Going to St. Paul's Cathedral

In her book, 'A London Child of the 1870's' M.V. Hughes describes the services she went to each Sunday morning at St. Paul's Cathedral in London:

'How cool and vast the cathedral seemed after the dusty streets! We walked with precision to our special seats, for the vergers knew us well. My father had a stall, my brothers sat in a pew beyond the choir and my mother and I sat in the reserved front row under the dome. The cathedral seemed to belong to us and little took place that escaped the notice of one or other of us.

The seats and kneeling-boards were constructed for grown-ups (and not too comfortable for them) and a child had the greatest difficulty in keeping an upright kneeling position all through the long intoned Litany.

I have wondered since those days why we all took those long walks to Saint Paul's Cathedral. It must have been for the inspiriting music that burst from that organ and the choir. It was worth all the endurance, even of the Litany. No footling sentimental hymns, but Te Deums, Psalms, Creeds, Introits and Kyries that intoxicated us. During one boy's solo my father was so excited that his fist came thump down on his neighbour's shoulder. We children knew all the chants and used often at home to converse loudly to their tunes. We had nicknames for our favourite Creeds. There was the 'trumpet' Creed, with six trumpet-notes on the organ before each section. We could rely on getting this on the great Feast days. The sermons were seldom less than three-quarters of an hour.

'(Taken from 'A London Child of the 1870's' by M V Hughes, chapter 7, 'Sunday'. Used by permission of Oxford University Press)