f
his organs. He took infinite pains with everything and his enthusiasm
knew no bounds. But, above all, he possessed in a striking degree that
attribute which a similar successful worker once aptly described as
"_obstinate_ perseverance." He had a strong aversion to newspaper men
and sent them away without ceremony. While free from conceit, he was
not always amenable to dictation, especially when he had disputes with
architects--in which the architects were generally worsted.

He regarded his organ in St. Paul's Cathedral (rebuilt in 1899), as his
_magnum opus_. "There is nothing like it in the world," he remarked,
with pardonable pride, one Saturday when Sir George Martin was playing
that kingly king of instruments. To paraphrase the inscription on
Purcell's monument in Westminster Abbey:--

"He has gone where only his own Harmony can be excelled,"

leaving behind him many noble specimens of his remarkable achievements.

ROBERT HOPE-JONES.

Robert is the third son of the late William Hope-Jones, Hooton Grange,
Cheshire, England.

His father, a man of means, was prominent as one of the pioneers in
organizing the volunteer army of Great Britain. He was musical,
playing the cornet and having an unusual tenor voice. His mother
(Agnes Handforth)--also musical and a gifted singer--was a daughter of
the Rector of Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire,--a highly nervous woman.

[Illustration: Robert Hope-Jones]

There were nine children of the marriage--two girls and seven boys.
Robert appeared on the ninth of February, 1859. He inherited in
exaggerated degree his mother's highly strung nervous nature.
Melancholy, weak and sickly as a child, he was not expected to live.
To avoid the damp and cold of English winters he was periodically taken
to the south of France. Deemed too delicate for school, a private
tutor was provided. Joining in sports or games was out of the question
for so sensitive and delicate a youth,--what more natural, therefore,
than that he should become a dreamer--a thinker? Too ill for any real
study, his musical instincts drove him to the organ, and we find him
playing for occasional services at Eastham Parish Church at the age of
nine. After his father's death, when he was about fourteen, he spent a
couple of years in irregular attendance at school, and at the time of
his confirmation was persuaded that by superhuman effort of will his
physical disabilities might be disregarded and a life