By the way, Mr. Lockey was for a few years a lay-clerk in the St. George's choir. He was a very fine singer, and all who heard him felt that his provincial fame would soon reach the ears of the London entrepreneurs ; and, once heard at Exeter Hall, his success as the leading tenor in sacred music was assured. He had the crowning distinction of singing the tenor music in " Elijah " at a first performance of that oratorio in Birmingham in 1846, and winning the gratitude of Mendelssohn himself. Curiously enough, the two happened to be walking together in the High Street at Oxford when the tidings of Elvey's appointment at St. George's Chapel reached the city.