Oaken beams; carved galleries, curiously contrived to fit into every available space; high, upright box pews--of the sort instituted, in the reign of Anne, by the renowned Bishop Burnett to restrain the roving eyes of the congregation and make gallants better attend to their devotions; all these, in addition to the memorial slabs and tablets, and weeping angels over cinereal urns, tend to give the church that air of ugliness and comfort which the modern churchman detests.
Dear old church! I love its old walls, its old chancel, its old pews, its form of worship, and all; for it was there that I first saw her,--my own, my darling! O, Min, Min! can I ever forget that time?
Can I! One Sunday--it is not so long ago that my hair is grey, nor so recently as to prevent my having a story to tell--I was in Saint Canon's church, sitting in one of its old, square box pews, where one was, as it were, shut up in a small, private house, away from all connection with the outer world; for you could not see anything when the door was closed, with the exception of the roof overhead, and, mayhap, the walls around.
I was listening to the varied fugue introitus that the organist was playing from the gallery beyond the pulpit,--playing with the full wind power of the venerable reed instrument he skilfully manipulated, having all the stops out,--diapasons, trumpet, vox humana, and the rest.

The music was from Handel, a composer of whom the maestro was especially fond; so fond, indeed, that any of the congregation who might have the like musical proclivities need seldom fear disappointment.

They could reckon upon hearing the Hallelujah Chorus at least once a fortnight, and the lesser morceaux of _Israel in Egypt_ at intervals in between.
Presently, just before the vicar and curate made their customary processional entry, ere the service began, two ladies were ushered into the large pew which I occupied alone in solitary state.

There was room enough, in all conscience.

It could have accommodated a round dozen, and that without any squeezing.
Both the ladies were dressed in half-mourning, which attracted my attention and made me observe them more closely than I might otherwise have done.