ntirely
himself; he had not to compete for the building of it, but had _carte
blanche_ in regard to every detail.

There was an amusing incident in connection with deciding upon the
pitch of the instrument. The authorities arranged that Sir Michael
Costa, Mr. R. K. Bowley, then general manager of the Crystal Palace,
and some of the leading wind-instrument players of the day, including
Lazarus (a famous clarinetist), should attend at the factory to settle
the question of the pitch of the organ. "They also brought a
violinist," said Mr. Willis; "but I couldn't see what a fiddler, who is
a very useful man in his way, had to do with settling the pitch. (I
should tell you," added Mr. Willis, _sotto voce_, "that _I_ had
formulated some idea of the proper pitch before these gentlemen
arrived.) However, we duly proceeded, Costa presiding over the
conclave. When they began to blow into their different instruments
each man had a different pitch! It was a regular pandemonium! By and
by we settled upon something which was considered satisfactory, and we
bade each other good morning." The sequel need not be told. We leave
it to our readers to draw their own conclusions as to whether the Royal
Albert Hall organ was actually tuned to the pitch of Messrs. Costa,
Bowley, Lazarus & Co., or to that previously decided upon by Mr. Willis.

He erected two large organs for the Alexandra Palace, and one in
Windsor Castle with two keyboards, one in St. George's Hall, and one in
His Majesty's Private Chapel, whereby the instrument is available for
use in both places.

It was entirely owing to Willis' dominating personality that the organ
in St. Paul's Cathedral was rebuilt in its present form. He had the
old screen taken down and the old organ case, which happened to be
alike on both sides, he cut in two and re-erected on each side of the
choir. The change also involved the removal of the statues of Lord
Nelson and Lord Cornwallis. When one of the committee asked him if he
proposed to have two organists for his divided organ, he replied, "You
leave that to me." And proceeded to invent[2] his tubular pneumatic
action (see page 25). When this organ was used for the first time at
the Thanksgiving service for the recovery of the Prince of Wales from
typhoid fever in 1873, the pneumatic action for the pedals was not
finished. Willis rigged up a temporary pedal board inside the organ
near the pedal pipes and played the pedal part of