ral. "It was my stepping-stone to fame," he says.
"The Swell, down to double C, had twelve stops and a double Venetian
front. The _pianissimo_ was simply astounding. I received 400 pounds
for the job, and I was presumptuous enough to marry."

For the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace (then in Hyde
Park), Mr. Willis erected a magnificent organ which attracted
extraordinary attention and was visited by the Queen and Prince
Consort. It had three manuals and pedals, seventy sounding stops and
seven couplers. There were twenty-two stops on the Swell, and the
Swell bellows was placed inside the Swell box. The manual compass
extended to G in _altissimo_ and the pedals from CCC to G--32 notes.
There were other important features in this remarkable instrument which
went a long way towards revolutionizing the art of organ-building.
First, the introduction of pistons, inserted between the key-slips,
which replaced the clumsy composition pedals then in vogue. Again, to
use Mr. Willis' own words, "that Exhibition organ was the great pioneer
of the improved pneumatic movement. A child could play the keys with
all the stops drawn. It never went wrong."

This organ was afterwards re-erected in Winchester Cathedral in 1852,
and was in constant use for forty years before being renovated. It was
also the means of procuring Willis the order for the organ in St.
George's Hall, Liverpool. "The Town Clerk of Liverpool wrote to me,"
said Mr. Willis, "to the effect that a committee of the Corporation
would visit the Exhibition on a certain day at 6 A. M., their object
being to test the various organs with a view to selecting a builder for
the proposed new instrument in St. George's Hall. He asked me if I
could be there. I was there--all there! The other two competing
builders, X and Z, in anticipation of the visit, tuned their organs in
the afternoon of the previous day, with the result that, owing to the
abnormal heat of the sun through the glass roof, the reeds were not fit
to be heard! I said nothing. At five o'clock on the following morning
my men and I were there to tune the reeds of my organ in the cool of
the morning of that lovely summer's day. At six o'clock the Liverpool
committee, which included the Mayor and the Town Clerk in addition to
S. S. Wesley and T. A. Walmisley, their musical advisers, duly
appeared. Messrs. X and Z had specially engaged two eminent organists
to play for them. I retained nob