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diff --git a/old/13363-8.txt b/old/13363-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55f50cf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13363-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11193 @@ +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 MEDIÆVAL 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 MEDIÆVAL 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 mediæval 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 +_facetiæ_ 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 MEDIÆVAL 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 mediæval clerk, and +the numerous duties which fell to his lot. + +Chaucer's gallery of ancient portraits contains a very life-like +presentment of a mediæval 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 +_aquæbajalus_. 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 mediæval 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 MEDIÆVAL 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 mediæval 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 mediæval 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 mediæval 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 mediæval 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 mediæval +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 _sanctæ +obedientiæ_.] + +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 mediæval 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 +_Encyclopædia 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. ætatis 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, _ætatis suæ_ 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 mediæval 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 mediæval +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 +mediæval 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 cæteras_ 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 cælo 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 mediæval 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 mediæval 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 mediæval 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 _aquæbajalus_, 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 mediæval 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 _aquæbajalus_. 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 Archæological 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 archæologian 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 Matthæi 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 +_Aquæbajalus_, 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 +Mediæval 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PARISH CLERK (1907) *** + +***** This file should be named 13363-8.txt or 13363-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/3/6/13363/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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