Henry Croswell et al. in St John's Church, Hackney, East London - 1878, 07:00 PM
from Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell, page 119:
O[rgan]. – Fine and old in the West Gallery!
H[ymns]. – A. & M. - the old Edition.
C[hoir]. – Twenty boys and twenty men, surpliced. There was a curious procession of the priests.
[The congregation numbered] 2500 – It was a grand sight to see
[…]
M[iscellaneous]. – I sat in the free seats with some badly behaved young men.
Henry Croswell, Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell. In British Library, number 000826807, C.194.c.113 , p. 119. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1547467863090 accessed: 7 November, 2024 (By permission of the British Library.)
Listeners
Listening to
hide composers| Anglican church music | performed by the choir and organist of St John's Church Hackney |
| hymns selected from 'Hymns A&M' | performed by the choir and organist of St John's Church Hackney |
Experience Information
| Date/Time | 1878, 07:00 PM |
| Duration | 1 hours 35 minutes |
| Medium | live |
| Listening Environment | in the company of others, indoors, in public |
Notes
Henry Croswell (1840–93) kept a record of his visits to churches in London over a period of more than twelve years (1872–85). He made methodical notes about the number of clergy, the churchmanship, the congregation, the sermon and the church architecture, as well as commenting on the music that he heard (the organ, the hymns and the choir). The above listening experience has been extracted from one of these records. In the transcript, the record is dated as 1 January, which was a Tuesday. Given that Croswell usually mentions if he has visited a church on a weekday, it is more likely that the date of the visit was on a Sunday, either 6 or 13 January. Alternatively, as this record is immediately followed in the transcript by one dated 21/7/78, it is possible that the date of this visit should have been given as 7/7/78: 7 July. ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern for use in the Services of the Church’ (1861; Appendix, 1868; Second edition, 1875; Supplement, 1889) was envisaged as an anthology of the best hymns available and became the most widely-used hymnbook in the Church of England during the late nineteenth century. William Henry Monk (1823–89) was musical editor.