A LINCOLNSHIRE FIND
Last year the Greenwood scribe and its much better half went to a local history display, part of the activities marking 70 years since the final demise of the once-world-famous Horncastle Horse Fair, which in its heyday not just rivalled but over-topped that at Appleby. The exhibition as a whole was fascinating – you would not believe how many pubs once sustained such a small town (alas, far fewer now), and during the Horse Fair virtually every dwelling had its Bough Licence for the selling of home-brewed beer: apparently things used to get a bit lively . . Sharp-eyed Mr Scribe spotted on one of the tables what looked like a small heap of bits of wind instruments. Being an engineer he couldn't resist trying to fit them together. On the table by them were two very battered and beaten up music manuscript books in the tell-tale landscape format. Of course we had to ask about them . . They are in the custody of the Horncastle Archive, who received both books and instruments from descendants of the original owner(s) and most kindly allowed us to go in and photograph as much as we wanted.
We concentrated on the larger of the two books, as the smaller contained as far as we could tell nothing to make West Gallery antennae twitch. The larger, however, gave us great delight, though its extreme fragility – it has been very well used and also somewhat abused over the years – made it a bit terrifying to handle. The first owner, Thomas Claricoates, whose name in beautiful lettering adorns an early page, was born in 1800 and seems to have begun the book in 1821; from him it passed in 1850 to his nephew John Claricoates, a shoemaker, born in 1827. There is a rather blurry photograph taken in 1882 of John, a solid citizen, and his wife Eleanor; it is annotated 'John was a gallery musician'.
Donated with the books were a boxwood flute of the early 1830s, one of whose sections is stamped 'Sutton & Co, London', and a clarinet of probably similar age. Each instrument, while more or less complete, is in need of restoration.
The MS book itself requires extensive conservation and repair. Its brown leather covers are very scuffed and damaged and the spine has disintegrated, leaving most pages loose. It contains only instrumental lines of the various hymns and psalms, with no text: there is only one line of one piece which has words added, perhaps as an aide memoire, perhaps, since it is the first piece in the book, the start of a scheme not carried through? Many of the pieces seem to be in three parts, some have only a single line. There are over sixty hymns and metrical psalm settings, some with titles very familiar, others completely new to us at least, with eight rather more secular-seeming pieces at the end of the book. At least two different hands can be identified.
Inside the back cover is inscribed
'May the lamp of friendship be lighted with the oil of sincerity'.
We are happy to have been able to make a photographic record, however far from professional standards, of these items.
With grateful thanks to Mary Silverton of Horncastle Archive for allowing us to handle and photograph these fragile and precious objects.
Julia Jacobs