Advent, door 18

Talking of carols, as I was yesterday, brings to mind this seasonal passage from Thomas Hardy's novel Under the Greenwood Tree. It recalls a time when a country parish church didn't have a choir as we now understand the term, still less an organ. Instead a band of players played the hymns and psalms on Sunday. And on Saturday night, the self-same players probably played at the village dances, which in this case was their great undoing...