PREFACE.

THE Compilation of Hymns and Tunes contained in this little book, is intended to supply a want which must have been very sensibly felt by every person who has attempted to reduce the Psalmody of a Church to anything approaching order and accuracy. What is required seems to be a collection of the best Hymns arranged in juxta-position with the best and most appropriate Tunes. There are reasons, moreover, why such a collection should be not only convenient, but brief and inexpensive.

These manifest requisites the Compiler hopes he has to some extent supplied, by inserting none but what appeared to him to be hymns wherein piety of sentiment is combined with poetry of diction. The tunes also, he trusts, will, in almost every case, be found acceptable from their appropriate and intrinsic beauty.

The plan of the book was originally adopted for the Choir in the Chapel of the Clapham Grammar School; but the great service which it has there rendered, makes it probable that the collection may be found extensively useful elsewhere.

Clapham, 1852.

C. P.