his death, he was never once absent from his Sunday and week-day 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-h.l. F. H. &W.C.p.c.' I am told

that these initials stand for F. Hurtle 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 artiess 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!"

A memorial record on the church of Holy Trinity, Hull, is as follows:

In memory of JOHN STONE
Parish Clerk 41 years

Excellent in his way

Buried here 26 May 1727
Aged 78.

First amongst notable sextons is the name of Old Scarlett, who died July 2, 1591, at the good old age of ninety-eight, and occupied for a long time the position of sexton of Peterborough Cathedral. He buried two generations of his fellow-creatures. A portrait of him, placed at the west end of that noble church, has perpetuated his fame, and caused him to be introduced in effigy in various publications. Says a writer in the "Book of Days": "And what a lively effigyshort, stout, hardy, and 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. Dib

din, who last copied it, tells us that 'Old Scarlett's jacket and trunkhose are of a brownish red, his

OLD SCARLETT, THE PETERBOROUGH SEXTON.

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 following lines below his portrait are characteristic of his age :

You see OLD SCARLETT's picture stand on hie ;
But at your feet here doth his body lye.
His gravestone doth his age and death-time shew,
His office by heis token [s] you may know.
Second to none for strength and sturdy lymm,
A scare-babe mighty voice, with visage grim ;
He had inter'd two queenes within this place,
And this townes householders in his life's space
Twice over; but at length his own time came
What he for others did, for him the same

Was done: no doubt his soule doth live for aye,
In heaven, though his body clad in clay.

The first of the queens interred by Scarlett was Catherine, the divorced wife of Henry VIII., who died in 1535, at Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdonshire. The second was Mary, Queen of Scots, who was beheaded at Fotheringay in 1587, and first interred here, though subsequently transported to Westminster Abbey.

Our next example is from Bingley, Yorkshire :— In memory of Hezekiah BrigGS, who died August 5th, 1844, in the 80th year of his age. He was sexton at this church 43 years, and interred upwards of 7000 corpses.

[Here the names of his wife and several children are given.]

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 a 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.

An upright stone in the burial-ground at Hartwith Chapel, in Nidderdale, Yorkshire, bears the following inscription :

In memory of William DarnbrOUGH, who for the last forty years of his life was sexton of this chapel. He died October 3rd, 1846, in the one hundredth year of his age.

"Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried
in a good old age."-Genesis xv., 15.
The graves around for many a year
Were dug by him who slumbers here,—
Till worn with age, he dropped his spade,
And in the dust his bones were laid.

As he now, mouldering, shares the doom
Of those he buried in the tomb;

So shall he, too, with them arise,

To share the judgment of the skies.

An examination of Pateley Bridge Church

registers proves that Darnbrough

hundred and two years of age.

was one