in the service
+of the Church. Nor was the office confined to rural women of the working
+class. Mr. Ellacombe remembered to have seen "a gentle-woman acting as
+parish clerk of some church in London."
+
+There are doubtless many other instances of women serving as parish
+clerks, and one of my correspondents remembers a very remarkable
+example.
+
+In the village of Willoughton, Lincolnshire, more than seventy years
+ago, there lived an old dame named Betty Wells, who officiated as parish
+clerk. For many years Betty sat in the lowest compartment of the
+three-decker pulpit, reading the lessons and leading the responses, and,
+with the exception of ringing the church bell, fulfilling all the
+duties of clerk.
+
+But Betty was also looked upon as a witch, and several stories are told
+of how she made things very unpleasant for those who offended her.
+
+One day there had been a christening at which Betty had done her share;
+but by some unfortunate oversight she was not invited to the feast which
+took place afterwards. No sooner had the guests seated themselves at the
+table than a great cloud of soot fell down the chimney smothering all
+the good things, so that nothing could be eaten. Then, too late, they
+remembered that Betty Wells had not been invited, and perfectly
+confident were they that she had had her revenge by spoiling the feast.
+
+One of the farmers let Betty have straw for bedding her pig in return
+for manure. When one of his men came to fetch the manure away, she
+thought he had taken too much. So she warned him that he would not go
+far--neither did he, for the cart tipped right over. And that was
+Betty again!
+
+We know Betty had a husband, for we hear that one evening when he came
+home from his work his wife had ever so many tailors sitting on the
+table all busily stitching. When John came in they vanished.
+
+A few people still remember Betty Wells, and they shake their heads as
+they say, "Well, you see, the old woman had a very queer-looking eye,"
+giving you to understand that it was with that particular eye she worked
+all these wonders.
+
+The story of Betty Wells has been gleaned from scraps supplied by
+various old people and collected by Miss Frances A. Hill, of
+Willoughton. The unfortunate christening feast took place after the
+baptism of her father, and the story was told to her by an old aunt, now
+dead, who was grown up at the time (1830) and could remember it all
+distinctly. The people who told Miss Hill about Betty and her weird
+witch-like ways fully believed in her supernatural powers.
+
+Another Betty, whose surname was Finch, was employed at the beginning of
+the last century at Holy Trinity Church, Warrington, as a "bobber," or
+sluggard-waker[81]. She was the wife of the clerk, and was well fitted
+on account of her masculine form to perform this duty which usually fell
+to the lot of the parish clerk. She used to perambulate the church armed
+with a long rod, like a fishing-rod, which had a "bob" fastened to the
+end of it. With this instrument she effectually disturbed the peaceful
+slumbers of any one who was overcome with drowsiness. The whole family
+of Betty was ecclesiastically employed, as her son used to sing:
+
+     "My father's a clerk,
+       My sister's a singer,
+     My mother's a bobber,
+       And I am a ringer."
+
+[Footnote 81: W. Andrews, _Curiosities of the Church_, p. 176.]
+
+One of my correspondents tells of another female clerk who officiated in
+a dilapidated old church with a defective roof, and who held an umbrella
+over the unfortunate clergyman when he was reading the service, in order
+to protect him from the drops of rain that poured down upon him.
+
+Doubtless in country places there are many other churches where female
+clerks have discharged the duties of the office, but history has not, as
+far as I am aware, recorded their names or their services. Perhaps in an
+age in which women have taken upon themselves to perform all kinds of
+work and professional duties formerly confined to men alone, we may
+expect an increase in the number of female parish clerks, in spite of
+legal enactments and other absurd restrictions. Since women can be
+churchwardens, and have been so long ago as 1672, sextons, overseers and
+registrars of births, and much else, and even at one time were parish
+constables, it seems that the pleasant duties of a parish clerk might
+not be uncongenial to them, though they be debarred by law from
+receiving the title and rank of the office.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SOME YORKSHIRE CLERKS
+
+During many years of the time that the Rev. John Torre occupied the
+rectory of Catwick, Thomas Dixon[82] was associated with him as parish
+clerk. He is described as a little man, old-looking for his age, and in
+the later years of his life able to walk only with difficulty. These
+peculiarities, however, did not prevent his winning a young woman for
+his wife. Possibly she saw the sterling character of the man, and
+admired and loved him for it.
+
+[Footnote 82: This account of the clerks Dixon and Fewson was sent by
+the Rev. J. Gaskell Exton, and is published by the permission of the
+editor of the _Yorkshire Weekly Post_.]
+
+Dixon was strongly attached to the rector, so much so, that to him
+neither the rector nor the things belonging to the rector, whether
+animate or inanimate, could do wrong. He had a watch, and even though it
+might not be one of the best, a watch was no small acquisition to a
+working man of his time. He did not live in the days of the
+three-and-sixpenny marvel, or of the half-crown wonder, now to be found
+in the pocket of almost every schoolboy. Dixon's watch was of the kind
+worn by the well-known Captain Cuttle, which Dickens describes as being
+"a silver watch, which was so big and so tight in the pocket that it
+came out like a bung" when its owner drew it from the depths to see the
+time. It must, consequently, have cost many half-crowns, but yet as
+timekeeper it was somewhat of a failure. In this, too, it resembled that
+of the famous captain of which its proud possessor, as everybody knows,
+used to say, "Put you back half-an-hour every morning, and about another
+quarter towards the afternoon, and you've a watch that can be equalled
+by a few and excelled by none." Dixon, therefore, when asked the time of
+day, was usually obliged to go through an arithmetical calculation
+before he could reply.
+
+On Sunday, however, all was different; he then had no hesitation
+whatever in at once declaring the correct time. For every Sunday morning
+he put his watch by the rector's clock, and it mattered not how far the
+rector's clock might be fast or slow, what that clock said was the true
+time for Dixon. And though the remonstrances of the parishioners might
+be loud and long, they were all in vain, for according to the rector's
+clock he rang the church bells, and so the services commenced. He loved
+the rector, therefore the rector's clock could not be wrong. Evidently
+Dixon was capable of strong affection, a quality of no mean moral order.
+
+Before the enclosure of parishes was common, and their various fields
+separated by hedges or other fences; before, too, the ordnance survey
+with its many calculations was an accomplished fact, much more measuring
+of land in connection with work done each year was required than at
+present. It was a necessity, therefore, that each village should have in
+or near it a man skilled in the science of calculation. Consequently,
+the acquirement of figures was fostered, and so in the earlier part of
+the nineteenth century almost every parish could produce a man supposed
+to be, and who probably was, great in arithmetic. Catwick's calculator
+was Dixon, and he was generally thought by his co-villagers to be as
+learned a one as any other, if not more so.
+
+He had, however, a great rival at Long Riston. This was one Richard
+Fewson, who, like Dixon, was clerk of his parish; but while Dixon was a
+shopkeeper Fewson kept the village school.
+
+Fewson's modes of punishing refractory scholars were somewhat peculiar.
+Either a culprit was hoisted on the back of another scholar, or made to
+stoop till his nose entered a hole in the desk, and when in one or other
+of these positions was made to feel the singular sensation caused by a
+sound caning on that particular part of his anatomy which it is said
+"nature intends for correction." Sometimes, too, an offender was made to
+sit in a small basket, to the cross handle of which a rope had been
+tied, and by this means he was hoisted to a beam near the roof of the
+school. Here he was compelled to stay for a longer or shorter period,
+according to the offence, knowing that, if he moved to ease his crippled
+position, the basket would tilt and he would fall to the floor.
+
+On one occasion, with an exceptionally refractory pupil, his mode of
+punishment was even more peculiar still. Having told all the girls to
+turn their faces to the wall--and not one of them, so my informant, one
+of the boys, said, would dare to disobey the order--he chalked the shape
+of a grave on the floor of the schoolroom. He then made the boy, an
+incorrigible truant, strip off all his clothes, and when he stood
+covered only in nature's dress, told him in solemn tones that he was
+going to bury him alive and under the floor. One scholar was then sent
+for a pick, and when this was fetched, another was sent for a shovel. By
+the time they were both brought, the truant was in a panic of fear, the
+end hoped for. The master then sternly asked the boy if he would play
+truant again, to which the boy quickly answered no. On this, he was
+allowed to dress, being assured as he did so that if ever again he
+stopped from school without leave he should certainly be buried alive,
+and so great was the dread produced, the boy from that time was
+regularly found at school.
+
+If parents objected to these punishments, they were simply told to take
+their children from school, which, as Fewson was the only master for
+miles around, he knew they would be loath to do. Fewson taught nearly
+all the children of the district whose parents felt it necessary that
+they should have any education. He is said to have turned out good
+scholars in the three R's, his curriculum being limited to these
+subjects, with, for an extra fee, mensuration added.
+
+But Fewson, if he did not teach it, felt himself to be well up in
+astronomy. One summer, an old boy of his told me, he got the
+children--my informant amongst the number--to collect from their parents
+and others for a trip to Hornsea. When the money was all in he
+complained that the amount was insufficient for a trip, and suggested
+that a telescope he had seen advertised should be bought with the money.
+If this were done, he promised that those who had subscribed should have
+the telescope in turn to look through from Saturday to Monday. The
+telescope was purchased, and each subscriber had it once, and then it
+was no more seen. From that time it became the entire property of the
+master. The children never again collected for a trip, and small wonder.
+
+Fewson was a good singer and musician generally, so in addition to his
+office as clerk he held the position of choirmaster. At church on
+Sunday he sat at the west end, the boys of the village sitting behind
+him, and it was part of his duty to see that they behaved themselves
+decorously. Should a boy make any disturbance Fewson's hand fell heavily
+on the offender's ears, and so sharply that the sound of the blows could
+be heard throughout the church. Such incidents as this were by no means
+uncommon in churches in the days when Fewson and Dixon flourished, and
+they were looked upon as nothing extraordinary, for small compunction
+was felt in the punishment of unruly urchins.
+
+I have been told of another clerk, for instance, who dealt such severe
+blows on the heads of boys, who behaved in the least badly, with a by no
+means small stick, that, like Fewson's, they, too, resounded all over
+the church. This clerk was known as "Old Crack Skull," and there were
+many others who might as appropriately have borne the name.
+
+As parish clerk, Fewson attended the Archdeacon's visitation with the
+churchwardens, whose custom it was on each such occasion to spend about
+L3 in eating and drinking. On the appointment of a new and reforming
+churchwarden this expenditure was stopped, and for the first time Fewson
+returned to Riston sober. Here he looked at the churchwarden and
+sorrowfully said, "For thirty years I have been to the visitation and
+always got home drunk; Sally will think I haven't been." He then turned
+into the public-house, and afterwards reached home in the condition
+Sally, his wife, would expect.
+
+[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF ST. MARGARET, WESTMINSTER]
+
+Insobriety was the normal condition of Fewson after school hours. It was
+his invariable custom to visit the public-house each evening, where he
+always found a clean pipe and an ounce of tobacco ready for him. Here
+he acted as president of those who forgathered, being by virtue of his
+wisdom readily conceded this position. His favourite drink was gin, and
+of this he imbibed freely; leaving for home about ten o'clock, which he
+found usually only after many a stumble and sometimes a fall. He,
+however, managed to save money, with which he built himself a house at
+Arnold, adorning it, as still to be seen, with the carved heads of
+saints and others, begged from the owners of the various ancient
+ecclesiastical piles of the neighbourhood. He died about seventy years
+ago, and was buried at Riston.
+
+Between Dixon and Fewson there was much friendly strife with regard to
+the solving of hard arithmetical problems. This contest was no mere
+private matter. It was entered into with great zest by the men of both
+the villages concerned; the Catwickians and the Ristonians each backing
+their man to win. "A straw shows which way the wind blows," we say, and
+herein we may feel a breathing of the Holderness man's love of his clan,
+an affection which has done much to develop and to strengthen his
+character.
+
+Dixon was employed by the harvesters and others to measure the land
+which they had reaped, or on which they had otherwise worked. When the
+different measurements had been taken, he, of course, had to find the
+result. For this, he needed no pen, ink, or paper, nor yet a slate and
+pencil. He made his calculations by a much more economic method than
+these would supply. He sat down in the field he had measured, took off
+his beaver hat, and, using it as a kind of blackboard, with a piece of
+chalk worked out the result of his measurements on its crown.
+
+Dixon must have been a man of resources, as are most Holderness men
+where the saving of money is concerned. I have heard it said that the
+spirit of economy has so permeated their character that it has
+influenced even their speech. "So saving are they," say some, "that the
+definite article, _the_, is never used by them in their talk." But this
+is a libel; another and a truer reason may be found for the omission in
+their Scandinavian origin.
+
+Another parish clerk who held office at a church about five miles from
+Catwick, by trade a tailor, was a noted character and remarkable for his
+parsimonious habits. He is described as having been a very little man
+and of an extremely attenuated appearance. The story of his economy
+during his honeymoon, when the happy pair stayed in some cheap town
+lodgings, is not pleasing.
+
+His great effort in saving, however, resulted from his sporting
+proclivities. Tailor though he was, he conceived a great desire to be a
+mighty hunter. So strong did this passion burn within him that he made
+up his mind, sooner or later, to hunt, and with the best, in a red coat,
+too. He therefore began to save with this object in view. Denying
+himself every luxury and most other things which are usually counted
+necessaries, for long he lived, it is said, on half a salt herring a day
+with a little bread or a few vegetables in addition. By doing so, he was
+able to put almost all he earned to the furtherance of the purpose of
+his heart. This went on till he had saved L200. Then he felt his day was
+come. He bought a horse, made himself the scarlet coat, and went to the
+hunt as he thought a gentleman should. His hunting lasted for two
+seasons, when, the money he had saved being spent, he went back to his
+trade, at which he worked as energetically as ever.
+
+At the west end of the nave of Catwick Church formerly was erected a
+gallery. In this loft, as it was commonly called, the musicians of the
+parish sang or played. Various instruments, bassoon, trombone,
+violoncello, cornet, cornopean, and clarionet, flute, fiddle, and
+flageolet, or some of their number, were employed, calling to mind the
+band of Nebuchadnezzar of old. The noise made in the tuning of the
+instruments to the proper pitch may be readily imagined. Now, the church
+possesses an organ, and the choirmen and boys have their places in the
+chancel, while the musicians of the parish occupy the front seats of the
+nave. This arrangement is eminently suitable for effectually leading the
+praises of the people, but not perhaps more so, its noise
+notwithstanding, than the former style; indeed, I am somewhat doubtful
+if the new equals the old. The old certainly had the merit of engaging
+most, if not all, the musicians of the village in the worship of
+the church.
+
+At the east end of the nave, in the days of the loft, stood a kind of
+triple pulpit, commonly called a three-decker. It was composed of three
+compartments, the second above and behind the first, and the third
+similarly placed with regard to the second. The lowest, resting on the
+floor, was the place for the clerk, the middle was for the parson when
+reading the prayers and Scriptures, and the highest for the parson when
+preaching. Such pulpits are now almost as completely things of the past
+as the old warships from which, in derision, they got their name. Once
+only have I read the service and preached from a three-decker, and then
+the clerk did not occupy the position assigned to him. Dixon, however,
+always used the little desk at the foot of the Catwick pulpit, and from
+it took his share of the service.
+
+It was part of his duty, as clerk, to choose and to give out the number
+of the hymns. Now Dixon, like Fewson, was a singer, and felt that the
+choir could not get on without the help of his voice in the gallery when
+the hymns were sung. Consequently, he then left his box and went to the
+singing loft; but, to save time, as he marched down the aisle from east
+to west, and as he mounted the steps of the gallery, he slowly and
+solemnly announced the number of the hymn and read the lines of the
+first verse. When the hymn was sung, our bird-like clerk came down again
+from the heights of the loft and returned to his perch at the base of
+the pulpit.
+
+Nowadays, we should consider such proceedings very unseemly, but it
+would have been thought nothing of in the days of Dixon. Scenes,
+according to our ideas, much more grotesque were then of frequent
+occurrence. We have already looked on at least one; here is another
+which took place in the neighbouring church of Skipsea one Sunday
+afternoon some sixty years ago, and in connection with singing. The
+account was given to me by a parishioner of about eighty years of age,
+who was one of the choirmen on the occasion.
+
+The leading singer, he said, there being no instrument, started a tune
+for the hymn. It would not fit the words, and he soon came to a full
+stop, and choir and congregation with him. At this, one of the
+congregation, in a voice that could be heard the whole church over,
+called out, "Give it up, George! Give it up!" "No, no," said the vicar
+in answer, leaning over his desk, "No, no, George, try again! try
+again!" George tried again, and again failed. But the vicar still
+encouraged him with "Have another try, George! Have another try! You may
+get it yet!" George tried the third time, and now hit upon a right tune;
+and to the general delight the hymn was sung through.
+
+Without doubt, in the days of our forefathers the services of the Church
+were conducted with the greatest freedom. But we may not judge those who
+preceded us by our own standard, nor yet apart from the time in which
+they lived.
+
+When two young people of Catwick or its neighbourhood feel they can live
+no longer without each other, they in local phrase "put in the banns."
+They then, of course, expect to have them published, or again in local
+idiom "thrown over the pulpit." On all such occasions, according to a
+very old custom, after the rector had read out the names, with the usual
+injunction following, from the middle compartment of the three-decker,
+Dixon would rise from his seat below, and slowly and clearly cry out,
+"God speed 'em weel" (God speed them well). By this pious wish he prayed
+for a blessing on those about to be wed, and in this the congregation
+joined, for they responded with Amen.
+
+Dixon was the last of the Catwick clerks to keep this custom. Much more
+recently, however, than the time he held office, members of the
+congregation, usually those seated in the loft, on the publication of
+the banns of some well-known people, have called out the time-honoured
+phrase. But it is now heard no more. The custom has gone into a like
+oblivion to that of the parish clerk himself, once so important a
+person, in his own estimation if in that of no other, both in church and
+parish. "The old order changeth."
+
+Thomas Dixon died at Catwick when sixty-seven years of age. He was
+buried in the churchyard on January 2, 1833, and by the Rev. John Torre,
+the rector he served so faithfully.
+
+When Sydney Smith went to see the out-of-the-way Yorkshire village of
+Foston-le-Clay, to which benefice he had been presented, his arrival
+occasioned great excitement. The parish clerk came forward to welcome
+him, a man eighty years of age, with long grey hair, thread-bare coat,
+deep wrinkles, stooping gait, and a crutch stick. He looked at the new
+parson for some time from under his grey shaggy eyebrows, and talked,
+and showed that age had not quenched the natural shrewdness of the
+Yorkshireman.
+
+At last, after a pause, he said, striking his crutch stick on the
+ground:
+
+"Master Smith, it often stroikes moy moind that folks as come frae
+London be such fools. But you," he added, giving Sydney Smith a nudge
+with his stick, "I see you be no fool." The new vicar was gratified.
+
+Yorkshiremen are keen songsters, and _fortissimo_ is their favourite
+note of expression. "Straack up a bit, Jock! straack up a bit," a
+Yorkshire parson used to shout to his clerk, when he wanted the Old
+Hundredth to be sung. Well do I remember a delightful old clerk in the
+Craven district, who used to give out the hymn in the accustomed form
+with charming manner. He liked not itinerant choirs, which were not
+uncommon forty or fifty years ago, and used to migrate from church to
+church, and sometimes to chapel, in the district where the members
+lived. One of these choirs visited the church where the Rev. ----
+Morris was rector, and he was directed to give out the anthem which the
+itinerant strangers were prepared to sing. He neither knew nor cared
+what an anthem was; and he gave the following somewhat confused notice:
+
+"Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the fiftieth Psalm, _while
+you folks sing th' anthem_," casting a scornful glance at the wandering
+musicians in the opposite gallery.
+
+Missionary meetings and sermons were somewhat rare in those days, but
+the special preacher for missions, commonly called the deputation, who
+performs for lazy clerics the task of instructing the people about work
+in the mission field--a duty which could well be performed by the vicar
+himself--had already begun his itinerant course. The congregation were
+waiting in the churchyard for his arrival, when the old Yorkshire vicar,
+mentioned above, said to his clerk, "Jock, ye maunt let 'em into th'
+church; the dippitation a'n't coom." Presently two clergymen arrived,
+when the clerk called out, "Ye maunt gang hoame; t' deppitation's coom."
+The old vicar made an excellent chairman, his introductory remarks being
+models of brevity: "T' furst deppitation will speak!" "T' second
+deppitation will speak!" after which the clerk lighted some candles in
+the singing gallery, and gave out for an appropriate hymn, "Vital spark
+of heavenly flame."
+
+A writer in _Chambers's Journal_ tells of a curious class of clergymen
+who existed forty years ago, and were known as "Northern Lights," the
+light from a spiritual point of view being somewhat dim and flickering.
+The writer, who was the vicar for twenty-five years of a moorland
+parish, tells of several clerks who were associated with these clerics,
+and who were as quaint and curious in their ways as their masters[83].
+The village was a hamlet on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, near the
+confines of Derbyshire. Beside the church was a public-house kept by the
+parish clerk, Jerry, a dapper little man, who on Sundays and funeral
+days always wore a wig, an old-fashioned tailed coat, black stockings,
+and shoes with buckles. His house was known as "Heaven's Gate," where
+the farmers from the neighbouring farms used to drink and stay a week at
+a time. Jerry used to direct the funerals, make the clerkly responses,
+and then provide the funeral party with good cheer at his inn. His
+invitation was always given at the graveside in a high-pitched falsetto
+voice, and the formula ran in these words, and was never varied:
+
+"Friends of the corpse is respectfully requested to call at my house,
+and partake then and there of such refreshments as is provided
+for them."
+
+[Footnote 83: By the kindness of the editor of _Chambers's Journal_ I am
+permitted to retell some of the stories of the manners of these clerks
+and parsons.]
+
+Much intemperance and disorder often followed these funeral feastings.
+An old song long preserved in the district depicts one of these
+funerals, which was by no means a one-day affair, but sometimes lasted
+several days, during which the drinking went on. The inn was perhaps a
+necessity in this out-of-the-world place, but it was unfortunately a
+great temptation to the inhabitants, and to the old Northern Light
+parson who preceded the vicar whose reminiscences we are recording. Here
+in the inn the old parson sat between morning and afternoon service with
+a long clay pipe in his mouth and a glass of whisky by his side. When
+the bells began to settle and the time of service approached, he would
+send Jerry to the church to see if many people had arrived. When
+Jerry replied:
+
+"There's not many comed yet, Mr. Nowton," the parson would say:
+
+"Then tell them to ring another peal, Jerry, and just fill up my glass
+again."
+
+The communion plate was kept at the inn under Jerry's charge. Three
+times a year it was used, and the circumstances were disgraceful. Four
+bottles of port wine were deemed the proper allowance on communion days,
+and after a fractional quantity had been consumed in the church, the
+rest was finished by the churchwardens at the inn. One of these
+churchwardens drank himself to death after the communion service. He was
+a big man with a red face, and was always present when a bear was baited
+at the top of the hill above the village. One day the bear escaped and
+ran on to the moor; everybody scattered in all directions, and several
+dogs were killed before the bear was caught.
+
+The successor of Jerry as clerk, but not as publican, was a rough,
+honest individual who was called Dick. When excited he had two oaths,
+"By'r Lady!" and "By the mass!" but as he always pronounced this last
+word _mess_, it was evident he did not understand the nature of the oath
+he used. He had a rough-and-ready way of doing things, and when handing
+out hymn-books during service he used to throw a book up to an applicant
+in the gallery to save the trouble of walking up the stairs in proper
+fashion. He talked the broadest Yorkshire dialect, and it was not always
+easy to understand him. This was particularly the case when, in his
+capacity as clerk, he repeated the responses at the funeral service.
+
+A tremendous snowfall happened one winter, and the roads were all
+blocked. It was impossible for any one to go to church on the Sunday
+morning following the fall, as the snow had not been cleared away. It
+was necessary for the vicar, however, to get there, as he had to read
+out the banns of marriage which were being published; so, putting on
+fishing-waders to protect himself from the wet snow, he succeeded with
+some difficulty in getting through the drifts. In the churchyard,
+standing before the church clock, he found Dick intently gazing at it,
+so he asked him if it was going. His reply was laconic: "Noa; shoo's
+froz." He and the vicar then went into the church, and the necessary
+publication of banns was read in the presence of the clerk alone.
+
+In those days it was necessary that the wedding service should be all
+over by twelve o'clock, and it was most important that due notice should
+be given of the date of the wedding, a matter about which Dick was
+sometimes rather careless.
+
+The vicar had gone into Derbyshire for a few days to fish the River
+Derwent. He was fishing a long distance up the stream when he heard his
+name called, and saw his servant running towards him, who said that a
+wedding was waiting for him at the church. Dick had forgotten to give
+due notice of this event. The vicarage trap was in readiness, but the
+road over the Derbyshire Peak was rough and steep, the pony small, the
+distance ten miles, and the vicar encumbered with wet clothes. The
+chance of getting to the church before twelve o'clock seemed remote. But
+the vicar and pony did their best; it was, however, half an hour after
+the appointed time when they reached the church. Glancing at the clock
+in the tower, the vicar, to his astonishment, found the hands pointing
+to half-past eleven. The situation was saved, and the service was
+concluded within the prescribed time. The vicar turned to the clerk for
+an explanation. "I seed yer coming over the hill," he said, "and I just
+stopped the clock a bit." Dick was an ingenious man.
+
+There was another character in the parish quite as peculiar as Dick, and
+he was one of the principal singers, who sat in the west gallery. He had
+formerly played the clarionet, before an organ was put into the church.
+During service he always kept a red cotton handkerchief over his bald
+head, which gave him a decidedly comic appearance.
+
+On one occasion the clergyman gave out a hymn in the old-fashioned way:
+"Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the twenty-first hymn,
+second version." Up jumped the old singer and shouted, "You're wrang,
+maister; it's first version." The clergyman corrected himself, when the
+singer again rose: "You're wrang agearn; it's twenty-second hymn."
