In the old days it was the custom for the letter-carriers to collect letters by ringing a bell.

There is no doubt that a most extraordinary, certainly a most original, musical effect is that secured by Mr. George (B.H.), who had just finished smoking.

    ‘Do you know what that tune is, Mr. Smallweed?’ he adds,
    after breaking off to whistle one, accompanied on the
    table with the empty pipe.

    ‘Tune,’ replies the old man.  ’No, we never have
    tunes here.’

    ’That’s the “Dead March” in Saul.  They bury soldiers
    to it, so it’s the natural end of the subject.’

Surely a highly original way of bringing a conversation to a close!

This march is referred to in Our Mutual Friend, where Mr. Wilfer suggests that going through life with Mrs. Wilfer is like keeping time to the ‘Dead March’ in Saul, from which singular simile we may gather that this lady was not the liveliest of companions.

Several other instruments are casually mentioned.  Mr. Hardy (S.B.T. 7) was a master of many accomplishments.

    He could sing comic songs, imitate hackney coachmen
    and fowls, play airs on his chin, and execute concertos
    on the Jew’s harp.

The champion ‘chin’ performer of the early Victorian period was Michael Boai, ‘The celebrated chin melodist,’ who was announced to perform ‘some of his admired pieces’ at many of the places of entertainment.  There is another reference to this extraordinary way of producing music in Sketches by Boz, where Mrs. Tippin performed an air with variations on the guitar, ‘accompanied on the chin by Master Tippin.’  To return to Mr. Hardy, this gentleman was evidently deeply interested in all sorts and degrees of music, but he got out of his depth in a conversation with the much-travelled Captain Helves.  After the three Miss Briggses had finished their guitar performances, Mr. Hardy approached the Captain with the question, ’Did you ever hear a Portuguese tambourine?’

    ‘Did you ever hear a tom-tom, sir?’ sternly inquired
    the Captain, who lost no opportunity of showing off
    his travels, real or pretended.

    ‘A what?’ asked Hardy, rather taken aback.

    ‘A tom-tom.’

    ‘Never.’

    ‘Nor a gum-gum?’

    ‘Never.’

    ‘What is a gum-gum?’ eagerly inquired several
    young ladies.

The question is unanswered to this day, though Hardy afterwards suggests it is another name for a humbug.

When Dickens visited the school where the half-time system was in force, he found the boys undergoing military and naval drill.  A small boy played the fife while the others went through their exercises.  After that a boys’ band appeared, the youngsters being dressed in a neat uniform.  Then came a choral class, who sang ’the praises of a summer’s day to a harmonium.’  In the arithmetical exercises the small piper excels (U.T. 29).