omed. 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