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Resistance to Change
A SCENE IN CHURCH
A young clergyman who had been lately appointed to officiate as curate in an unsophisticated parish in this neighbourhood, in the church of which said parish, psalmody has long been exercised by the choir to the full satisfaction of the parishioners, shortly after his arrival intimated his intentions of giving out the psalms himself. The clerk made a meek remonstration against the threatened innovation, and two Sundays passed quietly away. On the third, however, the parson informed the clerk that he should that day give out the psalms. At the proper period of the service, the clerk, as usual, left his desk to proceed to the singing gallery to lead the cho In passing the churchwarden's pew, he leant over to his brother functionary, and in no very subdued whisper said, "He is a going to do it. He is a going to do it; and d--- me if I know where it'll end." He then walked quietly to the gallery. The parson, like an honest man, determined to keep his word, accordingly gave out the psalms. No music followed - the choristers were dumb - the congregation listened in surprise but the singing was burked! The clerk, from the front of the gallery, then addressed the parson in the following words: "I tould 'ee how 'twould be, Measter - I tould 'ee how 'twould be! If it 'tisn't as it was, they weant sing at all." The next day the parson acquainted the churchwardens that he should take down the singing gallery altogether, to which the zealous functionary replied, "No, Measter, you weant - eff so be you were to try to, I wedn't aanser for yor life for five minutes in this parish."
from From the Falmouth Packet, reproduced in the Hull Packet and East Riding Times, 27 March 1846
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