+Without any remark the clergyman corrected the number, and the man again
+jumped up: "That's reet, mon, that's reet." When the old singer died his
+widow was very anxious there should be some record on his tombstone of
+his having played the clarionet in church; so above his name a
+trumpet-shaped instrument was carved on the stone, and some doggerel
+lines were to be added below. The vicar had great difficulty in
+persuading the family to abandon the lines for the text, "The trumpet
+shall sound, and the dead shall be raised."
+
+A neighbouring vicar was on one occasion taking the duty of an old man
+with failing eyesight, and Dick reminded him before the afternoon
+service that there was a funeral at four o'clock. "You must come into
+the church and tell me when it arrives," he told the clerk, "and I will
+stop my sermon." It was the habit of the old clergyman to relapse into a
+strong Yorkshire dialect when speaking familiarly, and this will account
+for the brief dialogue which passed between him and Dick as he stood at
+the lectern. In due course the funeral arrived at the church gates, and
+the first intimation the congregation inside the church had of this fact
+was the appearance of Dick, who noisily threw open the big doors of the
+south porch. He then stood and beckoned to the clergyman, but his poor
+blind eyes could not see so far. Dick then came nearer and waved his hat
+before him. This again met with no response. Then he got near enough to
+pluck him by the arm, which he did rather vigorously, shouting at the
+same time, "Shoo's coomed." "Wha's coomed?" replied the clergyman,
+relapsing into his Yorkshire speech. "Funeral's coomed," retorted Dick.
+"Then tell her to wait a bit while I finish my sermon"; and the old man
+went quietly on with his discourse.
+
+Another instance of Dick's failing to give proper notice of a service
+was as follows; but on this occasion it was not really his fault. Some
+large reservoirs were being made in the parish, and nearly a thousand
+navvies were employed on the works. These men were constantly coming and
+going, and very often they brought some infectious disorder which spread
+among the huts where they lived. One day a navvy arrived who broke out
+in smallpox of a very severe kind, and in a couple of days the man died,
+and the doctor ordered the body to be buried the moment a coffin could
+be got. It was winter-time, and the vicar had ridden over to see some
+friends about ten miles away. As the afternoon advanced it began to rain
+very heavily, and he decided not to ride back home, but to sleep at his
+friend's house. About five o'clock a messenger arrived to say a funeral
+was waiting in the church, and he was to come at once. He started in
+drenching rain, which turned to sleet and snow as he approached the moor
+edges. It was pitch-dark when he got off his horse at the church gates,
+and with some difficulty he found his way into the vestry and put a
+surplice over his wet garments. He could see nothing in the church, but
+he asked when he got into the reading-desk if any one was there. A deep
+voice answered, "Yes, sir; we are here"; and he began the service, which
+long practice had taught him to repeat by heart. When about half-way
+through the lesson he saw a glimmer of light, and Dick entered the
+church with a lantern, which he placed on the top of the coffin. It was
+a gruesome scene which the lantern brought into view. There was the
+coffin, and before it, in a seat, four figures of the navvy-bearers, and
+Dick himself covered with snow and as white as if he wore a surplice.
+They filed out into the churchyard, but the wind had blown the snow into
+the grave, and this had to be got out before they could lower the body
+into it. The navvies, who were kind-hearted fellows, explained that they
+could give no notice of the funeral beforehand, and they quite
+understood the delay was no fault of the vicar's or Dick's.
+
+Dick was, in spite of his faults, an honest and kind-hearted man, and
+his death, caused by a fall from a ladder, was much regretted by his
+good vicar. On his death-bed the old clerk sent for his favourite
+grandson, who succeeded him in his office, and made this pathetic
+request: "Thou'lt dig my grave, Jont, lad."
+
+With Dick the last of the "Northern Lights" flickered out. Nothing now
+remains in the village recalling those old times. The village inn has
+been suppressed, and the drinking bouts are over. The old church has
+been entirely restored, and there is order and decency in the services.
+The strange thing is that it should have been possible that only forty
+years ago matters were in such a state of chaos and disorder, and in
+such need of drastic reformation.
+
+Another Yorkshire clerk flourished in the thirties at Bolton-on-Dearne
+named Thomas Rollin, commonly called Tommy. He used to render Psalm cii.
+6: "I am become a _pee-li-can_ in the wilderness, and an owl in the
+_dee-sert_." Tommy was a tailor by trade, and made use of a
+ready-reckoner to assist him in making up his accounts, and his
+familiarity with that useful book was shown when reading the second
+verse of the forty-fifth Psalm, which Tommy invariably read: "My tongue
+is the pen of a _ready-reckoner_," to the immense delight of the
+youthful members of the congregation.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+AN OLD CHESHIRE CLERK AND SOME OTHER WORTHIES
+
+It is nearly fifty years since I used to attend the quaint old parish
+church at Lawton, Cheshire, situate half-way between Congleton and
+Crewe. It is a lonely spot, "miles from anywhere," having not the
+vestige of a village, and the congregation was formed of well-to-do
+farmers, who came from the scattered farmsteads. How well I remember the
+old parish clerk and the numerous duties which fell to his lot! He
+united in his person the offices of clerk, sexton, beadle,
+church-keeper, organist, and ringer. The organ was of the barrel kind,
+and no one knew how to manipulate the instrument or to change the
+barrels, except the clerk. He had also to place ten decent loaves in a
+row on the communion table every Sunday morning, which were provided by
+a charitable bequest for the benefit of the poor widows of the parish.
+If the widows did not attend service to curtsy for them, the loaves were
+given to any one who liked to take them. Old Clerk Briscall baked them
+himself. He kept a small village shop about two miles from the church.
+He was also the village shoemaker. A curious system prevailed. As you
+entered the church, near the large stove you would see a long bench, and
+under this bench a row of boots and shoes. If any one wanted his boots
+to be mended, he would take them to church with him and put them under
+the bench. These were collected by the cobbler-clerk, carried home in a
+sack, and brought back on the following Sunday neatly and carefully
+soled and heeled. It would seem strange now if on entering a church our
+eyes should light upon a row of farmers' dirty old boots and the
+freshly-mended evidences of the clerk's skill. All this took place in
+the fifties. In the sixties a new vicar came. The old organ wheezed its
+last phlegmatic tune; it was replaced by a modern instrument with six
+stops, and a player who did his best, but occasioned not a little
+laughter on account of his numerous breakdowns. The old high pews have
+disappeared, nice open benches erected, the floor relaid, a good choir
+enlisted, and everything changed for the better.
+
+The poor old clerk must have been almost overwhelmed by his numerous
+duties, and was often much embarrassed and exasperated by the old
+squire, Mr. C.B. Lawton, who was somewhat whimsical in his ways. This
+gentleman used to enter the church by his own private door, and go to
+his large, square, high-panelled family pew, and when the vicar gave out
+the hymn, he used often to shout out, "Here, hold on! I don't like that
+one; let's have hymn Number 25," or some such effort of psalmody. This
+request, or command, used to upset the organ arrangement, and the poor
+old clerk had to rummage among his barrels to get a suitable tune, and
+the operation, even if successful, took at least ten minutes, during
+which time a large amount of squeaking and the sounds of the writhing of
+woodwork and snapping of sundry catches were heard in the church. But
+the congregation was accustomed to the performance and thought little
+of it. (John Smallwood, 2 Mount Pleasant, Strangeways, Manchester.)
+
+Caistor Church, Lincolnshire, famous for the curious old ceremony of the
+gad-whip, was also celebrated for its clerk, old Joshua Foster, who was
+officiating there in 1884 at the time of the advent of a new vicar.
+Trinity Sunday was the first Sunday of the new clergyman, who sorely
+puzzled the clerk by reading the Athanasian Creed. The old man peered
+down into the vicar's family pew from his desk, casting a despairing
+glance at the wife of the vicar, who handed him a Prayer Book with the
+place found, so that he could make the responses. He was very economical
+in the use of handkerchiefs, and used the small pieces of paper on which
+the numbers of the metrical psalm were written. In vain did the wife of
+the vicar present him with red-and-white-spotted handkerchiefs, which
+were used as comforters. The church was lighted with tallow
+candles--"dips" they were called--and at intervals during the service
+Joshua would go round and snuff them. The snuffers soon became full, and
+it was a matter of deep interest to the congregation to see on whose
+head the snuff would fall, and to dodge it if it came their way.
+
+The Psalms of Tate and Brady's version were sung and were given out with
+the usual preface, "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the 1st,
+2nd, 5th, 8th, and 20th verses of the ---- Psalm with the Doxology."
+How that Doxology bothered the congregation! The Doxologies were all at
+the end of the Prayer Book, and it was not always easy to hit the right
+metre; but that was of little consequence. A word added if the line was
+too short, or omitted if too long, required skill, and made all feel
+that they had done their best when it was successfully over. After the
+old clerk's death, he was succeeded by his son Joshua, or Jos-a-way, as
+the name was pronounced, whose son, also named Joshua the third, became
+clerk, and still holds the office.
+
+The predecessor of the vicar was a pluralist, who held Caistor with its
+two chapelries of Holton and Clixby and the living of Rothwell. He was
+non-resident, and the numerous churches were served by a curate. This
+man was a great smoker, and used to retire to the vestry to don the
+black gown and smoke a pipe before the sermon, the congregation singing
+a Psalm meanwhile. One Sunday he had an extra pipe, and Joshua told him
+that the people were getting impatient.
+
+"Let them sing another Psalm," said the curate.
+
+"They have, sir," replied the clerk.
+
+"Then let them sing the 119th," replied the curate.
+
+At last he finished his pipe, and began to put on the black gown, but
+its folds were troublesome, and he could not get it on.
+
+"I think the devil's in the gown," muttered the curate.
+
+"I think he be," dryly replied old Joshua.
+
+That the clerk was often a person of dignity and importance is shown by
+the recollections of an old parishioner of the rector of Fornham All
+Saints, near Bury St. Edmunds. "Mr. Baker, the clerk," of Westley, who
+flourished seventy years ago, used to hear the children their catechism
+in church on Sunday afternoons. "Ah, sir, I often think of what he told
+us, that the world would not come to an end till people were killed
+_wholesale_, and now think how often that happens!" She was probably not
+alluding to the South African or the Japanese war, but to railway
+accidents, as she at once told her favourite story of her solitary
+journey to Newmarket, when on her return she remarked, "If I live to set
+foot on firm ground, never no more for me."
+
+The old clerk used to escort the boys and girls to their confirmation at
+Bury, and superintended their meal of bread, beer, and cheese after the
+rite. There was no music at Westley, except when Mr. Humm, the clerk of
+Fornham, "brought up his fiddle and some of the Fornham girls."
+Nowadays, adds the rector, the Rev. C.L. Feltoe, the clerks are much
+more illiterate than their predecessors, and, unlike them,
+non-communicants.
+
+Another East Anglian clerk was a quaint character, who had a great
+respect for all the old familiar residents in his town of S----, and a
+corresponding contempt for all new-comers. The family of my informant
+had resided there for nearly a century, and had, therefore, the approval
+of the clerk. On one occasion some of the family found their seat
+occupied by some new people who had recently settled in the town. The
+clerk rushed up, and in a loud voice, audible all over the church,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Never you mind that air muck in your pew. I'll soon turn 'em out. The
+imperent muck, takin' your seats!"
+
+The family insisted upon "the muck" being left in peace, and forbade the
+eviction.
+
+The old clerk used vigorously a long stick to keep the school children
+in order. He was much respected, and his death universally regretted.
+
+Fifty years ago there was a dear, good old clerk, named Bamford, at
+Mangotsfield Church, who used to give out the hymns, verse by verse. The
+vicar always impressed upon him to read out the words in a loud voice,
+and at the last word in each verse to pitch his voice. The hymn, "This
+world's a dream," was rendered in this fashion:
+
+     "This world's a _drame_, an empty shoe,
+      But this bright world to which I goo
+      Hath jaays substantial an' sincere,
+      When shall I wack and find me THEER?"
+
+William Smart, the parish clerk of Windermere in the sixties, was a rare
+specimen. By trade an auctioneer and purveyor of Westmorland hams, he
+was known all round the countryside. He was very patronising to the
+assistant curates, and a favourite expression of his was "me and my
+curate." When one of his curates first took a wedding he was commanded
+by the clerk, "When you get to 'hold his peace,' do you stop, for I have
+something to say." The curate was obedient, and stopped at the end of
+his prescribed words, when William shouted out, "God speed them well!"
+
+This unauthorised but excellent clerkly custom was not confined to
+Windermere, but was common in several Norfolk churches, and at Hope
+Church, Derbyshire, the clerk used to express the good wish after the
+publication of the banns.
+
+The old-fashioned clerk was usually much impressed by the importance of
+his office. Crowhurst, the old clerk at Allington, Kent, in 1852, just
+before a wedding took place, marched up to the rector, the Rev. E.B.
+Heawood, and said:
+
+"If you please, sir, the ceremony can't proceed."
+
+"Why not? What do you mean?" asked the surprised rector.
+
+"The marriage can't take place, sir," he answered solemnly, "'cos I've
+lost my specs."
+
+Fortunately a pupil of the rector's came forward and confessed that he
+had hidden the old man's spectacles in a hole in the wall, and the
+ceremony was no longer delayed.
+
+At Bromley College the same clergyman had a curious experience, when the
+clerk was called to assist at a service for the Churching of Women. As
+it was very unusually performed there, he was totally at a loss what
+service to find, and asked in great perturbation:
+
+"Please, sir, be I to read the responses in the services for the Queen's
+Accession?"
+
+The same service sadly puzzled the clerk at Haddington, who was in the
+employment of the then Earl of W----. One Sunday Lady W---- came to be
+churched, when in response to the clergyman's prayer, "O Lord, save this
+woman, Thy servant," the clerk said, "Who putteth her ladyship's
+trust in Thee."
+
+The Rev. W.H. Langhorne tells me some amusing anecdotes of old clerks.
+Once he was preaching in a village church for home missions, and just as
+he was reaching the pulpit he observed that the clerk was preparing to
+take round the plate. He whispered to him to wait till he had finished
+his sermon. "It won't make a ha'porth o' difference," was the
+encouraging reply. But at the close of the sermon there was another
+invitation to give additional offerings, which were not withheld.
+
+In the old days when _Bell's Life_ was the chief sporting paper, a
+hunting parson was taking the service one Sunday morning and gave out
+the day of the month and the Psalm. The clerk corrected him, but the
+rector again gave out the same day and was again corrected. The rector,
+in order to decide the controversy, produced a copy of _Bell's Life_ and
+handed it to the clerk, who then submitted. It is not often, I imagine,
+that a sporting paper has been appealed to for the purpose of deciding
+what Psalms should be read in church.
+
+One very wet Sunday Mr. Langhorne was summoned to take an afternoon
+service several miles distant from his residence. The congregation
+consisted of only half a dozen people. After service he said to the
+clerk that it was hardly worth while coming so far. "We might have done
+with a worse 'un," was his reply.
+
+That reminds me of another clerk who apologised to a church dignitary
+who had been summoned to take a service at a small country church. The
+form of the apology was not quite happily expressed. He said, "I am
+sorry, sir, to have brought such a gentleman as you to this poor place.
+A worse would have done, if we had only known where to find him!"
+
+The new vicar of D---- was calling upon an old parishioner, who said to
+him: "Ah! I've seen mony changes. I've seen four vicars of D----. First
+there was Canon G----, then there was Mr. T----, who's now a bishop, and
+then Mr. F---- came, and now you've coom, and we've wossened (worsened)
+every toime."
+
+A clerk named Turner, who officiated at Alnwick, was a great character,
+and in spite of his odd ways was esteemed for his genuine worth and
+fidelity to the three vicars under whom he served. He looked upon the
+church and parish as his own, and used to say that he had trained many
+"kewrats" in their duties. His responses in the Psalms were often
+startling. Instead of "The Lord setteth up the meek," he would say,
+"The Lord sitteth upon the meek." "The great leviathan" he rendered "the
+great live thing." "Caterpillars innumerable" he pronounced
+"caterpilliars innumerabble." When a funeral was late he scolded the
+bearers at the churchyard gate.
+
+At Wimborne Minster, Dorset, there used to be three priest vicars, and
+each of them had a clerk. It was the custom for each of the priest
+vicars to take the services for a week in rotation, and the first lesson
+was always read by "the clerk of the week," as he was called. On
+Sundays, when there was a celebration of the Holy Communion, the "clerk
+of the week" advanced to the lectern after the sermon was finished, and
+said, "All who wish to receive the Holy Communion, draw near." These
+words, in the case of one worthy, named David Butler, were always spoken
+in a high-pitched, drawling voice, and finished off with a kick to the
+rearwards of the right leg.
+
+The old clerk at Woodmancote, near Henfield, Sussex, was a very
+important person. There was never any committee meeting but he attended.
+So much so, that one day in church leading the singing and music with
+voice and flute, when it came to the "Gloria" he sang loudly, "As it was
+in the committee meeting, is now, and ever shall be ..."
+
+An acquaintance remarked to him afterwards that the last meeting he
+attended must have been a rather long one!
+
+A story is told of the clerk at West Dean, near Alfriston, Sussex.
+Starting the first line of the Psalm or hymn, he found that he could not
+see owing to the failing light on a dark wintry afternoon. So he said,
+"My eyes are dim, I canna see," at which the congregation, composed of
+ignorant labourers, sang after him the _same_ words. The clerk was
+wroth, and cried out, "Tarnation fools you all must be." Here again the
+congregation sang the same words after the clerk.
+
+Strange times, strange manners!
+
+A writer in the _Spectator_ tells of a clerk who, like many of his
+fellows, used to convert "leviathan" into "that girt livin' thing," thus
+letting loose before his hearers' imagination a whole travelling
+menagerie, from which each could select the beast which most struck his
+fancy. This clerk was a picturesque personality, although, unlike his
+predecessor, he had discarded top-boots and cords for Sunday wear in
+favour of black broadcloth. When not engaged in marrying or burying one
+of his flock, he fetched and carried for the neighbours from the
+adjacent country town, or sold herrings and oranges (what mysterious
+affinity is there between these two dissimilar edibles that they are
+invariably hawked in company?) from door to door. During harvest he rang
+the morning "leazing bell" to start the gleaners to the fields, and
+every night he tolled the curfew, by which the villagers set their
+clocks. He it was who, when the sermon was ended, strode with dignity
+from his box on the "lower deck" down the aisle to the belfry, and
+pulled the "dishing-up bell" to let home-keeping mothers know that
+hungry husbands and sons were set free. Folks in those days were less
+easily fatigued than they are now. Services were longer, the preacher's
+"leanings to mercy" were less marked, and congregations counted
+themselves ill-used if they broke up under the two hours. The boys stood
+in wholesome awe of the clerk, as well they might, for his eye was keen
+and his stick far-reaching. Moreover, no fear of man prevented him from
+applying the latter with effect to the heads of slumberers during divine
+service. By way of retaliation the youths, when opportunity occurred,
+would tie the cord of the "tinkler" to the weathercock, and the parish
+on a stormy night would be startled by the sound of ghostly, fitful
+ting-tangs. To Sunday blows the clerk, who was afflicted with
+rheumatism, added weekday anathemas as he climbed the steep ascent to
+the bell-chamber and the yet steeper ladder that gave access to the
+leads of the tower. The perpetual hostility that reigned between
+discipliner and disciplined bred no ill will on either side. "Boys must
+be boys" and "He's paid for lookin' arter things" were the arguments
+whereby the antagonists testified their mutual respect, in both of which
+the parents concurred; and his severity did not cost the old man a penny
+when he made his Easter rounds to collect the "sweepings." It may,
+perhaps, be well to explain that the "sweepings" consisted of an annual
+sum of threepence which every householder contributed towards the
+cleaning of the church, and which represented a large part of the
+clerk's salary[84].
+
+[Footnote 84: _Spectator_, 14 October, 1905.]
+
+The Rev. C.C. Prichard recollects a curious old character at Churchdown,
+near Gloucester, commonly pronounced "Chosen" in those days.
+
+This old clerk was only absent one Sunday from "Chosen" Church, and then
+he was lent to the neighbouring church of Leckhampton. Instead of the
+response "And make Thy chosen people joyful," mindful of his change of
+locality he gave out with a strong nasal twang, "And make Thy
+Leck'ampton people joyful." The Psalms were somewhat a trouble to him,
+and to the congregation too. One verse he rendered "Like a paycock in a
+wild-dook's nest, and a howl in the dessert, even so be I." He was a
+thoroughly good old man, and brought up a large family very respectably.
+
+I remember the old clerk, James Ingham, of Whalley Church, Lancashire.
+It is a grand old church, full of old dark oak square pews, and the
+clerk was in keeping with his surroundings. He was a humorous character,
+and had a splendid deep bass voice. He used to show people over the
+ruined abbey, and his imagination supplied the place of accurate
+historical information. Some American visitors asked him what a certain
+path was used for. "Well, marm," said James, "it's onsartin: but they do
+say the monks and nuns used to walk up and down this 'ere path,
+arm-in-arm, of a summer arternoon."
+
+It is recorded of one Thomas Atkins, clerk of Chillenden Church, Kent,
+that he used to leave his reading-desk at the commencement of the
+General Thanksgiving and proceed to the west gallery, where he gave out
+the hymn and sang a duet with the village cobbler, in which the
+congregation joined as best they could. He walked very slowly down the
+church, and said the Amen at the end of the Thanksgiving wherever he
+happened to be, and that was generally half-way up the gallery stairs,
+whence his feeble voice, with a good _tremolo_, used to sound like the
+distant baaing of a sheep. It was a strange and curious performance.
+
+Miss Rawnsley, of Raithby Hall, Spilsby, gives some delightful
+reminiscences of a most original specimen of the race of clerks, old
+Haw, who officiated at Halton Holgate, Lincolnshire. He was a curious
+mixture of worldly wisdom and strong religious feeling. The former was
+exemplified by his greeting to a cousin of my correspondent, just
+returned from his ordination.
+
+He said, "Now, Mr. Hardwick, remember thou must creep an' crawl along
+the 'edge bottoms, and then tha'ill make thee a bishop."
+
+He was a strong advocate of Fasting Communion. No one ever knew whence
+he derived his strong views on the subject. The rector never taught it.
+Probably his ideas were derived from some long lingering tradition. When
+over seventy years of age he set out fasting to walk six miles to attend
+a late celebration at a distant church on the occasion of its
+consecration. Nothing would ever induce him to break his fast before
+communicating; and on this occasion he was picked up in a dead faint,
+his journey being only half completed.
+
+On Wednesdays and Fridays he always went into the church at eleven
+o'clock and said the Litany aloud. When asked his reason, he said, "I've
+gotten an ungodly wife and two ungodly bairns to pray for, sir." He once
+asked one of the rector's daughters to help him in the _Parody_ of the
+Psalms he was making; and on another occasion requested to have the old
+altar-cloth, which had just been replaced by a new one, "to make a slop
+to dig the graves in, and no sacrilege neither."
+
+At Sutton Maddock, Shropshire, there was a clerk who used to read
+"_Pe_-li-_can_ in the wilderness," and the usual "_Howl_ in the
+_De_sart," and "Teach the _Se_nators wisdom," and when the Litany was
+said on Wednesdays and Fridays declared that it was not in his Prayer
+Book though he took part in it every Sunday. When a kind lady, Miss
+Barnfield, expressed a wish that his wife would get better, he replied,
+"I hope her will or _summat_."
+
+At Claverley, in the same county, on one Sunday, the rector told the
+clerk to give notice that there would be no service that afternoon,
+adding _sotto voce_, "I am going to dine at the Paper Mill." He was
+rather disgusted when the clerk announced, "There will be no Diving
+Service this arternoon, the Parson is going to dine at the Peaper Mill."
+The clerk was no respecter of persons, and once marched up to the
+rector's wife in church and told her to keep her eyes from
+beholding vanity.
+
+The Rev. F.A. Davis tells me of a story of an illiterate clerk who
+served in a Wiltshire church, where a cousin of my informant was vicar.
+A London clergyman, who had never preached or been in a country church
+before, came to take the duty. He was anxious to find out if the people
+listened or understood sermons. His Sunday morning discourse was based
+on the text St. Mark v. 1-17, containing the account of the healing of
+the demoniacally possessed persons at Gadara, and the destruction of the
+herd of swine. On the Monday he asked the clerk if he understood the
+sermon. The clerk replied somewhat doubtfully, "Yes." "But is there
+anything you do not quite understand?" said the clergyman; "I shall be
+only too glad to explain anything I can, so as to help you." After a
+good deal of scratching the back of his head and much hesitating, the
+clerk replied, "Who paid for them pigs?"
+
+[Illustration: WILLIAM HINTON, A WILTSHIRE WORTHY DRAWN BY THE REV.
+JULIAN CHARLES YOUNG]
+
+Many examples I have given of the dry humour of old clerks, which is
+sometimes rather disconcerting. A stranger was taking the duty in a
+church, and after service made a few remarks about the weather,
+asserting that it promised to be a fine day for the haymaking to-morrow.
+"Ah, sir," replied the clerk, "they do say that the hypocrites can
+discern the face of the sky."
+
+The Rev. Julian Charles Young, rector of Ilmington, in his _Memoir of
+Charles Mayne Young, Tragedian_, published in 1871, speaks of the race
+of parish clerks who flourished in Wiltshire in the first half of the
+last century. Instead of a nice discrimination being exercised in the
+choice of a clerk, it seems to have been the rule to select the sorriest
+driveller that could be found--some "lean and slippered pantaloon, with
+spectacles on nose and pouch at side,"
+
+     "triumphant over time,
+     And over tune, and over rhyme"--
+
+who by his snivelling enunciation of the responses and his nasal
+drawlings of the A--mens, was sure to provoke the risibility of his
+hearers. Mr. Young's own clerk was, however, a very worthy man, of such
+lofty aspirations and of such blameless purity of life, that in making
+him Nature made the very ideal of a village clerk and schoolmaster, and
+then "broke the mould." His grave yet kindly countenance, his
+well-proportioned limbs encased in breeches and gaiters of corded
+kerseymere, and the natural dignity of his carriage, combined "to give
+the world assurance of" a bishop rather than a clerk. It needed
+familiarity with his inner life to know how much simpleness of purpose
+and simplicity of mind and contentment and piety lay hid under a pompous
+exterior and a phraseology somewhat stilted.
