EARLY CLERICAL LIFE 27 



decker" was there in all its massiveness and un- 

 sightliness, with a sound-board to crown the whole. 

 Organ there was none, and the very name of choir 

 was then unknown ; the singers, as they were called, 

 occupied a gallery at the west end of the church, 

 being led by the village harmonious blacksmith, 

 and accompanied by fiddles, clarinets, and other 

 instruments. Whenever these struck up, the whole 

 congregation turned round and faced them. Tate 

 and Brady, or some similar psalmody, was in full 

 force, and the tunes to which the words were sung 

 can be better imagined than described. Innumer- 

 able coats of whitewash covered the walls, and the 

 whole appearance of the building was dreary in 

 the extreme. The new vicar was not long in 

 effecting changes, and reducing things to some- 

 thing like decent order. Two full services were 

 now, of course, held regularly every Sunday, and 

 Holy Communion was celebrated once a month 

 instead of three or four times a year. Within 

 little more than a year the number of communi- 

 cants had doubled, and the morning congregation 

 had increased from a very small number to one 

 of a hundred and fifty people or so, and in the 

 afternoon the improvement in the attendance was 

 equally marked. 



A good church school was established in the 

 village, a portion of the cost of the building having 

 been collected by the previous vicar. Nearly a 

 hundred and fifty names were soon on the books 

 of the school. 



