Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/34

 English worthies in the craft of organ-building, whose names are now to be added to the roll of fame.

But first, let me again remind you that our own country did not keep pace with Germany and Holland in organ building. What was the cause of this? We must not plead the nature of our forms of religious worship; for the countries I have named bear witness that Protestantism by no means tends to discourage the use or the improvement of the organ. Perhaps the cause of the evil is to be traced to our general indifference as regards musical matters, and more especially when in connection with religious worship. But to dwell upon this theme would lead us far away from our subject matter.

The Precentor's accounts of Ely Cathedral for the year 1407, give the earliest details of the "Expenses of making an Organ," with which I am acquainted Translated from the Latin they read as follows: