The law has also decided that women may be appointed sextons.
CHAPTER XX
RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD CLERKS AND THEIR WAYS
Personal recollections of the manners and curious ways of old village
clerks are valuable, and several writers have kindly favoured me with
the descriptions of these quaint personages, who were well known to them
in the days of their youth.
The clerk of a Midland village was an old man who combined with his
sacred functions the secular calling of the keeper of the village inn.
He was very deaf, and consequently spoke in a loud, harsh voice, and
scraps of conversation which were heard in the squire's high square box
pew occasioned much amusement among the squire's sons. The Rev. W.V.
Vickers records the following incidents:
It was "Sacrament Sunday," and part of the clerk's duty was to prepare
the Elements in the vestry, which was under the western tower.
Apparently the wine was not forthcoming when wanted, and we heard the
following stage-aside in broad Staffordshire: "Weir's the bottle? Oh!
'ere it is, under the teeble (table) all the whoile."
Another part of his duty was to sing in the choir, for which purpose he
used to leave the lower deck of the three-decker and hobble with his
heavy oak stick to the chancel for the canticles and hymns, and having
swelled the volume of praise, hobble back again, a pause being made for
his journey both to and fro.
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