OLD CHURCH BANDS AND VILLAGE CHOIRS. 177 



been quite unfit for congregational singing, unless, as was 

 probably the case, they were sung so frequently that they 

 became thoroughly well known, for it is maliciously said that 

 the famous Martinstown players were at last reduced to two 

 tunes, vulgarly known as "thik" and "t'other," one or other 

 of which had to do duty for all occasions. The violoncello 

 book of John Chapman, the Steepleton shepherd, is interesting. 

 It was transcribed in 184.6, and also contains little symphonies 

 and interludes for the instrument. Among the titles of the 

 tunes are " The Heavenly Harper" and " The African's Glory," 

 and where the words are given the spelling is often at fault, 

 though even " again we bough the nee " is intelligible. It is 

 reported that at Steepleton there was a division of notes into 

 " singular " and " plural," but the meaning of this distinction, 

 known to the initiated, is now lost. A treble (and probably 

 a clarinet) book gives us, amongst various Christmas carols and 

 anthems, a composition by John Brown. This musician and 

 carpenter, whose tunes were locally in great request, was choir- 

 master of S. Peter's Church, Dorchester, in the earlier part of 

 the last century. He was evidently not ashamed of his 

 productions, as it was his custom when giving out the number 

 of the psalm, after the privilege of those days, to add "to a 

 tune of my own composing," by which well-timed advertise- 

 ment his fame spread mightily. In the church he divided his 

 performances between playing the fiddle and singing bass, and 

 in the latter capacity he was celebrated for the curious effects he 

 produced by singing through his hands, which he used partly as 

 resonators and partly as a primitive swell. 



We hear nowadays strong complaints at times against the 

 elaborate setting of the morning and evening canticles to 

 " services." But the book of Thomas Richards, of Winter- 

 borne Abbas, commenced in 1795 and continued through the 

 early years of the next century, shows that in that village church 

 they had " sarvices " (sic] for the Jubilate, Magnificat, and 

 Nunc Dimittis, while the Kyrie Elieson and also the opening 

 Sentences were sung. It is to be noted, too, that in all these 



