no ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



ladles usually taking the solos and singing them very 

 artistically, assisted by some six well-trained amateurs 

 with really fine voices. Before the service commenced, 

 a very elaborate piece of music, with an organ accom- 

 paniment, more theatrical than devotional, was given ; 

 a special favourite was " Sound the Loud Timbrel." Of 

 chanting there was none, but an elaborate anthem was 

 sung, and the new version of the Psalms by Tate and 

 Brady, to be found in all Prayer-books of the time. 

 The old Vicar, Mr. Morley, being at least seventy years 

 of age, married for the second time a young and very 

 pretty woman, who, on coming to the Vicarage, brought 

 about a complete revolution, and introduced a very 

 low church service and an Evangelical style of 

 doctrine, with a hymn-book which was looked upon 

 with the greatest horror by the older members of the 

 congregation. On the old Vicar wishing the new hymn- 

 book to be used, the choir resigned, the organ was 

 played in dumb show, and as soon as one of the 

 newly-introduced hymns were given out, most of the 

 leading families left the church. Dr. Kaye, the Bishop 

 of Lincoln (Aylesbury was then in the Lincoln Diocese), 

 tried to calm down the schism ; my father carried on 

 the correspondence on behalf of the parishioners ; the 

 trouble ended in a compromise, one old psalm and one 

 hymn being declared the rule in each service. The 

 truce negotiated, the choir returned to their duties ; 

 but the breach had been created, and from that date 

 the parish has been divided by very sharp lines, and 

 now the Evangelical party have built a church of their 

 own, in the adjoining hamlet of Walton. 



