playing each on a sackbut, and another, drest in a similar manner,
playing on a double curtal, or bassoon. The "organ-_blower_" had also a
place in these two processions, having on him a short red coat, with a
badge on his left breast, viz. a nightingale of silver, gilt, sitting on
a sprig.

In a weekly paper, entitled the _Westminster Journal_, Dec. 4. 1742, is
a letter subscribed "Ralph Courtevil, _Organ-blower_, Essayist, and
Historiographer." This person was the organist of St. James's Church,
Piccadilly, and the author of the _Gazetteer_, a paper written in
defence of Sir Robert Walpole's administration. By the writers on the
opposite side he was stigmatized with the name of "Court-evil."

At the present time, as I am given to understand, the organist of St.
Andrew's Church, Holborn, is styled in the vestry-books, the
"_organ-blower_."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.


"_Singular" and "Unique_."--The word _singular_, originally applied to
that of which there is no other, gradually came to mean extraordinary
only, and "rather singular," "very singular indeed," and such like
phrases, ceased to shock the ear. To supply the vacancy occasioned by
this corruption, the word _unique_ was introduced; which, I am
horror-struck to see, is beginning to follow its predecessor. The
Vauxhall bills lately declared Vauxhall to be the "most _unique_ place
of amusement in the world." Can anything be done to check this ill-fated
word in its career? and, if not, what must we look to for a successor?