persecution, ill-usage, and Tudor tyranny--Catherine, the divorced wife
of Henry VIII, and poor sinning Mary Queen of Scots. His famous picture
in Peterborough Cathedral, on the wall of the western transept, usually
attracts the chief attention of the tourist, and has preserved his name
and fame. He is represented with a spade, pickaxe, keys, and a whip in
his leathern girdle, and at his feet lies a skull. In the upper
left-hand corner appear the arms of the see of Peterborough, save that
the cross-keys are converted into cross-swords. The whip at his girdle
appears to show that Old Scarlett occupied the position of dog-whipper
as well as sexton. There is a description of this portrait in the _Book
of Days_, wherein the writer says:

"What a lively effigy--short, stout, hardy, 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. Dibdin,
who last copied it, tells us that 'old Scarlett's jacket and
trunkhose are of a brownish red, his 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 coat armour.'" Beneath the portrait are these
lines: