inevitable was seen to be approaching, but unfortunately Mr. Clarke by his own act anticipated it. Being accidentally left alone for a few moments he took a pistol, which he had concealed in a drawer, walked out into the garden and shot himself, the overwrought brain rendering him no longer accountable for his actions.
Of his successor, the Rev. Prebendary W. H. Milner, who, like Mr. Clarke, had held preferment in the diocese of Carlisle, we have only to say that he was an able man of business, carried on the work of the church with great energy, and introduced many reforms. He built the present vicarage. He was the last vicar nominated by the Bishop of Carlisle. Of the next two vicars it may be said that their tenure of office was all too short, hard faithful labour cutting off the Rev. Robert Giles (as we have before stated) in 1872, after a vicariate of only 4 years; while the Rev. Arthur Scrivenor died, after 10 years work in the parish, in his 51st year, in 1882. Canon E. Fowler Quarrington succeeded him, and held the vicarage during 18 years, when he was transferred, in 1900, to the Rectory of Welby, near Grantham. The Rev. Prebendary Alfred Edgar Moore, formerly Vicar of Messingham, near Brigg, began his vicariate in 1900, being inducted into the benefice on August 24, in that year.
Horncastle, we may here add, has been well served by its Curates. "Comparisons are (proverbially) odious," we will not therefore refer to any of these in recent years; but we may take three typical cases of men whose memory is still green and redolent of good work.
In the latter years of the amiable vicar, Dr. Madely, he needed an active assistant, and such was the Rev. William Spranger White, of Trinity College, Cambridge, a member of a family of position, the head of which was his uncle. Sir Thomas Wollaston White, of Wallingwells Park, Worksop, High Sheriff 1839, and formerly of the 10th Hussars. Mr. White possessed independent means and was very generous He was of a most sympathetic nature, and became greatly beloved by all classes. He worked hard in the parish from his ordination in 1833 to 1849.[1] In that year he was selected by the Marchioness of Lothian, to take charge of an Episcopalian Church, which her Ladyship built and endowed at Jedburgh, Roxburghshire. The church was opened with an octave of services, which were attended by the great Doctor Hook of Leeds, who had recommended Mr. White to her Ladyship. The father of the present writer, and many leading clergymen from this neighbourhood, and various parts of England and Scotland, attended the opening services. Mr. White remained there for some years, and married the eldest daughter of Lord Chancellor Campbell, who resided at Hartrigg House, near Jedburgh. This
- ↑ To show Mr. White's energy of character the writer may mention that he frequently, as a healthy diversion from his professional work, walked up to Langton Rectory before breakfast, and plied his spade in the garden, and then enjoyed a hearty breakfast with the Rector, returning to Horncastle in time for the daily service at 11 a.m. As an instance of his kindly nature we may give the following: At Horncastle a poor girl was suffering from a "white swelling" in the knee. The doctor declared that her life could only be saved by the leg being amputated above the knee. She dreaded the operation, but consented, if Mr. White would support her in his arms during the process. He was greatly averse to painful scenes, but reluctantly consented. Those were not the days of anæsthetics, when such operations can be performed without the patients feeling it; but he said to her "Let us pray," and while the doctors were at work they prayed so fervently that she was too much absorbed to notice what was done. At length she said, "Dear Mr. White will they never begin?" His reply was "My good girl, your leg is off, and the Lord has spared you all the pain." She lived to be a strong healthy woman and always blessed the curate.
not a little remarkable, that Mr. Clarke's widow, after a few years married again, a Medical Practitioner, near Windsor, and committed suicide by placing herself on the railway line, near that place, her mangled remains being afterwards found on the line. Whether her mind had been affected by her first husband's tragic death, who can say?