+
+His name was William Hinton, and he dwelt in a small whitewashed cottage
+which, by virtue of his situation as schoolmaster, he enjoyed rent free.
+It stood in the heart of a small but well-stocked kitchen garden. His
+salary was L40 per annum, and on this, with perhaps L5 a year more
+derived from church fees, he brought up five children in the greatest
+respectability, all of whom did well in life. They regarded their
+father with absolute veneration. By the side of the labourer who only
+knew what he had taught him, or of the farmer who knew less, he was a
+giant among pygmies--a Triton among minnows.
+
+When Mr. Young went to the village, with the exception of a Bible, a
+Prayer Book, a random tract or two, and a _Moore's Almanac_, there was
+scarcely a book to be found in it. The rector kindly allowed his clerk
+the run of his well-stocked library. Hinton devoured the books greedily.
+So receptive and imitative was his intellect that his conversation, his
+deportment, even his spirit, became imbued with the individuality of the
+author whose writings he had been studying. After reading Dr. Johnson's
+works his conversation became sententious and dogmatic. _Lord
+Chesterfield's Letters_ produced an airiness and jauntiness that were
+quite foreign to his nature. His favourite authors were Jeremy Taylor,
+Bacon, and Milton. After many months reverential communion with these
+Goliaths of literature he became pensive and contemplative, and his
+manner more chastened and severe. The secluded village in which he dwelt
+had been his birthplace, and there he remained to the day of his death.
+He knew nothing of the outer world, and the rector found his intercourse
+with a man so original, fresh, and untainted a real pleasure. He was
+physically timid, and the account of a voyage across the Channel or a
+journey by coach filled him with dread. One day he said to Mr. Young,
+"Am I, reverend sir, to understand that you voluntarily trust your
+perishable body to the outside of a vehicle, of the soundness of which
+you know nothing, and suffer yourself to be drawn to and fro by four
+strange animals, of whose temper you are ignorant, and are willing to
+be driven by a coachman of whose capacity and sobriety you are
+uninformed?" On being assured that such was the case, he concluded that
+"the love of risk and adventure must be a very widely-spread instinct,
+seeing that so many people are ready to expose themselves to such
+fearful casualties." He was grateful to think that he had never been
+exposed to such terrific hazards. What the worthy clerk would have said
+concerning the risks of motoring somewhat baffles imagination.
+
+When just before the opening of the Great Western Railway line the
+Company ran a coach through the village from Bath to Swindon, the clerk
+witnessed with his own eyes the dangers of travelling. The school
+children were marshalled in line to welcome the coach, bouquets of
+laurestina and chrysanthema were ready to be bestowed on the passengers,
+the church bells rang gaily, when after long waiting the cheery notes of
+the key-bugle sounded the familiar strains of "Sodger Laddie," and the
+steaming steeds hove in sight, an accident occurred. At a sharp turn
+just opposite the clerk's house the swaying coach overturned, and the
+outside passengers were thrown into the midst of his much-prized
+ash-leaf kidneys. The clerk fled precipitately to the extreme borders of
+his domain, and afterwards said to the rector, "Ah, sir, was I right in
+saying I would never enter such a dangerous carriage as a four-horse
+coach? I assure you I was not the least surprised. It was just what I
+expected."
+
+When the first railway train passed through the village he was
+overwhelmed with emotion at the sight. He fell prostrate on the bank as
+if struck by a thunder-bolt. When he stood up his brain reeled, he was
+speechless, and stood aghast, unutterable amazement stamped upon his
+face. In the tone of a Jeremiah he at length gasped out, "Well, sir,
+what a sight to have seen: but one I never care to see again! How awful!
+I tremble to think of it! I don't know what to compare it to, unless it
+be to a messenger despatched from the infernal regions with a commission
+to spread desolation and destruction over the fair land. How much longer
+shall knowledge be allowed to go on increasing?"
+
+The rector taught the clerk how to play chess, to which game he took
+eagerly, and taught it to the village youths. They played it on
+half-holidays in winter and became engrossed in it, manufacturing
+chess-boards out of old book-covers and carving very creditable chessmen
+out of bits of wood. When he was playing with his rector one evening he
+lost his queen and at once resigned, saying, "I consider, reverend sir,
+that chess without a queen is like life without a female."
+
+Hinton knew not a word of Latin, but he had a pedantic pleasure in
+introducing it whenever he could. Genders were ever a mystery to him,
+though with the help of a dictionary he would often substitute a Latin
+for an English word. Thus he used the signatures "Gulielmus
+Hintoniensis, Rusticus Sacrista," and when writing to Mrs. Young he
+always addressed her as "Charus Domina." On this lady's return after a
+long absence, the clerk wrote in large letters, "Gratus, gratus,
+optatus," and dated his greeting, "Martius quinta, 1842." A funeral
+notice was usually sent in doggerel.
+
+The following letter was sent to the rector's unmarried sister:
+
+     "_Januarius Prima_, 1840.
+
+     "CHARUS DOMINA,
+
+"That the humble Sacrista should be still retained on the tablets of
+your memory is an unexpected pleasure. Your gift, as a criterion of your
+esteem, will be often looked at with delight, and be carefully
+preserved, as a memorial of your friendship; and for which I beg to
+return my sincere thanks. May the meridian sunshine of happiness
+brighten your days through the voyage of life; and may your soul be
+borne on the wings of seraphic angels to the realms of bliss eternal in
+the world to come is the sincere wish and fervent prayer of Charus
+Domina, your most obedient, most respectful, most obliged servant,
+
+     "GULIELMUS HINTONIENSIS,
+
+     "_Rusticus Sacrista_.
+
+     "GRATITUDE
+
+     "A gift from the virtuous, the fair, and the good,
+       From the affluent to the humble and low,
+     Is a favour so great, so obliging and kind,
+       To acknowledge I scarcely know how.
+     I fain would express the sensations I feel,
+       By imploring the blessing of Heaven
+     May be showered on the lovely, the amiable maid,
+       Who this gift to Sacrista has given.
+     May the choicest of husbands, the best of his kind,
+       Be hers by the appointment of Heaven!
+     And may sweet smiling infants as pledges of love
+       To crown her connubium be given."
+
+The following is a characteristic note of this worthy clerk, which
+differs somewhat from the notices usually sent to vicars as reminders of
+approaching weddings:
+
+"REV. SIR,
+
+"I hope it has not escaped your memory that the young couple at Clack
+are hoping to offer incense at the shrine of Venus this morning at the
+hour of ten. I anticipate the bridegrooms's anxiety.
+
+"RUSTICUS SACRISTA."
+
+He was somewhat curious on the subject of fashionable ladies' dresses,
+and once asked the rector "in what guise feminine respectability usually
+appeared at an evening party?" When a low dress was described to him, he
+blushed and shivered and exclaimed, "Then methinks, sir, there must be
+revelations of much which modesty would gladly veil." He was terribly
+overcome on one occasion when he met in the rector's drawing-room one
+evening some ladies who were attired, as any other gentlewomen would be,
+in low gowns.
+
+William Hinton was, in spite of his air of importance and his inflated
+phraseology, a simple, single-minded, humble soul. When the rector
+visited him on his death-bed, he greeted Mr. Young with as much serenity
+of manner as if he had been only going on a journey to a far country for
+which he had long been preparing. "Well, reverend and dear sir. Here we
+are, you see! come to the nightcap scene at last! Doubtless you can
+discern that I am dying. I am not afraid to die. I wish your prayers....
+I say I am not afraid to die, and you know why. Because I know in whom I
+have believed; and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I
+have committed unto Him against that day." A little later he said,
+"Thanks, reverend sir! Thanks for much goodwill! Thanks for much happy
+intercourse! For nearly seven years we have been friends here. I trust
+we shall be still better friends hereafter. I shall not see you again on
+this side Jordan. I fear not to cross over. Good-bye. My Joshua beckons
+me. The Promised Land is in sight."
+
+This worthy and much-mourned clerk was buried on 5 July, 1843.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE CLERK AND THE LAW
+
+The parish clerk is so important a person that divers laws have been
+framed relating to his office. His appointment, his rights, his
+dismissal are so closely regulated by law that incumbents and
+churchwardens have to be very careful lest they in any way transgress
+the legal enactments and judgments of the courts. It is not an easy
+matter to dismiss an undesirable clerk: it is almost as difficult as to
+disturb the parson's freehold; and unless the clerk be found guilty of
+grievous faults, he may laugh to scorn the malice of his enemies and
+retain his office while life lasts.
+
+It may be useful, therefore, to devote a chapter to the laws relating to
+parish clerks--a chapter which some of my readers who have no liking for
+legal technicalities can well afford to skip.
+
+As regards his qualifications the clerk must be at least twenty years of
+age, and known to the parson as a man of honest conversation, and
+sufficient for his reading, writing, and for his competent skill in
+singing, "if it may be[85]." The visitation articles of the seventeenth
+century frequently inquire whether the clerk be of the age of twenty
+years at least.
+
+[Footnote 85: Canon 91 (1603).]
+
+The method of his appointment has caused much disputing. With whom does
+the appointment rest? In former times the parish clerk was always
+nominated by the incumbent both by common law and the custom of the
+realm. This is borne out by the constitution of Archbishop Boniface and
+the 91st Canon, which states that "No parish clerk upon any vacation
+shall be chosen within the city of London or elsewhere, but by the
+parson or vicar: or where there is no parson or vicar, by the minister
+of that place for the time being; which choice shall be signified by the
+said minister, vicar or parson, to the parishioners the next Sunday
+following, in the time of Divine Service."
+
+But this arrangement has often been the subject of dispute between the
+parson and his flock as to the right of the former to appoint the clerk.
+In pre-Reformation times there was a diversity of practice, some
+parishioners claiming the right to elect the clerk, as they provided the
+offerings by which he lived. A terrible scene occurred in the fourteenth
+century at one church. The parishioners appointed a clerk, and the
+rector selected another. The rector was celebrating Mass, assisted by
+his clerk, when the people's candidate approached the altar and nearly
+murdered his rival, so that blood was shed in the sanctuary.
+
+Custom in many churches sanctioned the right of the parishioners, who
+sometimes neglected to exercise it, and the choice of clerk was left to
+the vicar. The visitations in the time of Elizabeth show that the people
+were expected to appoint to the office, but the episcopal inquiries also
+demonstrate that the parson or vicar could exercise a veto, and that no
+one could be chosen without his goodwill and consent.
+
+The canon of 1603 was an attempt to change this variety of usage, but
+such is the force of custom that many decisions of the spiritual courts
+have been against the canon and in favour of accustomed usage when such
+could be proved. It was so in the case of _Cundict_ v. _Plomer_ (8 Jac.
+I)[86], and in _Jermyn's Case_ (21 Jac. I).
+
+[Footnote 86: _Ecclesiastical Law_, Sir R. Phillimore, p. 1901.]
+
+At the present time such disputes with regard to the appointment of
+clerks are unlikely to arise. They are usually elected to their office
+by the vestry, and the person recommended by the vicar is generally
+appointed. Indeed, by the Act 7 & 8 Victoria, c. 49, "for better
+regulating the office of Lecturers and Parish Clerks," it is provided
+that when the appointment is by others than the parson, it is to be
+subject to the approval of the parson. Owing to the difficulty of
+dismissing a clerk, to which I shall presently refer, it is not unusual
+to appoint a gentleman or farmer to the office, and to nominate a deputy
+to discharge the actual duties. If we may look forward to a revival of
+the office and to a restoration of its ancient dignity and importance,
+it might be possible for the more highly educated man to perform the
+chief functions, the reading the lessons and epistle, serving at the
+altar, and other like duties, while his deputy could perform the more
+menial functions, opening the church, ringing the bell, digging graves,
+if there be no sexton, and the like.
+
+It is not absolutely necessary that the clerk, after having been chosen
+and appointed, should be licensed by the ordinary, but this is not
+unusual; and when licensed he is sworn to obey the incumbent of the
+parish[87].
+
+[Footnote 87: _Ibid._, 1902.]
+
+We have recorded some of the perquisites, fees and wages, which the
+clerk of ancient times was accustomed to receive when he had been duly
+appointed. No longer does he receive accustomed alms by reason of his
+office of _aquaebajalus_. No longer does he derive profit from bearing
+the holy loaf; and the cakes and eggs at Easter, and certain sheaves at
+harvest-tide, are perquisites of the past.
+
+The following were the accustomed wages of the clerk at Rempstone in the
+year 1629[88]:
+
+[Footnote 88: _The Clerks' Book_, Dr. Wickham Legg, lv.]
+
+     "22nd November, 1629.
+
+     "The wages of the Clarke of the Parish Church of Rempstone.
+     At Easter yearely he is to have of every Husbandman one
+     pennie for every yard land he hath in occupation. And of
+     every Cottager two pence.
+
+     "Furthermore he is to have for every yard land one peche of
+     Barley of the Husbandman yearely.
+
+     "Egges at Easter by Courtesie.
+
+     "For every marriage two pence. And at the churching of a
+     woman his dinner.
+
+     "The said Barley is to be payed between Christmasse and the
+     Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary."
+
+Clerk's Ales have vanished, too, together with the cakes and eggs, but
+his fees remain, and marriage bells and funeral knells, christenings and
+churchings bring to him the accustomed dues and offerings. Tables of
+Fees hang in most churches. It is important to have them in order that
+no dispute may arise. The following table appears in the parish books of
+Salehurst, Sussex, and is curious and interesting:
+
+     "April 18, 1597.
+
+     "Memorandum that the duties for Churchinge of women in the
+     parishe of Salehurst is unto the minister ix d. b. and unto
+     the Clarke ij d.
+
+     "Item the due unto the minister for a marriadge is xxj d.
+     And unto the Clarke ij d. the Banes, and iiij d. the
+     marriadge.
+
+     "Item due for burialls as followeth
+        To the Minister in the Chancell . .      xiii s.   iiij d.
+        To the Clarke in the Chancell . .          vi s.  viiij d.
+        To the Parish in the Church . . .          vi s.   viii d.
+        To the Clarke in the Church . . .           v s.      o d.
+        To the Clarke in the churchyard for great
+          coffins . . . . . . .                    ii s.     vi d.
+        For great Corses uncoffined . . .          ii s.      o d.
+        For Chrisomers and such like coffined .     i s.   iiii d.
+        And uncoffined . . . . .                            xij d.
+        For tolling the passing bell and houre .    i s.
+        For ringing the sermon bell an houre .      i s.      0 d.
+        To the Clarke for carrying the beere .             iiij d.
+        If it be fetched . . . . .                           ij d.
+
+     "Item for funerals the Minister is to have the mourning
+     pullpit Cloth and the Clarke the herst Cloth.
+
+     "Item the Minister hathe ever chosen the parishe Clarke and
+     one of the Churchwardens and bothe the Sydemen.
+
+     "Item if they bring a beere or poles with the corps the
+     Clarke is to have them.
+
+     "If any Corps goe out of the parish they are to pay double
+     dutyes and to have leave.
+
+     "If any Corps come out of another parish to be buryed here,
+     they are to pay double dutyes besides breakinge the ground;
+     which is xiij s. 4 d. in the church, and vi s. viii d. in the
+     churchyard.
+
+     "For marryage by licence double fees both to the Minister and
+     Clarke[89]."
+
+[Footnote 89: _Sussex Archaeological Collections_, 1873, vol. xxv. p.
+154.]
+
+In addition to the fees to which the clerk is entitled by
+long-established custom, he receives wages, which he can recover by law
+if he be unjustly deprived of them. Churchwardens who in the old days
+neglected to levy a church rate in order to pay the expenses of the
+parish and the salary of the clerk, have been compelled by law to do so,
+in order to satisfy the clerk's claims.
+
+The wages which he received varied considerably. The churchwardens'
+accounts reveal the amounts paid the holders of the office at different
+periods. At St. Mary's, Reading, there are the items in 1557:
+
+     "Imprimis the Rent of the Clerke's
+     howse . . . . . .                             vi s. viii d."
+
+     "Paid to Marshall (the clerk) for parcell of
+     his wages that he was unpaide . .             v s."
+
+In 1561 the clerk's wages were 40 s., in 1586 only 20 s. At St. Giles's,
+Reading, in 1520, he received 26 s. 8 d., as the following entry shows:
+
+     "Paid to Harry Water Clerk for his
+     wage for a yere ended at thannacon
+     (the Annunciation) of Our Lady. xxvi s. viii."
+
+The clerk at St. Lawrence, Reading, received 20 s. for his services in
+1547. Owing to the decrease in the value of money the wages gradually
+rose in town churches, but in the eighteenth century in many country
+places 10 s. was deemed sufficient. The sum of L10 is not an unusual
+wage at the present time for a village clerk.
+
+The dismissal of a parish clerk was a somewhat difficult and dangerous
+task. In the eyes of the law he is no menial servant--no labourer who
+can be discharged if he fail to please his master. The law regards him
+as an officer for life, and one who has a freehold in his place. Sixty
+years ago no ecclesiastical court could deprive him of his office, but
+he could be censured for his faults and misdemeanours, though not
+discharged. Several cases have appeared in the law courts which have
+decided that as long as a clerk behaves himself well, he has a good
+right and title to continue in his office. Thus in _Rex_ v. _Erasmus
+Warren_ (16 Geo. III) it was shown that the clerk became bankrupt, had
+been guilty of many omissions in his office, was actually in prison at
+the time of his amoval, and had appointed a deputy who was totally unfit
+for the office. Against which it was insisted that the office of parish
+clerk was a temporal office during life, that the parson could not
+remove him, and that he had a right to appoint a deputy. One of the
+judges stated that though the minister might have power of removing the
+clerk on a good and sufficient cause, he could never be the sole judge
+and remove him at pleasure, without being subject to the control of the
+court. No misbehaviour of consequence was proved against him, and the
+clerk was restored to his office.
+
+In a more recent case the clerk had conducted himself on several
+occasions by designedly irreverent and ridiculous behaviour in his
+performance of his duty. He had appeared in church drunk, and had
+indecently disturbed the congregation during the administration of Holy
+Communion. He had been repeatedly reproved by the vicar, and finally
+removed from his office. But the court decided that because the clerk
+had not been summoned to answer for his conduct before his removal, a
+mandamus should be issued for his restoration to his office[90].
+
+[Footnote 90: _Ecclesiastical Law_, Sir R. Phillimore, p. 1907.]
+
+No deputy clerk when removed can claim to be restored. It will be
+gathered, therefore, that an incumbent is compelled by law to restore a
+clerk removed by him without just cause, that the justice of the cause
+is not determined in the law courts by an _ex-parte_ statement of the
+incumbent, and that an accused clerk must have an opportunity of
+answering the charges made against him. If a man performs the duties of
+the office for one year he gains a settlement, and cannot afterwards be
+removed without just cause.
+
+An important Act was passed in 1844, to which I have already referred,
+for the better regulating the office of lecturers and parish clerks.
+Sections 5 and 6 of this Act bear directly on the method of removal of a
+clerk who may be guilty of neglect or misbehaviour. I will endeavour to
+divest the wording of the Act from legal technicalities, and write it in
+"plain English."
+
+If a complaint is made to the archdeacon, or other ordinary, with regard
+to the misconduct of a clerk, stating that he is an unfit and improper
+person to hold that office, the archdeacon may summon the clerk and call
+witnesses who shall be able to give evidence or information with regard
+to the charges made. He can examine these witnesses upon oath, and hear
+and determine the truth of the accusations which have been made against
+the clerk. If he should find these charges proved he may suspend or
+remove the offender from his office, and give a certificate under his
+hand and seal to the incumbent, declaring the office vacant, which
+certificate should be affixed to the door of the church. Then another
+person may be elected or appointed to the vacant office: "Provided
+always, that the exercise of such office by a sufficient deputy who
+shall duly and faithfully perform the duties thereof, and in all
+respects well and properly demean himself, shall not be deemed a wilful
+neglect of his office on the part of such church clerk, chapel clerk, or
+parish clerk, so as to render him liable, for such cause alone, to be
+suspended or removed therefrom."
+
+A special section of the Act deals with such possessions as clerks'
+houses, buildings, lands or premises, held by a clerk by virtue of his
+office. If, when deprived of his office, he should refuse to give up
+such buildings or possessions, the matter must be brought before the
+bishop of the diocese, who shall summon the clerk to appear before him.
+If he fail to appear, or if the bishop should decide against him, the
+bishop shall grant a certificate of the facts to the person or persons
+entitled to the possession of the land or premises, who may thereupon go
+before a justice of the peace. The magistrate shall then issue his
+warrant to the constables to expel the clerk from the premises, and to
+hand them over to the rightful owners, the cost of executing the warrant
+being levied upon the goods and chattels of the expelled clerk. If this
+cost should be disputed, it shall be determined by the magistrate.
+Happily few cases arise, but perhaps it is well to know the procedure
+which the law lays down for the carrying out of such troublesome
+matters.
+
+The law also takes cognizance of the humbler office of sexton, the
+duties of which are usually combined in country places with those of the
+parish clerk. The sexton is, of course, the sacristan, the keeper of the
+holy things relating to divine worship, and seems to correspond with the
+_ostarius_ in the Roman Church. His duties consist in the care of the
+church, the vestments and vessels, in keeping the church clean, in
+ringing the bells, in opening and closing the doors for divine service,
+and to these the task of digging graves and the care of the churchyard
+are also added. He is appointed by the churchwardens if his duties be
+confined to the church, but if he is employed in the churchyard the
+appointment is vested in the rector. If his duties embrace the care of
+both church and churchyard, he should be appointed by the churchwardens
+and incumbent jointly[91].
+
+[Footnote 91: _Ecclesiastical Law_, p. 1914.]
+
+Many cases have come before the law courts relating to sextons and their
+election and appointment. He does not usually hold the same fixity of
+tenure as the parish clerk, he being a servant of the parish rather than
+an officer or one that has a freehold in his place; but in some cases a
+sexton has determined his right to hold the office for life, and gained
+a mandamus from the court to be restored to his position after having
+been removed by the churchwardens.
+
+The law has also decided that women may be appointed sextons.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD CLERKS AND THEIR WAYS
+
+Personal recollections of the manners and curious ways of old village
+clerks are valuable, and several writers have kindly favoured me with
+the descriptions of these quaint personages, who were well known to them
+in the days of their youth.
+
+The clerk of a Midland village was an old man who combined with his
+sacred functions the secular calling of the keeper of the village inn.
+He was very deaf, and consequently spoke in a loud, harsh voice, and
+scraps of conversation which were heard in the squire's high square box
+pew occasioned much amusement among the squire's sons. The Rev. W.V.
+Vickers records the following incidents:
+
+It was "Sacrament Sunday," and part of the clerk's duty was to prepare
+the Elements in the vestry, which was under the western tower.
+Apparently the wine was not forthcoming when wanted, and we heard the
+following stage-aside in broad Staffordshire: "Weir's the bottle? Oh!
+'ere it is, under the teeble (table) all the whoile."
+
+Another part of his duty was to sing in the choir, for which purpose he
+used to leave the lower deck of the three-decker and hobble with his
+heavy oak stick to the chancel for the canticles and hymns, and having
+swelled the volume of praise, hobble back again, a pause being made for
+his journey both to and fro. Not only did he sing in the choir but he
+gave out the hymns. This he did in a peculiar sing-song voice with
+up-and-down cadences: "Let us sing (low) to the praise (high) and glory
+(low) of God (high) the hundredth (low) psalm (high)." Very much the
+same intonation accompanied his reading of the alternate verses of
+the Psalms.
+
+On one occasion a locum tenens, who officiated for a few weeks, was
+_stone_ deaf. Hence a difficulty arose in his knowing when our worthy,
+and the congregation, had finished each response or verse. This the
+clerk got over by keeping one hand well forward upon his book and
+raising the fingers as he came to the close. This was the signal to the
+deaf man above him that it was _his_ turn! The old man, by half sitting
+upon a table in the belfry, could chime the four bells. It was his
+habit, instead of going by his watch, to look out for the first
+appearance of my father's carriage (an old-fashioned "britska," I
+believe it was called, with yellow body and wheels and large black hood,
+and so very conspicuous) at a certain part of the road, and then, and
+not till then, commence chiming. It was a compliment to my father's
+punctuality; but what happened when, by chance, he failed to attend
+church I know not--but such occasions were rare[92].
+
+[Footnote 92: In olden days it seems to have been the usual practice in
+many churches to delay service until the advent of the squire. Every one
+knows the old story of how, through some inadvertence, the minister had
+not looked out to see that the great man was in his accustomed pew. He
+began, "When the wicked man--" The parish clerk tugged him by his coat,
+saying, "Please, sir, he hasn't come yet!" As to whether the clergyman
+took the hint and waited for "the wicked man" history sayeth not.
+Another clerk told a young deacon, who was impatient to begin the
+service, "You must wait a bit, sir, we ain't ready." He then clambered
+on the Communion table, and peered through the east window, which
+commanded a view of the door in the wall of the squire's garden. "Come
+down!" shouted the curate. "I can see best where I be," replied the
+imperturbable clerk; "I'm watching the garden door. Here she be, and the
+squire." Whereupon he clambered down again, and without much further
+delay the service proceeded.]
