ad been made, and time had been given for
the new order of things, under a thoroughly competent musician, we
should not regret it.

"At Ely we have ten men in daily attendance; fourteen on Sundays. We
keep twenty boys in training. If this vocal body were thus
distributed:--

10 FIRST TREBLES 5 TENORS (6 on Sunday)

10 SECOND TREBLES 5 BASSES (8 on Sunday)

we should certainly be stronger and healthier in tone and quality than
we are now, with a disproportionate number of trebles, thus:--

20 TREBLES 3 [4] TENORS

3 [4] ALTOS 4 [6] BASSES

As to rustic choirs in village churches, I fear the case is hopeless,
and I myself should be glad to see editions of well-known hymn-tunes and
chants in three parts only--treble, tenor, and bass. Handel wrote some
truly grand choruses in three parts in his 'Chandos Anthems.' But his
tenor part is not for every-day voices!

"Believe me, truly yours,

"W. E. DICKSON."

* * * * *

The following, from Dr. Haydn Keeton, organist of Peterborough
Cathedral, is against boy altos:--

"Thorpe Road, Peterborough, _December 12th, 1890_.

"Dear Sir,--I have had about eighteen years' experience with alto boys,
and although I have had some exceedingly good ones, one or two as good
as it is possible, I think, to have, yet I must say that, in my opinion,
it is a bad system to substitute boys for men, especially in cathedral
music. The reason why the change was made here was that about the year
1872 three of our men altos were failing, and I happened to have three
boys with good low voices, who took alto well. In consenting to this
change I had no idea of its being a permanent one, but owing to the
agricultural depression our Chapter have been quite prevented doing what
they would like to do with the choir. The general effect of the change
has been this--that I have been always weak in trebles. We are limited
to Peterborough for our choristers, and, as a rule, there is not one boy
in a hundred who knows even his notes when he enters the choir. It
takes from eighteen months to two years for a boy to learn his work, and
it is not until a boy is at least twelve that one can turn him into an
alto. The result is that four of my senior boys have to be turned into
altos, and I am left with a preponderance of young, inexperienced boys
as trebles. At the present time I have twelve trebles, eight of whom are
quite young.

"In addition