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.
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