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Scan 76
British Violin Makers, 1920
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 56. See the scan on archive.org.
1passion for truth, that Hardie's violins must have originally had a good tone, but that they have gradually deteriorated owing to the wood having been artificially seasoned. Some scores of novels have appeared since Reade wrote these two tales, in which a violin maker or player is the hero, or an important character; many of them are of considerable merit, and a few very instructive and interesting. A really clever and fascinating book is "Interplay," by Beatrice Harraden, in which one of the minor characters is a violin maker, bearing the rather commonplace name of Paul Stilling, whose imbecile innocence of the world and its affairs is eclipsed only by his phenomenal ability and skill as a fiddle maker and repairer. He is described as one who makes great fiddles by intuition, and as "an absolutely entrancing companion in his own realm." The authoress—evidently a "modern woman"—has a thorough knowledge of the subject of violin making and repairing, and has produced something worth reading.
3Of interesting violin anecdotes there is no end. Hart, in his book, has a choice selection, to which may be added many more equally entertaining from "Some Early Musical Recollections of George Haddock," the numerous publications of the late Dr. T. L. Phipson; "The Fiddle in Scotland," by A. G. Murdoch—a little work which contains several quaint stories of old Scottish fiddlers and fiddle makers—and from other books and periodicals. To the particularly pleasing and amusing stories of Gainsborough (related by Hart) may be added others
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