In certain parts, the custom of crying lost goods in church was undoubtedly prevalent, and did not then appear peculiar. The rector, who had lost his favourite dog and told the parish clerk to do his best to ascertain its whereabouts, may have been astonished to hear him announce the loss in church, coupled with a statement that a reward of three pounds would be given to the person who should restore the animal to its owner. But such surprise was hardly natural when an announcement like the following was possible:--"Mislaid on Sunday last! The gold-rimmed vicar's spectacles of best glass, taken from his eyes in going into the poor box, or put down somewhere when going into the font to fetch the water after the christening." What a shock this rare jumble produced by a country clerk must have been to the precise and classical vicar can only be imagined. The thought, however, of a gold-rimmed vicar diminutive enough to enter font or poor box is somewhat staggering! Quite as muddled, but much more ingenious, was the clerk who announced, in recent years, an accomplished D.Sc. and LL.D. as a Doctor of Schools and a Lord Lieutenant of Divinity! "Lost, stolen, or strayed," shouted the clerk in church one Sunday, with the strident voice of a town crier, and the manner of one not unaccustomed to the task, "lost, stolen, or strayed. Four fat sheep and one lean cow. Whoever will return the same to Mr. ----'s farm will be suitably rewarded." It is well that the name of the parish in which it was given, is missing from another specimen of this sort of announcement, for it seems to indicate that honesty there could be but the outcome of an inducement afforded by the promise of substantial reward. "Lost," said the clerk, "on Sunday last, when the wearer was walking home from this church, and before she reached the Town Hall, a lady's gold brooch, set with pearls and other precious stones. The one who has found it will consider it worth while to restore it, for the reward of a guinea is offered."