PUBLIC WORSHIP AND EDUCATION--MORALS AND MUSIC.
When the reforming spirit which brooded over the two centuries touched
the subject of education, its advocates became enthusiastic! Here is
what an old writer said in 1806 about a proposal to establish evening
schools for the instruction of farm servants:--
"We should hear the humble countryman talk of the heroes of old, catch
the patriotic inspiration from the action of his great forefathers,
while wisdom would extend her protecting hand and claim the nation for
her own"!
However much we may be inclined to smile at this grandiloquent prophecy
of the fruits of an evening school, in the light of present
difficulties of instilling four standards into the bulk of the
childhood of the nation, it is impossible to move a step among the
footprints of the common people of sixty years ago without finding how
enormously the progress of education has transformed the face of
society, though not quite on the classic lines of the old writer just
quoted.
Of education for children in the villages there was none at the
beginning of the century. Over and over again the answers to the
Bishop of Ely's questions in 1791, show that there was no school in the
parish, and, as Sunday Schools were not generally established till many
years afterwards, it may safely be said that during the first few years
of the present century, not one person in ten of the labouring
population could read, much less write.
The Sunday School movement, the real beginning of the education of the
people, both secular and religious, commenced at a very early date in
several parts of Hertfordshire, but in the beginning these schools were
very different from what is now understood by that term. So far as
Royston is concerned I believe the Nonconformists generally claim that
they were the first to start a Sunday School in the town--that the
first Sunday School was established in connection with the Old Meeting,
now John Street Chapel. If by a Sunday School is meant what it now
means--the voluntary service of lay workers in teaching the children,
this may be true, but taking the word in its more general sense of
teaching children on Sundays, the first step of which I can find any
{118} record would be that taken by the Church people. In July, 1808,
there occurs this entry in the Royston vestry minute book--
"At this Vestry it is considered that the Churchwardens Do put the
Galary in proper Order for the Reception of the Children belonging to a
Sunday School."
From the wording of this minute it is evident that the Sunday School in
question had just been established, and this is confirmed by what
follows in the same book--
"Boys to be admitted at the age of 6 years and continue to 12, girls to
be admitted at the age of 6 years and continue to 14."
"The Masters to receive the scholars at 9 o'clock in the morning and to
go with them to Church at 11. The scholars are to return to school at
2 and go to Church at 3 and return from Church to school, and _continue
there till between five and six o'clock_"!
"The master, H. Watson, jun., to be paid six guineas a year for his
trouble."
This Sunday School was established during the incumbency of the Rev.
Samuel Cautherley, a name still honourably connected with Sunday School
work in the town.
Henry Watson, who was appointed master of the Sunday School, had also
the picturesque duty to perform of wielding his ten-foot wand over the
heads of the scholars during divine service at Church, and for this
purpose would walk up and down the aisles, and if any unfortunate
youngster did anything wrong, down came the wand, whack, upon the--no,
not upon the boy's head but upon the back of the seat, for the boys
generally could dodge it!
One of the earliest Sunday Schools established in Hertfordshire was at
Hoddesdon (1790) of which the following rules will perhaps be read with
interest by some youthful readers who think an hour in school a trial
of patience--
"The Children are to appear in the School-room at Eight o'clock in the
Morning during the Summer Months, and at nine in the Winter, and again
both Summer and Winter at Half-past Two o'clock in the Afternoon, with
clean Face and Hands, Hair combed, and decently clothed according to
the Abilities of their Parents; to proceed to Church, and from thence
to School, there to remain receiving Instruction till Six o'Clock in
the Evening!
"The Teachers shall receive One Shilling per Score; and have an
Assistant when the Number requires it."
"Children not coming to School in time, are to wear a Mark inscribed
Idle Boy or Girl, in large Letters, during Church, and the whole or
part of the School Time.
"Children behaving ill to wear a Mark of Naughty Boy or Girl."
{119}
The Old Meeting Sunday School, established in 1813, appears to have
been brought into the shape of an institution by the earlier efforts of
the Misses Nash, daughters of Mr. Wm. Nash, a noted lawyer, whose name
is mentioned elsewhere. These ladies first conducted a class for girls
in their own house. The school at the Old Meeting was started with the
following Committee of Management:--Rev. John Pendered (their
minister), James Pigott, William Clack, William Smith, William Field
Butler and Henry Butler, and the first Sunday scholar on the old
register I notice was the late Mr. John Norman, the naturalist; Mr.
