he service at Belbroughton Church,
Worcestershire, when the clerk was Mr. Osborne, tailor. His family had
been parish clerks and tailors since the time of Henry VIII, and were
lineally descended from William Fitz-Osborne, who in the twelfth century
had been deprived by Ralph Fitz-Herbert of his right to the manor of
Bellam, in the parish of Bellroughton. Often have I stood in the
picturesque churchyard of Wolverley, Worcestershire, by the grave of the
old parish clerk, whom I well remember, old Thomas Worrall, the
inscription on whose monument is as follows:

Sacred to the memory of
THOMAS WORRALL,
parish clerk of Wolverley for a period of
forty-seven years.
Died A.D. 1854, February 23rd.
He served with faithfulness in humble sphere
As one who could his talents well employ,
Hope that when Christ his Lord shall reappear,
He may be bidden to his Master's joy.

This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceased
by a few parishioners in testimony of his worth, April 1855.

Charles R. Somers Cocks,
Vicar.

It may be noted of this worthy clerk that, with the exception of a week
or two before his death, he was never absent from his Sunday and weekday
duties in the forty-seven years during which he held office.

He succeeded his father, James Worrall, who died in 1806, aged
seventy-nine, after being parish clerk of Wolverley for thirty years.
His tombstone, near to that of his son, was erected "to record his worth
both in his public and private character, and as a mark of personal
esteem--p. 1. F.H. and W.C. p.c." I am told that these initials stand
for F. Hustle, and the Rev. William Callow, and that the latter was the
author of the following lines inscribed on the monument, which are well
worth quoting:

If courtly bards adorn each statesman's bust
And strew their laurels o'er each warrior's dust,
Alike immortalise, as good and great,
Him who enslaved as him who saved the State,
Surely the Muse (a rustic minstrel) may
Drop one wild flower upon a poor man's clay.
This artless tribute to his mem'ry give
Whose life was such as heroes seldom live.
In worldly knowledge, poor indeed his store--
He knew the village, and he scarce knew more.
The worth of heavenly truth he justly knew--
In faith a Christian, and in practice too.