Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/74

 the Singing Books belonging to the Quire: they threw downe the organs, and break the stories of the Old and New Testament, curiously cut out in carved work."

Similar notices of the doings of these fanatical monsters are given by Sir William Dugdale, Bishop Hall and Izaak Walton; but the passages cited are more than sufficient for our purpose.

After the zeal with which the parliamentary ordinance of 1644 was put into force, it is only remarkable that any church organs should have escaped demolition. But that some few instruments were suffered to remain, we have accredited evidence. Among the number, were those of St. Paul's, York, Durham and Lincoln Cathedrals; St. John's and Magdalen College, Oxford; Christ's College, Cambridge; and probably others. Some of these have since been destroyed or removed, but one at least remains, a curious episode in the history of which will conclude this lecture.