He lived respected as a pious and mirthful man,
and died on his way to church to
assist at a wedding,
on the 31st of March, 1811,
Aged seventy years.

The inhabitants of Crayford have raised this stone to his
cheerful memory, and as a tribute to his long and faithful
services.

The life of this clerk was just threescore and ten,
Nearly half of which time he had sung out Amen.
In his youth he had married like other young men,
But his wife died one day--so he chanted Amen.
A second he took--she departed--what then?
He married and buried a third with Amen.
Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but then
His voice was deep base, as he sung out Amen.
On the horn he could blow as well as most men,
So his horn was exalted to blowing Amen.
But he lost all his wind after threescore and ten,
And here with three wives he waits till again
The trumpet shall rouse him to sing out Amen.

[Illustration: OLD SCARLETT]

The duties of sexton and parish clerk were usually performed by one
person, as we have already frequently noticed, and therefore it is
fitting that we should record the epitaph of Old Scarlett, most famous
of grave-diggers, who buried two queens, both the victims of stern