10 TRUMPET EAR AND EAR TRUMPET 



ears, suggest the ear trumpet? Watching how this 

 deer moved her pair of Hve trumpets about to catch 

 passing sounds, it amused me to recall an old lady 

 I used to see in a Hampshire village church who sat 

 in a pew before mine during the Sunday morning 

 services, and the deft way in which she manipulated 

 her trumpet to capture the preacher's precious 

 winged words. His manner in preaching was curious, 

 if not quite unique. He would begin each sentence 

 in a quiet natural tone, then raise his voice, then 

 higher still, then let it drop back to the opening tone. 

 Thus there were four changes in tone fitted to the 

 four clauses composing each sentence, and there 

 were also four bodily attitudes and movements to 

 correspond. Thus, the first clause was delivered 

 standing in a stooping attitude, the eyes fixed on the 

 MS. In the second he rose to his full height and 

 fixed his eyes on his congregation. In the third 

 the upward movement culminated in the preacher 

 standing up on his toes, supporting himself by placing 

 his finger-tips on the pulpit, and then having launched 

 the words of clause three in his most powerful tones, 

 he would sink back to the lower attitude, downward 

 bent eyes and low voice. The difference in the man's 

 height when he delivered clauses three and four must 

 have been about nine inches, which would of course 

 make a very great difference in listening to the sermon 

 by a person hard of hearing. There the old lady's 

 ear trumpet came in; there were four changes in its 

 direction for each sentence, from the first and last 

 when it was directed straight before her, to the 