James Jacklin being also among the earliest scholars.
The Sunday School at the New Meeting (Kneesworth Street Chapel) was
established later by the efforts of Mr. Stallabrass, a wool stapler,
living in Melbourn Street. The distinction of paid Church school
teachers and voluntary teachers at the Chapels appears to have been
kept up for at least 20 years after the schools were established, for
in 1831 a return was required to be made by the Overseers to the House
of Commons of all schools in their parishes, and from the return made
on that occasion by Thomas A. Butterfield and Philip Craft (overseers),
I give the following:--
"Three Sunday Schools--one Church School with 55 scholars, and two
Dissenters' Schools with 204 scholars. A lending library attached to
both Dissenting Schools. In the two Dissenting Sunday Schools the
children are taught by gratuitous teachers. Church Sunday School
supported by voluntary contributions; master's salary seven guineas per
annum."
The above return enables us to compare the growth of Sunday Schools in
the town, and the most striking fact is that while at first the Chapel
Schools were by far the larger, the later figures show a great increase
in the Church Sunday School in particular, and of Sunday scholars in
general. In 1831 we see that the Church had only 55 scholars; in 1890
it had 405; in 1831, the two Independent Schools had 204 between them,
now they have about 420. In 1831, the total scholars in Sunday Schools
in Royston was 259, now, including Wesleyan School, the number is about
900. To get an exact comparison about two-thirds of the present
figures should be taken, as the population of the town in 1831 was very
nearly (not quite) two-thirds of what it is at present. This basis
would give us 600 scholars now against 259 sixty years ago. Those who
think we may be losing our hold upon the children must remember that we
have all this advantage plus the elementary education of the day
schools, as compared with sixty years ago, and a comparison with eighty
years ago would of course be even more in favour of the present.
By the year 1840 the relative position of the Sunday Schools as to
scholars was, Church School 92, the three Dissenting Schools {120}
264--viz., New Meeting 154, Old Meeting 85, and Unitarian 25. By 1831,
out of a population of 2,258, there were 1,313 who could read and write.
Coming to Day Schools we find from the same Parliamentary return for a
date somewhat beyond that assigned me, viz., 1831, the following
particulars, as questions and answers, are given--
What number of Infant Schools, if any? One public Lancastrian School,
53 in attendance, 70 on the list; children may enter at a
year-and-a-half and remain till 6 or 7--mistress L30 a year.
What number of Daily Schools? One Lancastrian, 53 in attendance, 90 on
the list; enter at 6 years of age and remain as long as their parents
please to let them--mistress 12s. a week.
Total number of schools of all kinds, 16. Three Boarding Schools and
for day pupils; one for males 30 scholars, one 25 scholars (7 males, 18
females); one 15 scholars, (3 males, 12 females); one 27 scholars (4
males, 23 females); one 26 (male) scholars; six schools for both sexes,
3 to 8 or 10 years of age.
What number of schools confined nominally or virtually to the
Established Church? Only one Sunday School as above.
What number of schools confined nominally or virtually to any other
Religious Denominations? Four--Infant, Lancastrian and two Sunday
Schools (Independents).
Of the sixteen schools in the town, of which details of fourteen are
given above, none had many pupils; some were virtually dame schools,
where the teaching was not often a very elevating process; and too
often appealed to the motive of fear, either of a black dog in the
cellar or of the assurance that Buonaparte was coming! Education of
the well-to-do was much more local than now, owing to the expense and
inconvenience of travel, hence the large number of private schools.
Of the first Day Schools where any considerable number of children
attended before the present series of public schools was established,
the evidence goes to show that they were of the dame school order,
remembered best in after years, not by the amount of erudition
acquired, but by some of the elder boys who went little errands over
the way to the "Fox and Duck" (now the house occupied by Mr. H. Clark,
Market Hill), and from the facts that the article they returned with
having, by special injunction, to be placed behind the door, that the
worthy dame soon afterwards repaired to that corner of the room, the
more knowing of the scholars were apt to draw certain conclusions as to
the somnulent condition of their instructress and the easy terms upon
which a truant boy could get off by going that little errand! But the
limited means placed at the disposal of those engaged in the education
of children then, compared with our millions of Government grant of
to-day, do not allow us to judge too harshly of results.
