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By the Rev. F. W. GALPIN, M.A., F.L.S. 



JTJHE year 1644 was fraught with momentous conse- 

 quences for village and for town. The edict 

 had gone forth from Parliament "for the 

 speedy demolishing of all organs, images, and 

 all matters of superstitious monuments in all 

 cathedrals and collegiate or parish churches 

 and chapels throughout the kingdom of 

 England and the dominion of Wales : the 

 better to accomplish the blessed reformation 

 so happily begun and to remove all offences 

 and things illegal to the worship of God : " and thus the 

 treasures which piety had spared from the wreck of the past 

 were scattered beyond the confines of the realm or destroyed in 

 the fanatical zeal of the new reformers. So it came to pass that 

 Divine worship was robbed of its sweetest accompaniments, and 

 for 150 years the Psalmody was entirely dependent, except in the 

 cities and large towns, on the musical knowledge of the parish 

 clerk, whose duty it was to " sette the tune " with such aptitude 

 and ability as he himself possessed, or, failing these, by the help 



