e old vicarage, a poor house close
to St. Mary's churchyard, was pulled down, and he rented the house in
South Street, with extensive gardens, which afterwards became the
residence of Major Armstrong and now occupied by Mrs. Howland.
Notwithstanding his heavy parochial work Mr. Clarke (as the present
writer can testify) kept up his classical and mathematical studies. He
was also devoted to music, and a very skilful performer on the flute.
Although these were relaxations from his more serious parochial labours,
the amount of mental work involved eventually told upon his health, and
in the 8th year of his vicariate it became perceptible, even in his
pulpit utterances, that his mind was affected. He had married a
Cumberland lady, but all her care and attention was unavailing; he
gradually collapsed into a condition of melancholy, scarcely roused by
anything except the music of his piano. {60} The end inevitable was seen
to be approaching, but unfortunately Mr. Clarke by his own act
anticipated it. Being accidently left alone for a few moments he took a
pistol, which he had concealed in a drawer, walked out into the garden
and shot himself, the overwrought brain rendering him no longer
accountable for his actions.

Of his successor, the Rev. Prebendary W. H. Milner, who, like Mr. Clarke,
had held preferment in the diocese of Carlisle, we have only to say that
he was an able man of business, carried on the work of the church with
great energy, and introduced many reforms. He built the present
vicarage. He was the last vicar nominated by the Bishop of Carlisle. Of
the next two vicars it may be said that their tenure of office was all
too short, hard faithful labour cutting off the Rev. Robert Giles (as we
have before stated) in 1872, after a vicariate of only 4 years; while the
Rev. Arthur Scrivenor died, after 10 years work in the parish, in his
51st year, in 1882. Canon E. Fowler Quarrington succeeded him, and held
the vicarage during 18 years, when he was transferred, in 1900, to the
Rectory of Welby, near Grantham. The Rev. Prebendary Alfred Edgar Moore,
formerly Vicar of Messingham, near Brigg, began his vicariate in 1900,
being inducted into the benefice on August 24, in that year.

Horncastle, we may here add, has been well served by its Curates.
"Comparisons are (proverbially) odious," we will not therefore refer to
any of these in recent years; but we may take three typical cases of men
whose memory is stil