{121}
Even where there was some endowment it was generally on too small a
scale to do much for a general system of education. At Melbourn the
first school of this kind assembled in a quaint room at the top of the
Church porch!
At Barkway, where the Duchess of Richmond's endowment led to a free
school, this was of so limited a character that in the Commissioners'
report as late as 1838, the endowment was only L10 0s. 4d., to which
was added L5 from the town lands, L5 from the rent of the town house,
besides which the tolls of the annual fair, varying from 3s. to 5s.,
were also applied to education, and together seven boys and five girls
were being educated at the Free School out of a population of a
thousand souls, and this was only one year before the National Schools
were started in 1839!
The germ of public elementary education in Royston is associated with
the present Infants' School and with the honoured name of Miss Martha
Nash. The present Infants' School was established in 1832. The land
upon which it was built was given by Lord Dacre, and funds for the
building were obtained chiefly from a very successful bazaar under the
patronage of the then Lord and Lady Dacre.
The original trustees of the School were:--Edward King Fordham
(Royston), Wedd William Nash, John Phillips, John Edward Fordham, John
George Fordham, Valentine Beldam, John Beldam, John Butler, Thomas
Butterfield, William Hollick Nash, Joseph Pattison Wedd, William Field
Butler, James Piggot and Thomas Pickering.
The British School was established in 1840, and the building erected on
land the gift of Lord Dacre; the National School was commenced in the
same year and the school building also erected on land given by Lord
Dacre. The following is a list of the first trustees of the British
School:--Wedd William Nash, John Phillips, John George Fordham, John
Butler, Joseph Pattison Wedd, John Medway, S. S. England, F. Neller, W.
F. Butler, John Pendered, Henry Butler, William Hollick Nash, T. S.
Maling, James Piggot, James Richardson, William Simmons and Thomas A.
Butterfield.
I am unable to give the corresponding list of the first trustees of the
National Schools, but the following names occur as being present at a
meeting soon after the school was founded, and several of them were no
doubt trustees, viz., Rev. J. Whiting (vicar), John Phillips, William
Nunn, Henry Thurnall, G. Smith, ---- Brown, sen., R. Brown, and D.
Britten.
Whatever weight may be attached to the circumstance itself, or to the
oft-repeated complaints that religious worship and religious beliefs
have not so strong a hold upon the minds of men now as in the past, all
the evidence available points unmistakably to the fact of an enormous
increase in the habit of attending public worship at the {122} present
time compared with a hundred years ago, even when the constable went
his rounds in our streets to look up defaulters about the town, and
"particularly at the Cross."
There was a marvellous difference in the state of the Established
Church at the end of the last Century and to-day. It is a very rare
thing now to see a parish without a resident clergyman, but then,
clergymen often held two or more parishes without residing in either.
In 1791, for instance, the Vicar of the two parishes of Great and
Little Abington lived in a house of his own at Thriplow. The truth is,
says an old writer under date, 1789, "that most of the Churches within
ten miles of Cambridge were served by Fellowes of Colleges." In some
cases the Curates hastened back to dine in hall. In this way the
Curates would come out to the parish to a service, to a wedding, a
funeral, or a day's shooting, and often served two or three parishes in
this free and easy fashion, and it became necessary to limit the
service in each parish to alternate Sundays.
Upon this subject and upon the character of the services in many
village Churches of the time, I am indebted to a very good
authority--MS. reminiscences by the late Mr. Henry Thurnall--for the
following: "Neither Whittlesford, Sawston, Great Shelford, Newton,
Hauxton, Barrington, or Chishill, had a resident minister." As to the
character of the Psalmody practised in the Churches, the same authority
says:--At Duxford, John and Thomas H---- performed on two bassoons
anything but heavenly music; at Shelford old John M----, the clerk,
used to climb up a ladder into a high gallery and there seating
himself, often quite alone, and saying "let us sing to the praise and
glory of God by singin' the fust four vusses of the 100th psalm, old
vusshun';" and he put on his spectacles and read and sung each verse,
frequently as a solo accompanying himself on a bass-viol, said to have
been made by himself! At W---- old V---- set the tune with a cracked
flute, and on one occasion, when reading the 26th verse of the grand
104th Psalm, he said:--"There goes the Ships, and there is that
Lufftenant [Leviathan] whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein."