+
+Our _parish_ church we seldom attended, for the simple reason that the
+aged vicar was scarcely audible; but there the clerk, after robing the
+vicar, mounted to the gallery above the vestry, where, taking a front
+seat, he watched for the exit of the vicar (whose habit it was to wait
+for the young men, who also waited in the church porch for him to begin
+the service!), and then, taking his seat at the organ, commenced the
+voluntary. It was his duty also to give out the hymns. I have known him
+play an eight-line tune to a four-line verse (or psalm--we used Tate and
+Brady), repeating the words of each verse twice!
+
+The organ produced the most curious sounds. In course of time the mice
+got into it, and the churchwardens, of whom the clerk was one,
+approached the vicar with the information, at the same time venturing a
+hint that the organ was quite worn out and that a harmonium would be
+more acceptable to the congregation than the present music. His reply
+was that a harmonium was not a sufficiently sacred instrument, and
+added, "Let a mouse-trap be set at once."
+
+Robert Dicker, quondam cabinet-maker in the town of Crediton, Devon,
+reigned for many years as parish clerk to the, at one time, collegiate
+church of the same town. He appears to have fulfilled his office
+satisfactorily up to about 1870, when his mind became somewhat feeble.
+Nevertheless, no desire was apparent to shorten the days of his office,
+as he was regular in his attendance and musically inclined; but when he
+began to play pranks upon the vicar it became necessary to consider the
+advisability of finding a substitute who should do the work and receive
+half the pay. One of his escapades was to stand up in the middle of
+service and call the vicar a liar; at another time he announced that a
+wedding was to take place on a certain day. The vicar, therefore,
+attended and waited for an hour, when the clerk affirmed that he must
+have dreamed it! Dicker was given to the study of astronomy, and it is
+related that he once gave a lecture on this subject in the Public Rooms.
+There is close to the town a small park in memory of one of the Duller
+family. A man one night was much alarmed when walking therein to
+discover a bright light in one of the trees, and, later, to hear the
+voice of the worthy clerk, who addressed him in these words: "Fear not,
+my friend, and do not be affrighted. I am Robert Dicker, clerk of the
+parish. I am examining the stars." Another account alleges that he
+affirmed himself to be "counting the stars." Whichever account is the
+true one, it will be gathered that he was already "far gone."
+
+Another of his achievements was the conversion of a barrel organ,
+purchased from a neighbouring church, into a manual, obtaining the wind
+therefor by a pedal arrangement which worked a large wheel attached to a
+crank working the bellows. On all great festivals and especially on
+Christmas Day he was wont to rouse the neighbourhood as early as three
+and four o'clock, remarking of the ungrateful, complaining neighbours
+that they had no heart for music or religion.
+
+The wheel mentioned above was part of one of his tricycle schemes. His
+first attempt in cycle-making resulted in the construction of a bicycle
+the wheels of which resembled the top of a round deal table; this soon
+came to grief. His second endeavour was more successful and became a
+tricycle, the wheels of which were made of wrought iron and the base of
+a triangular shape. Upon the large end he placed an arm-chair, averring
+that it would be useful to rest in whenever he should grow weary! Then,
+making another attempt, he succeeded in turning out (being aided by
+another person) a very respectable and useful tricycle upon which he
+made many journeys to Barnstaple and elsewhere.
+
+However, just as an end comes to everything that is mortal, so did an
+end come to our friend the clerk; for, as so many stories finish, he
+died in a good old age, and his substitute reigned in his stead.
+
+The following reminiscences of a parish clerk were sent by the Rev.
+Augustus G. Legge, who has since died.
+
+It is reported of an enthusiastic archaeologian that he blessed the day
+of the Commonwealth because, he said, if Cromwell and all his
+destructive followers had never lived, there would have been no ruins in
+the country to repay the antiquary's researches. And the converse of
+this is true of a race of men who before long will be "improved" off the
+face of the earth, if the restoration of our parish churches is to go on
+at the present rate. I allude to the old parish clerks of our boy-hood
+days. Who does not remember their quaint figures and quainter, though
+somewhat irreverent, manner of leading the responses of the
+congregation? It is well indeed that our churches, sadly given over to
+the laxity and carelessness of a bygone age, should be renovated and
+beautified, the tone of the services raised, and the "bray" of the old
+clerks, unsuited to the devotional feelings of a more enlightened day,
+silenced, but still a shade of regret will be mingled with their
+dismissal, if only for the sake of the large stock of amusing anecdotes
+which their names recall.
+
+My earliest recollections are connected with old Russell[93], my
+father's clerk. He was a little man but possessed of a consequential
+manner sufficient for a giant. A shoemaker by trade, his real element
+was in the church. His conversation was embellished by high-flown
+grandiloquence, and he invariably walked upon the heels of his boots.
+This latter peculiarity, as may well be imagined, was the cause of a
+most comical effect whenever he had occasion to leave his seat and
+clatter down the aisle of the church. How often when a boy did I make my
+old nurse's sides shake with laughter by imitating old Russell's walk!
+His manner of reading the responses in the service can only be compared
+to a kind of bellow--as my father used to say, "he bellowed like a
+calf"--and his rendering of parts of it was calculated to raise a smile
+upon the lips of the most devout. The following are a few instances of
+his perversions of the text. "Leviathan" under his quaint manipulation
+became "leather thing," his trade of shoemaker helping him, no doubt, to
+his interpretation. Whether he had ever attended a fish-dinner at
+Greenwich and his mind had thus become impressed with the number and
+variety of the inhabitants of the deep, history does not record, but, be
+that as it may, "Bring hither the tabret" was invariably read as "Bring
+hither the turbot." "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego" did service for
+"Ananias, Azarias, and Misael" in the "Benedicite," and "Destructions
+are come to a perpetual end" was transmogrified into "_parental_ end" in
+the ninth Psalm. My father once took the trouble to point out and try to
+correct some of his inaccuracies, but he never attempted it again. Old
+Russell listened attentively and respectfully, but when the lecture was
+over he dismissed the subject with a superior shake of the head and the
+disdainful remark, "Well, sir, I have heerd tell of people who think
+with you." Never a bit though did he make any change in his own peculiar
+rendering of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer.
+
+[Footnote 93: Old Russell, for many years clerk of the parish of East
+Lavant in the county of Sussex.]
+
+There was one occasion on which he especially distinguished himself, and
+I shall never forget it. A farmyard of six outbuildings abutted upon the
+church burial ground, and it was but natural that all the fowls should
+stray into it to feed and enjoy themselves in the grass. Amongst these
+was a goodly flock of guinea-fowls, which oftentimes no little disturbed
+the congregation by their peculiar cry of "Come back! come back! come
+back!" One Sunday the climax of annoyance was reached when the whole
+flock gathered around the west door just as my father was beginning to
+read the first lesson. His voice, never at any time very strong, was
+completely drowned. Whereupon old Russell hastily left his seat, book in
+hand, and clattering as usual on his heels down the aisle disappeared
+through the door on vengeance bent. The discomfiture of the offending
+fowls was instantly apparent by the change in their cry to one more
+piercing still as they fled away in terror. Then all was still, and
+back comes old Russell, a gleam of triumph on his face and somewhat out
+of breath, but nevertheless able without much difficulty to take up the
+responses in the canticle which followed the lesson. Scarcely, however,
+had the congregation resumed their seats for the reading of the second
+lesson when the offending flock again gathered round the west door, and
+again, as if in defiant derision of Russell, raised their mocking cry of
+"Come back! come back! come back!" And back accordingly he went clatter,
+clatter down the aisle, a stern resolution flashing from his eye, and
+causing the little boys as he passed to quail before him. Now it so
+happened that the lesson was a short one, and, moreover, Russell took
+more time, making a farther excursion into the churchyard than before,
+in order if possible to be rid entirely of the noisy intruders. Just as
+he returned to the church door, this time completely breathless, the
+first verse of the canticle which followed was being read, but Russell
+was equal to the occasion. All breathless as he was, without a moment's
+hesitation, he opened his book at the place and bellowed forth the
+responses as he proceeded up the church to his seat. The scene may be
+imagined, but scarcely described: Russell's quaint little figure, the
+broad-rimmed spectacles on his nose, the ponderous book in his hands,
+the clatter of his heels, the choking gasps with which he bellowed out
+the words as he laboured for breath, and finally the sudden
+disappearance of the congregation beneath the shelter of their high pews
+with a view to giving vent to their feelings unobserved--all this
+requires to have been witnessed to be fully appreciated.
+
+It chanced one Sunday that a parishioner coming into church after the
+service had begun omitted to close the door, causing thereby an
+unseemly draught. My father directed Russell to shut it. Accordingly,
+book in hand and with a thumb between the leaves to keep the place, he
+sallied forth. But, alas! in shutting the door the thumb fell out and
+the place was lost, and after floundering about awhile to find, if
+possible, the proper response, he at length made known to the
+congregation the misfortune which had befallen him by exclaiming aloud,
+"I've lost my place or _summut_."
+
+A very amusing incident once took place at a baptism. The service
+proceeded with due decorum and regularity till my father demanded of the
+godfather the child's name. The answer was so indistinctly given that he
+had to repeat the question more than once, and even then the name
+remained a mystery. All he could make out was something which sounded
+like "Harmun," the godfather indignantly asserting the while that it was
+a "Scriptur" name. In his perplexity my father turned to Russell with
+the query: "Clerk, do you know what the name is?" "No, sir. I'm sure I
+don't know, unless it be he at the end of the prayer," meaning "Amen."
+The result was that the child was otherwise christened, and after the
+ceremony was over my father, placing a Bible in the godfather's hands,
+requested him to find the "Scriptur" name, as he called it, when, having
+turned over the leaves for some time, he drew his attention to _wicked
+Haman_. The child's escape, therefore, was most fortunate. Old Russell
+has now slept with his fathers for many years, and the few stories which
+I have related about him do not by any means exhaust the list of his
+oddities. Many of the parishioners to this day, no doubt, will call to
+mind the quaint way in which, if he thought any one was misbehaving
+himself in church, he would rise slowly from his seat with such majesty
+as his diminutive stature could command, and shading his spectacles with
+his hand, gaze sternly in the offending quarter; how on a certain
+Communion Sunday he forgot the wine to be used in the sacred office, and
+when my father directed his attention to the omission, after sundry
+dives under the altar-cloth he at last produced a common rush basket,
+and from it a black bottle; how on another Sunday, being desirous to
+free the church from smoke which had escaped from a refractory stove, he
+deliberately mounted upon the altar and remained standing there while he
+opened a small lattice in the east window. All these circumstances will,
+no doubt, be recalled by some one or other in the parish. But, gentle
+reader, be not overharsh in passing judgment upon him. I verily believe
+that he had no more desire to be irreverent than you or I have. The
+fault lay rather in the religious coldness and carelessness of those
+days than in him. He was liked and respected by every one as a harmless,
+inoffensive, good-hearted old fellow, and I cannot better close this
+brief account of some of his peculiarities than by saying--as I do with
+all my heart--Peace to his ashes!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Legge's baptismal story reminds me of a friend who was christening
+the child of a gipsy, when the name given was "Neptin." This puzzled him
+sorely, but suddenly recollecting that he had baptized another gipsy
+child "Britannia," without any hesitation he at once named the infant
+"Neptune." Mr. Eagles was once puzzled when the sponsor gave the name
+"Acts." "'Acts!' said I. 'What do you mean?' Thinks I to myself, I will
+_ax_ the clerk to spell it. He did: A-C-T-S. So Acts was the babe, and
+will be while in this life, and will be doubly, trebly so registered if
+ever he marries or dies. Afterwards, in the vestry, I asked the good
+woman what made her choose such a name. Her answer _verbatim_: 'Why,
+sir, we be religious people; we've got your on 'em already, and they be
+caal'd Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and so my husband thought we'd
+compliment the apostles a bit.'"
+
+Mr. Legge adds the following stories:
+
+My first curacy was in Norfolk in the year 1858, a period when the old
+style of parish clerk had not disappeared. On one occasion I was asked
+by a friend in a neighbouring parish to take a funeral service for him.
+On arriving at the church I was received by a very eccentric clerk. It
+seemed as if his legs were hung upon wires, and before the service began
+he danced about the church in a most peculiar and laughable manner, and
+in addition to this he had a hideous squint, one eye looking north and
+the other south. The service proceeded with due decorum until we arrived
+at the grave, when those who were preparing to lower the coffin in it
+discovered that it had not been dug large enough to receive it. This of
+course created a very awkward pause while it was made larger, and the
+chief mourner utilised it by gently remonstrating with the clerk for his
+carelessness. In reply he gave a solemn shake of his head, cast one eye
+into the grave and the other at the chief mourner, and merely remarked,
+"Putty (pretty) nigh though," meaning that the offence after all was not
+so very great, as he had almost accomplished his task. Obliged to keep
+my countenance, I had, as may be imagined, some difficulty.
+
+A very amusing incident once took place when I had a couple before me
+to be married. All went well until I asked the question, "Who giveth
+this woman to be married to this man?" when an individual stepped
+forward, and snatching the ring out of the bride-groom's hand, began
+placing it on a finger of the bride. As all was confusion I signed to
+the old clerk to put matters straight. Attired in a brown coat and
+leather gaiters, with spectacles on his nose, and a large Prayer Book in
+his hands, he came shuffling forward from the background, exclaiming out
+loud, "Bless me, bless me! never knew such a thing happen afore in all
+my life!" The service was completed without any further interruption,
+but again I had a sore difficulty in keeping my countenance.
+
+Many years ago ecclesiastical matters in Norfolk were in a very slack
+state--rectors and vicars lived away from their parishes, subscribing
+amongst them to pay the salary of a curate to undertake the church
+services. As his duties were consequently manifold some parishes were
+without his presence on Sunday for a month and sometimes longer. The
+parish clerk would stand outside the church and watch for the coming
+parson, and if he saw him in the distance would immediately begin to
+toll the bell; if not, the parish was without a service on that day.
+
+It happened on one of these monthly occasions that on the arrival of the
+parson at the church he was met by the clerk at the door, who, pulling
+his forelock, addressed him as follows: "Sir, do yew mind a prachin in
+the readin' desk to-day?" "Yes," was the reply; "the pulpit is the
+proper place." "Well, sir, you see we fare to have an old guse a-sittin'
+in the pulpit. She'll be arf her eggs to-morrow; 'twould be a shame to
+take her arf to-day."
+
+The pulpit was considered as convenient a place as any for the "old
+guse" to hatch her young in.
+
+Canon Venables contributes the following:
+
+The first parish clerk I can in the least degree remember was certainly
+entitled to be regarded as a "character," albeit not in all moral
+respects what would be called a moral character. Shrewd, clever, and
+better informed than the inhabitants of his little village of some
+eighty folk, he was not "looked up to," but was regarded with suspicion,
+and, in short, was not popular, while treated with a certain amount of
+deference, being a man of some knowledge and ability. The clergyman was
+a man of excellent character, learned, a fluent _ex-tempore_ preacher,
+and one who liked the services to be nicely conducted. He came over
+every Sunday and ministered two services. In those days the only organ
+was a good long pitch-pipe constructed principally of wood and, I
+imagine, about twelve inches in length. But upon the parish clerk
+devolved the onerous (and it may be added in this case sonorous) duty of
+starting the hymn and the singing. In those days few could read, and the
+method was adopted (and I know successfully adopted a few years later)
+of announcing two lines of the verse to be sung, and sometimes the whole
+verse. But Mr. W.M. was unpopular, and people did not always manifest a
+willingness to sing with him.
+
+At last a crisis came. The hymn and psalm were announced. The pitch-pipe
+rightly adjusted gave the proper keynote, and the clerk essayed to sing.
+But from some cause matters were not harmonious and none attempted to
+help the clerk.
+
+With a scowl not worthy of a saint, the offended official turned round
+upon the congregation and closed all further attempts at psalm-singing
+by stating clearly and distinctly, "I shan't sing if nobody don't
+foller." This man was deposed ere long, and deservedly, if village
+suspicions were truthful.
+
+After which, I think, he usually came just inside the church once every
+Sunday, but never to get further than to take a seat close to the door.
+He died at a great age. Two or three of his successors were worthy men.
+One of them would carefully recite the Psalms for the coming Sunday
+within church or elsewhere during the week, and he read with proper
+feeling and good sense.
+
+Another of the same little parish, well up in his Bible, once helped the
+very excellent clergyman at a baptism in a critical moment. "Name this
+child." "Zulphur." This was not a correct name. Another effort,
+"Sulphur." The clergyman was in difficulty. The clerk was equal to the
+occasion, for the parson was well up in his Bible too.
+
+"Leah's handmaid," suggested the clerk. "Zilpah, I baptize thee," said
+the priest, and all was well.
+
+In that church the few farmers who met to levy a poor-rate and do other
+parochial work insisted on doing so within the chancel rails, using the
+holy table as the writing-desk, and the assigned reason for so doing was
+that, being apt to quarrel and dispute over parish matters, there would
+be no danger _at such a place_ as this of using profane language. All in
+the diocese of Oxford.
+
+It was in the twenties that I must have seen old P.W. (the parish clerk)
+and two other men in the desk singing to "Hanover," with a certain
+apparent self-complacency in nice smock-frocks, "My soul, praise the
+Lord, speak good of His Name," etc. The little congregation listened
+with seeming contentment, and it is worth recording that the parson
+always preached in the surplice. I suppose Pusey was a boy at that time,
+but the custom in this church was not a novelty, whether right or wrong.
+
+It was not the clerk's fault that the hour of service was hastened by
+some seventy minutes one afternoon, so that one or two invariably late
+worshippers were astounded to be driven backwards from the church by the
+congregation returning from service. But so it was. The really
+well-meaning kind-hearted parson was withal a keen sportsman and a
+worthy gentleman, and with his "long dogs" and man was on his horse and
+away for Illsley Downs race course to come off next day, and his dogs
+(they won) must not be fatigued. Old P.W., the clerk, reached a good
+age, an inoffensive man.
+
+I was rather interested when residing in my parish in grand old
+Yorkshire to observe two steady-looking and rather elderly men, each
+aided by a strong walking-stick, coming to church with praiseworthy
+regularity and reverence. I found, on making their acquaintance, that
+they were brothers who had recently come into the parish, natives of
+"the Peak," or of the locality near the Peak, which was not many miles
+distant from my parish.
+
+Since I heard from their lips the story which I am about to relate, I
+have heard it told, _mutatis mutandis_, as happening in sundry other
+parishes, until one rather doubts the genuineness of the record at all.
+But as they recounted it it ran as follows, and I am sure they believed
+what they told me.
+
+Some malicious person or persons unknown entered the church, and having
+seized the rather large typed Prayer Book used by the clerk, who was
+somewhat advanced in years, they observed that the words "the righteous
+shall flourish like" were the last words at the bottom of the page,
+whereupon they altered the next words on the top of the following page,
+and which were "the palm tree," into "a green bay horse"; and, the
+change being carefully made, the result on the Sunday following was that
+the well-meaning clerk, studiously uttering each word of his Prayer
+Book, found himself declaring very erroneous doctrine. "Hulloa," cried
+he; "I must hearken back. This'll never do." Now I cannot call to mind
+the name of the parish. It was not Chapel-in-the-Frith. Was it
+Mottram-in-Longdendale? I really cannot remember. But these two old men
+asserted that thenceforward it became a saying, "I must hearken back,
+like the clerk of--."
+
+I recollect preaching one weekday night (and people would crowd the
+churches on weekday evenings fifty years ago far more readily than they
+do now) at some wild place in Lancashire or Yorkshire, I think
+Lancashire. I was taken to see and stand upon a stepping stone outside
+the church, and close against the south wall of the sacred edifice, upon
+which almost every Sunday the clerk, as the people were leaving church,
+ascended and in a loud voice announced any matters concerning the parish
+which it appeared desirable to proclaim. In this way any intended sales
+were made known, the loss of sheep or cattle on the moors was announced,
+and almost anything appertaining to the secular welfare of the
+parishioners was made public. I do not state this to criticise it. It
+was in some degree a recognition of the charity which ought to realise
+the sympathy in each other's welfare which we ought all to display. It
+was in those primitive times and localities a specimen of the
+simplicity and well-meant interest in the welfare of the neighbour as
+well as of oneself, although perhaps the secular sometimes did much to
+extinguish the spiritual.
+
+[Illustration: SUNDAY MORNING]
+
+Few people now realise what a business it was to light up a church, say,
+eighty years ago. But the worthy old clerk, in a wig bestowed on him by
+the pious and aged patron, is hastening to illuminate his church with
+old-fashioned candles, in which he is aided not a little by his faithful
+wife, who, like Abraham's wife, regarded her husband as her lord and
+responded to the name of Sarah. The good old man--and he was a good old
+man--was perhaps a little bit "flustered and flurried," for the folk
+were gathering within the sacred temple, and W.L. was anxious to
+complete his task of lighting the loft, or gallery. "I say, Sally, hand
+us up a little taste of candle," cried her lord, and Sarah obeyed, and
+the illumination was soon complete.
+
+But, really, few men "gave out" or announced a hymn with truer and more
+touching and devout feeling than did that old clerk. I am one of those
+who do not think that all the changes in the ministration of Church
+services are, after experience had, desirable. I think that in many
+instances the lay clerk ought to have been instructed in the performance
+of his duties, to the profit of all concerned. And I deem that this
+proceeding would have been a far wiser proceeding than any substitution
+of the man or his function. There is ancient authority for a clerk or
+clerks. It is wise to secure work to be attended to in the functions of
+divine service for as many laymen as possible, consistent with principle
+and propriety. W.L. was an old man when I saw him, but I can hear him
+now as with a pathos quite touching and teaching, because done so
+simply and naturally, he announced, singing:
+
+     "Salvation, what a glorious theme,
+       How suited to our need.
+     The grace that rescues fallen man
+       Is wonderful indeed."
+
+And though he pronounced the last word but one as if spelt "woonderful,"
+I venture to say that the "giving out" of that verse by that aged clerk
+with his venerable wig and with a voice trembling a little by age, but
+more by natural emotion, was preferable to many modern modes of
+announcing a hymn.
+
+It was common to say "Let us sing, to the praise and glory of God." It
+is common to be shocked, nowadays, by such an invitation. Are we as
+reverent now as then? Do we sing praises with understanding better? I
+think it is not so.
+
+I knew a very respectable man, W.K., a tailor by trade, a well-conducted
+man, but who felt the importance of his office to an extent that made
+him nervous, or (what is as bad) made him fancy he was nervous. The
+church was capacious, and the population over two thousand.
+
+A large three-decker, though the pulpit was at a right angle with the
+huge prayer-desk and the clerk's citadel below, well stained and
+varnished, formed an important portion of the furniture of the church,
+the whole structure, as we were reminded by large letters above the
+chancel arch, having been "Adorn'd and beautified 1814," the names of
+the churchwardens being also recorded. This clerk was observed
+frequently, during the service, to stoop down within his little "pew" as
+if to imbibe something. He was inquired of as to his strange proceeding,
+when he frankly stated that he felt the trials of his duties to be so
+great, that he always fortified himself with a little bottle containing
+some gin and some water, to which bottle he made frequent appeals during
+the often rather lengthy services. He had to proclaim the notices of
+vestry meetings of all kinds, as well as to give out the hymns; but what
+astonishes me is that he baptized many infants at their homes instead of
+the most excellent vicar, when circumstances made it difficult for the
+really good vicar to attend.
+
+I saw him, one first Sunday in Lent, stand up on the edge of his square
+box or pew, and conduct a rather long consultation with the vicar, a
+very spiritually minded, excellent man, upon which we were put through
+the whole Commination Service which, though appointed for Ash Wednesday,
+was wholly neglected until it lengthened out the Sunday morning of the
+first _in_ but not _of_ Lent, and having nothing to do with the forty
+days of Lent.
+
+The well-conducted man lived to a good age, and after his death a rather
+costly stained glass window was erected to his memory under the active
+influence of a new vicar. When privately engaged in church he wore his
+usual silk hat, though not approving of any one so behaving.
+
+I recollect, in a large church in a large town, the clerk, arrayed
+(properly, I think) in a suitable black gown, giving out the hymn, in a
+tone to be regretted, but where the obvious remedy was not to dethrone
+the clerk, but rather to have just suggested the propriety of reading
+the entire verse, as well as of avoiding a tone lugubrious on
+the occasion.
+
+It was Easter Day, and the hymn quite appropriate, but not so
+_rendered_ as the clerk heavily and drearily announced:
+
+     "The Lord is risen indeed,
+       And are the tidings true?"
+
+as if there might exist a doubt about this glorious fact.
+
+Pity that he did not enter into the spirit of the verse and add:
+
+     "Yes! we beheld the Saviour bleed,
+       And saw Him rising too."
+
+Within about ten miles nearer to Windsor Castle the clerk of a church in
+which not a few nobility usually worshipped, was altogether at fault in
+his "H's," as he exhorted the people to sing, "The Heaster Im with the
+Allelujer, _h_et the _h_end of _h_every line." Other clerks may have
+done the same. He did it, I know well.
+
+Throughout the whole of my very imperfect ministry I have sought to
+practise catechising in church every Sunday afternoon, and very strongly
+desire to urge the practice of it in every church every Sunday.
+
+It is one of the most difficult parts of the glorious ministry since the
+time of St. Luke that can engage the attention of the ordained ministers
+of Christ's Church. It needs to be done well. It ought not to be a very
+nice, simple sermonette. This, though very beautiful, is not
+catechising. Perhaps, if at once followed by questions upon the
+sermonette, it might thus become very useful. But a catechesis in which
+the catechist simply tells a simple story or gives an amusing anecdote,
+or when questioning, so puts his inquiries that "yes" and "no" are the
+listless replies that are drawn forth from the lads and girls, is not
+interesting or profitable. Whenever I have the opportunity I go to an
+afternoon catechetical service. Some failed by being made into the time
+of a small preachment; some because in a few minutes the catechist
+easily asked questions and then answered them himself. Others were
+really magnificent, securing the attention and drawing forth answers
+admirably. Was it the great bishop Samuel Wilberforce who said, "A boy
+may preach, but it takes a man to catechise"?
