126 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF 



hymn to be sung before the sermon, and retired to 

 the vestry-room to make the usual change of his 

 vestments. The worthy chorister, v/ho from his 

 place could see indistinctly into the vestry-room, 

 fancied that he saw the rector in a recumbent posi- 

 tion, and imagined that, fatigued with the morning 

 service, he was taking repose. Determined, there- 

 fore, to allow him ample time to rest himself, he had 

 no sooner finished the hymn than he recommenced 

 it, and sang it over again, to the astonishment of 

 the whole congregation, as well as of the rector, 

 who had entered the pulpit unperceived by his wor- 

 thy friend, and was quietly waiting for the music to 

 cease in order to begin his sermon. 



About the year 1822 or 1823, a peripatetic sing- 

 ing-master visited Pineville, and, partly for the pur- 

 pose of improvement in psalmody, partly to vary 

 the general monotony of village life, the young peo- 

 ple formed a class, which he instructed every alter- 

 nate Saturday. 



All professional singing-masters have something 

 odd about them. Their vocation is to teach sacred 

 music, and whether it is that they are laboring to 

 reconcile their manners with the supposed dignity 

 of their employment, or whether it is owing to 

 something in the very nature of the calling which 

 makes the profession ridiculous, we cannot deter- 

 mine. Certain it is, however, that from the time of 

 David Gamut (who, by the way, was not created 