In an extremely interesting book of reminiscences, which may be
cordially recommended to the notice of the reader,--"What I Remember,"
by Adolphus Trollope, brother of the famous novelist, Anthony
Trollope--there are some interesting glimpses of a Parish Church and
its services in one of the villages in this district at the beginning
of this century. The Trollopes were related to the Meetkerkes, of
Julians, Rushden, and the entertaining author of "What I remember,"
was, at the time of Waterloo, the expected heir to Julians, and of
Adolphus Meetkerke, Esq., the then head of the family. Young Trollope
visited Rushden as a boy and gives us a graphic picture of family life,
Church services, and the squire of the village {123} playing the part
of Sir Roger de Coverley. The house-keeping at Julians, we are told,
was in the hands of "Mrs. Anne," an old maiden sister of the squire,
who, though a prim, precise little woman, sometimes came down to
breakfast a little late, "to find her brother standing on the
hearth-rug, with his prayer-book open in his hand, waiting for her
arrival to begin prayers to the assembled household. He had a
wonderfully strong rasping voice, the tones of which were rarely
modulated under any circumstances. I can hear now his reverberating,
'Five minutes too late again, Mrs. Anne' 'Dearly beloved brethren,'
etc.; the change of person addressed, and of subject having been marked
by no pause or break whatever, save the sudden kneeling at the head of
the breakfast table; while at the conclusion of the short, but never
missed prayers, the transition from 'Amen,' to 'William, bring round
the brown mare after breakfast,' was equally unmarked by pause for
change of voice or manner."
To this is added a glimpse of the villagers assembled in Church under
the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Skinner. "Whether there was any clerk or
not I do not remember," says Mr. Trollope, "but if any such official
existed, the performance of his office in Church was not only overlaid
but extinguished by the great rough 'view-holloa' sort of voice of my
uncle. He never missed going to Church, and never missed a word of the
responses, which were given in far louder tones than those of the
Vicar. Something of a hymn was always attempted, I remember, by the
rustic congregation; with what sort of musical effect may be imagined.
* * * * But the singers were so well pleased with the exercise that
they were apt to prolong it, as my uncle thought, somewhat unduly, and
on such occasions he would cut the performance short with a rasping
'That's enough!' which effectually brought it to an abrupt conclusion.
The very short sermon * * * having been brought to an end, my uncle
would sing out to the Vicar, as he was descending the pulpit stairs,
'Come up to dinner, Skinner!' and then we all marched out while the
rustics, still retaining their places till we were fairly out of the
door, made their obeisances as we passed."
In this glimpse we miss the genial face of Sir Roger, but there is
nothing in it inconsistent with the village squire of the Spectator,
Indeed, Mr. Trollope says of the old squire, "He was a good man too,
was old Adolphus Meetkerke; a good landlord, a kindly natured man, a
good sportsman, an active magistrate, and a good husband."
He was evidently a regular attendant to his magisterial duties on the
Royston Bench, for his clean, linear, and well-written signature turns
up frequently in the Royston parish books. The Meetkerkes descended
from a famous Dutchman, Sir Adolphus Meetkerke, who was at one time
ambassador to England.
{124}
Before the Tithe Commutation Act was passed, a very curious piece of
work in the harvest field was the paying of the parson by the tithe man
going round among the shocks of corn and placing a green bough in every
tenth shock, &c., for then the tithe was collected in kind--the tenth
shock, hay-cock, calf, lamb, pig, fowl, pigeon, duck, egg, the tenth
pound of butter, cheese, and so on through all the products of the
land. The inconvenience of this clumsy system was often greatly felt,
when a farmer was compelled to delay the carting of his corn simply
because the tithe man had not been round to set out the tithe corn,
while on the other hand it was obviously impossible for the clergyman
to get the work all done at once to suit all parties, and thus when a
Commutation Act came it was a great relief alike to the clergyman and
the farmers and landowners, and did away with a longstanding cause of
strife and litigation, especially in a town like Royston, where a
farmer might have tithable produce in several parishes.
