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"Smallti), Its ^i&tov^ anti Hcgentis." 



By Rev. Charles Kerry. (Bemrose &: Sons Ltd.) 



It is pleasant to find that a former editor of this Journal, 

 long laid by from active work by continued ill-health, has had 

 sufficient strength recently to issue a particularly attractive and 

 well-written small volume on the parish of Smalley, with which 

 he has been so long connected. Mr. Kerry tells us in his 

 preface that his book " has been written in a sick room, chiefly 

 from notes made years ago, when Smalley in many ways wore 

 an old-world aspect — with its old houses, its aged people full 

 of legends and tales of their fathers, only too pleased to relate 

 them, a population from the ancient home stock — each man 

 carrying on the trade of his fathers, all combining to supply 

 almost every local need."' Fifty years ago, he says, there were 

 no fewer than twenty different occupations in the village, but 

 now there are only seven. 



The gossip collected about the village and neighbourhood is 

 interesting and amusing, and quite worth chronicling ere it is 

 all forgotten. Stocks, windmills, donkey shows and races, 

 almshouses, charities, etc., are all laid under contribution; but 

 the most entertaining items are perhaps those connected with 

 the church in the not very remote past. Across the west end, 

 about 1870, stretched a good-sized gallery, which served as 

 accommodation for the boys of the Sunday School. But the 

 men servants from Stainsby Hall and the old instrumental choir, 

 conducted by Mr. Samuel Ottewell, occupied the front seats. 

 In the centre panel of the front of the gallery was a contrivance 



