Before the 10th century organs were not only common in England, but exceeded both in size and compass these of the Continent. St. Dunstan gave ono to the abbey of Malmsbury, in the reign of Edgar, Elfog„ bishop of Winchester, obtained one for hie cathedral in 951, which was the largest then known. This is described in eight Latin verses by Wolstan, the learned monk of Winchester, In the 10th century, of which Mason, the poet, in his Essay an Instrumental Church Music,' gives the following translation: " Twelve pair of bellows, rang'd in stated row, Are joined above, and fourteen pore below. These the full (ores of seventy men require, Who ceaseless toil, and plenteously perspire; Each siding each, till all the wind be prest In the close conllnee of tie incumbent chest, On whit h four hundred pipes in order rise, To bellow forth that blast the chest supplies." The translator adds an explanation by no means unnecessary. "We are not," ho says, " I think, to imagine that these stout bellows. blowers kept their bellows in action ell the time the organist was playing. I rather think that his performance did not commence till they had filled the chest completely with wind, which he was after. wards to expend by duo degrees, as lie found occasion." The organ was at first very rude in its construction, and extremely limited in its means. The keys were four or five inches broad, and must have been struck by the clenched hand, in the manner of the carillons. The pipes were of brass, harsh in sound, and the compass in tho 12th century did not exceed a dozen or fifteen notes, and to accompany the plain chant no more were required. About that time half-notes were introduced at Venice, where also the important addition of pedals, or foot-keys, was first made in 1470 by Bernhard, a German, to whose countrymen we owe many improvements of the instrument, though in excellence of finish they have been surpassed by our English builders.
Few particulars are recorded concerning the organs of this country from the Reformation to the time of Charles I. qunden mentions one at Wrexham, and Fuller has been strangely misguided in describing it to have had pipes of gold. It shared the general fate of organs in 1641 ; and the old York organ, replaced some years back by a new instrument, was one of the very few that escaped the organoclasts of those times. At the Restoration it appeared that only four organ builders of eminence survived, a circumstance which led to the intro duction of foreign artists,--of Bernard Schmidt (commonly called Father Smith), and his two nephews, with the elder Harris, and his son lienatus. An account of the dispute between these two family parties is amusingly related in )3untey'e ii. 437. Each erected an organ in the Temple Church, as a trial of ability : Blow and Purcell displayed Smith's, and dons. Lully (not the 'great composer) that of the Harrises. The Lord Chancellor Jeffries at length decided in favour of Smith, The principal organs of the latter are—the Temple; Christ church and St. Mary's, Oxford ; Trinity College, Cambridge ; Margaret's, Westminster • St. Clements Danes; Southwell Minster ; Trinity Church, Hull ; and St. Paul's Cathedral. Harris's organ, after being rejected by the Tempters, was divided; part was erected in St.
Andrews, Holborn, and part in Chriatschurch, Dublin. This Last portion was afterward, removed to Wolverhampton. His other prin cipal instruments are those at St. Mary.Axe, St, Bride's, St. Lawrence (Cheapeide), and Doncaster. He, however, from some unexplained cause, was commissioned to mako twice as many organs as his com petitor. The ' Spectator,' No. 552, says that he was ambitious of building an organ for the metropolitan cathedral. We have, however, no reason to regret that his wish was not gratified.
To these celebrated mechanicians succeeded Schrcider, in-law, who built the organ in Westminster Abbey, and that at St. , Martin's-in-the-Fields, the latter a present from George I. as church warden ; Snetzler, Byfield, &c. ; and at a later period, Green, Avery (who most successfully imitated Smith); Gray, Elliot. &c.
The tone of the pipes of the old builders—depending on what is technically called the never been excelled by later makers; but in point of touch, and mechanism generally, the moderns are much superior to their predecessors. In mechanical skill and delicate finish ing the English organ-builders far surpass their Continental rivals, while in tone they at least equal them ; but the costliness of our mate rials and high rate of wages render the organs of this country much more expensive than those of Germany and France. It has been truly observed. that " notwithstanding the imposing enumeration of so many stops, the large organs of the Continent are inferior in the choice and variety of them to the best English instruments ; " a part being, in fact, but half-stops, and several only absurd imitations of other musical instruments, and rarely. if ever, used by scientific organists.
The following is a list of some of the largest and most celebrated foreign organs, from Crosse's Account of the York Festival,' 1823, " collected," he says, " from many sources, and enriched with some additions communicated by the Rev. C. I. Latrobe" :— Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Barrow, in his Tour' (1830), mentions s new organ erected in the church of St. Lawrence, in Rotterdam, con taining 5500 pipes, which, according to his calculation, is 150 feet it height.
Our English church-organs are numerous, and generally well toned Though we have none containing so many nominal stops as a few or the Continent can boast, }et we possess some which. in regard to du greater calibre of the pipes, and power of every kind, surpass and foreign instrument. Chief among these are the new organ in Yorl Minster, and that in the town-hall of Birmingham.
The York organ, built by Elliot and Hill, which has lately beer enlarged and improved, contained 50 stops all through, besides 6 copal; stops The number of pipes was 4200. The largest metal pipe wa 32 feet in length and 20 inches in diameter ; the largest wooden pip was 27 feet long, 3 wide, and 2. deep. This, the builder boasted would contain 12 pipes and 2 gallons of wine. Both piles gave three octaves below the second space in the base. It had three row of keys, and two octaves and one-third of pedals. The width of thi instrument was 70 feet, and its height in proportion. The old Yoe organ. burnt In 1829. was the largest in the kingdom; it had 325 pipes distributed among 52 stops.