Sometimes the tithe owner found an attempt to impose upon him some of
the lean kine, and that the tenth of its kind had a way of differing
somewhat from the other nine! When, for instance, in the last century,
Canon Weston was away in Durham, his curate, at Therfield, on going to
Brandish to tithe the ringe-wood, found the woodman over anxious for
him to begin counting at a certain spot, where the cutting commenced,
but suspecting that the ringes had been cooked a little, the wily
curate examined them and found every tenth, from the woodman's way of
counting _fell upon a very thin ringe_! Remonstrances followed and the
"tenths" were made up to the same condition of plumpness as the rest,
and the curate received the commendation of his superior for so well
looking after his affairs!
Since the date to which the foregoing state of things refers, the
Established Church has had an awakening which has taken a real hold
upon and has been influenced by the laity, and has recognised that it
has a mission to the people rather than an official routine, facts
which are not without significance in their bearing upon what follows
with regard to the town of Royston, and the relative positions of the
Church and Dissenting bodies.
A hundred years ago the Nonconformists included most of the wealthy
families in the town and neighbourhood. The pulpit at the Old Meeting
(Independents) erected in the narrow part of Kneesworth Street in 1706
was occupied at least once a year by Robert Hall, the great Baptist
preacher then at Cambridge, who was a not unfrequent visitor at the
houses of Edward King Fordham, the banker, and William Nash, the lawyer.
One of the principal events in the religious life of the town at the
end of last century was the division of the congregation of
Independents at the Old Meeting.
{125}
The origin of the New Meeting, as it was called, was a very small one,
and does not look at first like a very serious split in the old
congregation. An old paper, still in existence, written apparently and
read at the opening of the New Meeting, states that "in the year 1791 a
few of us met at a friend's house a few weeks for prayer and the
reading of the Word of God; our numbers soon increased and then we met
in a barn for a considerable time. We went on till the year 1792, and
our numbers still increasing we erected this meeting." At this time
the Rev. Mr. Atkinson was the minister. It is evident, however, that
the new movement grew apace, and some interest began to be taken in it
in the town, for on 24th February, 1791, we find J. Butler laying J.
Beldam a bottle of wine "that the New Meeting House will be begun in
six months at Royston." Evidently Mr. Butler won his bottle of wine,
for on the 2nd of May, in the same year, the contract for the new
building, to be afterwards known as the "New Meeting" (Kneesworth
Street) was signed.
It is interesting to note the plain, inexpensive kind of building which
suited persons assembling for public worship compared with to-day, for
the amount of the contract for erecting the building "in a workman-like
manner" was only L320. This contract was between John Stamford,
carpenter and builder, on the one part, and on the other part the
following gentlemen who were the first trustees:--Samuel Luke, of
Royston, Cambs., maltster; William Stamford, Royston, Herts., maltster;
George Fordham, the elder, and George Fordham, the younger, both of
Kelshall, gentlemen; Robert Hankin, Royston, Cambs., draper; Thomas
Wells, Royston, Herts., grocer; Thomas Trigg, Bassingbourn, yeoman;
Samuel Walbey, Royston, Cambs., maltster; William Coxall, Bassingbourn,
gentleman; John Abbott, Royston, Herts., breeches-maker; Abraham Luke,
Royston, Cambs., yeoman; and John Goode, Royston, Herts., carpenter.
It was for a lath and plaster structure without galleries, and was
opened apparently in 1792.
The Old and New Independents continued to work side by side, the new
overtaking the old, till 1841, when a serious fire happening on the
premises of Mr. Warren, builder, near the site of the present John
Street Chapel, advantage was taken of the opening thus made, and the
site was purchased for a new Chapel from Mr. John Phillips, who, at the
same time, by pulling down part of the premises facing High Street,
threw open the present thoroughfare, which henceforth obtained the name
of John Street, after Mr. Phillips. The new Chapel, erected on the
north side, was built by Mr. Warren, at a cost of between three and
four thousand pounds, and re-placed the old chapel in Kneesworth
Street, which afterwards became converted into dwelling-houses (Mr.
Higgins' shop and houses adjoining). The new Chapel, opened in {126}
1843 by the Rev. Dr. Binney, as preacher on the first Sunday, and
Edward Miall, who afterwards became the Liberationist M.P., on the
next, has an imposing front elevation which it may be of interest to
state is taken from the celebrated Ionic Temple on the south bank of
the Ilissus at Athens.
