THE CLERK AND THE LAST RAVENS 253 



with odd jobs hedge-trimming, lawn- mowing, garden- 

 ing generally, repairing thatched roofs, and forty things 

 besides. I never found him sitting down, nor could 

 get him to sit down for more than five minutes at a 

 stretch ; but he would rest on his spade sometimes 

 and give me scraps of his ancient history. Yet he was 

 a small weak-looking man, aged 74 ! He had been 

 parish clerk over forty-five years, and his father before 

 him had held the office for upwards of fifty. 



I was reminded of his case afterwards on two occa- 

 sions in Hampshire churchyards by epitaphs on parish 

 clerks. One was at Heckfield, near Eversley. The 

 inscription reads : 



" Beneath this stone lies William Neave, who on 

 the loth January, 1821, ended a blameless and in- 

 offensive life of 79 years during 45 of which he 

 was Clerk of the Parish. His father, Thomas Neave, 

 and his grandfather, William Neave, had previously 

 filled this office, which (dedicated as it is to uphold 

 in its degree the order and decency of the Established 

 Church) was here uninterruptedly held by three 

 generations of the Neaves through a series of 136 

 years. In this period how many for whom they 

 had prepared the Font and whose giddy childhood 

 they had effectually chastised were by them finally 

 conducted to the spots around, where now they rest 

 in humble hope of resurrection to life eternal." 



Let us return to the old clerk of Itchen Abbas, 

 whose life had been spent in the village and whose 

 bright memory retained the story of its life during the 



