SALISBURY'S CHORISTERS
Tins book begins with a happy picture of the Salisbury choristers sitting on a wall, and in the foreground is a bed of flowers. Not far away, almost within scent, are the lawns around Elias de Dereham's Cathedral, across which those small boys go in procession daily. Mrs. Robertson became interested in the procession ; she set out to write the history of those choristers, but soon found that she had to bring in all the denizens of the Close and the life of the cathedral as well. To do that, she had to make a prolonged study of the cathedral monuments ; and, fortunately for her, there was at hand the gracious little old scholar who helped so many students when they first came to Salisbury ; Christopher Wordsworth. Mrs. Robertson's dedication says that • he "translated all the documents from the Latin." How well one of those he assisted remembers 'him in St. Nicholas' Hospital, his room piled high with books and papers, as he talked about the canonisation of St. Osmund I It must have been a difficult (though exciting) book to write. At every turn in such a subject the picturesque will offer itself as a substitute for the essential, and a single clear line is hard to hold. On the whole, apart from a tendency to colour too highly incidents that the Middle Ages took for granted, the work has been competently and interestingly done. Mrs. Robertson has given more than a cursory picture of a community that has had an unbroken life through the -Centuties. Regulating that life in- the Middle :Aget --wefe .the cathedral Statutes and the local custonk of performing divine service, the distinguished Use- of- the cathedral of • Salisbury, which many other -collegiate churches adopted. :Mrs. Robertson has mainly worked in the sphere of the former; the Use she substantially leaves to the liturgiologist,though -there is much in it that bears upon-her -theme: The cathedral.
• itself was one of the most imposing .of mediaeval churcheS. - Its Chapter was frequently one of high distinction, and in the . fifteenth century there was a very select confraternity: (By
the way, it is worth noting that foreign provisors, of whom Mrs. Robertson makes so much, cease round about 1378:) .The staff consisted of the Canons, their. Vicars (called the Vicars Choral), chaplains, choristers -(with their master and
sub-master) and altarists, often choristers whose voices had broken. Attached besides were—to quote from John Chaundler's will—the master of the grammar schools, the master mason and master carpenter, the clerk of the works, the janitor and bedel of the Close, and others. Mrs. Robertson .gives an entertaining picture of the Vicars, who were not always models of propriety, so much-so that in 1387- the civic authorities saw fit to accuse one of them to the Chapter "saying that it would be better and. more proper for him to go to the
church than to the houses of women." The ritual of the boy- 'bishop provides an amusing chapter. At Salisbury he was -elected after-" scrutiny" by his fellow-choristers (it is notice- able that they rejected the method of compromissio), said -compline and blessed the congregation. He was not allowed to visit the houses of canons, but he ,did quite well out of -.oblations at the high altar on Innocents' Day. In the mediaeval Tart of the book I missed-any account of-the system of residence and of the fees paid to the Chapter Treasurer for entering 'upon the canons' houses in the Close. There is -plenty of -material for this in the Chapter Registers.
After the Reformation, the records do not show very clearly *what happened to the choristers. They continued- to live !in the Choristers' House, and to attend the Grammar School tin the Close, but a new class of lay vicars was introduced, and these, as Mrs. Robertson says, were "totally unfitted, tither by character or education, for the responsibility of aching them (the choristers) music or caring for their bodily 'Saints." In the seventeenth century disputes over the appoint- anent to the tutorship of the choristers reached -absurd orb- portions. In 1629 the Chapter was bitterly divided Over the 45Uccession to John Holmes, and the bickering, that led to ,serious differences with the bishop, went on for two -years.
when in 1634 Laud visited the cathedral, it became clear
'that the wretched choristers had been the real sufferers in :these disputes. That visitation, we may note produced Votne astonishing evidence of quarrels among ;:he- Chapter and of the idiosyncrasies of its members. One canon's -cam- ailaint was that he was entitled. to have two vergers to precede lira when he went to cathedral, but he had only_been allowed to have one. It was the same canon who said : "My selfe have byn over-neglig't but ye more so for ye ill example, add often absence of others, that ye fault might be ye more conspicuous, more notice taken,. and more complaint, and so ye sooner amendment." Against which Laud wrote in the Margin: "I like not the answer, but it is high time it were :arnended."
Yet the real twilight of the choir school was to come not In the eighteenth century (when the churchyard was reported to be "like a cow-common ") but in the first half of the nineteenth, when, in many cathedrals, the wealth of the canons contrasted very significantly with the poverty of the choristers. Of great interest is the account given by John Harding in 1889 of his early days as a chorister (1826-1833), and or the inefficiency of the schooling which he and his fellows Were suffered to receive. They were largely left to tea& themselves. Here is a scene from service in the cathedral : The Psalms ended, the head boy left his place to inquire of the Dean, or in his absence of the Canon in residence present, what Service and anthem he wished to be sung. Having got An answer, he turned towards the boys who were waiting for the information, and 'gave out in a loud whisper the name of the author and the key of the Service chosen ; he then passed on under the red curtain and through the Choir doors and gates round to and up the Staircase to the Organ loft; to acquaint the Organist, which done he retraced his steps back to his seat."
iThe instiiution of ." spur money". on. fines- from- -those who, not being military men, came to church in spurs. Wis carried on 12y the Atiiiiste_r_s_with the sanction of ate...fieanatitlhapter. Holidays from church the choristers living in Salisbury seldom had, save at the time of the Salisbury races, held at the of July or beginning of August, for three days. The revival the school came at the instance of Canon Hamihon: under -Bishop Denison (1837-54).- After him, the finance of the choir-school was reorganised .under Chancellor Swayne , and so we get to more modem times, of which Mrs. Robertson can write with special knowledge and memory. The past
.(and present) stage is that of a preparatory school. -
E. F. JACOB.
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