So completely was it a matter of course to have music after supper, that Cromwell, a lover of music, only altered the character of the performance. When the ambassadors of Holland came to him, as Lord Protector, on the occasion of peace between the two Commonwealths, after having entertained them at a repast, he and the "Lady Protectrice" led them into the music-hall, where they had a psalm sung. This was in 1654. The dissolution of the cathedral choirs, the abolition of sacred music in the churches, scattered professional musicians over the country. There is a very curious traditional song relative to this change, sung in Devonshire, and called _Brixham Town_. It relates how-- "In Brixham town so rare For singing sweet and fair, With none that may compair." The instrumentalists and singers considered that they were the best anywhere. But-- "There came a man to our town, A man of office and in gown, Strove to put music down, Which most men do adore." Then the story goes on to exhort him and all others who love not music-- "Go search out Holy Writ, And you will find in it, That it is right and fit To praise the Lord. On cymbal and with lute, On organ and with flute, And voices sweet that suit All in accord." Very pointedly the song goes on to mention how an evil spirit haunted Saul, and how it proved that this devil also hated music, and how that when David played on his harp the evil spirit fled. The song ends-- "So now, my friends, adieu; I hope that all of you Will pull most just and true In serving the Lord. God grant that all of we, Like angels may agree, Singing in harmony, And sweet concord." There was a great effort made at the time of the Commonwealth to put down all kinds of music. In 1648 the Provost-marshal was given power to arrest all ballad-singers. Organs were everywhere destroyed, and probably a great many viols, lutes, and other instruments. One gentleman, when he adopted Puritanism, had a deep hole dug in his garden, and buried in it "£200 worth of music-books, six feet underground, being, as he said, love-songs and vanity." This was a considerable sum indeed for an amateur to have spent in books of vocal music only; and as he continued to play "psalms and religious hymns on the theorbo," it may be presumed that what was interred formed but a portion of his musical collection.