en
Decani and Cantoris) at the colon, instead of at the verse. It requires
great readiness, and for those Psalms which are written in parallelisms,
it is most effective.

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.

The boys here are divided into ten choristers and fourteen probationers.
The choristers are on the foundation, and receive a stipend; the
probationers get their schooling only. The choristers wear trencher caps
and gowns; the probationers flannel caps, bearing the arms of the
cathedral. The boys are nearly all from the city; there is no
boarding-school. The lower floor of the choir-school is used for the
ordinary instruction, which is conducted by Mr. Plant, an alto in the
cathedral choir, and the upper floor is used as a music-room. Here the
boys receive four or five lessons a week from Dr. Longhurst, and the
probationers have also a lesson by themselves. All the choristers learn
the violin; this has been the practice for many years. When, at
festivals, there is a band in the cathedral, the strings are made up
largely from old choristers, most of whom go into business in the city.
A system of rotation is adopted; thus, although there are twenty-four
boys, not more than fourteen sing at any one service, the rest are at
work at their ordinary lessons. A considerable drainage of boys takes
place to the King's School, the leading grammar school in Canterbury.
The choristers often leave to enter this school when their voices are in
their prime.

Dr. Longhurst takes the boys very young; as soon after seven as
possible. In choosing a boy, he requires both voice and ear to be good.
Sometimes a boy excels in the one direction and not in the other; he can
sing sweetly, but cannot imitate notes struck at random on the
pianoforte, or else he has a poor voice and a good ear. But both
endowments are necessary for a chorister. Dr. Longhurst, who was himself
a boy at Canterbury, had a compass at that time of two-and-a-half
octaves. As his voice changed he passed from first to second treble,
then sang alto for seven years, and at last settled to tenor. He does
not regard boy altos as desirable in cathedrals, but in parish churches,
where no adult male altos are to be had, they are, no doubt, in place.
Dr. Longhurst tells me that as a result of forty-eight years'
experience, he can tell by the look of a boy whether he will make a
chorister. There is something about the brows and eyes, and general
contour of the face which guides him. He is