+
+I cannot boast of being a good catechist; but I know that catechising
+costs me more mental exhaustion (alas! with sad depression under a sense
+of trial of temper and failure) than any sermon. But I will say to any
+clergyman, _My dear brother, catechise; try, persevere, keep on. It will
+not be in vain. But secure an answer_. If need be, become a
+cross-examining advocate for Christ, and don't give up until you have
+made the catechumens, by dint of a variety of ways of putting the
+question, give the answer you desired. You have made them think and call
+memory into play, and made them feel that they "knew it all the time,"
+if only they had reflected. And you have given them a "power of good."
+
+But what has all this to do with a clerk? Well, I want to tell what made
+me _try_ to be a good catechist, and what makes me, over eighty-three
+years of age, _still wish_ to become such, though the incident must have
+happened some seventy years ago, for I recollect that on the very Sunday
+we crossed the Greta my father whispered to me as we were on the bridge
+that it was the poet Southey who was close to us, as he as well as our
+little family and a goodly congregation were returning from Crosthwaite
+Church in the afternoon. For "oncers" were unknown in those times,
+neither by poets and historians like Southey, nor by travellers such as
+we were. We had attended morning service. A stranger officiated. His
+name was _Bush_, and this is important. A family "riddle" impressed the
+name upon me. "Why were we all like Moses to-day?" "We had heard the
+word out of a Bush," was the reply. But at the afternoon service I was
+deeply impressed. The Rev. M. Bush having read the lessons, came out of
+the prayer-desk, and to my amazement and great interest catechised the
+children and others.
+
+I thought to myself that the practice was excellent, and felt that if
+ever I became a clergyman (of which honour there was very small
+probability), I would obey the Prayer Book and catechise. Since then I
+have catechised ten, twenty, fifty young people, and not infrequently
+five hundred to one thousand, and rarely two to three thousand on a
+Sunday afternoon, often, however, much exhausted (having to preach in
+the evening) and dreadfully cast down at my own failure in not
+catechising better.
+
+Decades rolled on. A lovely effigy of Southey occupied his place in
+Crosthwaite Church, and I found myself again amidst the enchanting views
+of and about Derwentwater. The morning was wet, but I resolved to go as
+soon as it cleared up in order to find "th' ould clerk," and inquire of
+him touching the catechising of perhaps forty years ago. I was told that
+he had resigned, that he lived still at no very great distance. I think
+he was succeeded by his son as clerk. After some trouble I found my aged
+friend, and told him that very many years ago I was at the church when
+Southey, the poet, was there, and I wanted to know if the catechising
+was continued. "There never has been any catechising here," said the
+worthy old sacristan. "Forgive me, I heard it myself." "I tell thee
+there never was no catechising here. I lived here all these years, and
+was clerk for nearly all the time." "I cannot help that," I said; "I am
+sure there was catechising in your church on a Sunday when I, a boy, was
+here." The old Churchman became testy, and my pertinacity made him
+irate, as he thundered out that "never had there been catechising in
+that church in all his day." I rose to leave him, telling him that I was
+very disappointed, but that I was _confident_ that I did not invent this
+story, and, I added, the name of the parson was Bush. "_Bush, Bush,
+Bush!_ Well, there was a clergyman of that name come here four Sundays,
+many a year ago, when the vicar was from home; and now I come to think
+of it, he did catechise on the Sunday afternoon. But he is the only man
+that ever did so here. There's been no catechising in this church,
+except then." We parted good friends after what I felt to be a most
+singular interview, far more interesting, I fear, to me than to any who
+may read this unadorned tale, and especially the many folks who probably
+but for this I should never have catechised.
+
+But I hope the old clerk of Crosthwaite's declaration will not long be
+true of any church of the Anglican Communion, "There's been no
+catechising here." My success as a preacher, or catechist, or parish
+priest has not been great, but this does not greatly surprise me, while
+sorrowing that so it has been. But I think it likely that the incident
+at Crosthwaite Church was a chief cause of my trying to be a catechist,
+and I conclude by saying to any one in holy orders, or preparing to
+receive them. Make catechising an important effort in your ministry.
+
+It was a small parish. The vicar was a learned man, and an authority as
+an antiquary, and a man of high character. On a certain Sunday morning
+I was detailed to perform all the "duties" of Morning Prayer. Doubtless
+I was too energetic in my efforts at preaching, for my "action" proved,
+almost to an alarming extent, that the huge pulpit cushion had not been
+"dusted" for a lengthy period. But it was at the very commencement of
+divine service that the clerk demonstrated his originality in the proper
+discharge of his duties. "I stands up in yonder corner to ring the
+bells, and as soon as you be ready you gives me a kind of nod like, and
+then I leaves off ringing and comes to my place as clerk." Nothing could
+work better, and the clerk of B----- d and I parted at the close of
+divine service on very amicable terms.
+
+Mr. F.S. Gill, aged 86, has many recollections of old clerks and their
+ways. In a parish in Nottinghamshire there was an old clerk who was
+nearly blind. There were two services on Sunday in summer, and only
+morning service in winter. The clerk knew the morning Psalms quite well
+by heart, but not so the evening Psalms. On one occasion when his verse
+should have been read, he was unable to recollect it. After a pause the
+clergyman began to read it, when the clerk, who occupied the box below
+that of the vicar, looked up, saying, "Nay, nay, master, I've got
+it now."
+
+Another time, when an absent-minded curate omitted the ante-Communion
+service and appeared in his black gown in the pulpit, the clerk was
+indignant, and went up to remonstrate. Knocking at the pulpit door and
+no notice being taken of him, he proceeded to pull the black gown, and
+made the curate come down, change his robes, and complete the service in
+the orthodox fashion.
+
+In another Notts church, during service, there was an encounter between
+two clerks. The regular clerk having been taken ill was unequal to his
+duties for some weeks, and appointed a man to carry them out for him. On
+the restoration to health of the real clerk he came into church to
+resume his duties, but found the man he had appointed occupying the
+box--the so-called desk. Whereupon they had a scuffle in the aisle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rev. William Selwyn recollects the following incidents in the parish
+of F-----, near Cambridge:
+
+Here up to the end of the sixties and well into the seventies a most
+quaint service was in fashion. The morning service began with a metrical
+Psalm--Tate and Brady--led by the clerk (of these more hereafter). This
+being ended, the vicar commenced the service always with the sentence "O
+Lord, correct me"--never any other. Then all things went on in the
+regular course till the end of the Litany, when the clerk would be heard
+stamping down the church and ascending the gallery in order to be ready
+for the second metrical Psalm. That ended, the vicar would commence with
+the ante-Communion service from the _reading-desk_. This went on in due
+course till the end of the Nicene Creed, when without sermon, prayers,
+or blessing, the morning service came to an abrupt termination. The
+afternoon service was identical, save that it ended with a sermon and
+the blessing.
+
+But the chief peculiarity was the clerk and the singing. The metrical
+Psalm chosen was invariably one for the day of the month whatever it
+might be. The clerk would give it out, "Let's sing to the praise and
+glory of God," and then would read the first two lines. The usual
+village band--fiddle, trombone, etc. etc.--would accompany him, which
+thing done, the next two lines would follow, and so on. Usually the
+number of verses was four, but sometimes the clerk would go on to six,
+or even seven. Once, I remember, this led to a somewhat ludicrous
+result. It was the seventh day of the month, consequently the
+thirty-fifth was the metrical Psalm to be sung. I think my late revered
+relative, Canon Selwyn, learnt then with astonishment, as I did myself,
+of the existence of the following lines within the folds of the
+Prayer Book:
+
+     "And when through dark and slippery ways
+       They strive His rage to shun,
+     His vengeful ministers of wrath
+       Shall goad them as they run."
+
+It is hard to think that such a service could have been possible within
+seven miles of a University town, and I need hardly say it was very
+trying to the younger ones.
+
+In the afternoon the band migrated to the dissenting chapel. On one
+occasion the band failed to appear, and the clerk was left alone.
+However, he made the best of it, with scant support from the
+congregation, so turning to them at the end, said in a loud voice,
+"Thank you for your help!"
+
+THE PARISH OF BROMFIELD, SALOP.
+
+From these ludicrous scenes it is refreshing to turn to a service which,
+though primitive, was conducted with the utmost reverence and decency.
+When I was instituted in 1866 all the singing was conducted, and most
+reverently conducted, under the auspices of the clerk. He was a handsome
+man, with a flowing beard, magnificent bass voice, and a wooden leg.
+With two or three sons, daughters, and others in the village he
+carried on the choir, and though there were only hymns, nothing could be
+better. Of its kind I have seldom heard anything better. They had to
+yield to the inexorable march of time, but I parted from them with
+regret. Though we now have a surpliced choir of men and boys, with a
+trained organist and choirmaster, I always look back to my good old
+friend with his daughters and their companions, who were the leaders of
+the singing in the early days of my incumbency.
+
+[Illustration: THE PARISH CLERK OF QUEDGELEY]
+
+The Rev. Canon Hemmans tell his reminiscences of Thomas Evison, parish
+clerk of Wragby, Lincolnshire, who died in 1865, aged eighty-two years.
+He speaks of him as "a dear old friend, for whom I had a profound
+regard, and to whom I was grateful for much help during my noviciate at
+my first and only curacy."
+
+Thomas Evison was a shoemaker, and in his early years a great pot-house
+orator. Settled on his well-known corner seat in the "Red Lion," he
+would be seen each evening smoking his pipe and laying down the law in
+the character of the village oracle. He must have had some determination
+and force of character, as one evening he laid down his pipe on the hob
+and said, "I'll smoke no more." He also retired from his corner seat at
+the inn, but he was true to his political opinions, and remained an
+ardent Radical to the last. This action showed some courage, as almost
+all the parish belonged to the squire, who was a strong Tory of the old
+school. Canon Hemmans was curate of Wragby with the Rev. G.B. Yard from
+1851 to 1860, succeeding the present Dean of St. Paul's. Mr. Yard was a
+High Churchman, a personal friend of Manning, the Wilberforces, R.
+Sibthorpe, and Keble, and when expounding then unaccustomed and
+forgotten truths, he found the clerk a most intelligent and attentive
+hearer. Evison used to attend the daily services, except the Wednesday
+and Friday Litany, which service was too short for him. During the
+vicar's absence Canon Hemmans, who was then a deacon, found the clerk a
+most reliable adviser and instructor in Lincolnshire customs and words
+and ways of thought. When he was baptizing a child privately, the name
+Thirza was given to the child, which he did not recognise as a Bible
+name. He consulted Evison, who said, "Oh, yes, it is so; it's the name
+of Abel's wife." On the next day Evison bought a book, Gesner's _Death
+of Abel_, a translation of some Swedish or German work, in which the
+tragedy of the early chapters of Genesis is woven into a story with
+pious reflections. This is not an uncommon book, and the clerk said
+these people believed it was as true as the Bible, because it claimed to
+be about Bible characters.
+
+Evison was a diligent reader of newspapers, which were much fewer in his
+day, and studied diligently the sermons reported in the local Press. He
+was much puzzled by the reference to "the leg end" of the story of the
+raising of Lazarus in a sermon preached by the Bishop of London,
+afterwards Archbishop Tait. A reference to Bailey's Dictionary and the
+finding of the word _legend_ made matters clear. Of course he miscalled
+words. During the Russian War he told Mr. Hemmans that we were not
+fighting for "territororial possessions," and he always read "Moabites
+and Hungarians" in his rendering of the sixth verse of the 83rd Psalm.
+
+After the resignation of Mr. Yard in 1859 a Low Churchman was
+appointed, who restored the use of the black gown. Mr. Hemmans had to
+preach in the evening of the first Sunday, and was undecided as to
+whether he ought to continue to use the surplice. He consulted Evison,
+whose brave advice was, "Stick to your colours."
+
+The clerk stuck stoutly to his Radical principles, and one day went to
+Lincoln to take part in a contested election. On the following Sunday
+the vicar spoke of "the filthy stream of politics." The old man was
+rather moved by this, and said afterwards, "Well, I am not too old to
+learn." Though staunch to his own principles, he was evidently
+considerate towards the opinions of others. He used to keep a pony and
+gig, and his foreman, one Solomon Bingham, was a local preacher. When
+there came a rough Sunday morning the kind old clerk would say: "Well,
+Solomon, where are you going to seminate your schism to-day? You may
+have my trap." Canon Hemmans retains a very affectionate regard for the
+memory of the old clerk.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Ellen M. Burrows sends me a charming description of an
+old-fashioned service, and some clerkly manners which are worth
+recording.
+
+From twenty-five to thirty years ago the small Bedfordshire village of
+Tingrith had quaint customs and ceremonies which to-day exist only in
+the memory of the few.
+
+The lady of the manor was perhaps best described by a neighbouring
+squire as a "potentate in petticoats."
+
+Being sole owner of the village, she found employment for all the men,
+enforced cleanliness on all the women, greatly encouraged the industry
+of lace-making and hat-sewing, paid for the schooling of the children,
+and looked after the morals of everybody generally.
+
+Legend has it that one ancient schoolmaster whom this good lady
+appointed was not overgood at spelling, and would allow a pupil to
+laboriously spell out a word and wait for him to explain. If the master
+could not do this he would pretend to be preoccupied, and advise the
+pupil to "say 'wheelbarrow' and go on."
+
+On a Sunday each and every cottager was expected at church. The women
+sat on one side of the centre aisle and the men on the other, the former
+attired in clean cotton gowns and the latter in their Sunday smocks.
+
+The three bells were clanged inharmoniously until a boy who was
+stationed at a point of vantage told the ringer "she's a-comin'." Then
+one bell only was rung to announce the near arrival of the lady of
+the manor.
+
+The rector would take his place at the desk, and the occupants of the
+centre aisle would rise respectfully to their feet in anticipation.
+
+A white-haired butler and a younger footman--with many brass buttons on
+their coat-tails--would fling wide the double doors and stand one on
+either side until the old lady swept in; then one door was closed and
+the other only left open for less-important worshippers to enter. As she
+passed between the men and women to the big pew joining the chancel
+screen, they all touched their forelocks or dropped curtsies before
+resuming their seats. Before this aristocratic personage began her
+devotions she would face round and with the aid of a large monocle,
+which hung round her neck on a broad black ribbon, would make a silent
+call over, and for the tardy, or non-arrivals, there was a lecture in
+store. The servants of her household had the whole of one side aisle
+allotted to their use. The farmers had the other. There were two
+"strangers' pews," two "christening pews," and the rest were for the
+children. When a hymn was given out the schoolmaster would vigorously
+apply a tuning-fork to his knee, and having thus got the key would start
+the tune, which was taken up lustily by the children round him. This was
+all the singing they had in the service. The clerk said all the amens
+except when he was asleep. The rector was never known to preach more
+than ten minutes at a time, and this was always so simple an exposition
+of the Scripture that the most illiterate could understand.
+
+But no pen can pay tribute enough to the sweet earnestness of those
+little sermons, or, having heard them, ever go away unimpressed.
+
+At the end of the service no one of the congregation moved until the
+lady of the manor sailed out of the great square pew. Then the men and
+women rose as before and bowed and bobbed as she passed down the aisle.
+The two menservants again flung wide the double doors and stood stiffly
+on either side as she passed out; then sedately walked home behind her
+at a respectful distance.
+
+On each Good Friday the male community of the villagers were given a
+holiday from their work, and a shilling was the reward for every man who
+made his appearance at the eleven o'clock service; needless to say, it
+was well attended.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another church (Newport Pagnell, Bucks) in an adjoining county--probably
+some years previous to this date--was lighted by tallow candles stuck in
+tin sconces on the walls, and twice during the service the clerk went
+round with a pair of long-handled snuffers to "smitch," as he called
+it, the wicks of these evil-smelling lights.
+
+For his own better accommodation he had a candle all to himself stuck in
+a bottle, which he lighted when about to sing a hymn, and with candle in
+one hand and book in the other, and both held at arm's length, he would
+bellow most lustily and with reason, for he was supposed to lead the
+singing. This finished he would blow out his candle with most audible
+vigour, and every one in his neighbourhood would have their
+handkerchiefs ready to drop their noses into.
+
+This same clerk also took up his stand by the chancel steps with a black
+rod in his hand, and with tremendous importance marched in front of the
+rector down the aisle to the vestry under the belfry, and waited outside
+while the clergyman changed his surplice for a black cassock, then
+escorted him again to the pulpit stairs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rev. E.H.L. Reeve, rector of Stondon Massey, Essex, contributes the
+following excellent stories of old-time services.
+
+The Rev. Thomas Wallace was rector of Listen, in Essex, from 1783, the
+date of his father's death, onward. The following story is well
+authenticated in the annals of the family, and must belong to the latter
+part of the eighteenth century or the commencement of the
+nineteenth century.
+
+It was, of course, a well-established custom in those old times for the
+church clerk to give out the number of the hymn to be sung, which he did
+with much unction and long preamble. The moments thus employed would be
+turned to account in the afternoon by the officiating clergyman, who
+would take the opportunity of retiring to the vestry to exchange his
+surplice for his academic gown wherein to preach.
+
+On one occasion Mr. Wallace left his sermon, through inadvertence, at
+home; and, finding himself in the vestry, considered, perhaps, that the
+chance of escape was too good to be lost. At any rate, he let himself
+out into the churchyard, and returned no more! He may possibly have been
+unable to find a discourse, but these are details with which we are not
+concerned. The clerk and congregation with becoming loyalty lengthened
+out the already dreary hymn by sundry additions and doxologies to give
+their pastor time to don his robes, and it was long ere they perceived
+the true cause of his delay. They were somewhat nettled, as one may
+suppose, at being thus befooled, and here lies the gist of our story.
+Next Sunday the clerk did not give out the second hymn at the usual
+time, but waited in solemn silence till Mr. Wallace had returned in his
+black gown from the vestry and ascended the pulpit stairs. Then, and not
+till then, he closed the pulpit door with a slam; and, _keeping his back
+against it_, called out significantly, and with a tone of exultation in
+his voice, "We've got him, my boys; _now_ let us sing to the praise and
+glory of God," etc.
+
+William Wren held the office of church clerk at Stondon Massey in Essex
+for thirty-six years, from 1853 to 1889. He was a rough, uneducated man,
+but with a certain amount of native talent which raised him above the
+level of the majority of his class. I can see him now in his place
+Sunday after Sunday, rigged out in a suit of my father's cast-off
+clerical garments--a kind of "set-off" to him at the lower end of the
+church. In his earlier days Wren had played a flute in the village
+instrumental choir, and to the last he might be heard whiling away
+spare moments on a Sunday in the church (for he brought his dinner early
+in the morning and bivouacked there all day!) recalling to himself the
+departed glories of ancient time. He turned the handle of the barrel
+organ in the west gallery from the time of its purchase in 1850 to that
+of its disappearance in 1873, but I do not think that he ever
+appreciated this rude substitution of mechanical art for cornet,
+dulcimer, and pipe.
+
+He led the hymns and read the Psalms, and repeated the responses with
+much fervour; perpetuating (long after it had ceased to be correct) the
+idea that he alone could be relied upon. Should the preacher
+inadvertently close his discourse with the sacred name either as part of
+a text or otherwise, a fervent "Amun" was certain to resound through the
+building, either because long custom had led him to regard the appendage
+as indispensable to it, or because like an old soldier suddenly roused
+to "attention," he awoke from a stolen slumber to jerk himself into the
+mental attitude most familiar to him. This last supposition, however, is
+a libel upon his fair character. I cannot believe that Wren ever slept
+on duty. He kept near to him a long hazel stick, wherewith to overawe
+any of the younger members of the congregation who were inclined either
+to speak or titter. On Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, when the school
+attended morning service, and, in the absence of older people, occupied
+the principal seats instead of their Sunday places in the gallery,
+Wren's rod was frequently called into active play, and I have heard the
+stick resound on the luckless head of many an offending culprit.
+
+Let me give one closing story of him on one of those weekday mornings.
+
+It was St. John the Evangelist's Day, and a few of us met at church for
+matins. It was thought well to introduce a hymn for the festival (our
+hymn book in those days was Mercer's Church Psalter and Hymn Book) and
+Wren was to take charge, as usual, of the barrel-organ. My father gave
+out hymn 292 at the appointed place, but only silence followed. Again
+"292," and then came a voice from the west gallery, "The 283rd!" My
+father did not take the hint, and again, rather unfortunately, hazarded
+"Hymn 292." This was too much for our organist, who called in still
+louder tones, "'Tis the 283rd I tell you!" Fortunately, we were a small
+company, but matters would have been the same, I dare say, on a Sunday.
+
+In the vestry subsequently Wren explained to my father, "You know there
+are _two Johns_; the 292nd hymn belongs to John the _Baptist's_ Day;
+_this_ is John the _Evangelist's_."
+
+The confusion once over my father was much amused with the incident, and
+frequently entertained friends with it afterwards, when I am bound to
+say it did not lose its richness of detail. "Don't I keep a-telling on
+you?" was the fully developed question, as I last remember hearing the
+story told. The above, however, I can vouch for as strictly correct,
+being one of the select party privileged to witness the occurrence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Frederick W. Hackwood, the historian of Wednesbury, has kindly sent
+the following description of the famous clerks of that place:
+
+The office of parish clerk in Wednesbury has been held by at least two
+remarkable characters. "Old George Court," as he was called--and by some
+who are still alive--held the post in succession to his grandfather for
+a great number of years. His grandfather was George Watkins, in his time
+one of the principal tradesmen in the town. His hospitable house was the
+place of entertainment for a long succession of curates-in-charge and
+other officiating ministers for all the long years that the vicar (Rev.
+A. Bunn Haden) was a non-resident pluralist. But the position created by
+this state of things was remarkable. Watkins and the small coterie who
+acted with him became the absolute and dominant authority in all
+parochial matters. One curate complained of him and his nominee wardens
+(in 1806) that "these men had been so long in office, and had become so
+cruel and oppressive," that some of the parishioners resolved at last to
+dismiss them. The little oligarchy, however, was too strong to be ousted
+at any vestry that ever was called. As to the elected officials, the
+same curate records in a pamphlet which he published in his indignation,
+that "on Christmas Day, during divine service, the churchwardens entered
+the workhouse with constables and bailiffs, and a multitude of men
+equally pious with themselves, and turned the governor and his wife into
+the snow-covered streets." Another measure of iniquity laid to their
+charge was their "cruelty to Mr. Foster," the master of the charity
+school held in the old Market Cross, "a man of amiable disposition, and
+a teacher of considerable merit." These aggressive wardens grazed the
+churchyard for profit, looked coldly upon a proposal to put up Tables of
+Benefactions in the church, and altogether acted in a manner so
+high-handed as to call forth this historic protest. Although the fabric
+of the church was in so ruinous a condition that the rain streamed
+through the roof upon the head of our clerical pamphleteer as he was
+preaching, all these complaints were to no purpose. When the absentee
+vicar was appealed to he declared his helplessness, and one sentence in
+his reply is significant; it was thus: "It is as much as my life is
+worth to come among them!" Allowance must be made for party rancour. It
+is probable that Watkins was but the official figure-head of this
+dominant party, and he is said to have been a man of real piety; and
+after holding the office of parish clerk for sixty years, he at last
+died in the vestry of the church he loved so much.
+
+As a certified clerk George Court held the office as long as his
+grandfather before him. He was a man of the bluff and hearty sort,
+thoroughly typical of old Wednesbury, of Dutch build, yet commanding
+presence, in language more forcible than polite, and not restrained in
+the use of his strong language even by the presence of an austere and
+iron-willed vicar. The tales told of him are numerous enough, but are
+scarcely of the kind that look well in cold print. Although fond of the
+good things of this world himself, he could occasionally be very severe
+on the high feeding and deep drinking proclivities of "You--singers and
+ringers"! He was never known to fail in scolding any funeral procession
+that had kept him waiting at the church gates too long, and that in
+language as loud as it was vigorous. He, like his predecessor, was the
+autocrat of the parish.
+
+The last of the long line of parish clerks who occupied the bottom desk
+of the fine old Jacobean three-decker was Thomas Parkes. He died in
+1884. The peculiar resonant nasal twang with which he sang out the
+"Amens" gave rise to a sharp newspaper correspondence in the _Wednesbury
+Observer_ of 1857. Another controversy provoked by him was at the
+opening of the cemetery in 1868, when as vestry clerk he claimed a fee
+of 9 d. on every interment. The resistance of the Nonconformists led to
+an amicable compromise.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Wise, of Weekley, the author of several works on Kettering and the
+neighbourhood, tells me of an extraordinary incident which happened in a
+Sussex parish church when he was a boy about seventy years ago. The
+clerk was a decayed farmer who had a fine voice, but who was noted for
+his intemperate habits. He went up as usual to the singers' gallery just
+before the sermon and gave out the metrical Psalm. The Psalm was sung,
+the sermon commenced, when suddenly from the gallery rose the words of a
+popular song, given by a splendid tenor voice:
+
+     "Oh, give my back my Arab steed,
+     My Prince defends his right,
+     And I will  ..."
+
+"Some one, please, remove that drunken man from the gallery," the
+clergyman quietly said. It was afterwards found that some mischievous
+persons had promised the clerk a gallon of ale if he would sing a song
+during the sermon.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Elton, of Bath, tells me of the clerk of Bierton, near Aylesbury,
+of which her father had sole charge for a time at the end of the
+forties. His predecessor had been a Mr. Stephens. The place had been
+neglected, and church matters were at a low ebb. Mr. Elton instituted a
+service on Saints' Days, which was quite an innovation at that time, and
+the first of these was held on St. Stephen's Day. The old clerk came
+into the vestry after the service and said, "I be sorry, sir, to hear
+the unkid (= awful) tale of poor Mussar (Mister) Stephens. He be come
+to a sad end surely." He had evidently confounded the first martyr, St.
