On another occasion he attended church at Genoa on a feast day,
and he writes thus about the music:

The organ played away lustily, and a full band did the
like; while a conductor, in a little gallery opposite
the band, hammered away on the desk before him, with a
scroll, and a tenor, without any voice, sang. The band
played one way, the organ played another, the singer
went a third, and the unfortunate conductor banged and
banged, and flourished his scroll on some principle
of his own; apparently well satisfied with the whole
performance. I never did hear such a discordant din.


_Parish Clerks_

We have but few references to parish clerks in the
novels. Mr. Wopsle (_G.E._)--whom Mr. Andrew Lang calls 'one
of the best of Dickens' minor characters'--'punished the Amens
tremendously,'[14] and when he gave out the psalms--always
giving the whole verse--he looked all round the congregation
first, as much as to say 'You have heard our friend overhead;
oblige me with your opinion of this style.' This gentleman
subsequently became a 'play-actor,' but failed to achieve
the success he desired. Solomon Daisy (_B.R._) is bell-ringer
and parish clerk of Chigwell, though we hear nothing of his
exploits in these capacities. However, he must have been a
familiar figure to the villagers as he stood in his little desk
on the Sunday, giving out the psalms and leading the singing,