cting the tune and verses to be sung makes the psalmody, instead of
an integral and affecting portion of the service, as distracting and
irrational an episode as the jigs and country dances scraped between the
acts of a tragedy.'[1164] There would be no difficulty, he thought, in
getting educated persons to discharge the office for little remuneration
or none, if it were not for the troublesome and often disagreeable
parish business annexed to the office. As it was, the Clerk occupied a
very odd position, uniting the menial duties of a useful Church servant
to other functions, the decent performance of which was utterly beyond
the range of an illiterate man. Many of our readers may be acquainted
with the witty satire in which, with a perpetual side glance at the
fussy self-importance visible in Bishop Burnet's History, Pope writes
'the Memoirs of P.P., Clerk of this Parish.' With what delightful
complacency this diligent representative of his class speaks of taking
rank among 'men right worthy of their calling, of a clear and sweet
voice, and of becoming gravity'--of his place in the congregation at the
feet of the Priest,--of his raising the Psalm,--of his arraying the
ministers with the surplice,--of his responsible part in the service of
the Church! 'Remember, Paul, I said to myself, thou standest before men
of high worship, the wise Mr. Justice Freeman, the grave Mr. Justice
Tonson, the good Lady Jones, and the two virtuous gentlewomen her
daughters, nay the great Sir Thomas Truby, knight and baronet, and my
young master the Squire who shall one day be lord of this manor.' With
what magisterial gravity he descants of whipping out the dogs, 'except
the sober lap-dog of the good widow Howard,'--tearing away the
children's half-eaten apples, smoothing the dog's ears of the great
Bible! How he prides himself in sweeping and trimming weekly the pews
and benches, which were formerly swept but once in three years,--in
having the surplice darned, washed and laid up in fresh lavender, better
than any other parish,--in having discovered a thief with a Bible and
key--in his love of ringing,--in his tutoring young men and maidens to
tune their voice as it were with a psaltery,--in being invited to the
banquets of the Church officers,--in the hints he has given to young
clergymen,--in his loyal attachment to the interests of 'our High
Church.'[1165] Such was the Parish Clerk of the eighteenth century, the
personage upon whom the c