+Stephen, with the late curate of the parish, having apparently never
+heard of the former.
+
+A new vicar had been appointed to a parish about eight miles from
+Oxford, who had been for many years a Fellow of his college, and in
+consequence knew little of village folk or parochial matters. Dr. A. was
+much disturbed to find that so few of the villagers attended church, and
+consulted the clerk on the subject, who suggested that it might
+encourage the people to attend if Dr. A. was to offer to give sixpence a
+Sunday to all who came to church. The plan was tried and found to
+succeed; the congregations improved rapidly, and the church was well
+filled, to Dr. A.'s satisfaction. But after a while the numbers fell
+off, and to Dr. A.'s chagrin people left off attending church. He again
+called the clerk into his counsels, and asked what could be the reason
+of the falling off of the congregation, as he had always given sixpence
+every Sunday, as he promised, to all who came to the service. "Well,
+sir," said the clerk, "it is like this: they tells me as how they finds
+they _can't do it for the money_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following reminiscences are supplied by the Rev. W. Frederick Green,
+and are worthy of record:
+
+I well remember the parish clerk of Woburn, in Bedfordshire, more than
+sixty years ago. His name was Joe Brewer--a bald-headed, short, stumpy
+man, who wore black knee-breeches, grey stockings, and shoes. He was
+also the town crier. He always gave out the hymns from the front of the
+west gallery. "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God, hymn--" Once
+I heard him call out instead, "O yes! O yes! O yes! This is to give
+notice," and then, recollecting he was in church, with a loud "O
+crikey!" he began "Let us sing," etc.
+
+Collections in church were made by him in a china soup plate from each
+pew. Ours was a large square family pew. One Sunday my brother put into
+the plate a new coin (I think a florin), which Brewer had never seen
+before, and which he thought was a token or medal, and thinking my
+brother was playing a trick upon him, said in a loud voice, "Now, Master
+Charles, none of them larks here."
+
+I have also seen him at afternoon service (there was no evening service
+in those days), when it unexpectedly came on too dark for the clergyman
+to see his MS. in the pulpit, go to the altar--an ordinary table with
+drawers--throw up the cloth, open a drawer, take out two candles and a
+box of matches, go up the pulpit stairs, fix them in the candlesticks,
+and light them.
+
+During the winter months part of his duty was to tend the fire during
+service in the Duke of Bedford's large curtained, carpeted pew in
+the chancel.
+
+When I was a boy I was staying in Northamptonshire, and went one Sunday
+morning into a village church for service (I think it was Fotheringhay).
+There was a three-decker, and the clerk from his desk led the singing of
+the congregation, which he faced. There was no musical instrument of any
+kind. The hymn, which of course was from Tate and Brady, was the
+metrical version of Psalm xlii. The clerk gave out the Psalm, then read
+the first line to the congregation, then sang it solo, and then the
+congregation sang it altogether; and so on line after line for the whole
+eleven verses.
+
+More attention must have been paid in those days to the requirement of
+the ninety-first Canon, that the clerk should be known, if may be, "for
+his competent skill in singing."
+
+In 1873 I was curate-in-charge of an out-of-the-way Norfolk village. On
+my first Sunday I had an early celebration at 8 a.m. I arrived in church
+about 7.45, and to my amazement saw five old men sitting round the stove
+in the nave with their hats on, smoking their pipes. I expostulated with
+them quite gently, but they left the church before service and never
+came again. I discovered afterwards that they had been regular
+communicants, and that my predecessor always distributed the offertory
+to the poor present immediately after the service. When these men in the
+course of my remonstrance found that I was not going to continue the
+custom, they no longer cared to be communicants.
+
+In 1870, in Norfolk, I went round with the rural dean visiting the
+churches. At one church the only person to receive the rural dean was
+the parish clerk, who was ready with the funeral pall to put over the
+rural dean's horse whilst waiting outside the church.
+
+It was this same church which, in preparation for the rural dean's
+visit, had been recently and completely whitewashed throughout. Not only
+the walls and pillars, but also the pews, the school forms, the pulpit,
+and also the altar itself, a very small four-legged deal table without
+any covering. I suppose this was done by the churchwardens to conceal
+the dilapidated condition of everything; but they had omitted to remove
+the grass which was growing in the crevices of the floor paving.
+
+Mr. Moxon (deceased), formerly rector of Hethersett, in Norfolk, told me
+that he had once preached for a friend in a Norfolk village church with
+the woman clerk holding an umbrella over his head in the pulpit
+throughout the sermon, because of the "dreep."
+
+Miss E. Lloyd, of Woodburn, Crowborough, writes:
+
+About the year 1833 a gentleman bought an estate in North Yorkshire,
+seven miles from any town, and built a house there. The parish was
+small, having a population of about a hundred souls, the church old and
+tumbledown, reeking with damp; the rain came through the roof; the seats
+were worm-eaten, and centipedes, with other like vermin, roamed about
+them near the wall. The vicar was non-resident, and an elderly
+curate-in-charge ministered to this parish and another in the
+neighbourhood. The customs of the church were much the same as those
+described by Canon Atkinson in his _Forty Years in a Moorland Parish_ as
+existing on his arrival at Danby. There was no vestry. The surplice
+(washed twice a year) was hung over the altar rails, within which the
+curate robed, his hat or any parcel he happened to have in his hand
+being put down for the time on the Holy Table. The men sat for the most
+part together, the farmers and young men in the singing-loft, the
+labourers below, and the women in front. The wife of the chief yeoman
+farmer--an excellent and superior woman--still kept up the habit of
+"making a reverence" to the altar before she entered her pew. The
+surplice, which hung in the church all through the week, was apt to get
+very damp. On one occasion, when a strange clergyman staying at the Hall
+took the service, he declined to wear it, as it was so wet.
+
+"He wadn't pit it on," said the old clerk Christopher (commonly called
+"Kitty") Hill. "I reckon he was afeard o' t' smittle" (infection).
+
+The same clergyman, when he went up to the altar for the Communion
+Service, knelt down, as his habit was, at the north end for private
+prayer whilst the congregation were singing a metrical Psalm (Old or New
+Version). On looking up he saw that Kitty Hill had followed him within
+the rails and was kneeling at the opposite end of the Holy Table staring
+at him with round eyes full of amazement at this unusual act of
+devotion. Both the curate and the clerk spoke the broadest Yorkshire.
+Psalm xxxii. 4 was thus rendered by Kitty: "Ma-maasture is like t' doong
+i' summer." He was an old man and quite bald, and used to sit in his
+desk with a blue-spotted pocket-handkerchief spread over his head,
+occasionally drawing down a corner of it for use, and then pulling it
+straight again. If the squire happened to come late to church--a thing
+which did not often happen--the curate would pause in his reading and
+apologise: "Good morning, Mr. ----. I am sorry, sir, that I began the
+service. I thought you were not coming this morning." One sentence of
+the sermon preached on the death of King William IV long remained in the
+memory of some of his young hearers: "Behold the King in all his pomp
+and glory, soodenly toombled from his high elevation, and mingled wi'
+the doost!"
+
+In 1845 a new church was built on the old site, a new curate came, Kitty
+Hill died, and was succeeded in his office by his widow, who did all
+that she could do of the clerk's work, and showed remarkable taste in
+decorating the church at Christmas. No clerk was needed for the
+responses, as the congregation joined heartily in the service, and there
+was a much better attendance than there is now. She died in the
+early fifties.
+
+Amongst other varied readings of the Psalms that of an old parish clerk
+at Hartlepool may be given. He had been a sailor, and used to render
+Psalm civ. 26 as "There go the ships, and there is that lieutenant whom
+Thou hast made to take his pastime therein."
+
+The late Dr. Gatty, in his record of _A Life at One Living_, mentions
+that at Ecclesfield, as in many other places, the office of parish clerk
+was hereditary. The last holder of the office, who used to sit in his
+desk clad in a black bombazine gown, was a publican by trade, a decent,
+honest man, who during the fifty-one years he was clerk was only twice
+absent from service. He died in 1868, and the offices of clerk and
+sexton were then united and held by one person.
+
+The register books of Weybridge, Surrey, were kept for a great part of
+the eighteenth century by the parish clerks, the son succeeding his
+father in office for three or four generations.
+
+Now probably the clerks are no more clerks but vergers; and as a
+Yorkshireman remarked, "_Verging_ is a very honourable profession."
+
+The portrait of John Gray, sometime clerk in Eton College Chapel, taken
+in his gown as he stood in his desk, has been engraved, and is well
+known to old Etonians.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Few people possess the gift of humour in the same degree as the late
+Bishop Walsham How, and his stories of the race of parish clerks and
+vergers must not be omitted, and are here published by permission of his
+son, Mr. F.D. How, editor of _Lighter Moments_.
+
+When I was a deacon, and naturally shy, I was visiting my aunts at
+Workington, where my grandfather had been rector, and was asked to
+preach on Sunday evening in St. John's, a wretched modern church--a
+plain oblong with galleries, and a pulpit like a very tall wineglass,
+with a very narrow little straight staircase leading up to it, in the
+middle of the east part of the church. When the hymn before the sermon
+was given out I went as usual to the vestry to put on the black gown.
+Not knowing that the clergyman generally stayed there till the end of
+the hymn, I emerged as soon as I had vested myself and walked to the
+pulpit and ascended the stairs. When nearly at the summit, to my horror
+I discovered a very fat beadle in the pulpit lighting the candles. We
+could not possibly pass on the stairs, and the eyes of the whole
+congregation were upon me. It would be ignominious to retreat. So after
+a few minutes' reflection I saw my way out of the difficulty, which I
+overcame by a very simple mechanical contrivance. I entered the pulpit,
+which exactly fitted the beadle and myself, and then face to face we
+executed a rotary movement to the extent of a semicircle, when the
+beadle finding himself next the door of the pulpit was enabled to
+descend, and I remained master of the situation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Uffington, near Shrewsbury, during the incumbency of the Rev. J.
+Hopkins, the choir and organist, having been dissatisfied with some
+arrangement, determined not to take part in the service. So when the
+clerk, according to the usual custom of those days, gave out the hymn,
+there was a dead silence. This lasted a little while, and then the
+clerk, unable to bear it, rose up and appealed to the congregation,
+saying most imploringly, "Them as _can_ sing _do_ ye sing: it's misery
+to be a this'n" (Shropshire for "in this way").
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Wolstanton, in the Potteries, there was a somewhat fussy verger
+called Oakes. On one occasion, just at the time of the year when it was
+doubtful whether lights would be wanted or no, and when they had not yet
+been lighted for evening service, a stranger, who was a very smart young
+clergyman, was reading the lessons and had some difficulty in seeing. He
+had on a pair of delicate lavender kid gloves. The verger, perceiving
+his difficulty, went to the vestry, got two candles, lighted them, and
+walked to the lectern, before which he stood solemnly holding the
+candles (without candlesticks) in his hands. This was sufficiently
+trying to the congregation, but suddenly some one rattled the latch of
+the west door, when Oakes, feeling that it was absolutely necessary to
+go and see what was the matter, thrust the two candles into the poor
+young clergyman's delicately gloved hands, and left him!
+
+At the church of Stratfieldsaye, where the Duke of Wellington was a
+regular attendant, a stranger was preaching, and the verger when he
+ended came up the stairs, opened the pulpit door a little way, slammed
+it to, and then opened it wide for the preacher to go out. He asked in
+the vestry why he had shut the door again while opening it, and the
+verger said, "We always do that, sir, to wake the duke."
+
+A former young curate of Stoke being very anxious to do things
+rubrically, insisted on the ring being put on the "fourth finger" at a
+wedding he took. The woman resisted and said, "I would sooner die than
+be married on my little finger." The curate said, "But the rubric says
+so," whereupon the _deus ex machina_ appeared in the shape of the parish
+clerk, who stepped forward and said, "In these cases, sir, the thoomb
+counts as a digit."
+
+A gentleman going to see a ritualistic church in London was walking
+into the chancel when an official stepped forward and said, "You mustn't
+go in there." "Why not?" said the gentleman. "I'm put here to stop you,"
+said the man. "Oh! I see," said the gentleman; "you're what they call
+the _rude_ screen, aren't you?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A clergyman in the diocese of Wakefield told me that when first he came
+to the parish he found things in a very neglected state, and among other
+changes he introduced an early celebration of the Holy Communion. An old
+clerk collected the offertory, and when he brought it up to the
+clergyman he said, "There's eight on 'em, but two 'asn't paid."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A verger was showing a lady over a church when she asked him if the
+vicar was a married man. "No, ma'am," he answered, "he's a chalybeate."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A verger showing a large church to a stranger, pointed out another man
+and said, "That is the other verger." The gentleman said, "I did not
+know there were two of you," and the verger replied, "Oh, yes, sir, he
+werges up one side of the church and I werges up the other."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On my first visit to Almondbury to preach, the verger came to me in the
+vestry and said, "A've put a platform in t' pulpit for ye; you'll excuse
+me, but a little man looks as if he was in a toob." (N.B. To prevent
+undue inferences I am five feet nine inches in height.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the speakers at the meeting of the Catholic Truth Society at
+Bristol (Sept., 1895) told a story of a pious Catholic visiting
+Westminster Abbey, and kneeling in a quiet corner for private devotion,
+when he was summoned in stentorian tones to come and view the royal
+tombs and chapels. "But I have seen them," said the stranger, "and I
+only wish to say my prayers." "Prayers is over," said the verger.
+"Still, I suppose," said the stranger, "there can be no objection to my
+saying my prayers quietly here?" "No objection, sir!" said the irate
+verger. "Why, it would be an insult to the Dean and Chapter."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Rev. M.E. Jenkins writes his remembrances of several old clerks.
+
+There was dear old Robert Livesay, of Blackburn parish church, whom
+every one knew, his large rubicund face beaming with good nature and
+humour--a very kindly old soul. In 1870 I was appointed to an old-world
+Dale's parish, which had one of the real old Yorkshire clerks, Frank
+Hutchinson. He was lame and blind in one eye, and well do I recall his
+sonorous and tremulous response, his love for the Psalms (Tate and
+Brady's); he "reckoned nought o' _Hymns Ancient and Modern_." I used
+generally to find him with a long pipe in the vestry on my return from
+afternoon service. He was a great authority on the ancient history of
+the parish, and was formerly schoolmaster. He had brought up most
+respectably a large family of sons and daughters on the smallest means,
+many of whom still survive. I had a great respect for the old man, and
+so he had for me. He was very great at leading that peculiarly
+dirge-like wail at the huge Yorkshire funerals. I never could quite make
+out any words, but as a singularly effective and musical cadence in a
+minor key, it was no doubt a survival, as I once heard Canon Atkinson
+say, the famous vicar of Danby, my immediate neighbour on the moors. At
+last I attended Frank Hutchinson daily in his prolonged decay, and
+received his solemn blessing and commendation on my work; and he
+received at my hand a few hours before his death his last communion,
+surrounded by all his children and grandchildren, in his small bedroom,
+by the light of a single candle. I can still see his thin face uplifted.
+It is thirty-five years ago, and I can still hear the striking of his
+lucifer match in the midst of the afternoon service, and see him holding
+up close to his own eye the candle and the book, and can hear his
+tremulous "Amen," quite independent of the choral one sung by a small
+choir in the chancel. He was great in epitaphs. A favourite one, which
+he would recite _ore rotunda_, was:
+
+     "Let this record, what few vain marbles can,
+     Here lies an honest man."
+
+Another, which, by the way, is in Egton churchyard, ran as follows:
+
+     "Life is but a winter's day;
+     Some breakfast and away,
+     Others to dinner stop and are full fed,
+     The oldest man but sups and goes to bed."
+
+He was a genuine old Dalesman of a type passed away. His spirits really
+never survived the abolition of the stringed instruments in the western
+gallery with its galaxy of village musicians. "I hugged bass fiddle for
+many a year," he once told me. Peace be to his memory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Canon Atkinson tells of his good and harmless but "feckless" parish
+clerk and schoolmaster at Danby, whom, when about to take a funeral, he
+discovered sitting in the sunny embrasure of the west window, with his
+hat on, of course, and comfortably smoking his pipe. The clerk was a
+brother of the old vicar of Danby, and they seem to have been a curious
+and irreverent pair. The historian of Danby, in his _Forty Years in a
+Moorland Parish_, fully describes his first visit to the clerk's school,
+and the strange custom of weird singing at funerals to which Mr.
+Jenkins alludes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another north-country clerk-schoolmaster was obliged to relinquish his
+scholastic duties and make way for a certified teacher. One day he heard
+the new master tell his pupils: "'A' is an indefinite article. 'A' is
+one, and can only be applied to one thing. You cannot say a cats or a
+dogs; but only a cat, a dog." The clerk at once reported the matter to
+his rector. "Here's a pretty fellow you've got to keep school! He says
+that you can only apply the article 'a' to nouns of the singular number;
+and here have I been singing 'A--men' all my life, and your reverence
+has never once corrected me."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Communicated by Mrs. Williamson, Lydgate Vicarage:
+
+The old parish clerk of Radcliffe was secretary of the races committee,
+and would hurry out of church to attend these meetings. Mr. Foxley, the
+rector, was told of this weakness of his clerk, so one Wednesday
+evening, when the rector knew there was a meeting, he got into the
+pulpit (a three-decker was then in the church), and began his sermon.
+Half an hour went by, then the clerk began to be restless. Another
+half-hour passed; the clerk looked up from his seat under the pulpit,
+but still the rector went on preaching. It was too late then for the
+race-course meeting. So when the sermon was at length finished, the
+clerk got up and gave out "the 'undred and nineteenth Psalm from yend
+to yend. He's preached all day, and we'll sing all neet" (night).
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Westhoughton Church, Lancashire, there was a clerk of the old school,
+one Platt, who just before the sermon would stretch his long arm and
+offer his snuff-box to his old friend Betty, and to other cronies who
+happened to be in his immediate neighbourhood.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The clerk at Stratfieldsaye, who was a character, once astonished a
+strange clergyman who was taking the duty. The choir sat in the gallery,
+and the numbers were few on that Sunday. "Mon I 'elp them chaps? they be
+terrible few," said the clerk. The clergyman quite agreed that he should
+render them his valuable assistance, and sit in the gallery. Presently a
+man came in late, and was kneeling down to say his private prayer, when
+the clergyman was horrified to see the clerk deliberately rise in the
+gallery and throw a book at the man's head. When remonstrated with after
+service the clerk replied carelessly, "Oh, it were only my way o'
+telling him to sing up, as we were terrible short this marning."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+CURIOUS STORIES
+
+The old clerk of Clapham, Bedford, Mr. Thomas Maddams, always used to
+read his own version of Psalm xxxix. 12: "Like as it were a moth
+fretting in a garment." Apparently his idea was of a moth annoyed at
+being in a garment from which it could not escape.
+
+A parish clerk (who prided himself upon being well read) occupied his
+seat below the old "three-decker" pulpit, and whenever a quotation or an
+extract from the classics was introduced into the sermon he, in an
+undertone, muttered its source, much to the annoyance of the preacher
+and amusement of the congregation. Despite all protests in private, the
+thing continued, until one day, the vicar's patience being exhausted, he
+leant over the pulpit side and immediately exclaimed, "Drat you; shut
+up!" Immediately, in the clerk's usual sententious tone, came the reply,
+"His own." (William Haggard, _Liverpool Daily Post_.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+N.B. I have heard this story before, and in a different key:
+
+The preacher was a young, bumptious fellow, fond of quoting the
+classics, etc. One day a learned classic scholar attended his service,
+and was heard to say, after each quotation, "That's Horace," "That's
+Plato," and such-like, until the preacher was at his "wits' ends" how
+to quiet the man. At last, leaning over the pulpit, he looked the man in
+the face, and is reported to have said, "Who the devil are you?" "That's
+his own!" was the prompt response.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In one of the village churches near Honiton, in 1864, the usual duet
+between the parson and clerk had been the custom, when the vicar
+appealed to the congregation to take their part. In a little while they
+took courage, and did so. This annoyed the clerk, and he could not make
+the responses, and made so many mistakes that the vicar drew his
+attention to the matter. He replied, with much irritation, "How can _I_
+do the service with a lot of men and women a-buzzing and a-fizzing
+about me?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A somewhat similar story is told of another church:
+
+An old gentleman, now in his eightieth year, remembers attending Romford
+Church when a youth, and says that at that time (1840) the parish clerk
+was a person who greatly magnified his office. On one occasion he
+checked the young man for audibly responding, on the ground that he, the
+clerk, was the person to respond audibly, and that other people were to
+respond inaudibly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Communicated by Miss Emily J. Heaton, of Sitting-bourne:
+
+My father lived and worked as the clergyman of a parish until he was
+eighty-nine years of age. He remembered a clerk in a Yorkshire parish in
+the time of one of the Georges. The clergyman said the versicle, "O
+Lord, save the King," and the clerk made no reply. The prayer was
+repeated, but still no answer. He then touched the clerk, who sat in
+the desk below, and who replied:
+
+"A we'ant! He won't tak tax off 'bacca!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Communicated by Mr. Frederick Sherlock:
+
+I remember as a lad attending a church which owned a magnificent
+specimen of the parish clerk. He used to wear a dress-coat, and it was
+his practice to follow the clergy from the vestry, and while the vicar
+and curate were saying their private prayers in the reading-desk in
+which they both sat together, the venerable clerk with measured tread
+passed down the centre of the church affably smiling and bowing right
+and left to such of the parishioners as were in his favour. In due
+course he arrived in the singers' gallery, where he had the place of
+honour under the organ: the good old man was leading soloist, which we
+well knew when Jackson's _Te Deum_ was sung on the greater festivals,
+for there was always a solemn pause before the venerable worthy quavered
+forth his solo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was a pew-rented church, and once a quarter strangers were startled,
+when the vicar from his place in the reading-desk had announced the
+various engagements of the week, to hear the clerk's majestic voice from
+his place in the gallery add, "And _I_ beg to announce" (with a marked
+emphasis on the _I_) "that the churchwardens will attend in the vestry
+on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next, at eight o'clock, for the
+purpose of receiving pew rents and letting seats for the
+ensuing quarter."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As touching parish clerks, it is of interest to recall that William
+Maybrick was clerk of St. Peter's, Liverpool, from 1813-48. He had two
+sons, William, who became clerk, and Michael, who was organist at St.
+Peter's for many years. William Maybrick, junior, had also two sons,
+James, whose name was so much before the public owing to the
+circumstances surrounding his death, and Michael, better known as
+"Stephen Adams," the famous composer and singer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following is a curious letter from a parish clerk to his vicar after
+giving notice to quit the latter's service. He was clerk of the parish
+of Maldon, Essex.
+
+DEAR AND REV. SIR,
+
+I avail myself of the opportunity of troubling your honour with these
+lines, which I hope you will excuse, which is the very sentiments of
+your humble servant's heart. Ignorantly, rashly, but reluctantly, I gave
+you warning to leave your highly respected office and most amiable duty,
+as being your servant, and clerk of this your most well wished parish,
+and place of my succour and support.
+
+But, dear Sir, I well know it was no fault of yours nor from any of my
+most worthy parishioners. It were because I thought I were not
+sufficiently paid for the interments of the silent dead. But will I be a
+Judas and leave the house of my God, the place where His Honour dwelleth
+for a few pieces of money? No. Will I be a Peter and deny myself of an
+office in His Sanctuary and cause me to weep bitterly? No. Can I be so
+unreasonable as to deny, if I like and am well, to ring that solemn bell
+that speaks the departure of a soul? No. Can I leave digging the tombs
+of my neighbours and acquaintances which have many a time made me
+shudder and think of my mortality, when I have dug up the mortal remains
+of some perhaps as I well knew? No. And can I so abruptly forsake the
+service of my beloved Church of which I have not failed to attend every
+Sunday for these seven and a half years? No. Can I leave waiting upon
+you a minister of that Being that sitteth between the Cherubim and
+flieth upon the wings of the wind? No. Can I leave the place where our
+most holy services nobly calls forth and says, "Those whom God have
+joined together" (and being as I am a married man) "let no man put
+asunder"? No. And can I leave that ordinance where you say then and
+there "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
+the Holy Ghost," and he becomes regenerate and is grafted into the body
+of Christ's Church? No. And can I think of leaving off cleaning at
+Easter the House of God in which I take such delight, in looking down
+her aisles and beholding her sanctuaries and the table of the Lord? No.
+And can I forsake taking part in the service of Thanksgiving of women
+after childbirth when mine own wife has been delivered ten times? No.
+And can I leave off waiting on the congregation of the Lord which you
+well know, Sir, is my delight? No. And can I forsake the Table of the
+Lord at which I have feasted I suppose some thirty times? No. And, dear
+Sir, can I ever forsake you who have been so kind to me? No. And I well
+know you will not entreat me to leave, neither to return from following
+after you, for where you pray there will I pray, where you worship there
+will I worship. Your Church shall be my Church, your people shall be my
+people and your God my God. By the waters of Babylon am I to sit down
+and weep and leave thee, O my Church! and hang my harp upon the trees
+that grow therein? No. One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will
+require even that I may dwell in the House of the Lord and to visit His
+temple. More to be desired of me, O my Church, than gold, yea than fine
+gold, sweeter to me than honey and the honeycomb.
+
+Now, kind Sir, the very desire of my heart is still to wait upon you.
+Please tell the Churchwardens all is reconciled, and if not, I will get
+me away into the wilderness, and hide me in the desert, in the cleft of
+the rock. But I hope still to be your Gehazi and when I meet my
+Shunamite to say "All, all is well." And I will conclude my blunders
+with my oft-repeated prayer, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and
+to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall
+be, world without end. Amen."
+
+P.S. Now, Sir, I shall go on with my fees the same as I found them, and
+will make no more trouble about them, but I will not, I cannot leave
+you, nor your delightful duties.
