ARRANGING FOR A PROCESSIONAL HYMN. 47 



two members of the Chapter suffered themselves to 

 be persuaded, and even took up the cudgels upon my 

 father's side ; and, although the warfare regularly broke 

 out year after year when the approaching festival came 

 up for consideration, most of the points for which 

 he contended were ultimately conceded. 



In the first festival which he conducted that of 

 1869 he managed to secure a great accession of 

 reverence from all concerned ; and in that year, for the 

 first time, the alms were duly and properly offered upon 

 the altar by the present Bishop of Dover, who officiated. 



His next step was to arrange for a processional hymn 

 an undertaking in which he met with great op- 

 position. Hitherto the surpliced portion of the choir, 

 after robing in the Chapter House, had straggled hur- 

 riedly into the choir, mutely and untidily, and a great 

 and impressive effect had been allowed to slip. Now 

 my father wished for a systematic procession, singing 

 some good and solid processional hymn. 



His chief difficulty in arranging for this lay in the 

 attitude of the Dean (Dr. Alford), who, for a long time, 

 could not be brought to see that ordinary decorum 

 required an orderly procession, while such a procession 

 was hardly possible unless it were permitted to sing 

 upon the march. Neither would he agree for a while 

 that the impressiveness of the effect was at all a thing 

 to be desired. By dint of much perseverance, however, 

 my father carried his point ; and then incontinently 

 followed up his victory by suggesting that the Dean 

 himself should write a processional hymn for the occa- 



