Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/156

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DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN

to him to be hours. By the time he was twelve years of age Mr Roberts acted as accompanist at Cathedral services, playing from the old scores with figured basses, and the old soprano, alto and tenor clefs. He was educated at Cheltenham College, where he won several class prizes, and, in his last year, a prize for an English poem. From 1862 until 1866, when he matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, Mr Roberts was organist at Cheltenham College, and was third boy in the first class under Dr Barry when he left. He enjoys telling his friends how, as Vicar of Elmstone, he was “inhibited” by Mr D'Oyly Carte from conducting any of the Savoy operas, in consequence of the success of a stage performance of Pinafore in Cheltenham, given by well-known amateurs and professionals, under Mr Roberts's conductorship, for the benefit of the Cheltenham General Hospital. Mr D'Oyly Carte had come down quietly to hear the performance, and not only refused permission for a repetition, but promptly “inhibited” Mr Roberts from conducting any of the Savoy operas, on the ground that such performances would ruin his provincial companies. But it is Mr Edward Lloyd's testimonial which probably most pleases Mr Roberts. For when the great tenor introduced him to Miss Anna Williams, he is said to have accompanied the introduction with the remark—“Listen to everything Mr Roberts says, for he knows.” Of late years Mr Roberts has, unfor-