Henry Croswell et al. in All Hallows' Church, London Wall, City of London - 17 August, 1879, 11:00 AM
from Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell, page 167:
A long service for the old Rector to get through! And and [sic] he is so Low Church with no music to help him.
[…]
O[rgan]. – Very, very small in the West Gallery
H[ymns]. – Simple, S.P.C.K., old edition.
C[hoir]. – Charity boys well timed with their loud "Ay-mens".
[The congregation numbered] 30 – It is singular why even these should come to such a curious old, dirty lifeless church. Half the people faced the other half!
Henry Croswell, Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell. In British Library, number 000826807, C.194.c.113 , p. 167. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1548343634779 accessed: 7 November, 2024 (By permission of the British Library.)
Listeners
Listening to
hide composers| hymns selected from 'Church Hymns' | performed by the choir and organist of All Hallows Church London Wall |
Experience Information
| Date/Time | 17 August, 1879, 11:00 AM |
| Duration | 1 hours 45 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. Croswell’s mention of the S.P.C.K. (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) hymnbook would refer to ‘Church Hymns’ (1871) and ‘Church Hymns with Tunes (1874, under the musical editorship of Arthur Sullivan). This collection was the most successful of the competitors to ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’ in the late nineteenth century, containing a larger number of hymns overall, and more hymns specifically intended for children and young people.