The year after the grand music meeting in Westminster Abbey, in 1791, I volunteered my services to get up a performance in the Great Meeting, for the benefit of our charity day-school. This institution is the oldest in the town upon the voluntary principle, having been established more than a hundred years. Dr. Barnes, of Manchester, preached the sermon, and the orchestra was so large that it nearly ascended to the roof. The assemblage of so many voices and instruments, in a dissenting place of worship, was a novelty; and as the orchestra was to be crowned with a pair of kettle-drums, crowds of persons were drawn to the place, and hundreds could not gain admittance. The pressure in the aisles was so great, added to the heat, that many got upon the sides of the pews to avoid suffocation. Mr. Spray, of Lichfield Cathedral, was the principal singer, and warbled forth with his mellifluous voice the song in Jephtha, "Virtue my soul shall still embrace, Goodness shall make me great." The family of the Sprays were remarkable for their excellent voices; a sort of oily liquidity of tone that I have never since heard. I believe they were a Nottinghamshire family of stocking-makers. << less