In the afternoon the band migrated to the dissenting chapel. On one
occasion the band failed to appear, and the clerk was left alone.
However, he made the best of it, with scant support from the
congregation, so turning to them at the end, said in a loud voice,
"Thank you for your help!"
THE PARISH OF BROMFIELD, SALOP.
From these ludicrous scenes it is refreshing to turn to a service which,
though primitive, was conducted with the utmost reverence and decency.
When I was instituted in 1866 all the singing was conducted, and most
reverently conducted, under the auspices of the clerk. He was a handsome
man, with a flowing beard, magnificent bass voice, and a wooden leg.
With two or three sons, daughters, and others in the village he
carried on the choir, and though there were only hymns, nothing could be
better. Of its kind I have seldom heard anything better. They had to
yield to the inexorable march of time, but I parted from them with
regret. Though we now have a surpliced choir of men and boys, with a
trained organist and choirmaster, I always look back to my good old
friend with his daughters and their companions, who were the leaders of
the singing in the early days of my incumbency.
[Illustration: THE PARISH CLERK OF QUEDGELEY]
The Rev. Canon Hemmans tell his reminiscences of Thomas Evison, parish
clerk of Wragby, Lincolnshire, who died in 1865, aged eighty-two years.
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