Publisher's Synopsis
THERE are three classes of persons who are deeply concerned with parish registers-namely, villains, antiquaries, and the sedulous readers, "parish clerks and others," of thesecond or "agony" column of the Times. Villains are probably the most numerous of thesethree classes. The villain of fiction dearly loves a parish register: he cuts out pages, insertsothers, intercalates remarks in a different coloured ink, and generally manipulates theregister as a Greek manages his hand at écarté, or as a Hebrew dealer in Moabite bric-àbrac treats a synagogue roll. We well remember one villain who had locked himself intothe vestry (he was disguised as an archæologist), and who was enjoying his wickedpleasure with the register, when the vestry somehow caught fire, the rusty key would notturn in the door, and the villain was roasted alive, in spite of the disinterested efforts tosave him made by all the virtuous characters in the story. Let the fate of this bold, bad manbe a warning to wicked earls, baronets, and all others who attempt to destroy the record ofthe marriage of a hero's parents. Fate will be too strong for them in the long run, thoughthey bribe the parish clerk, or carry off in white wax an impression of the keys of the vestryand of the iron chest in which a register should repose.
