DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6887#0111
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 79
#•
" without ostentation, charitable, friendly, hospitable, and ever ready to oblige.
" He was beloved and revered by all. He had many friends, and not one enemy.
" He died the 6th of April, 1800, in the eighty-second year of his age. He was
Immediately below the king's box was placed one for the directors themselves, who were all dis-
tinguished by white wands tipped with gold, and gold medals, struck on the occasion, appending
from white ribbands. These their Majesties likewise condescended to wear at each performance.
Behind and on each side of the throne there were seats for their Majesties' principal attendants,
maids of honour, grooms of the bed-chamber, pages, &c.
The orchestra was built at the opposite extremity, ascending regularly from the height of seven
• * . ^i. " 'TIS'' '
feet from the floor to upwards of forty from the base of the pillars, and extending from the center to
the top of the side aisles.
The intermediate space below was filled up with level seats, while the side aisles were formed into
long galleries, ranging with the orchestra, and ascending so as to contain twelve rows on each side,
the fronts of which projected before the pillars, and were ornamented with festoons of crimson
morine.
At the top of the orchestra was placed the occasional organ in a Gothic frame, mounting to and
mingling with the patriarchs and prophets represented on the west window. Nor was this commemo-
ration more wonderful for the splendour of its arrangement, and the unparalleled multiplicity of voices
and instruments employed, than for vocal and instrumental accuracy and precision. The totality of
sound seemed to proceed from one voice and one instrument; and was declared by many of the distin-
guished judges and lovers of music to have produced sensations of wonder and delight which they
never felt before.
.--All
The multitude of angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from bless'd voices uttering joy, heaven rung
With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled
Th' eternal regions.
Milton's Paradise Lost, Book III.
Nor was the celebrity less distingushed by the company which it assembled. Such an audience
was never before collected together on such an occasion in any country : among whom, not only the
king, queen, royal family, nobility, and great officers of state appeared, but the archbishops, bishops,
#•
" without ostentation, charitable, friendly, hospitable, and ever ready to oblige.
" He was beloved and revered by all. He had many friends, and not one enemy.
" He died the 6th of April, 1800, in the eighty-second year of his age. He was
Immediately below the king's box was placed one for the directors themselves, who were all dis-
tinguished by white wands tipped with gold, and gold medals, struck on the occasion, appending
from white ribbands. These their Majesties likewise condescended to wear at each performance.
Behind and on each side of the throne there were seats for their Majesties' principal attendants,
maids of honour, grooms of the bed-chamber, pages, &c.
The orchestra was built at the opposite extremity, ascending regularly from the height of seven
• * . ^i. " 'TIS'' '
feet from the floor to upwards of forty from the base of the pillars, and extending from the center to
the top of the side aisles.
The intermediate space below was filled up with level seats, while the side aisles were formed into
long galleries, ranging with the orchestra, and ascending so as to contain twelve rows on each side,
the fronts of which projected before the pillars, and were ornamented with festoons of crimson
morine.
At the top of the orchestra was placed the occasional organ in a Gothic frame, mounting to and
mingling with the patriarchs and prophets represented on the west window. Nor was this commemo-
ration more wonderful for the splendour of its arrangement, and the unparalleled multiplicity of voices
and instruments employed, than for vocal and instrumental accuracy and precision. The totality of
sound seemed to proceed from one voice and one instrument; and was declared by many of the distin-
guished judges and lovers of music to have produced sensations of wonder and delight which they
never felt before.
.--All
The multitude of angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from bless'd voices uttering joy, heaven rung
With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled
Th' eternal regions.
Milton's Paradise Lost, Book III.
Nor was the celebrity less distingushed by the company which it assembled. Such an audience
was never before collected together on such an occasion in any country : among whom, not only the
king, queen, royal family, nobility, and great officers of state appeared, but the archbishops, bishops,