few manage to creep in, and when we saw them they
were having a very happy time of it. Some whistled a little--but
they seemed to be only learners and couldn't get on very well with
tunes; others tossed halfpennies about, a few operated upon the
floor with marbles, and all of them were exceedingly lively. The
gallery above is large, deep, and long; ingress to it is tortuous;
and strangers would have to inquire much before properly reaching
it. There is an old funeral bier in one part of it, and we have
failed to ascertain the precise object of the article. It is not
used when fainting fits are in season; it is never taken advantage
of in the case of people who fall asleep, and require carrying home
to bed; it seems to be neither useful nor ornamental; and it ought
to be either taken off to the cemetery and quietly inurned, or sold
to one of the sextons there.

In the gallery there is a large organ. It is a very respectable-
looking instrument, has a healthy musical interior, and is played
moderately. The members of the choir, to whom several people in the
bottom of the church look up periodically, as if trying to find out
either what they were doing or how they were dressed, are only in
embryo. They are new singers; but some of them have fair voices, and
in spite of occasional irregularity in tune and time, they get along
agreeably. The elements of a good choir are within them, and they
have only to persevere, in order to secure excellence, saying
nothing of medals, and other tokens of appreciation. The whole of
the seats in the gallery, generally used by scholars, are free.

St. Mary's is situated a district containing about 8,000 persons,
and as they are nearly entirely of the working class sort, the
congregation is naturally made up of similar materials. Including 14
militia staff men, the congregation will number, on an average,
without the scholars, about 500. More people appear to come late to
this church than to any other in Preston; they keep dropping in at
all times--particularly in a morning--up to within twenty minutes of
the finish; but they are connected with the schools, visit the
church after they have done duty there, and this accounts for their
lateness. The beadle of this church has the strongest, if not the
longest, official wand in the town, and he is very modest, blushing
occasionally, while carrying it.

The first incumbent of St. Mary's was the Rev. James Parker, a
relative of Councillor Park