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74 MEMORIES 



many are in Kent. On the walls inside the tower are 

 the " charity boards," scored all over with those 

 strings of chalked figures which express the art- 

 language of the bell-ringers. Overhead is the thud of 

 the constant pendulum, ponderous and slow. 



The sexton was head over the ringers in those 

 days. He was a long and lank old man, and this, 

 I suppose, was why every one called him ''Spider," 

 for his real name was John. Many a time have I 

 stood by him in the tower while he tolled out the 

 bell. There was a varying scale of pulls, so that one 

 might know whether a man, woman, or child had 

 died. In each long interval Spider would settle 

 himself upon a trestle, puff at his pipe, and become 

 oracular on bobs and singles. He was always oracular 

 — it was his style — as became the leading politician of 

 the White Horse over the way. He was loyal to the 

 Church as far as his lights went, and honoured her in 

 her servants after his own fashion. " He had buried 

 three parsons," Spider used to say, "and from what 

 he could see of the gout and other ailments he 

 reckoned he should live to bury four ! " 



Spider was mole- catcher to the parish generally, 



and a very clever one he was. Many a lesson we 



x: - had as boys from him. He taught us not to set the 



