under the title of ‘South America and the Pacific’ (2 vols. London, 1838). The book has an interesting appendix upon Pacific steam communication. Ill-health interrupted his diplomatic career, and he acted as marshal to his father, then chief baron of the exchequer. On 3 April 1844 he resumed work abroad as secretary of legation at Florence, and was made a C.B. on 19 Sept. 1854. On 31 Dec. 1855 he was promoted to be envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at Rio Janeiro, but on 13 Dec. 1858 went back to Florence as minister. After the union of Italy in 1860 the mission was abolished, and Scarlett retired on a pension. On 12 June 1862 he was again employed as envoy extraordinary at Athens, and in November 1864, after a prolonged stay in England, was transferred to the court of the Emperor Maximilian in Mexico. There, as at Athens, he witnessed the deposition of the reigning sovereign. On 11 Oct. 1867 he retired finally on pension.
Scarlett during his retirement gathered materials for the life of his father, which were published under the title of ‘Materials for the Life of James Scarlett, Lord Abinger,’ London, 1877. He died at Parkhurst, Dorking, Surrey, on 15 July 1881. He married twice: first, Frances Sophia Mostyn, second daughter of Edmund Lomax of Parkhurst (she died in 1849); secondly, on 27 Dec. 1873, Louisa Anne Jeannin, daughter of J. Wolfe Murray, and widow of Lord Cringletie. He left one son, a colonel in the guards, and one daughter, who married Sir John Walsham.
[Foreign Office List, 1880; Times, 16 July 1881; Burke's Peerage, s.v. ‘Abinger;’ private information.]
SCARLETT, ROBERT (1499?–1594), ‘Old Scarlett,’ was a well-known figure in the precincts of Peterborough cathedral during the greater part of the sixteenth century. He was born about 1499, and was established as sexton some years previous to 1535, when he buried Catherine of Arragon on the north side of the cathedral choir. On 1 Aug. 1586, after great ceremonial, he buried Mary Queen of Scots on the south side of the same choir. He was buried near the west portal in July 1594. On a square stone at the west end of the cathedral is the inscription ‘July 2 1594. R. S. ætatis 98,’ but a manuscript note in Gunton states that his real age was ninety-five. Above the stone hangs an extremely quaint oil-painting (canvas 76 by 54) in a large wooden frame; 1l. 12s. was paid for the original picture in 1665. The present work, a copy made in 1747, represents the nonagenarian sexton with a shovel and keys, dressed in a red suit, with a dog-whip thrust through his leathern girdle, it being a regular part of a sexton's duty in those days to whip dogs out of church; below the figure are twelve rude verses.
A good etching was executed by W. Williams in 1776 (Brit. Mus. Print Room, portraits s.v. ‘Scaleits’), and there is an engraving by Page in the ‘Wonderful Magazine,’ reproduced in 1804 in Granger's ‘Wonderful Museum’ (ii. 656), where Scarlett is noticed as ‘Old Scaleits.’ His portrait is still reproduced in colours upon the porcelain cups and other vessels sold as souvenirs of Peterborough cathedral, and a local annual is entitled ‘Old Scarlett's Almanack.’
[Sweeting's Peterborough Churches, 1868, pp. 54, 62; Gunton's Hist. of the Church of Peterburgh, 1686, p. 93; Dibdin's Northern Tour, i. 13; Chambers's Book of Days, ii. 17; Once a Week, 18 Feb. 1871; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. x. 293, 358; Murray's Eastern Cathedrals, p. 71; personal inspection]
SCARTH, HARRY MENGDEN (1814–1890), antiquary, born on 11 May 1814, was son of Thomas Freshfield Scarth of Keverstone in the parish of Staindrop, co. Durham, chief agent to successive dukes of Cleveland, and his wife Mary, born Milbank, of Gainford, near Darlington. After receiving his early education at the Edinburgh Academy, he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1837, proceeded M.A. in 1841, and was admitted ad eundem at Oxford on 1 Dec. 1842. He was ordained deacon in 1837 and priest in 1840, and for a short time held the curacy of Eaton Constantine, Shropshire, which he left on being presented by William Henry, first duke of Cleveland, to the rectory of Kenley in the same county. By the same patron he was presented in 1841 to the rectory of Bathwick in the borough of Bath, Somerset. In 1871 Harry George, fourth duke of Cleveland, presented him to the rectory of Wrington, Somerset, which he held until his death. He was appointed a prebendary of Wells on 25 March 1848, and was rural dean of Portishead from about 1880. He died at Tangier on 5 April 1890, and was buried at Wrington. By his wife, Elizabeth Sally (d. 1876), daughter of John Leveson Hamilton (d. 1825), rector of Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, whom he married on 15 Nov. 1842, he had seven children, of whom a son, Leveson Edward Scarth, and two unmarried daughters survived him. He was a moderate high churchman and a good parish priest. He was much esteemed in Bath, and a window was erected to his
