James WORDEN

He was born at Leyland, Aug. 25, 1839, and is the son of George and Ann Worden. The father was a descendant of the Wordens of old Worden Hall, and the mother a descendant of the Plessingtons, of the Dimples, an old Lancashire family. The mother's family gave the Roman Catholics their last British martyr, to wit the Rev, J. Plessington, who was executed in the year 1678. Mr. Worden received a liberal elementary education at the school of the Christian Brothers, at Preston. He was married in the year 1868, to Miss Mary Anne Stirzaker, at the church of St. Joseph, Preston. He served an apprenticeship at the trade of cabinetmaking. In the year 1870 he went to Mr, Francis Booth, of Wakefield, to learn the trade of organ building, and later to the firm of Messrs. Gray & Davidson. He is a practical pianoforte-maker and organ builder, as well as violin-maker, and his workshop at 83 Friargate Gate, is well known in and around Preston. He has made up to date fifty violins, one tenor, one 'cello, and one guitar. He makes on different models, mostly on that of Stradivari, but sometimes on an adopted model of his own, based on the lines of Maggini. The workmanship is excellent. The wood is well chosen for its acoustic properties, and is generally handsome in appearance. The sound-holes in the instruments, made on original lines, are a hybrid between those of Strad and Joseph. The scroll is beautifully carved and exceedingly graceful per se but when viewed as a part of the whole, it impresses the mind with a sense of longing after the bold and the massive. It is too slender for this giant model. The button is not of the usual modern British type, but is somewhat smaller and more elongated. One of Mr. Worden's instruments has a Panormo back cut from a partly worked block, which was discarded by the noted Vincenzo owing to a few worm-holes. There is ample evidence that it is a block out of the famous billiard table. It is magnificent wood, with beautiful cloud- like coruscations, and a broad, vivid flame. This fiddle is on the Strad lines, well-made and full of character. Mr. Worden uses Whitelaw's varnish in the various colours, and also Walton's. The tone is beautifully sweet and velvet-like. The Panormo back fiddle has a round, clear, and penetrating tone. This maker has led a very active musical career. In 1883 he founded the Preston Harmonic Society, which society still exists and is conducted by its founder. In 1884 he was appointed conductor of the Preston Orpheonic Male Voice Choir, and he led them at the Liverpool Eisteddfod in that year; at the Inventions, London, in 1885, where they took the second prize ; and at the Liverpool Exhibition in 1886. He has also, up to within a recent date, been associated with all the work of the Preston Choral Society, and looks back with much pleasure to his association with its wholly admirable conductor, Signor Luigi Resegari. The Paschal Lamb, with the motto Princeps Pads, is the coat of arms of the Borough of Preston. Each instrument as it is finished is dedicated to, and put under the protection of, some well-known saint.