ence states that the parish of Waltham Holy Cross was very spacious,
many houses being a long distance from the church, and that the curate
was very much occupied with his various duties of visiting the sick,
burying the dead, churching women, and other business belonging to his
office; hence permission is granted to Thomas Dickenson to assist the
curate in reading prayers in church, burying dead corpses, and to church
women in the absence of the curate, or when the curate cannot
conveniently perform the same duty in his own person.

Doubtless this licence was no solitary exception, and it is fairly
certain that other clerks enjoyed the same privileges which are here
assigned to Master Thomas Dickenson. He must have been a worthy member
of his class, a man of education, and of skill and ability in reading,
or episcopal sanction would not have been given to him to perform these
important duties.

It is evident that parish clerks occasionally at least performed several
important clerical functions with the consent of, or in the absence of
the incumbents, and that in spite of the articles in the visitations of
some bishops who were opposed to this practice, episcopal sanction was
not altogether wanting.

The affection with which the parishioners regarded the clerk is
evidenced in many ways. He received from them many gifts in kind and
money, such as eggs and cakes and sheaves of corn. Some of them were
demanded in early times as a right that could not be evaded; but the
compulsory payment of such goods was abolished, and the parishioners
willingly gave by courtesy that which had been deemed a right.

Sometimes land has been left to the clerk in order that he may ring the
curfew-bell, or a bell at night and early morning, so that travellers
may be warned lest they should lose their way over wild moorland or
bleak down, and, guided by the sound of the bell, may reach a place
of safety.

An old lady once lost her way on the Lincolnshire wolds, nigh Boston,
but was guided to her home by the sound of the church bell tolling at
night. So grateful was she that she bequeathed a piece of land to the
parish clerk on condition that he should ring one of the bells from
seven to eight o'clock each evening during the winter months.

There is a piece of land called "Curfew Land" at St.
Margaret's-at-Cliffe, Kent, the rent of which was directed to be paid to
the clerk or other person who should ring the curfew every evening in
orde