The last meeting house of the Society of Friends in Royston was in
Royston, Cambs., on the East side of Kneesworth Street, the burial
ground of which still remains, with tombstones to the memory of Quaker
families of former days. The old meeting house stood back from the
street, reached by a narrow passage between the cottages, with the
small burial ground and a row of lime trees in front.
During the first quarter of the century a house in the yard behind Mr.
Hinkins' shop was registered "for preaching in the Calvinistic
persuasion of Dissenters in Royston, Hertfordshire"; for so runs the
written application to the magistrates for the place to be registered
as a preaching place.
Something of the old Puritanic feeling still prevailed in the town
among the Dissenters against amusements as late as the end of the first
quarter of the present century. Whether it was from the recollection
of what popular amusements had been, or against worldliness in general,
I know not, but there is a curious instance on record, where, in 1825,
a townsman named Johnson, had his membership at the New Meeting called
in question for having joined a cricket club in the town! The
offending member defended himself from what he considered the injustice
of expulsion, by stating that he saw no evil in cricket, and that the
members of the club were "moral men," and that ministers and others had
been known to join cricket clubs. The general body of members in
meeting assembled, however, refused to relax their view of it, and
decided upon his expulsion, but afterwards relented so far as to allow
Brother Johnson to resign, which he did.
Political meetings belonged more to large centres than they do
now--chiefly to the county town--but lest there should be any doubt
about what was the prevailing political bias in the town during the
first quarter of the century, it has been placed on record that Royston
was called "Radical Royston." This soubriquet was probably earned by
the large amount of "reforming" spirit which we have seen was thrown
into the discussion of abstract questions by Roystonians of the time.
They probably earned it by their protests rather than by their policy.
Politics in public meeting were in fact in a bad way at the end of the
reign of George III., when it was made unlawful for anyone to call a
public meeting exceeding fifty persons, for the purpose of deliberating
upon any public question excepting such meetings were called by the
Lord Lieutenant, Sheriff, Mayor, or other officials responsible for
good order.
{127}
When George IV. came to the throne and divided the opinion of the
country upon the subject of his treatment of Queen Caroline, the boys
shared the prevailing differences of sentiment and became "Kingites" or
"Queenites," and occasionally settled their differences in pitched
battles after the manner of boys in all ages, in some cases actually
wearing their colours--purple for the King and white for the Queen.
The prevailing sentiment was, however, in Royston so much for the
Queen, that "the first gentleman in Europe," notwithstanding his
patronage of and comrades in the prize-fighting ring, could hardly find
enough champions for a fight, even among the boys.
In later years Chartism reached Royston and caused a flutter in the
breasts of those concerned with the _status quo_, for it appears that
one Joseph Peat had "held forth" by permission of the landlord at the
"Coach and Horses." The Magistrates had a meeting to prevent the
spread of Chartism in consequence of this event, and the landlord was
sent for and cautioned that if he allowed such a thing again he would
lose his licence.
The beginning of all positive work set about by negative process is
slow, and this, I suppose, would apply to keeping outside a
public-house, for the Teetotal folk in Royston--handicapped, as in
other places, by a name that has ever prejudiced and hampered a public
movement--found out this to their cost.
They did not lack stimulants when they first began to hold meetings,
for the opposition camp came to the meeting, took care to come
provided, and, fortifying themselves with bottles of beer, raised so
much clamour that the recently enrolled policeman had to try his hand
at checking intemperance and some broken heads rewarded his exertions.
The publicans generally attended the meetings in good force and between
the rival parties, instead of applause there was sometimes breaking of
windows if nothing worse. The British School was one of the first
public rooms used for these meetings.
Of popular entertainments, as we now understand them, there were very
few, not one where we now have a score, and until the erection of the
British School no suitable building. It must not, however, be supposed
that the town was entirely without the means of occasional recreation.
The Assembly Room at the Red Lion was still a place of importance for
public assemblies, and, for some years before Queen Victoria came to
the throne, this room was the scene of some creditable displays of
local talent. This talent took the thespian form, and the tradesmen of
the town, banded together as the Royston Theatrical Amateur Society,
were accustomed to draw the _elite_ of the town and neighbourhood into
3s. and 2s. 6d. seats (nothing less!) while they placed on the boards a
rattling good version of _Bombastes Furioso_ and other pieces in
popular favour at the time.
