EPITAPHS
Peter Isnell From a tombstone standing in the churchyard of St.Paulinus’ Church, Crayford, which is now in the London Borough of Bromley, although formerly in northwest Kent. Here lieth the […]
A problem in the gallery
The West end was entirely blocked with a gallery; there sat the “music” and in front hung the Royal Arms. One day, when the “Magnificat” was being sung, the noise
A problem in the gallery Read More »
Funerals
The FUNERAL WAKE “You must dance at weddings because ’tis the time of life. At christenings, folk will even smuggle in a reel or two, if ’tis no further than
Fictional References
Events Hymn and Psalm Texts Instruments Music Tunes by name: Personalities
Fictional References Read More »
From Tom Brown at Oxford by Thomas Hughes, pub.1861
Chapter XVIII, Englebourn village …The figure of fun was a middle-aged man of small stature, and very bandy-legged, dressed in a blue coat and brass buttons, and carrying a great
From Tom Brown at Oxford by Thomas Hughes, pub.1861 Read More »
THE PAPHIAN BALL by Thomas Hardy
POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY (with West Gallery Connections) Another experience of the Mellstock Quire We went our Christmas rounds once more,With quire and viols as theretofore. Our path was near
THE PAPHIAN BALL by Thomas Hardy Read More »
AFTERNOON SERVICE AT MELLSTOCK by Thomas Hardy
POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY (with West Gallery Connections) (Circa 1850) On afternoons of drowsy calmWe stood in the panelled pew,Singing one-voiced a Tate-and-Brady psalmTo the tune of ‘Cambridge New’.We watched
AFTERNOON SERVICE AT MELLSTOCK by Thomas Hardy Read More »
TO MY FATHER’S VIOLIN by Thomas Hardy
POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY (with West Gallery Connections) Does he want you down there In the Nether GloomsThe hours may be a dragging load upon him, As he hears the axle grind Round
TO MY FATHER’S VIOLIN by Thomas Hardy Read More »
THE CHOIRMASTER’S BURIAL by Thomas Hardy
POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY (with West Gallery Connections) He often would ask usThat, when he died,After playing so manyTo their last rest,If out of us anyShould here abide,And it would
THE CHOIRMASTER’S BURIAL by Thomas Hardy Read More »
A CHURCH ROMANCE by Thomas Hardy
POEMS OF THOMAS HARDY (with West Gallery Connections) (Mellstock: circa 1835) She turned in the high pew, until her sightSwept the west gallery, and caught its rowOf music-men with viol,
A CHURCH ROMANCE by Thomas Hardy Read More »
From UNDER THE GREEN WOOD TREE by Thomas HARDY
Some of these compositions which now lie before me, with their repetition of lines, half-lines, and half-words, their fugues and their intermediate symphonies, are good singing still, though they would
From UNDER THE GREEN WOOD TREE by Thomas HARDY Read More »
From TWO ON A TOWER by Thomas Hardy
The parson announced Psalm fifty-third to the tune ‘Devizes’, and his voice burst forth with; ‘The Lord look’d down from Heav’n’s high towerThe sons of men to view’, in notes
From TWO ON A TOWER by Thomas Hardy Read More »
From THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE by Thomas Hardy
Whenever a club walked he’d play the clarinet in the band that marched before ’em as if he’d never touched anything but a clarinet all his life. And then, when
From THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE by Thomas Hardy Read More »
From THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE by Thomas Hardy
Now the Three Mariners was the inn chosen by Henchard as the place for closing his long term of dramless years. He had so timed his entry as to be
From THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE by Thomas Hardy Read More »
From THE LAODICIAN by Thomas Hardy
The quiet time of evening, the secluded neighbourhood, the unusually gorgeous liveries of the clouds packed in a pile over that quarter of the heavens in which the sun had
From THE LAODICIAN by Thomas Hardy Read More »