Which he tuned best 'twas hard to say.

Another remarkable instance of longevity is that recorded on a
tombstone in the cemetery of Eye, Suffolk, erected to the memory of a
faithful clerk:

Erected to the memory of
George Herbert
who was clerk of this parish for more
than 71 years
and who died on the 17th May 1873
aged 81 years.

This monument
Is erected to his memory by his grateful
Friend
the Rev. W. Page Roberts
Vicar of Eye.

Herbert must have commenced his duties very early in life; according to
the inscription, at the age of ten years.

At Scothorne, in Lincolnshire, there is a sexton-ringer-clerk epitaph on
John Blackburn's tombstone, dated 1739-40. It reads thus:

Alas poor John
Is dead and gone
Who often toll'd the Bell
And with a spade
Dug many a grave
And said Amen as well.

The Roes were a great family of clerks at Bakewell, and the two members
who occupied that office at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of
the nineteenth century seem to have been endowed with good voices, and
with a devoted attachment to the church and its monuments. Samuel Roe
had the honour of being mentioned in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, and
receives well-deserved praise for his care of the fabric of Bakewell
Church, and his epitaph is given, which runs as follows:

To
The memory of
SAMUEL ROE
Clerk
of the Parish Church of Bakewell,
which office
he filled thirty-five years
with credit to himself
and satisfaction to the inhabitants.
His natural powers of voice,
in clearness, strength, and sweetness
were altogether unequalled.
He died October 31st, 1792
Aged 70 years

The correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ wrote thus of this
faithful clerk:

"Mr. Urban,

"It was with much concern that I read the epitaph upon Mr.
Roe in your last volume, page 1192. Upon a little tour which
I made in Derbyshire in 1789, I met with that worthy and very
intelligent man at Bakewell, and in the course of my
antiquarian researches there, derived no inconsiderable
assistance from his zeal and civility. If he did not possess
the learning of his namesake, your old and valuable
correspondent[45], I will venture to declare that he was not
less influenced by a love and veneration for antiquity, many
proofs of