2-982-608 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The First Evening Service at St. Paul's Cathedral, on Advent Sunday, [London], 1858. 'A circle of small jets of gas runs round the cornice [of the dome] - a succession of minute beads of light, so close that they appear to the eye as one luminous ring. There is no dazzle or glare, and, as the light descends, softened by distance, the effect is very pleasing...The smallness of the number of ladies present was remarkable, and can only be ascribed to the not unfounded fear of the difficulty of getting in, and the fatigue of waiting three hours in the November air for admission...The choir, greatly augmented for the occasion, numbered 500 voices, divided into 200 trebles and altos, 150 tenors, and 150 bases...The responses were sung to the music of Tallis, the psalms of the day to single chants by Tallis and Farrant. The "Magnificat" after the First and the "Nuncdimittis" after the Second Lesson were given with double chants...So immense is the space that even this great body of sound was not more than sufficient to fill it...The sermon was preached by the Bishop of London...His Lordship's discourse lasted nearly an hour, and was delivered without any assistance from notes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.