At the east end of the nave, in the days of the loft, stood a kind of triple pulpit, commonly called a three-decker.  It was composed of three compartments, the second above and behind the first, and the third similarly placed with regard to the second.  The lowest, resting on the floor, was the place for the clerk, the middle was for the parson when reading the prayers and Scriptures, and the highest for the parson when preaching.  Such pulpits are now almost as completely things of the past as the old warships from which, in derision, they got their name.  Once only have I read the service and preached from a three-decker, and then the clerk did not occupy the position assigned to him.  Dixon, however, always used the little desk at the foot of the Catwick pulpit, and from it took his share of the service.

It was part of his duty, as clerk, to choose and to give out the number of the hymns.  Now Dixon, like Fewson, was a singer, and felt that the choir could not get on without the help of his voice in the gallery when the hymns were sung.  Consequently, he then left his box and went to the singing loft; but, to save time, as he marched down the aisle from east to west, and as he mounted the steps of the gallery, he slowly and solemnly announced the number of the hymn and read the lines of the first verse.  When the hymn was sung, our bird-like clerk came down again from the heights of the loft and returned to his perch at the base of the pulpit.

Nowadays, we should consider such proceedings very unseemly, but it would have been thought nothing of in the days of Dixon.  Scenes, according to our ideas, much more grotesque were then of frequent occurrence.  We have already looked on at least one; here is another which took place in the neighbouring church of Skipsea one Sunday afternoon some sixty years ago, and in connection with singing.  The account was given to me by a parishioner of about eighty years of age, who was one of the choirmen on the occasion.

The leading singer, he said, there being no instrument, started a tune for the hymn.  It would not fit the words, and he soon came to a full stop, and choir and congregation with him.  At this, one of the congregation, in a voice that could be heard the whole church over, called out, “Give it up, George!  Give it up!” “No, no,” said the vicar in answer, leaning over his desk, “No, no, George, try again! try again!” George tried again, and again failed.  But the vicar still encouraged him with “Have another try, George!  Have another try!  You may get it yet!” George tried the third time, and now hit upon a right tune; and to the general delight the hymn was sung through.

Without doubt, in the days of our forefathers the services of the Church were conducted with the greatest freedom.  But we may not judge those who preceded us by our own standard, nor yet apart from the time in which they lived.