+
+Your most obedient servant,
+
+GEORGE G---- G.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Rev. E. G----, Vicar of Maldon._
+
+Communicated by the Rev. D. C. Moore:
+
+In the parish of Belton, Suffolk, there died in 1837 a man named Noah
+Pole. He had been clerk for sixty years. He wore a smock-frock; gave out
+all notices--strayed horse, a found sheep, etc. He was known by the
+nickname of "_Never, never_ shall be," for in this way he had for sixty
+years perverted the last part of the "Gloria," "now and ever shall be."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the parish of Lowestoft, Suffolk, in the forties the parish clerk's
+name was Newson (would-be wits called him "Nuisance"). He was arrayed in
+a velvet-trimmed robe and bore himself bravely. The way in which he
+mouthed "Let us sing to the glory of God" was wonderful. But the chief
+amusement he afforded was the habit of hiding his face in his hands
+during each prayer, then towards the ending his head would rise till it
+rested on his thumbs, and then came out sonorously, "Awl-men."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At St. Mary's, Southtown (near Great Yarmouth), in the late thirties,
+etc., a man named Nolloth was clerk. He was celebrated for the
+uncertainty of his "H's." For example: "Let us sing to the praise and
+glory of God the Heighty-heighth ymn."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Gorleston (the mother church of St. Mary's, named above) a tailor
+named Bristow was clerk. He was a very small man, and he had a son he
+wished to succeed him. The clerk's desk was pretty wide and they sat
+together. I can see them (sixty years after), one leaning on his right
+arm, the other on his left; and when the time came, the duet was
+_Ah_-men from the elder and A-men from the younger, one in "tenor" the
+other "treble." We schoolboys used to say "Big pig, little pig."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nicholson, the clerk of St. Bees, if any student was called away in
+term, invariably gave out Psalm cvii., fourth part, "They that in ships
+with courage bold." In those days there were no trains and no hymns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Barkham there is an old clerk who succeeded his father half a century
+ago.
+
+During the rebuilding of the church his sire, whose name was Elijah,
+once visited a neighbouring parish church, and arrived rather late, just
+when the rector was giving out the text: "What doest thou here,
+Elijah?" Elijah gave a respectful salute, and replied: "Please, sur,
+Barkham Church is undergoing repair, so I be cumed 'ere!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Canon Rawnsley tells a pathetic little story of an old clerk who begged
+him not to read the service so fast: "For you moost gie me toime, Mr.
+Rawnsley, you moost i'deed. You moost gie me toime, for I've a
+graaceless wife an' two godless soons to praay for."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hawker tells a story of the parish clerk at Morwenstow whose wife used
+to wash the parson's surplices. He came home one night from a prolonged
+visit at the village inn, the "Bush," and finding his wife's scolding
+not to his mind and depressing, he said, "Look yere, my dear, if you
+doan't stop, I'll go straight back again." She did not stop, so he left
+the house; but the wife donned one of the surplices and, making a short
+cut, stood in front of her approaching husband. He was terrified; but at
+last he remembered his official position, and the thought gave
+him courage.
+
+"Avide, Satan!" he said in a thick, slow voice.
+
+The figure made no answer.
+
+"Avide, Satan!" he shouted again. "Doan't 'e knaw I be clerk of the
+parish, bass-viol player, and taicher of the singers?"
+
+When the apparition failed to be impressed the clerk turned tail and
+fled. The ghost returned by a short cut, and the clerk found his wife
+calmly ironing the parson's surplice. He did not return to the "Bush"
+that night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The old parish clerk of Dagenham had a habit when stating the names to
+be entered into the register of saying, _Plain_ Robert or John, etc.,
+meaning that Robert, etc., was the only Christian name. On one occasion
+a strange clergyman baptized a child there, and being unable to hear the
+name as given by the parents, looked inquiringly at the clerk. "Plain
+Jane, sir," he called out in a stentorian voice. "What a pity to label
+the child thus," the clergyman rejoined; "she might grow up to be a
+beautiful girl." "Jane _only_, I mean," explained the clerk.
+
+All clergymen know the difficulty of changing the names of the sovereign
+and the Royal Family at the commencement of the reign of a new monarch.
+
+In a certain parish in the south of England (the name of which I do not
+know, or have forgotten), at the time of the accession of Her late
+Majesty Queen Victoria, the rector charged his clerk to make the
+necessary alterations in the Book of Common Prayer required by the sex
+of the new sovereign. The clerk made all the needed alterations with the
+greatest care as regards both titles and pronouns; but not only this, he
+carried on the changes throughout the Psalter. Consequently, on the
+morning of the fourth day of the month, for instance, the rector found
+Psalm xxi. rendered thus: "The Queen shall rejoice in Thy strength, O
+Lord: exceeding glad shall She be of Thy salvation," and so on
+throughout the course of the Psalms and the whole of the Psalter. Also
+in the prayer for the Church Militant, when prayer is made for all
+Christian kings, princes, etc., the distracted vicar found the words
+changed into "Queen, Princesses, etc." After all, the clerk showed his
+thoroughness, but nothing short of a new Prayer Book could satisfy the
+needs of the vicar[94].
+
+[Footnote 94: From the information of Miss Marion Stirling, who heard
+the story from Prebendary Thornton.]
+
+Canon Gregory Smith tells the following story of a clerk in
+Herefordshire, who flourished half a century ago:
+
+In the west-end gallery of the old-fashioned little church were
+musicians with fifes, etc. etc. Sometimes, if they started badly in a
+hymn, the clerk would say to the congregation, "Beg pardon, gents; we'll
+try again."
+
+As I left home one day, the clerk ran after me. "But, sir, who'll take
+the duty on St. Swithin's Day?"
+
+Once or twice, being somnolent, on a hot afternoon he woke up suddenly
+with a loud "Amen" in the middle of the sermon.
+
+When I said good-bye to him, having resigned the benefice, he said, very
+gravely, "God will give us another comforter."
+
+An old country clerk in showing visitors round the churchyard used to
+stop at a certain tombstone and say:
+
+"This 'ere is the tomb of Thomas 'Ooper and 'is eleven wives."
+
+One day a lady remarked: "Eleven? Dear me, that's rather a lot, isn't
+it?"
+
+The old man looked at her gravely and replied: "Well, mum, yer see it
+wus an' 'obby of 'is'n."
+
+The Rev. W.D. Parish, in his _Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect_, tells
+of a friend of his who had been remonstrating with one of his
+parishioners for abusing the parish clerk beyond the bounds of
+neighbourly expression, and who received the following answer: "You be
+quite right, sir; you be quite right. I'd no ought to have said what I
+did; but I doeant mind telling you to your head what I've said so many
+times behind your back. We've got a good shepherd, I says, an excellent
+shepherd, but he's got an unaccountable bad dog."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some seventy or eighty years ago at Thame Church, Buckinghamshire, the
+old-fashioned clerk had a much-worn Prayer Book, and the parson and he
+made a duet of the responses, the congregation not considering it
+necessary or even proper to interfere. When the clerk happened to come
+to a verse of the Psalms with words missing he said "riven out"
+(pronounced oot), and the parson finished the verse; this was taken
+quite as a matter of course by the congregation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In a Lancashire church, when the rector was about to publish the banns
+of marriage, the book was not in its usual place. However, he began: "I
+publish the banns of marriage ... I publish ... the banns"--when the
+clerk looked up from the lowest box of the "three-decker," and said in a
+tone not _sotto voce_, "'Twixt th' cushion and th' desk, sur."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Prayer Book words are sometimes a puzzle to illiterate clerks. At the
+present time in a Berkshire church the clerk always speaks of
+"Athanasian's Creed," and of "the Anthony-Communion hymn."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His views of art are occasionally curious. An odd specimen of his race
+was showing to some strangers a stained-glass window recently erected in
+memory of a gentleman and lady who had just died. It was a two-light
+window with figures of Moses and Aaron. "There they be, sir, but they
+don't much feature the old couple," said the clerk, who regarded them as
+likenesses of the deceased.
+
+A clergyman on one occasion had some trouble with his dog. This dog
+emulated the achievements of Newton's "Fido," and tore and devoured some
+leaves of the parson's sermon. The parson was taking the duty of a
+neighbour, and feared lest his mutilated discourse would be too short
+for the edification of the congregation. So after the service he
+consulted the clerk. "Was my sermon too long to-day?" "No," replied the
+clerk. "Then was it too short?" "Nay, you was jist about right." Much
+relieved, the parson then told the clerk the story of the dog's
+misdemeanours, and of his fear lest the sermon should prove too short.
+The old clerk scratched his head and then exclaimed, with a very solemn
+face, "Ah! maister ----, our parson be a grade sight too long to plaise
+us. Would you just give him a pup?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A writer in _Notes and Queries_ tells a story of an old-fashioned
+service, and with this we will conclude our collection of curious tales.
+
+A lady friend of the writer still living, and the daughter of a
+clergyman, assured him that in a country parish, where the church
+service was conducted in a very free-and-easy, go-as-you-please sort of
+way, the clerk, looking up at the parson, asked, "What shall we do
+next, zurr?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+LONGEVITY AND HEREDITY--THE DEACON-CLERKS OF BARNSTAPLE
+
+There are numerous instances of the hereditary nature of the clerk's
+office, which has frequently been passed on from father to son through
+several generations. I have already mentioned the Osbornes of
+Belbroughton, Worcestershire, who were parish clerks and tailors in the
+village from the time of Henry VIII, and the Worralls of Wolverley in
+the same county, whose reign extended over a century.
+
+David Clarkson, the parish clerk of Feckenham, died in 1854, and his
+ancestors occupied the same office for two centuries. King's Norton had
+a famous race of clerks, of the name of Ford, who also served for the
+same period. The Fords were a long-lived family, as two of them held the
+office for 102 years. Cuthbert Bede mentions also the following
+remarkable instances of heredity:
+
+The Roses were parish clerks at Bromsgrove from "time out of mind." The
+Bonds were parish clerks at St. Michael's, Worcester, for a century.
+John Tustin had in 1856 been clerk of Broadway for fifty-two years, his
+father and grandfather having previously held the office. Charles Orford
+died at Oldswinford December 28th, 1855, aged seventy-three years,
+having been parish clerk from his youth, and having succeeded his
+father in that capacity: he was succeeded by his son Thomas Orford, who
+was again succeeded by his own son William, one of the present vergers
+in this church, aged seventy years. All these examples are taken from
+parishes in Worcestershire. An extraordinary instance of longevity and
+heredity occurs in the annals of the parish of Chapel-en-le-Frith,
+Derbyshire. Peter Bramwell, clerk of the parish, died in 1854, after
+having held the office for forty-three years. His father Peter Bramwell
+was clerk for fifty years, his grandfather George Bramwell for
+thirty-eight years, his great-great-grandfather George Bramwell for
+forty years, and his great-great-great-grandfather Peter Bramwell for
+fifty-two years. The total number of years during which the parish was
+served by this family of clerks was 223, and by only five members of it,
+giving an average of forty-four years and nine months for each--a
+wonderful record truly!
+
+Nor are these instances of the hereditary nature of the office, and of
+the fact that the duties of the position seem to contribute to the
+lengthened days of the holders of it, entirely passed away. The
+riverside town of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, furnishes an example of this.
+Mr. H.W. Badger has occupied the position of parish clerk for half a
+century, and a few months ago was presented by the townspeople with an
+illuminated address, together with a purse of fifty-five sovereigns, in
+recognition of his long term of service and of the esteem in which he is
+held. He was appointed in 1855 in succession to his father, Henry
+Badger, appointed in 1832, who succeeded his grandfather, Wildsmith
+Badger, who became parish clerk in 1789.
+
+The oldest parish clerk living is James Carne, who serves in the parish
+of St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, and has held the office for fifty-eight
+years. He is now in his hundred and first year, and still is unremitting
+in attention to duty, and regularly attends church. He followed in the
+wake of his father and grandfather, who filled the same position for
+fifty-four years and fifty years respectively.
+
+Mr. Edward J. Lupson is the much-respected parish clerk of Great
+Yarmouth, who is a great authority on the history of the important
+church in which he officiates, and is the author of several books. He
+has written an excellent guide to the church of St. Nicholas, and a
+volume entitled _Cupid's Pupils_, compiled from the personal
+"recollections of a parish clerk who assisted at ten thousand four
+hundred marriages and gave away eleven hundred and thirty brides"--a
+wonderful record, which, as the book was published seven years ago, has
+now been largely exceeded. The book is brightly written, and abounds in
+the records of amusing instances of nervous and forgetful brides and
+bride-grooms, of extraordinary blunders, of the failings of
+inexperienced clergy, and is a full and complete guide to those who
+contemplate matrimony. His guide to the church he loves so well is
+admirable. It appears there is a clerks' book at Great Yarmouth, which
+contains a number of interesting notes and memoranda. The clerks of this
+church were men of importance and position in the town. In 1760 John
+Marsh, who succeeded Sampson Winn, was a town councillor. He was
+succeeded in 1785 by Mr. Richard Pitt, the son of a former mayor, and he
+and his wife and sixteen children were interred in the north chancel
+aisle, where a mural monument records their memories. The clerks at this
+period, until 1831, were appointed by the corporation and paid by the
+borough. In 1800 Mr. Richard Miller resigned his aldermanic gown to
+accept the office. Mr. David Absolon (1811-31) was a member of the
+corporation before receiving the appointment. Mr. John Seaman reigned
+from 1831 to 1841, and was followed by Mr. James Burman, who was the
+last clerk who took part in that curious duet with the vicar, to which
+we have often referred. He was an accomplished campanologist and
+composed several peals. In 1863 Mr. Lupson was appointed, who has so
+much honoured his office and earned the respect of all who know him. The
+old fashion of the clerk wearing gown and bands is continued at
+Great Yarmouth.
+
+[Illustration: JAMES CARNE, PARISH CLERK OF ST. COLUMB-MINOR, CORNWALL.
+THE OLDEST LIVING CLERK.]
+
+Mr. Lupson tells of his strange experiences when conducting visitors
+round the church, and explaining to them the varied objects of interest.
+What our clerks have to put up with may be news to many. I will give it
+in his own words:
+
+Although a congenial and profitable engagement, it was often felt to be
+weary work, talking about the same things many times each day week after
+week: and anything but easy to exhibit the freshness and retain the
+vivacity that was desirable. Fortunately the monotony of the recital
+found considerable relief from the varied receptions it met with. Among
+the many thousand individuals, of all grades and classes, from the
+highest to the lowest, thus come in contact with, a diversified and wide
+range of characters was inevitable. The vast majority happily consisted
+of persons with whom it was pleasant to spend half an hour within the
+sacred walls, so gratified were they with what they saw and heard: some
+proving so enthusiastic, and showing such absorbing interest, that at
+every convenient halting-place they would take a seat, and comfortably
+adjust themselves as if preparing to hear an address from a favourite
+preacher. Occasionally, however, we had to endure the presence of
+persons who appeared to be suffering from disordered livers, or had
+nettles in their boots, so restless and dissatisfied were they. Scarcely
+anything pleased them. Undesirable individuals would sometimes be
+discovered in the midst of otherwise pleasant parties. Of such may be
+mentioned those who knew of much finer churches they could really
+admire. Whenever we heard the preface--"There's one thing strikes me in
+this church"--we were prepared to hear a depreciatory remark of some
+kind. Some would take pleasure in breaking the sequence of the story by
+anticipating matters not then reached, and causing divers interruptions.
+Others would annoy by preferring persistent speaking to listening. It
+was trying work going round with, and explaining to, persons from whom
+nothing but mono-syllables could be drawn, either through nervousness,
+or from realising their exalted status to be miles above the person who
+was supposing himself able to interest them. Anything but desirable
+persons were they who, after going round the church, returned with other
+friends, and then posed as men whose knowledge of the building was
+equal, if not a shade superior, to that of the guide. Some parties would
+waste the time, and try one's patience by having amongst them laggards,
+to whom explanations already given had to be repeated. But we must pass
+by others, and proceed. The mind would sometimes find diversion by
+observing the idiosyncrasies, and detecting the pretensions of
+individuals. Gradually gaining acquaintance as we proceeded, we
+occasionally discovered some were aping gentility: some assuming
+positions that knew them not, and some claiming talents they did not
+possess. We will unmask a specimen of the latter class. A man, who was
+unaccompanied by friends, wished to see the church he had heard so much
+of. He seemed about thirty years of age; was a made-up exquisite,
+looking very imposing, peering as he did through gold-rimmed spectacles.
+His talents were of such an order he could not think of hiding them. He
+had learned Hebrew, not from printed books, as ordinary scholars are
+wont to do, but from MSS., and found it so easy a matter, it "only took
+two hours," and it was simply "out of curiosity" that he undertook it.
+Before mentally placing this paragon among the classics, we showed him
+our MS. Roll (exquisitely written, as many visitors are aware, in
+unpointed Hebrew), and asked him to read a few words. This was indeed
+pricking the bubble. Tell it not in Gath, but publish we will, the
+discovery we instantly made. Our Hebrew scholar had forgotten that
+Hebrew ran from right to left! and worse still, he even shook his
+intellectual head, and gravely confessed that he "wasn't quite sure but
+that the Roll was written in Greek."
+
+Other sources of relief to the mind jaded with constant repetition arose
+from the peculiar remarks that were made, and the strange questions that
+were often asked.
+
+The organ has been a source of wonderment to multitudes who had never
+seen or heard of a divided organ. Wonderful stories had reached the ears
+of some respecting it.
+
+"Is this the organ that was wrecked?" "Is this the organ that was dug
+out of the sea?" "Is this the organ that was taken out of the Spanish
+galleon?" "Wasn't this organ smuggled out of some ship?" "Didn't it
+belong to Handel?" "Wasn't this organ made for St. Peter's at Rome?"
+With confidence says one, "This organ really belongs to the continent;
+it was confiscated in some war." Whilst another as confidently asserts
+that "it was built in Holland for one of the English cathedrals, and the
+vessel that conveyed it was caught in a storm and wrecked upon Yarmouth
+beach; it was then taken possession of by the inhabitants and erected in
+this church." Others, wishing to show their intimate knowledge of this
+instrument, have told their friends that the trumpet, which is a solid
+piece of wood, held by the angel at the summit of the northern
+organ-case, is only blown at the death of a royal person. And a lady,
+instead of informing her friend that it was a _vox humana_ stop, called
+it a _vox populi_.
+
+We were asked by one, "Did this organ break the windows? I was told a
+festival service was going on, the organist blew the trumpet stop, and
+broke the windows." Another inquiry was, "Who invented the pedals of
+this organ? We were told that quite a youth believed that pedals would
+improve it. He added them, and to the day of his death, whenever he was
+within a few miles of Yarmouth, he would come and hear them." In our
+hearing one man informed another that "this organ has miles of piping
+running somewhere about the town underground." The queries we have had
+to answer have been exceedingly numerous. Looking at the enclosure
+containing the console of the organ, a visitor wished to know whether
+the organist sat inside there. Another asked whether it was the vestry.
+One who saw great possibilities in such an organ inquired, "Can he play
+this organ in any other place beside the key-board?" The pulpit being of
+so unique a character has had a full share of attention, and no lack of
+admirers. Gazing at it with eyes filled with wonderment, a woman said to
+her daughter, "Maria, you're not to touch not even the pews." Everything
+within sight of such a structure she held sacred. Astonished at its
+internal capacity, another asked, "Do all the clergy sit in it?" Not
+realising its true character and intent, a lady wished to know, "By whom
+was this monument erected?" As we had long since ascertained how
+impossible it was to please everybody, we were not surprised to find
+dissatisfied critics presenting themselves. One of this class said, "It
+looks like a tomb, and smells like a coffin." Another, with sarcastic
+wit, said, "Moses looks like some churchwarden who would have to be
+careful how he ate his soup." We append a few more questions we have had
+to answer:
+
+"Was this church built by St. Nicholas?"
+
+"Does this church stand in four parishes?"
+
+"How many miles is it round the walls of this church?"
+
+"How many does this hold? We were told it holds 12,000."
+
+A clergyman asked, "Where are the bells? Are they in the tower?"
+
+"Haven't you a Bible 3000 years old?"
+
+"Haven't you a Bible that turns over its own leaves?"
+
+"Who had the missing leaves of this (Cranmer's) Bible?"
+
+"Is this the Bible that was chained in Brentwood Church?"
+
+A lady pointing to the font asked, "Is that the Communion Table?"
+
+An elderly lady at the brass lectern inquired, "Is this the clerk's
+seat?"
+
+A man standing looking over the Communion rails wished to know, "What
+part of the church do you call this?"
+
+"Was one of the giants buried in the churchyard?"
+
+"Where is the gravestone where a man, his wife, and twenty-five children
+were buried? I saw it when I was here some years ago, and forget on
+which side of the church it is."
+
+A young man gazing at the top of the lofty flagstaff just inside the
+churchyard gates, asked, "Was that erected to the memory of a
+shipwrecked crew?"
+
+With such extraordinary exhibitions of blatant ignorance can a worthy
+clerk regale himself, but they must be very trying at times.
+
+Mr. Lupson has also written _The Friendly Guide to the Parish Church and
+other places of interest in the neighbourhood, The Rows of Great
+Yarmouth; why so constructed_, and some devotional works.
+
+He is also the author of the following additional verse to the National
+Anthem, sung on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria:
+
+     "Long life our Queen has seen:
+     Glorious her reign has been:
+       Secure her throne!
+     Her subjects' joy and pride,
+     God's Word be still her guide:
+     Long may she yet abide
+       Empress and Queen!"
+
+The sons of parish clerks have sometimes attained to high dignity in the
+Church. The clerk of Totnes, Devonshire, had a son who was born in 1718,
+and who became the distinguished author and theologian, Dr. Kennicott.
+On one occasion he went to preach at the church in his native village,
+where his father was still acting as clerk. The old man insisted upon
+performing his accustomed duties, placing the surplice or black gown on
+his son's shoulders, and sitting below him in the clerk's lowly desk.
+The mother of the scholar was so overcome with joy at hearing him
+preach, that she fainted and was carried out of the church insensible.
+Cuthbert Bede records that he was acquainted with two eminent clergymen
+who were the sons of parish clerks. One of them was a learned professor
+of a college and an author of repute, and the other was attended by his
+father in the same manner as Dr. Kennicott was by his.
+
+Sometimes our failures are the stepping-stones to success in life. The
+celebrated Dr. Prideaux, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and
+Bishop of Worcester in 1641, was the son of poor parents at Harford,
+near Totnes. He applied for the post of parish clerk at Ugborough, but
+failed to obtain the appointment. He was much disappointed, and in
+despair wandered to Oxford, where he became a servitor at Exeter
+College, and ultimately attained to the position of rector or head of
+his college. When he became bishop, he was accustomed to say, "If I
+could have been clerk of Ugborough, I had never been bishop of
+Worcester."
+
+The history of the clerks of Barnstaple (1500-1900) has been traced by
+the Rev. J.F. Chanter[95], and the record is remarkable as showing their
+important status, and how some were raised to the diaconate, and in
+difficult times rendered good service to the Church and the incumbents.
+The first clerk of whom any trace can be found was Thomas Hunt
+(1540-68). He appears in the register books as _clericus de hoc opido_,
+and in the churchwardens' accounts for 1564 there is an entry, "Item to
+Hunt the clerke paid for lights 2 s. 8 d." He was succeeded by his son,
+John Hunt (1564-84). Robert Langdon flourished as clerk from 1584 to
+1625, when spiritual matters were at a low ebb in the parish. The vicar
+was excommunicated in 1589. His successor quickly resigned, and the next
+vicar was soon involved in feuds with some of his puritanically inclined
+parishioners. The quarrel was increased by the unworthy conduct of
+Robert Smyth, a preacher and lecturer who was appointed and paid by the
+corporation, and cared little for vicar or bishop. He was an extreme
+Puritan, and had a considerable following in the parish. His refusal to
+wear a surplice, though ordered to do so by the bishop, brought the
+dispute to a head. He was inhibited, but his followers retorted by
+accusing the vicar of being a companion of tipplers and fooling away his
+time with pipe and tabor, and finally bringing an accusation against
+him, on account of which the poor man was cited before the High
+Commission Court. The charge came to nothing, and Smyth for a time
+conformed and wore his surplice. Then some of the Puritan faction
+refused to accept the vicar's ministrations, and two of them were tried
+at the assizes and sent to gaol. "If they would rather go to gaol than
+church," said the town clerk, "much good may it do them. I am not of
+their mind." Passive resisters were not encouraged in those days. But
+the relations between vicar and lecturer continued strained, and the
+former bethought him of his faithful clerk, Robert Langdon, as a helper
+in the ministry. He applied to the bishop to raise him to the diaconate,
+and this was done, Langdon being ordained deacon on 21 September, 1606,
+by William Cotton, Bishop of Exeter. The record of this notable event,
+the ordination of a parish clerk, thus appears in the ordination
+register of the diocese:
+
+     "In festo Matthaei Apostoli Dominus Episcopus in ecclesia
+     parochiali de Silfertone xxi mo die Septembris 1606 ordines
+     sacros celebrando ordinavit, sequuntur Diaconi tunc et
+     ibidinem ordinati videlicet Robertus Langdon de Barnestapli."
+
+[Footnote 95: _Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the
+Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art_, 1904, xxxvi. pp. 390-414.]
+
+Langdon remained parish clerk and deacon nineteen years, and the
+register contained the record of his burial, "Robert Langdon deacon 5th
+July 1625." He seems to have brought peace to the troubled mind of his
+vicar, whose tombstone declares:
+
+     "Many are the troubles of the Righteous
+     But the Lord delivereth out of all."
+
+Langdon used to keep the registers, and he began to record in them a
+series of notes on passing events which add greatly to the interest of
+such volumes. Thus we find an account of a grievous fire at Tiverton in
+1595, a violent storm at Barnstaple in 1606, and a great frost in the
+same year; another fire at Tiverton in 1612, and the scraps of Latin
+which appear show that he was a man of some education.
