fice, and that if he fail to do so the bishop can take steps for
his ejection therefrom. Mr. Wickham Legg has collected several other
instances of the existence of clerks' houses. At St. Michael's
Worcester, there was one, as in 1590 a sum was paid for mending it. At
St. Edmund's, Salisbury, the clerk had a house and garden in 1653. At
Barton Turf, Norfolk, three acres are known as "dog-whipper's land," the
task of whipping dogs out of churches being part of the clerk's duties,
as we shall notice more particularly later on. The rent of this land was
given to the clerk. At Saltwood, Kent, the clerk had a house and garden,
which have recently been sold[23].

[Footnote 23: _The Clerk's Book of 1549_, edited by J. Wickham Legg,
lvi.]

Archbishop Sancroft, at Fressingfield, caused a comfortable cottage to
be built for the parish clerk, and also a kind of hostelry for the
shelter and accommodation of persons who came from a distant part of
that large scattered parish to attend the church, so that they might
bring their cold provisions there, and take their luncheon in the
interval between the morning and the afternoon service.

There was a clerk's house at Ringmer. In the account of the beating of
the bounds of the parish in Rogation week, 1683, it is recorded that at
the close of the third day the procession arrived at the Crab Tree, when
the people sang a psalm, and "our minister read the epistle and gospel,
to request and supplicate the blessing of God upon the fruits of the
earth. Then did Mr. Richard Gunn invite all the company to _the clerk's
house_, where he expended at his own charge a barrell of beer, besides a
plentiful supply of provisions: and so ended our third and last day's
perambulation[24]."

[Footnote 24: _Social Life as told by Parish Registers_, by T.F.
Thiselton-Dyer, p. 197.]

In his little house the clerk lived and tended his garden when he was
not engaged upon his ecclesiastical duties. He was often a married man,
although those who were intending to proceed to the higher orders in the
Church would naturally be celibate. Pope Gregory, in writing to St.
Augustine of Canterbury, offered no objections to the marriage of
clerks. Lyndewoode shows a preference for the unmarried clerk, but if
such could not be found, a married clerk might perform his duties.
Numerous wills are in existence which show that very frequently the
clerk was blest with a wife, inasmuch as he left his goods to her; and
in one i