1“Arcady, for Better for Worse.”

2This is a matter of very great importance in hundreds of country parishes, where the washing of the rectory frequently suffices to maintain a whole family.

3A genuine Norfolk man never aspirates a t when followed by an r. It is always trew for through, troat for throat, tree for three, &c.

4I do not forget Crabbe—that sweet and gentle versifier. But the romantic element is wholly wanting in him. Very probably Sir Wilfrid Lawson would vehemently protest that Crabbe deserves to be reckoned among the greatest of the great. Was not his first poem entitled Inebriety? When a child I used to be told that Bloomfield’s Farmer’s Boy was equal to Spenser, but I concluded that Spenser must be very dull, and conceived a horror of the Faery Queen in consequence.

5The lists of “church goods”—i.e. of the contents of our churches—during the reign of Edward the Sixth, are to be found in the Record Office. Many of them have been printed in extenso; they make up in the aggregate a large mass of documents, and some account of them may be found in the seventh and ninth reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records. Among the miscellaneous books of the Exchequer is a visitation book of the Archdeacon of Norwich for the year 1368, which contains a very minute account of the contents of every church in the archdeaconry, including service books, vestments, sacred vessels, banners, processional crosses, ornaments, &c., all set down in detail, the names of the donors being frequently given, and sometimes the value of the more precious articles being stated. Some years ago I stumbled upon an inventory of the contents of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary, Warwick, drawn up in 1467, extending over five folio pages. It seemed to me, on a cursory inspection, to be a document of great value as illustrative of this subject. I know not whether it has ever been printed; if not, perhaps Warwickshire antiquaries may be glad to be referred to it—Miscell. Books of the Exchequer, Q.R. No. 30. The inventory begins at fol. cci.

6Why will not the printers’ readers let me use this word? I do use it every day of my life in talk; why may I not write it and print it? It is very short, and it is perfectly harmless. I am afraid it must mean something bad in Finnish or some other strange tongue, for the reader always draws my attention to it.

7Fact! Old Biddy’s habit of dashing it is so confirmed that there’s no hope of her outgrowing it.

8Inasmuch as the general reader has a strong objection to the use of Decimals, it will be a comfort to him to be assured that multiplying by ·0001 is the same thing as dividing by 10,000; and so ·0001 (x - m)² is only another way of writing ((x - m)²)/10,000

9It has been only of late years that any Christian ministers other than those ordained by the bishops of the Church of England have been called “clergymen” among us. The nonconformists were always called “ministers” or “preachers.” I find myself driven to use the words “clergy” and “minister” in the old way, to avoid conveying a wrong impression to my readers.