Henry Croswell et al. in St Mary the Virgin Church, King Henry's Road, Primrose Hill, London - 26 December, 1880, 07:00 PM
from Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell, page 234:
We left before the end.
[…]
O[rgan]. – Small and good.
H[ymns]. – A. & M. - a High Church selection. It is a great struggle being on the unpopular side.
C[hoir]. – The best I have ever seen. There were well behaved choir lads and many elderly gentlemen.
[The congregation numbered] 300 – […] The sexes are separated. There were more males than females!
[…]
M[iscellaneous]. – I have been to no nicer church. It is near perfection if the Bishop would but leave it alone.
Henry Croswell, Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell. In British Library, number 000826807, C.194.c.113 , p. 234. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1551184079578 accessed: 13 October, 2024 (By permission of the British Library.)
Listeners
Listening to
hide composersExperience Information
| Date/Time | 26 December, 1880, 07:00 PM |
| Duration | 1 hours 15 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. ‘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.