Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments in the South Kensington museum, preceded by an essay on the history of musical instruments, 1874 › scan 313
Scan 313
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments in the South Kensington museum, preceded by an essay on the history of musical instruments, 1874
9 lines. Read by computer on 14 September 2026. Printed page 287. See the scan on archive.org.
1APPENDIX No. 1.
3INSTRUMENTS LENT FOR EXHIBITION.
5VIOLIN. Boxwood, carved with woodland scenes.
6English. Dated, 1578. (Lent by the Earl of Warwick.)
8This violin is said to have been given by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Leicester, and the arms of both these personages are engraved on silver on the finger-board. The instrument is mentioned by Hawkins and also by Burney; the former gives a drawing of it in his 'History of Music,' London, 1776, vol. iv. p. 342. He says, "At a sale by auction of the late Duke of Dorset's effects a violin was bought, appearing to have been made in the year 1578, which, though of a very singular form, and encumbered with a profusion of carving, was essentially the very same instrument with the four-stringed violin. The dimensions of the instrument are as follows:—From the extremity of the tail-pin to the dragon's head, two feet; length of the belly thirteen inches. Over the pins is a silver gilt plate that turns upon a hinge, and opens from the nut downwards; thereon are engraved the arms of England, and under them, encircled by a garter, with the usual motto, the bear and ragged staff, and an earl's coronet at the top. The bear and ragged staff was the cognizance of the Nevils, Earls of Warwick. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who derived his pedigree from them, took it for his crest (see Fuller's 'Worthies of Warwickshire,' p. 118). This agrees with a tradition concerning it, that the instrument was originally Queen Elizabeth's, and that she gave it to her favourite, the Earl of Leicester, which is not improbable, seeing
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