Next afternoon I was due for the ferry to Sanday (over two hours' travel time away) and I took the opportunity to have a look at the old settlement I mentioned above which is fascinating; I suppose it is bronze age, a complex of cut and cover tunnels joining a number of equally cut and cover style dwellings with the now somewhat encroached sea whipping a stinging spray into our faces. A quick visit into St Magnus at the end of the service to look at this wonderful Norman building and a look (but not listen) to the Willis it contains and then onto the ferry, arriving at Sanday at about 4.00pm and then to PMD's house. It would seem that Sanday has only one real road so one can't really go wrong unless you go past the house, in which case you finish up in a large farm, surprisingly large and with a fine house right on the northern shore of Sanday, from which you will gather that I did go past. PMD has Lapsang Sushong tea (great man!), and after a pot of that I was ready to get to work, whilst he finished copying a new score that had to be delivered to Edinburgh the following week. Unfortunately, there was the matter of the keys to see to so, with a quick stop for a very good stew, then it was working through to 2.00am to get the organ to the point where I knew I could get it completed the following day, and then a bit of kip on the sofa.

Next morning (well actually only a bit later the same morning really), a good breakfast and re-assembly completed and then tuning. That was the easy bit, and I was finished just an hour before I had to leave (with PMD and his score which is just as well as there ARE two roads when you go south and I would have missed the correct one). He played it a bit. The specification is a bit curious, but it does have its logic. 8 & 4 is OK, but then a mixture with no 2ft? That is the reason there is no quint in the bass of the mixture, until middle c in fact. The chorus works rather well actually and the brightness of it all together gives it a whiff of orchestral texture. The Regal is a mild one. The specification is Sir Peter's own and has proved remarkably flexible. It is tuned to Vallotti's unequal temperament.