CANTERBURY.

THE Choral School of Canterbury cathedral is coeval with the establishment of the national church, St. Augustine having introduced the chanted service still retained in our cathedrals. The science of music was universally cultivated by the clergy, and so completely identified with religious offices, that, in the language of our ancestors, to sing and to pray were used as synonymous terms.

At the reformation Henry VIII. new-modelled and regulated the cathedral, and gave to the church a code of statutes, which were afterwards modified by Archbishop Laud, and confirmed by Charles I. The fifth chapter of this code determines the number of persons to be maintained out of the revenues granted to the cathedral for this purpose;—they are,

Dean.

Canons or Prebendaries.

Lecturer in Theology.

Preachers.

Minor Canons, Clerical and Lay.

Master of the Choristers.

Choristers, &c. &c.

The choristers are to be appointed by the dean (or, in his absence, the sub-dean and chapter); they are to be ‘of tender age, with clear voices and musical talent.’

‘To instruct these boys,’ says the statute, ‘and especially to train them in decorum of manners, and to teach them the art of singing, and to play skilfully upon musical instruments, one clerk shall be chosen, of good conduct and character, and a proficient in music, who shall carefully employ his time in the performance of divine service, and in playing upon the organ, and who shall also be occupied in the care and education of the choristers.

‘And because it may happen that one of the minor-canons or clerks may be better qualified than the organist to instruct the choristers, the dean, &c. shall have the power to elect either the organist or such of the minor clerks as may appear most worthy to perform this duty; which if he neglect, let him, after a third admonition, be deposed from his office, by the authority of those by whom he was elected.’

It also appears that the children of the Chapel Royal, when their voices had changed, were frequently sent to the Grammar School belonging to the cathedral to complete their education; for Laud had been dean of the King’s Chapel, and as such had the superintendence of the choristers belonging to the royal household, and retained an interest in their welfare when no longer officially connected with them. The statute runs thus:—

‘And so often as the dean of our Chapel Royal shall signify to the Dean and Chapter of our church of Canterbury that he will send from our chapel a chorister, who has served there till the breaking of his voice, to study grammar in our church, we will that the Dean and Chapter elect and admit, without fraud or collusion [the king or the archbishop could have had no very favourable opinion of the integrity of the dignitaries of his church], the chorister so nominated.’

The musical establishment of this cathedral at present consists of 6 minor-canons, at about 100l. per annum, with a good house, and a living soon after their election; an organist at 100l. per annum, with a house; 12 lay-vicars at from 40l. to 50l. per annum; and 10 choristers, or boys, at 6l. per annum.

The service is daily. The choristers are taught (or ought to be) singing three times a week in the church, where there is a musical school-room; and learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, at private schools, at the expense of the church; the latter being a regulation lately introduced by the Dean and Chapter, who, probably, having a foresight of what seems now near at hand, thought it prudent to do something out of their large revenues for the active and useful members of the church. With this view they have also, we are told, augmented the salaries of the lay-clerks, by the liberal addition of 10l. The time, however, is fast approaching when the real labourers in the service of religion will be paid according to their work; then will our church be better served and more respected.