has quite passed away, it has been thought advisable to collect all that
can be gathered together concerning them. Much light has in recent years
been thrown upon the history of the office. The learned notes appended
to Dr. Wickham Legg's edition of _The Parish Clerk's Book_, published by
the Henry Bradshaw Society, Dr. Atchley's _Parish Clerk and his Right to
Read the Liturgical Epistle_ (Alcuin Club Tracts), and other works, give
much information with regard to the antiquity of the office, and to the
duties of the clerk of mediæval times; and from these books I have
derived much information. By the kindness of many friends and of many
correspondents who are personally unknown to me, I have been enabled to
collect a large number of anecdotes, recollections, facts, and
biographical sketches of many clerks in different parts of England, and
I am greatly indebted to those who have so kindly supplied me with so
much valuable information. Many of the writers are far advanced in
years, when the labour of putting pen to paper is a sore burden. I am
deeply grateful to them for the trouble which they kindly took in
recording their recollections of the scenes of their youth. I have been
much amused by the humorous stories of old clerkly ways, by the
_facetiæ_ which have been sent to me, and I have been much impressed by
the records of faithful service and devotion to duty shown by many
holders of the office who won the esteem and affectionate regard of both
priest and people. It is impossible for me to publish the names of all
those who have kindly written to me, but I wish especially to thank the
Rev. Canon Venables, who first suggested the idea of this work, and to
whom it owes its conception and initiation[1]; to the Rev. B.D.
Blyn-Stoyle, to Mr. F.W. Hackwood, the Rev. W.V. Vickers, the Rev. W.
Selwyn, the Rev. E.H. L. Reeve, the Rev. W.H. Langhorne, Mr. E.J.
Lupson, Mr. Charles Wise, and many others, who have taken a kindly
interest in the writing of this book. I have also to express my thanks
to the editors of the _Treasury_ and of _Pearson's Magazine_ for