A Sexton’s Tribute to a Singer
Traveling amid the great artificial lakes in the Elan Valley, from which Birmingham receives its water supply from the Welsh mountains, the visitor had pointed out to him by the driver a little church on the hillside. The visitor was interested in the “little sanctuary, nestling among the green mountains,” and confessed that he liked to think of places which recall the words, “It’s quiet down here... And God is very near.” Being a newspaper man, however, he was particularly impressed by a somewhat garbled version of the time when Dame Clara Butt sang in the little building. Later, in London, he had the opportunity of hearing the story from Dame Clara Butt herself. She was motoring with some friends through the valley beyond Llandrindod Wells and espied this simple and tiny church, without spire or tower, standing alone on the hillside. It seemed so like a little private sanctuary that she exclaimed, “I wish that little church were mine!” and halted the car, and crossed the river to have a closer look.
It happened that a service was almost due, and the sexton and an old companion were there; so the visitors were able to enter the sanctuary. They remained in silence a few minutes, when one of the party, pointing to the little organ, asked Dame Clara to play it and sing. She shook her head; the request was repeated; the impulse came and the singer sat at the instrument, and sang the opening lines of Liddle’s setting of “Abide With Me.”
In a few minutes she was conscious that the old sexton was chiming in with notes which harmonized; but, as the great voice rang through the little church, he stopped to listen, for nothing like it had ever been heard there. When the last notes died away, he said, “But who is this lady who has sung to us?”
When he was told he held up his hands, and with tears falling, exclaimed, “The great Madame Clara Butt has come to our little church and sung to us!” Then pointing upward, he said reverently: “Ah! They heard that up there!”
This tribute, coming from the sexton who had himself once sung in Welsh choirs, was all the more gratifying because it was simple and spontaneous.
Here is an interesting sidelight upon