It was not always thus. There was an ‘olden time’ in England when Music was more assiduously cultivated among the higher and educated classes than it has been in more modern days. In the sixteenth century, knowledge of music, and skill in its performance were deemed indispensable to persons of condition. Queen Elizabeth, among her other vanities, was proud of her musical powers, and not a little jealous of her unhappy rival, the Queen of Scots, on account of her proficiency in this accomplishment. The favourite vocal music of that day consisted of the madrigals of the great Italian and English masters—those wonderful works of art, which, like the productions of ancient Grecian sculpture, have baffled all attempts at modern imitation. Yet every well-educated lady or gentleman was expected to take a part in those profound and complicated harmonies; and at a social meeting, to decline doing so, on the score of inability, was regarded as a proof of rudeness and low-breeding. In Morley’s very curious book, the ‘_Introduction to Practical Music_,’ a gentleman is represented as seeking musical instruction in consequence of a mortification of this kind. ‘Supper being ended,’ says he, ‘and musicke books, according to the custom, being brought to the table, the mistress of the house presented me with a part, earnestly requesting me to sing; but when, after many excuses, I protested unfainedly that I could not, every one began to wonder, yea, some whispered to others, demanding how I was brought up.’ Music declined in England along with manners. In the middle of the last century, a period rivalling the days of Charles the Second in moral profligacy, Lord Chesterfield, who of course expressed the fashionable feeling of the time, advised his son to eschew the practice of music as unbecoming a gentleman. This feeling, we need scarcely say, has long passed away; some of our most accomplished amateurs of both sexes being found in the highest circles of society. Traces, however, of the ancient and extensive cultivation of music were never entirely obliterated; and, as might be expected, they existed, along with more primitive manners, in the more remote districts of the country. In some of the northern counties, particularly Lancashire and Yorkshire, the inhabitants have from time immemorial been remarkable for skill in vocal harmony, and for their knowledge of the old part-music of the English school. As these districts have gradually become the seats of manufactures, the same musical habits have been kept up among the growing population; and so salutary have these habits been found—so conducive to order, temperance, and industry—that many great manufacturers have encouraged them by furnishing to their workpeople the means of musical instruction.