A PIECE written by Edward Elgar as a joke went on display this week in the composer's birthplace museum at Lower Broadheath.

The museum bought the manuscript of the Smoking Cantata for £3,800 at a London auction, with the aid of a 50 per cent grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum and a private donation.

The manuscript has just nine bars of orchestral music, accompanied by the words: "Kindly, kindly, kindly, do not smoke in the hall or on the staircase". It would take less than a minute to perform. Elgar wrote it while staying with friends who forbade him to smoke in parts of the house.