[Footnote 47:  No. 624, New Series, p. 83.]

“As a boy I often attended the service at Belbroughton Church, Worcestershire, when the clerk was Mr. Osborne, tailor.  His family had been parish clerks and tailors since the time of Henry VIII, and were lineally descended from William Fitz-Osborne, who in the twelfth century had been deprived by Ralph Fitz-Herbert of his right to the manor of Bellam, in the parish of Bellroughton.  Often have I stood in the picturesque churchyard of Wolverley, Worcestershire, by the grave of the old parish clerk, whom I well remember, old Thomas Worrall, the inscription on whose monument is as follows: 

Sacred to the memory of THOMAS WORRALL, parish clerk of Wolverley for a period of forty-seven years.  Died A.D. 1854, February 23rd.  He served with faithfulness in humble sphere As one who could his talents well employ, Hope that when Christ his Lord shall reappear, He may be bidden to his Master’s joy.

     This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceased
     by a few parishioners in testimony of his worth, April 1855.

          Charles R. Somers Cocks,
               Vicar.

It may be noted of this worthy clerk that, with the exception of a week or two before his death, he was never absent from his Sunday and weekday duties in the forty-seven years during which he held office.

He succeeded his father, James Worrall, who died in 1806, aged seventy-nine, after being parish clerk of Wolverley for thirty years.  His tombstone, near to that of his son, was erected “to record his worth both in his public and private character, and as a mark of personal esteem—­p. 1.  F.H. and W.C. p.c.”  I am told that these initials stand for F. Hustle, and the Rev. William Callow, and that the latter was the author of the following lines inscribed on the monument, which are well worth quoting: 

     If courtly bards adorn each statesman’s bust
     And strew their laurels o’er each warrior’s dust,
     Alike immortalise, as good and great,
     Him who enslaved as him who saved the State,
     Surely the Muse (a rustic minstrel) may
     Drop one wild flower upon a poor man’s clay. 
     This artless tribute to his mem’ry give
     Whose life was such as heroes seldom live. 
     In worldly knowledge, poor indeed his store—­
     He knew the village, and he scarce knew more. 
     The worth of heavenly truth he justly knew—­
     In faith a Christian, and in practice too. 
     Yes, here lies one, excel him ye who can: 
     Go! imitate the virtues of that man!

The famous “Amen” epitaph at Crayford, Kent, is well known, though the name of the clerk who is thus commemorated is sometimes forgotten.  It is to the memory of one Peter Snell, who repeated his “Amens” diligently for a period of thirty years, and runs as follows: