charming effect, and on a serene day their tones glide over the surface to a great extent. The writer once heard a German band distinctly perform the most delicate passages at the distance of more than a mile. The notes of the horn are but few, and are only occasionally introduced.* The following are those which composers generally use:

As a solo instrument, it is now brought to the highest pitch of perfection by the celebrated Signor Puzzi. In his hands it breathes the most delicious and soothing tones. Unlike the violin, there is nothing in its temper sharp or fretful. Its language is that of sincerity,-drawing like a friend the opposing instruments together into a band of concordant harmony.

'sick, just as I have formerly been when in love with my wife, that I 'could think of nothing else.'

* Daly, at a rehearsal in the Dublin Theatre, observing the persons who played the two French horns occasionally leaving off, and conceiving it proceeded from inattention, hastened to the front of the stage, close to the orchestra, and addressing them with much warmth, said, 'Gentlemen horn-players, why don't you play on, as the others do? What do you mean by stopping?'. 'Sir,' replied one of them, 'we have twenty bars rest.' 'Rest!' said Daly, 'what do you mean by rest? I can get none in this theatre, and, by Jasus! you shan't.'— Parke's Memoirs.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE HARP.

A THOUSAND years prior to the Christian Era, we read of David playing upon the harp before Saul. Even at this early period we find it in the hands of shepherds, whose occupation and leisure, in those times, enabled them to excel in music. The pipe resounded through the vales, and called their flocks together, while the harp was left at home for the song and the dance. The Italian and French trace the origin of this instrument to England:-we refer it to the Irish and Welsh. If, as some suppose, Ireland was colonized by the Phoenicians, we may reasonably conclude that the harp was originally brought from the east by that people.* Of the few

* The most ancient harp is shewn in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. According to generally-received tradition, it was carried to Rome by Donagh, on his father being dethroned, in 1064; and the exile is said to have laid the harp, with the crown and other regalia of the Irish monarch, at the feet of the Pope, as a full submission of the kingdom of Ireland. It is even asserted, that Adrian avowed this circumstance as one of the principal grounds for the title, which, by his alleged Bull, he transferred to Henry II. These symbols of homage remained in the Vatican till the reign of Henry VIII., when the Pope, reserving to himself the crown, which was of massive gold, sent the harp to that English sovereign. The tyrant, however, placing but little value on the instrument, gave it to the first Earl of Clanricard, in whose family it continued till the beginning of the last century, when it passed in the female line into other custody, and has been ultimately deposited in the museum before mentioned.

instruments known to the ancients, the lyre or harp was the best adapted to accompanying their declamations. Its sharp and decided tone supported the voice without incommoding it; and notwithstanding the extravagant descriptions of the Greek authors, their music probably did not exceed in effect that of recitative of the rudest kind.

The simplicity and uncouth structure of their instruments at once prove the truth of this assertion. But their taste in language, no doubt, was great and refined.*

The fury of the orator, accompanied with the sweep of the lyre, and the soft touches mingled with the melting tones of the lover, produced the wonderful effects which the ancients have so much extolled. Hence arose our bards and their min

The author was favored with the sight of an ancient lyre, taken out of a tomb at Athens, by Lord Elgin. Though in a mutilated state, and in fifty pieces, the parts could be so put together, as to leave no doubt of its figure and action. The wood was of cedar, and in size similar to that held in the hand of Apollo. Having lain in the earth nearly three thousand years, it was surprising that the woodwork was not at all decayed, though the metallic parts were completely dissolved. It evidently had eight strings, from the number of little rollers which turned upon the cross bar, as seen in figure 7, Burney's History of Music. On each roller there was a small projecting peg, upon which the string was looped; then, by turning the roller, it was raised in pitch, and the mode of fixing it was by slipping the end of the roller (which was notched) upon a fastened piece of wood of corresponding shape. By a method so clumsy, it was impossible to put the instrument into tune, according to our notions of accuracy; and we need not be long in determining, that the ears of the performers were as rude as the instruments upon which they played.

strelsy. This class of persons, in the time of Henry I., were formed into corporate bodies, and enjoyed certain immunities in various parts of the kingdom.* The most accomplished became the companions

* We have previously described how the fortress of Chester was saved from attack, by the minstrels, who attended the festivities, marching out with all their instruments playing, which so alarmed the enemy by the vastness of the sound, that they fled with precipitation from the walls. But we have not described the ancient customs that still remain in that venerable city, more entire than in any other part of the kingdom. Situated at the foot of the Welsh mountains, it was too remote to be often disturbed by the incursions of our Norman and Saxon invaders. Its mysteries, which Shakspeare speaks of, were no doubt left by the Romans, and its minstrelsy was coeval with the Druids. In the first ages of Christianity, Pagan rites were engrafted on the new religion, to render it popular and imposing; and in the ceremonies of the last century, we may detect considerable remains of these superstitions. The rows or galleries that run through the streets, are evidently structures of Roman origin; they are the ancient vestibules or porticoes. These piazzi form a shelter from the weather, and well adapt the city for shows and sights. At the summer solstice and autumnal equinox, the performance of the mysteries took place, and drew the people in crowds from the mountains. In these exhibitions, enormous giants paraded the streets, with dragons and unicorns, and other terrific objects, that astonished and frightened the people. Sir Isaac Newton was of opinion, that this midsummer show was the same as the Saturnalia of the Greeks. The monks of Chester, with the Abbot Marmion at their head, also contributed their part, by acting before the gate, the pl y of the Assumption of our Lady. In the nightly serenade, the mountain bards stole through the silent corridors with their murmuring harps; but as the morning dawned, the men of Harlech, with a bolder thrum, waked Glendower and Caernarvon to the lists,* and the bowmen to the butts. How changed the scene! the arcades which resounded with sports and music, are now stuffed with wares to be cheapened by the boors from the mountains.

The hanging out the glove, continued to this day, no doubt is a relic of those tour

naments.

and favorites of kings, and attended the court in all its expeditions. When Queen Elizabeth paid a royal visit to the Earl of Leicester, at Kenilworth Castle, 1575, among the many devices and pageants which were contrived for her entertainment, was an ancient minstrel, whose dress and appearance is so minutely described in Percy's Ancient Poetry, by a person present, that it will give a more correct idea of the character than any other description we could quote. 'A person, very meet seemed he for the purpose, of a forty-five years old, apparelled partly as he would himself. His cap off; his head seemly rounded tonsure-wise: fair kembed, that with a sponge daintily dipt in a little capon's grease was finely smoothed, to make it shine like a mallard's wing. His beard smugly shaven; and yet his shirt, after the new trink, with ruffs fair starched, sleek'd and glistering like a pair of new shoes, marshalled in good order with a setting stick, and strut, that every ruff stood up like a wafer. A long gown of kendal green, after the freshness of the year now, gathered at the neck with a narrow gorgetfastened afore with a white clasp, and a keeper close up to the chin; but easily, for heat, to undo when he list. Seemly begirt in a red caddis girdle: from that, a pair of capped Sheffield knives hanging a' two sides. Out of his bosom was drawn forth a lappet of his napkin (handkerchief) edged with a blue lace, and marked with a true love, a heart, and D for Damain, for he was but a bachelor yet.