benchers pledged themselves that "if each of these
excellent artists would set up an organ in one of the halls belonging to
either of the societies, they would have erected in their church that
which, in the greatest number of excellencies, deserved the preference."
For more than twenty years Father Smith had been the first organ-builder
in England; and the admirable qualities of his instruments testify to
his singular ability. A German artist (in his native country called
Bernard Schmidt, but in London known as Father Smith), he had
established himself in the English capital as early as the summer of
1660; and gaining the cordial patronage of Charles II., he and his two
grand-nephews soon became leaders of their craft. Father Smith built
organs for Westminster Abbey, for the Church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields,
for St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, for Durham Cathedral, and for
other sacred buildings. In St. Paul's Cathedral he placed the organ
which Wren disdainfully designated a "box of whistles;" and dying in
1708, he left his son-in-law, Christopher Schreider, to complete the
organ which still stands in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge.
But notwithstanding his greatness, Father Smith had rivals; his first
rival being Harris the Elder, who died in 1672, his second being Renatus
Harris, or Harris the Younger. The elder Harris never caused Smith much
discomfort; but his son, Renatus, was a very clever fellow, and a strong
party of fashionable _connoisseurs_ declared that he was greatly
superior to the German. Such was the position of these two rivals when
the benchers made their proposal, which was eagerly accepted by the
artificers, each of whom saw in it an opportunity for covering his
antagonist with humiliation.

The men went to work: and within fourteen months their instruments were
ready for competition. Smith finished work before Harris, and prevailed
on the benchers to let him place his organ in the Temple church, well
knowing that the powers of the instrument could be much more readily and
effectively displayed in the church than in either of the dining-halls.
The exact site where he fixed his organ is unknown, but the careful
author of 'A Few Notes on the Temple Organ, 1859,' is of opinion that it
was put up "on the screen between the round and oblong churches--the
position occupied by the organ until the present organ-chamber was
built, and the organ removed there during the progress of the complete