Henry Croswell et al. in St Giles' Mission Church, Sardinia Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London - 28 December, 1884
from Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell, page 416:
O[rgan]. – Small harmonium fairly played.
[…]
H[ymns]. – Church Hymns, a moderate selection.
C[hoir]. – Lots of boys and girls. Not good singing. Everything very low. Poor H. Wills [the incumbent]. He hasn't raised them much in ten years.
[The congregation numbered] 100 Some very poor. Very few devout and some positively irreverent. Attendants even very irreverent.
S[ermon]. – Didn't stop.
Henry Croswell, Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell. In British Library, number 000826807, C.194.c.113 , p. 416. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1553257822803 accessed: 19 April, 2024 (By permission of the British Library.)
Listeners
Listening to
hide composersExperience Information
| Date/Time | 28 December, 1884 |
| 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 unusually did not record the precise time of the service, but noted that his visit was made in the evening. ‘Church Hymns’ (1871) and ‘Church Hymns with Tunes’ (1874) were publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (S.P.C.K.), under the musical editorship of Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900). 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.