WHICH ENGLAND?

'In a Compound stop of 4 ranks, comprising seventeenth, nineteenth, twenty-second and twenty-sixth, he (i.e. George England) would make the seventeenth a small scale, the nineteenth rather larger, the twenty-second large scale and powerfully voiced, and the twenty-sixth small again, and voiced almost as a Dulciana. This last rank, nevertheless, made itself heard, and gave to the Mixture a sound as of bells. England's mixtures were of a silvery and sparkling quality, though not so bold as Smith's, nor so full as Harris's, on account of their different composition and smaller scale. His larger organs commonly had the advantage of four 8-feet stops and three 4-feet stops....'

I have doubts about this paragraph:

1. The procedure described - varied scaling within a compound stop - is more typical of the end of the eighteenth-century than the middle, when all ranks, except perhaps the Open Diapason, were made to the same scale. Compare St George's, Gravesend (George England 1765) with Blandford Forum (G.P. England 1794).

2. Voicing pipes 'almost as a Dulciana' smacks of late eighteenth-century predilections.

3. Which George England Great organs had 'four 8-foot stops and three 4-foot stops' (including, presumably, reeds)? I can think of the Sheffield Parish Church (in Sperling's version of the stop-list) but that was by G.P. England in 1805.

4. The Sesquialtera IV rank of 'England' given in the chapter 'The Composition of Mixtures' has the composition Hopkins described - 17.19.22.26 at CC. The whereabouts of this mixture was Lancaster Church. This organ was built by G.P.England in 1811, not by George England. Where did Hopkins obtain this technical information/ Did he analyse the mixtures himself sitting at the keys pickin gout the notes? Or did he go inside the organs and examine the pipe-work first-hand? Or did he rely on the information of others?

In the Preface of the first edition, Hopkins writes:

'he feels his acknowledgements to be particularly due to Mr Hill and Mr walker, Mr Robson and Mr Jardine, for their exposition of certain technical matters...'

Did much of the factual information on scaling, voicing, mixture compositions, etc. come from these sources? It seems to be that with england's mixtures, Hopkins, or one of his sources, confused the work of George and his nephew, G.P.England; the Mixture IV ranks with the 'sound as of bells' was the latter's, not the former's.

Return to Index Page for this issue