+
+Anthony Baker reigned from 1625 to 1646, who had also been ordained
+deacon prior to his appointment to Barnstaple, and belonged to an old
+yeoman family. He was popular with the people, who presented him with a
+new gown. He saw the suspension of his vicar by the Standing Committee,
+and probably died of the plague in 1646, when the town found itself
+without vicar, deacon, or clerk. The plague was raging, people dying,
+and no one to minister to them. No clergyman would come save the old
+vicar, Martyn Blake, who was at length allowed by the Puritan rulers to
+return, to the great joy of the inhabitants. He appointed Symon Sloby
+(1647-81), but could not get him ordained deacon, as bishops and
+ordination were abhorred and abolished by the Puritan rulers. Sloby was
+appointed "Register of Barnestapell" during the Commonwealth period. He
+saw his vicar ejected and carried off to Exeter by some of the
+Parliamentary troopers and subsequently restored to the living, and
+records with much joy and loyalty the restoration of the monarchy. He
+served three successive vicars, records many items of interest,
+including certain gifts to himself with a pious wish for others to go
+and do likewise, and died in a good old age.
+
+Richard Sleeper succeeded him in 1682, and reigned till 1698. He
+conformed to the more modern style of clerk of an important parish, a
+dignified official who attended the vicar and performed his duties on
+Sunday, occupying the clerk's desk. Of his successors history records
+little save their names. William Bawden, a weaver, was clerk from 1708
+to 1726, William Evans 1726 to 1741, John Taylor 1741 to 1760, John
+Comer 1760 to 1786, John Shapcote 1786 to 1795, Joseph Kimpland 1795 to
+1798, who was a member of an old Barnstaple family and was succeeded by
+his son John (1798-1832), John Thorne (1832-1859), John Hartnoll
+(1859-1883), and William Youings 1883 to 1901.
+
+This is a remarkable record, and it would be well if in all parishes a
+list of clerks, with as much information as the industrious inquirer can
+collect, could be so satisfactorily drawn up and recorded, as Mr.
+Chanter has so successfully done for Barnstaple. The quaint notes in the
+registers written by the clerk give some sort of key to his character,
+and the recollections of the oldest inhabitants might be set down who
+can tell us something of the life and character of those who have lived
+in more modern times. We sometimes record in our churches the names of
+the bishops of the see, and of the incumbents of the parish; perhaps a
+list of the humbler but no less faithful servants of the Church, the
+parish clerks, might be added.
+
+Often can we learn much from them of old-world manners, superstitions,
+folk-lore, and the curious form of worship practised in the days of our
+forefathers. My own clerk is a great authority on the lore of ancient
+days, of bygone hard winters, of weather-lore, of the Russian war time,
+and of the ways of the itinerant choir and orchestra, of which he was
+the noted leader. Strange and curious carols did he and his sons and
+friends sing for us on Christmas Eve, the words and music of which have
+been handed down from father to son for several generations, and have
+somewhat suffered in their course. His grandson still performs for us
+the Christmas Mumming Play. The clerk is seventy years of age, and
+succeeded his father some forty years ago. Save for "bad legs," the
+curse of the rustic, he is still hale and hearty, and in spite of an
+organ and surpliced choir, his powerful voice still sounds with a
+resonant "Amen." Never does he miss a Sunday service.
+
+We owe much to our faithful clerks. Let us revere their memories. They
+are a most interesting race, and your "Amen clerk" is often more
+celebrated and better known than the rector, vicar, patron or squire.
+The irreverence, of which we have given many alarming instances, was
+the irreverence of the times in which they lived, of the bad old days of
+pluralist rectors and itinerant clerics, when the Church was asleep and
+preparing to die with what dignity she could. We may not blame the
+humble servitor for the faults and failings of his masters and for the
+carelessness and depravity of his age. We cannot judge his homely ways
+by the higher standard of ceremonial and worship to which we have become
+accustomed. Charity shall hide from us his defects, while we continue to
+admire the virtues, faithfulness and devotion to duty of the old parish
+clerk, who retains a warm place in our hearts and is tenderly and
+affectionately remembered by the elder generation of English
+Churchpeople.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+The passing of the parish clerk causes many reflections. For a thousand
+years he has held an important position in our churches. We have seen
+him robed in his ancient dignity, a zealous and honoured official,
+without whose aid the services of the Church could scarcely have been
+carried on. In post-Reformation times he continued his career without
+losing his rank or status, his dignity or usefulness. We have seen him
+the life and mainstay of the village music, the instructor of young
+clerics, the upholder of ancient customs and old-established usages. We
+have regretted the decay in his education, his irreverence and
+absurdities, and have amused ourselves with the stories of his quaint
+ways and strange eccentricities. His unseemly conduct was the fault of
+the dullness, deadness, and irreverence of the age in which he lived,
+rather than of his own personal defects. In spite of all that can be
+said against him, he was often a very faithful, loyal, pious, and
+worthy man.
+
+His place knows him no more in many churches. We have a black-gowned
+verger in our towns; a humble temple-sweeper in our villages. The only
+civil right which he retains is that the prospectors of new railways are
+obliged to deposit their plans and maps with him, and well do I
+remember the indignation of my own parish clerk when the plans of a
+proposed railway, addressed to "the Parish Clerk," were delivered by the
+postman to the clerk of the Parish Council. It was a wrong that could
+scarcely be righted.
+
+I would venture to suggest, in conclusion, that it might be worth while
+for the authorities of the Church to consider the possibility of a
+revival of the office. It would be a great advantage to the Church to
+restore the parish clerk to his former important position, and to
+endeavour to obtain more learned and able men for the discharge of the
+duties. The office might be made again a sphere of training for those
+who wish to take Holy Orders, wherein a young man might be thoroughly
+educated in the duties of the clerical profession. It would be an
+immense assistance to an incumbent to have an active and educated layman
+associated with him in the work of the parish, in teaching, in reading
+and serving in church, and in visiting the sick. Like the clerk of old,
+he would be studying and preparing for ordination, and there could be no
+better school for training than actual parish work under the supervision
+of an earnest and wise rector.
+
+The Church has witnessed vast changes and improvements during the last
+fifty years. The poor clerk has been left to look after himself. The
+revival of the office and an improvement in the position and education
+of the holders of it would, I fully believe, be of an immense advantage
+to the Church and a most valuable assistance to the clergy.
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+Absolon, Chaucer's portrait of, 26
+  David, clerk of Great Yarmouth, 185
+"Acts," a Christian name, 264
+Addison, on clerks, 64
+Advent, a carol for, 168
+"Ales," clerk's, 42
+Allington, Kent, 230
+Alnwick, Turner, clerk of, 232
+"Amen" epitaph, 97
+_Ancient Mysteries_, 137
+Andrews, W., _Curious Epitaphs_, 100
+  _Curiosities of the Church_, 188
+Antiquity of clerk's office, 16, etc.
+Apostles, complimenting the, 265
+Appointment, the right of, 246
+_Aquaebajalus_, 27
+Arms of the Company of Clerks, 111
+_Art of Politicks_, 184
+Art, the clerk in, 195, etc.
+Ashford, Isaac, the story of, 68
+Aston, Yorks, 5
+Astronomical clerks, 209, 258
+Atchley, Dr. Cuthbert, 49
+Atkinson, Rev. Canon, 302, 303
+Atkins, Thomas of Chillenden, 236
+Augustine of Canterbury, St., 16, 35
+Avington, female clerk at, 202
+
+Badger, H.W., of Mallow, 319
+Baker, Anthony, deacon-clerk, 329
+Bakewell, the Roe family of, 93
+Barkham, 143, 312, 331
+Barnet, East, clerk of, 60
+Barnstaple, clerks of, 61, 327
+Barrel-organs, 5
+Barton Turf, Norfolk, dog-whippers land at, 34
+Beating the bounds at Ringmer, 34
+Bede Roll of the Company, 113
+Bede, Cuthbert, 91, 161, 201, 317, 327
+Bells to warn travellers, 83
+Belbroughton, 96
+_Belts Life_, in the pulpit, 231
+Belton, Suffolk, Noah Pole, clerk of, 311
+Bennet, John, of Woodstock, 163
+Beresford Hope on old services, 8, 170
+Besant, Sir W., description of old clerk, 21
+Bilby, Thomas, author of hymn, 154
+Bills of Mortality, 123
+Bingley, Hezekiah Briggs, of, 100
+Bletchley, clerk of, 59
+Bly, Sarah, sexton, 201
+"Bobber," or sluggard-waker, 204
+Bond family of Worcester, 318
+Boniface, Archbishop, constitutions of, 30
+Borne, Hooker's parish, 24
+_Borough, The_, by G. Crabbe, 66
+Bradford-on-Avon, 158, 194
+Bramwells of Chapel-en-le-Frith, 319
+Bristol, St. Nicholas, 28, 50
+Broadway, the Tustins of, 318
+Bromfield, Salop, 280
+Bromham, the clerk of, 190
+Bromsgrove, Rose family of, 318
+Burrows, Mrs., recollections of, 283
+Buxted, clerk of, 55
+
+Caistor, Lincolnshire, 227
+Calculating clerk, a, 211
+Cambridgeshire curate, a, 15
+Canes in churches, 190
+Canterbury, Guild of Clerks at, 105
+Carley, Thomas, of Grafton Underwood, 152
+Carne, James, oldest living parish clerk, 319
+Carshalton, register of, 141
+Catechising, 228
+Catechising in church by the clerk, 59, 274
+Catwick, Thomas Dixon, of, 206
+Celibacy of clerks, 18
+Chanter, Rev. J.F., on clerks of Barnstaple, 327
+Chapel-en-le-Frith, 319
+Chapple, William, of Swymbridge, 174
+Charman Dean, smuggling at, 84
+Charters of Company of Clerks, 106, 109
+Chaucer's portrait of frivolous clerk, 26
+Cheshire clerk, an old, 225
+Chess in a village, 242
+Chester, plays at, 134
+  Sir Robert, spoliator of Clerks' Company, 108
+Chillenden, Kent, 236
+Choirs, old-time, 1, 3, 4, 198, 213
+"Chosen people," 235
+Church, description of an old, 1
+Churching of women, 231
+Churchwardens' Account books, 19
+Clark, John, the register book of, 145
+Clarke, John, 111
+Clarkson, David, of Feckenham, 318
+Claverley, Shropshire, 188
+Clergy, defective readers, 58
+Clerk's ale, 42
+  house, 33
+_Clerks Book, The_, 52, 248
+Clerks, too clerical, 79, etc.
+Clerk's Latin, 242
+Clerkenwell and clerks' plays, 130, etc.
+Clerkship, stepping-stone to higher preferment, 32
+Coaching days, 241
+Collis family of clerks, 91
+Collumpton, female clerk at, 202
+Company of parish clerks, 104, etc.
+Cornish parsons, 180
+Cornish wreckers, 84
+Coronation changes in the Prayer Book, 314
+Council of Merida, 17
+  Toledo, 17
+Court, George, of Wednesbury, 289
+Coventry, Trinity Church, 28, 36, 50
+Coventry, plays at, 134
+Cowper's mortuary verses, 69
+  _The Sofa_, 71
+  _The Task_, 184
+Crabbe's sketch of old clerics, 13
+Crabbe's sketch of old clerks, 66
+Crayford, Kent, "Amen" epitaph at, 97
+Cromer, David Vial of, 92
+Cropthorne, Worcestershire, 102
+Crosthwaite and catechising, 277
+Curious stories, 307, etc.
+
+Dagenham and its clerk, 313
+Dean, West, Sussex, 233
+Decline of clerks, 61
+Decorating the church, 193
+Deputations, 217
+Descent into Hell, 136
+Dickenson, Thomas, licensed to officiate, 81
+Dicker, Robert, of Crediton, 257
+Diggs, David, 6, 58, 162
+Dismissing a clerk, 247, 250
+Dixon, Thomas, a curious character, 206
+Dog, an archbishop's, 189
+Dogs fighting in church, 85
+Dog-whippers, 34, 188
+Dogs lost, notices of, 176
+Dogs in churches, 189
+Duke's present of game, a, 177
+Dunstable, 20
+Dunstan, St., 16
+
+Easter cakes, 41
+Eastham, clerk of, 55
+Ecclesfield, clerks at, 298
+Eccleshall's cricketing clerk, 182
+_Ecclesiastical Law_, by Sir R. Phillimore, 247
+Edgar, King, canons of, 16
+Elliott, Rev. E.K., recollections of, 83
+Elmstead, 49
+Elton, Miss, recollections of, 292
+Epitaphs of clerks, 90, etc.
+Epworth and John Wesley, 193
+Ethelbert, King, 16
+Evison, Thomas, of Wragsby, 281
+Exeter, Synod of, 17
+
+Faithfulness of clerks, 23
+Fairfield, 80
+Fasting Communion, a tradition, 237
+Faversham, 28, 45, 50
+Feckenham, 318
+Feudal customs, 284
+Fewson, Richard, a curious clerk, 208
+Fielding's clerics, 11
+Fighting in church, 49, 279
+Finch, Betty, "bobber," 204
+Flore, carol by the clerk of, 167
+Ford family of King's Norton, 102, 318
+Foster, Joshua, of Caistor, 227
+Foston-le-Clay and Sydney Smith, 216
+Fressingfield, clerk's house at, 34
+Frith's Vicar of Wakefield, 199
+Funerals, London clerks at, 116
+Funerals, old time, 218, 222
+Furness, Richard, clerk of Dore, 164
+
+Gadara, swine of, 238
+Gainsborough's portrait of Orpin, 195
+Gargrave, York, 157
+Gay's allusion to clerks, 72
+George IV and Queen Caroline, 183
+Ghost story, 313
+Gill, Mrs., recollections of, 170, 278
+"God speed 'em well," 215, 230
+Goldsmith's _Vicar of Wakefield_, 12
+Goose in the pulpit, 266
+Grafton Underwood, 152
+Gray, John, clerk at Eton College,
+Green, Rev. W.F., recollections of, 293
+Gregory IX, decretals of, 17
+Gregory Smith, Rev. Canon, recollections of, 315
+Grindal, Archbishop, injunctions of, 54, 80
+Grosseteste, Bishop, 17
+Guild of Clerks, 18, 104, etc.
+Guinea-fowls, disturbing congregation, 261
+Gunpowder Plot, 161
+
+Haddon, West, 91
+Halls of the Clerks' Company, 107, 110, etc.
+"Harmun," a Christian name, 263
+Hartlepool, clerk of, 59
+Harvey, Christopher, 63
+Haw of Halton Holgate, 236
+Hawker, Rev. R.S., recollections of, 85, 313
+Hayes, disgraceful scenes at, 187
+Hebrew scholar, a, 323
+Hemmans, Rev. Canon, recollections of, 281
+Herbert, George, on responding, 68
+Herbert, George, clerk of Eye, 93
+Heredity of the clerk's office, 318
+Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, 17
+Hinton, William, a Wilts clerk, 239
+Hobbes, William, clerk at Plymouth, 25
+Hobby, a matrimonial, 315
+Hogarth's _Sleeping Congregation_, 131
+Holy loaf, 38, etc.
+Holy water, 27
+Hone's _Year Book_ and _Book of Days_, 87, 99
+Hooker, the Judicious, 24
+Hopkins, John, clerk at Salisbury, 162
+Houses for clerks, 33
+How, Bishop Walsham, recollections of, 298
+Hust, Richard, portrait of, 111
+Hutchinson, F., a Yorkshire clerk, 302
+Hutton, William, verses by, 73
+Huyk, John, of Hull, 35
+Hymn in praise of William III, 160
+
+Illuminated MSS., 197
+Ingenious clerk, an, 259
+Ingham, James, of Whalley, 236
+
+Jachin, the story of, 66
+Jenkins, Rev. M.E., recollections of, 302
+Jenner's "Mount Sion," 185
+Jerry and the "Northern Lights," 218
+John of Althon, 32, 49
+Johnson's definition and opinion of clerks, 66
+
+Kennicott, Dr., a clerk's son, 326
+Kent, John, clerk of St. Albans, 87
+Kenwyn, dogs fighting in church, 85
+Kilbrogan, Ireland, 159
+King's Norton, the Fords of, 102, 318
+
+Lainston, romance of parish register of, 151
+Langdon, Robert, deacon-clerk, 329
+Langhorne, Rev. W.H., recollections of, 231
+Langport, Somerset, 41
+Laracor, Meath, 180
+Latin, a clerk's, 242
+Lavant, East, Russell of, 260
+Law and the clerk, the, 245, etc.
+Lawton, Cheshire, 225
+Leckhampton, 235
+"Leg end, the," 282
+Legg, Dr. J. Wickham, 52, 169, 248
+Legge, Rev. A.G., recollections of, 259, 265
+Lessons, right of reading, 53
+Licence granted to clerk to officiate, 81
+Liston, Essex, 286
+Literature, the clerk in, 63, etc.
+London, St. Peter-the-Less, 35
+London, St. Stephen, Coleman Street, 46, 142
+London, St. Michael, Cornhill, 50, 111
+London, St. Margaret, Westminster, 53, 200
+London, the clerks of, 115, etc.
+London, Guildhall chapel, 115
+London, St. Margaret, Lothbury, 142
+London, Lambeth parish, 147
+London, Battersea, 147
+London, St. Mary's, Islington, 154
+London, St. Matthew's Chapel, Spring Gardens, 191
+London, parishes, 129
+Longevity of clerks, 318
+Lowestoft, Suffolk, Newson of, 311
+Lupson, E.J. of Great Yarmouth, 320
+Lyndewoode, William, on married clerks, 18, 35, 49
+
+Machyn's Diary, 117
+Maldon, Essex, a curious letter, 309
+Mangotsfield, Bamford, clerk of, 230
+Marlow, Bucks, 319
+Marriage Act of 1653, 81
+Marriages by clerks, 81
+Matthew Paris, 43
+Maundy Thursday, 37
+Maybrick, William, and his sons, 308
+Mediaeval clerk, 31, etc.
+Milston, clerk at, 64
+Milverton, Somerset, 41, 59
+Moody, clerk at Redbourn, 172
+More, Sir Thomas, 32, 109
+Morebath, dispute at, 29
+Mortality, Bills of, 123
+Morwenstow and its ghost story, 313
+Myre, John, instructions to parish priests, 45
+
+_New Remarks of London_, 127
+Newport Pagnell, Bucks, 285
+Northampton, All Saints, 69
+"Northern Lights," 217
+Notices, the clerk giving out, 169, etc.
+  curious, 270
+
+Oldswinford, the Orfords of, 318
+Orchestra, village, 4, 213
+Orpin, portrait by Gainsborough, 195
+Osbornes of Belbroughton, 96
+Overy, St. Mary, 80
+
+Pageantry of clerks, 119
+Pall used as horsecloth, 295
+_The Parish Clerk_, a new comic song, 73
+_Parish Clerk's Guide, The_, 46, 57
+_Parish Clerk_, by Hewett, 6, 58, 162
+_Parish Clerks, Some Account of_, by J. Christie, 107
+_Parish Register, The_, by Crabbe, 67
+Parish registers and the clerks, 140, etc.
+_Parish Registers, History of_, 148
+Parsons, old-time, 1, 10-15
+Parson and Clerk, rocks so named, 86
+Pattishall, clerk's register of, 145
+Perquisites of clerks, 41
+Pews, old-fashioned, 2
+Pierce, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 43
+Plague in London, 125
+Playford, John, 56
+Plays performed by clerks, 131, etc.
+Pluralism, evil effects of, 14
+Plymouth, St. Andrew, 25
+Poet, the clerk as a, 154, etc.
+Poor rates levied on the altar, 268
+Pope, Alexander, _Memoir of P.P._, 75
+Portraits in the hall of the Company, 112
+Prideaux, Dr., 327
+Priestly, Peter, clerk of Wakefield, 86
+Printing press, the clerks', 125
+Pup wanted, a, 317
+Puritanism, effects of, 7
+
+Radcliffe, Lancashire, 304
+Radcliffe-on-Sour, 100
+Railways, the advent of, 242
+Raw, Frank, of Selby, epitaph of, 100
+Rawsley, Miss, recollections of, 236
+Rawsley, Canon, story told by, 313
+Reading, duty of, 48, etc.
+Reading, St. Giles, 19, 33, 45
+Reading, St. Lawrence, 21, 39
+Reading, St. Mary, 33, 39
+_Rectores chori_, 36
+Recollections of old clerks, 255, etc.
+Redbourn, Herts, 172
+Reeve, Rev. E.H.L., recollections of, 286
+Reformation changes, 51
+Rempstone, wages of clerk at, 248
+"Responding inaudibly," 307
+Revival of office of clerk, 334
+Rex _v._ Erasmus Warren, 251
+Richard I as _rector chori_, 32
+Ringmer, 34
+Rival clerks, 49, 211, 279
+Rivington family, 127
+Robinson, Daniel, of Flore, 167
+Rochester and its parish register, 150
+Rochester, Earl of, epigram by, 3
+Roe family at Bakewell, 93
+Romford, 307
+Roper, William, of Clerks' Company, 109
+Rose family of Bromsgrove, 318
+Rugby, St. Andrew, 91
+Russell, Rev. J., of Swymbridge, 174
+Russell, clerk of East Lavant, 260
+
+St. Albans, clerk of, 87
+St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, 320
+St. Nicholas, patron saint of clerks, 105
+Salehurst, wages of clerk, 249
+Salisbury, St. Edmund, clerk's house at, 34
+Salisbury, John Hopkins of, 162
+Saltwood, Kent, clerk's house at, 34
+Sapiston and the Duke's hare, 177
+Scarlett, Old, of Peterborough, 98
+Schoolmaster, clerk as, 44
+Scothorne, Blackburn's epitaph, 103
+Selwyn, Rev. W., recollections of, 279
+Sermon forgotten, 287
+Sexton and clerk, 22, 64, 253
+Shakespeare's allusion to clerks, 63
+Shenley, Rogers of, 92
+Sherlock, F., recollections of, 308
+Shoes in church, 226
+Sidbury, clerk of, 59
+Singing, duty of, 48, etc.
+Singing, efforts to improve, 121
+Skinners' Well, 131
+_Sleeping Congregation_, by  Hogarth 181
+Sleepy church and sleepy clerks, 179, etc.
+Sluggard-waker, 187
+Smuggling days and smuggling ways, 79, 83, etc.
+Smoking in church, 228, 295, 303
+Snell, Peter, of Crayford, 97
+Soberton, Hants, smuggling at, 84
+_Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, 142, 148
+Solomon Daisy of _Barnaby Rudge_, 72
+Song during the sermon, a, 292
+_Spectator, The_, 64, 65
+Spoliation of Clerks' Company, 108
+Sporting parsons, 171, 269
+Sporting clerks, 211
+Squire's pew, the, 2
+Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berks, 40
+Staple-next-Wingham, 101
+Sternhold and Hopkins's Psalter, 3
+Stoke, 300
+Story, Robert, poet, 157
+Stoulton, epitaph at, 103
+Stratfieldsaye, 300, 305
+Surplices objected to, 118
+Swanscombe, Kent, 8
+Swift on old pews, 2
+Swift and his clerk Roger, 180
+Syntax, Dr., 14
+
+Tait, Archbishop, on old services, 8
+Teeth, story of "artful," 174
+Tennyson's allusion to clerks, 72
+Tenterden, John Hopton of, 80
+Thame, curious banns at, 316
+Thirza, a Christian name, 282
+Tingrith and its potentate, 283
+Totnes, Devon, 326
+Tourists' queries, 321
+Town crier as clerk, 293
+Tunbridge Wells, Jenner's "Mount Sion," 185
+
+Uffington, Salop, 299
+Upton, near Droitwich, 179
+
+Venables, Rev. Canon, recollections of, 267
+Verney, Lady, _Essays and Tales_, 74
+Vickers, Rev. W.V., recollections of, 255
+Visitation of the sick, 46
+
+Wages of clerks, 248
+Wakefield, 87
+Walker, Rev. Robert, the "Wonderful," 11
+Waltham, 79
+  Holy Cross, 81
+Walton, Isaac, story of faithful clerk, 24
+Warrington and its "bobber," 204
+_Way to find Sunday without an Almanack, The_, 73
+Webster's _Village Choir_, 198
+Wednesbury, 145, 191, 289
+Wesley and his clerk, 193
+Westbere, 79
+Westhoughton, 305
+Westley, 228
+Whalley, clerk at, 236
+Wheatley, female clerk at, 202
+Whitewashed church, a, 295
+Whittingdon, Thomas Evans of, 92
+"Wicked man, the," 256
+Wilberforce, Bishop, on squire's pew, 2
+Willoughton, Betty Wells of, 203
+Wills containing bequests to clerks, 31
+Wimborne Minster, 55, 233
+Windermere, clerk of, 230
+Wise, Mr., of Weekley, recollections of, 292
+Witch as parish clerk, 203
+Woburn, J. Brewer of, 293
+Wolstanton, 299
+Wolverley, Worcestershire, 96
+Women as parish clerks, 200, etc.
+  as sextons, 254
+Woodmancote, old clerk at, 233
+Woodstock, J. Bennet, clerk of, 163
+Wootton, Paul, clerk at Bromham, 190
+Worcester, St. Michael, clerk's house at, 34
+Worcester, St. Michael, the Bond family of, 318
+Wordsworth, on the "Wonderful Walker," 11
+Workington and its beadle, 299
+Worrall family of Wolverley, 96
+Worthing, smuggling at, 83
+Worth, John Alcorn of, 101
+Wragby, clerk of, 281
+Wren, William, of Stondon Massey, 287
+
+Yarmouth, Great, the clerk of, 320
+York, mystery plays at, 133
+Yorkshire clerks, 206, etc., 302
+Young, Rev. J.C., recollections of, 239
+
+"Zulphur," a Christian name, 258
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Parish Clerk (1907)
+by Peter Hampson Ditchfield
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