[1] See Gentlemen's Magazine, April, 1829.

* * * * *


PSALMODY.

(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)


I have lately made a journey to the metropolis for the purpose of
inquiring by my own personal attention and otherwise, whether any
improvement had been made in the Psalmody of any of the numerous new
churches and chapels in and near London. I have visited by far the greater
part of them. In many of them I find no improvement, but there are two or
three which merit distinction.

In the majority of the churches, I observe the singing of psalms or hymns
(for I have not yet, after three months, heard an anthem) is confined
generally to about three verses, and those more ordinarily of the common
metre; the singing is very little of it congregational, but is chiefly
performed by the schools of charity children, and there does not appear to
have been any instruction for their singing in any other than the _treble_.
The organists in general are very good performers, but, however well that
office is filled, the voices of the congregation are wanting, by which a
great improvement would be given to the harmony. In two of the
congregations I happen to have a more numerous acquaintance, and know that
numbers of the congregation have excellent judgment and good voices, and
many are good performers on the piano-forte and harp. In conversing with
several of them on this interesting and (to me) sublime subject, I have