An Essay on the Character, Manners, and Customs of the Peasantry of Cumberland; and Observations on the Style and Genius of the [poet Robert Anderson]

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xlvi

text excerpt

Church music generally composes a part of the education of a Cumbrian peasant.  They are instructed in it by the parish clerk, or by some itinerant professor; and in the course of a few months, by the means of a good ear, and a tuneable voice, acquire as much skill in it, as to be able to gratify the taste of a country audience, at least as far as an accurate combination of sound extends.  As to the principle of the science, they and their instructors are equally ignorant.  When the school breaks up, they who compose the choir, and he who leads it, have generally a ball at the village ale-house, in order to experience joys of a more terrestrial nature than those which spring from psalm-singing.  Fiddling, dancing, and drinking continue to a late hour: the divine strains, which they lately sung, are forgotten; and the heart shut against all the devout feelings which they are calculated to inspire.  A practice so offensive to every pious and religious mind, cannot certainly be too soon abolished.

excerpt from 'An Essay on the Character, Manners, and Customs of the Peasantry of Cumberland; and Observations on the Style and Genius of the [poet Robert Anderson]' pp. xlvi (177 words)

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1658488350180