pels
in London had organs, or indeed instruments of any kind, and
there is no doubt that the congregations, as a rule, _did_
sing at the tops of their voices, a proceeding known under
the more euphonious title of 'hearty congregational singing.'

He gives a far more favourable account of the music in the
village church. In the essay just referred to he mentions
the fact that he attended a service in a West of England
church where the service 'was spoken--not merely read--by a
grey-headed minister.'

The psalms were accompanied by a few instrumental
performers, who were stationed in a small gallery
extending across the church at the lower end; and the
voices were led by the clerk, who, it was evident,
derived no slight pride and gratification from this
portion of the service.

But if the church music in England was not of a very high
quality when Dickens wrote the above, it was, according to his
own account, far superior to what he heard in certain churches
in Italy. When in Rome he visited St. Peter's, where he was
quite unimpressed by the music.

I have been infinitely more affected in many English
cathedrals when the organ has been playing, and in
many English country churches when the congregation
have been singing.

On another occasion he attended church at Genoa on a feast day,
and he writes thus about the music:

The organ played away lustily, and a full band did the
like; while a conductor, in a little gallery opposite
the band, hammered away on the desk before him, with a
scroll, and a tenor, without any voice, sang. The band
played one way, the organ played another, the singer
went a third, and the unfortunate conductor banged and
banged, and flourished his scroll on some principle
of his own; apparently well satisfied with the whole
performance. I never did hear such a discordant din.

_Parish Clerks_

We have but few references to parish clerks in the
novels. Mr. Wopsle (_G.E._)--whom Mr. Andrew Lang calls 'one
of the best of Dickens' minor characters'--'punished the Amens
tremendously,'[14] and when he gave out the psalms--always
giving the whole verse--he looked all round the congregation
first, as much as to say 'You have heard our friend overhead;
oblige me with your opinion of this style.' This gentleman
subsequently became a 'play-actor,' but failed to achieve
the success he desired. Solomon Daisy (_B.R._) is b