xl. THE SECOND WINTER MEETING. 



he had found it in an old box of rubbish in the tool-house in the corner of the 

 churchyard about the year 1860. It was then perfectly black, but he had it 

 cleaned by a silversmith, and restored it to the church. It bears the date 

 engraved 1573. It is recorded that Mrs. George Galpin, wife of a churchwarden, 

 collected money to pay for the new plate, somewhere about the time of the 

 church re-building (1845). Probably the old chalice, on which this paten may 

 have fitted, was sold or given in part exchange, and thus an Elizabethan chalice 

 may have been lost to the church, actually in the memory of the living. The 

 pewter plate was found somewhere by the clerk in the year 1895. It was much 

 out of shape and the rim almost cracked off. I had it repaired and electro- 

 plated, and now use it for an alms dish. The clerk remembers that there were 

 formerly two of them. If any collector has the other one, we should be most 

 grateful to have it again." 



The following papers were then read : 



1. " New and Rare British Arachnida," by the Rev. O. Pickard- 

 Cambridge. (Printed.) 



And after luncheon 



2. "Old Dorset Village Choirs and Bands," by the Rev. 

 F. W. Galpin. (Printed.) 



On the conclusion of the paper, Mr. Thomas Hardy asked : 

 Can Mr. Galpin account for the curious fact of their always 

 playing the tenor on a treble instrument an octave higher ? I 

 have known many of the old bands play it in that way. 



Mr. Galpin, in reply, said : It was undoubtedly a survival of 

 the earlier period, when the melody, or plainsong, was in the 

 tenor, and the treble and alto parts wove themselves in a more 

 or less harmonious way above it ; then when the melody was 

 transferred to the treble, the true tenor was still played on a 

 treble instrument. 



3. "On Bingham's Melcombe Manor House ; Its Surround- 

 ings, Folk Lore, Wild Animals, &c.," by Mr. Bosworth Smith. 



4. "Old Dorset Songs and Doggerel Rhymes," by the Hon. 

 Secretary. (To be printed.) 



The meeting closed shortly before five o'clock. 



Since the meeting Mr. A. M. Luckham, of Parkstone, writing 

 in the Dorset County Chronicle, gives the following interesting 

 particulars of choirs and bands in Broadway and adjoining 

 parishes : 