{128}
Reference has been made to the reluctance of the Parish
Authorities--once bitten, twice shy--to let the Parish Room again as a
School after the legal difficulty about getting rid of the tenant, but
to their credit be it said they made an exception in favour of
music--with a proviso. The late Mr. James Richardson, when a young
man, it is on record, applied to the Parish Authorities "on behalf of
several persons forming a Musical Band of this Town, that they may be
allowed the use of the Vestry Room to meet and practise in." "Allowed
providing they pay the constable to attend and see that everything is
left secure and to prevent the boys annoying them or doing mischief to
the premises."
Music, though confined to a few choice spirits beneath fustian and
smock frocks in village as well as town, played a much more important
part with our grandfathers than is commonly supposed. It may seem a
rash statement to make that in some respects we may have degenerated.
If we play or sing with better tune or finish it is because we have
better appliances, not better brains nor more devoted hearts for music.
I am afraid that some of our extensive cultivation of music is a
sacrifice of fond parents on the altar of the proprieties, whereas our
grandfathers had a soul in their work, and the man with his heart in
his work--whether scraping a fiddle, ploughing a furrow, writing an
epic, or fighting a battle--must, by all honest men, be awarded the
palm. In this over-riding of music as a hobby there is a danger that
the salt may lose its savour, for if there is any individual more to be
pitied than another it is the so-called musician standing up to play
according to the rules of art with no response from the inmost soul of
him.
I do not think, at any rate, that those of our grandfathers who
directed their attention to the fiddle, bass-viol, flute, clarionet, or
trombone, could be fairly considered to lay under such reproach, for
though their music may have been sometimes flat and sometimes sharp, it
was always natural and congenial in the highest degree.
These old fellows took down such instruments as they had, not as so
many do now, because it was "the thing" to learn music, but because
music had found them out for having a love of it, and of the pleasure
derived from meeting in a homely circle of kindred spirits. Their
instruments were often most dissimilar, but their spirit was one!
There was a good deal of free masonry and companionable relations
existing between these old handlers of musical instruments, and as we
hear them in imagination, rattling away round the old spirited fugues
which had been carefully "picked out" with quill pen and ink into their
old cheque-book shaped "tune books"; or, as we see the picturesque
group, now with countenances beaming with delight over some well turned
corner which brought up the rear, now mopping their {129} brows with a
bright red handkerchief, or touching up the old fiddle, after a smart
finish, as a man pats a favourite horse, it is not difficult to
discover how it was that here and there, and in many places, music took
care of itself so well when other things were at a low ebb!
Saxhorn, trombone, flute, cornopean, clarionet, bassoon, fiddle,
bass-viol, and others as various as the dress, trades, and characters
of the individuals, made up the old chords of long ago; so well hit off
by a writer (J. W. Riley) in the _Century Magazine_:--
I make no doubt yer _new band_ now's a competenter band,
And plays their music more by note than what they play by hand,
And stylisher, and grander tunes; but somehow--_any_ way
I want to hear the _old_ band play!
These old players on instruments were nearly always found in the Church
or Chapel Choirs. Thus in the early years of the century John Warren
performed the double duty of bass-viol player and parish clerk at the
Royston Church, and later on a rather full band of instruments led the
service. A similar, but less organized state of things was found in
some village Churches. It was the time when the wooden pitch-pipe was
in its full glory. This was a square wooden implement, with a scale on
one of its sides, upon which the leader blew the key-note, and then
running up the octave with his voice--off they went to the tune of some
old Calcutta, Cardiff, or other piece of arduous fugal work!
The disappearance of these old village choirs, in which the village
blacksmith, the baker, the tailor, and other natives played on the
clarionet, bass-viol, bassoon, flute, trombone, and all kinds of
instruments, while other grown-up men took their "parts" in those
wonderful old fugues that seemed to make the song of praise without
end--the absence of all this means a certain loss of that passion for
music which has never been thoroughly recovered!
We have many more players and singers now than in the past, but not,
perhaps, the same proportion of lovers of music for its own sake.
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