Books › British violin-makers classical and modern; being a biographical and critical dictionary of British makers of the violin from the foundation of the classical school to the end of the nineteenth century, 1904 › scan 309
Scan 309
British violin-makers classical and modern; being a biographical and critical dictionary of British makers of the violin from the foundation of the classical school to the end of the nineteenth century, 1904
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1from the fastening of a delicately formed fiddle, to the fixing of giant oaken-pillars in a rock as hard as adamant!
3"Tradition has it that Whiteside possessed a most interesting personality. Many tales are related of him. Here is a characteristic one:
5"'He once led a party of volunteers from Solva to oppose the French at Strumble Head. He rode a horse belonging to Mr. Barsey, of Lecha. While he feared nothing for himself, he feared much that the French aggressors would kill Mr. Barsey's mare.'
7"His cleverness and persistent personality greatly impressed the simple-minded peasantry. He was, as a matter of course, said to be in league with his Satanic majesty, as all cleverness was believed by the people of Dyved to emanate from the nether regions. The lighthouse, although a device made to baffle the powers of darkness, was regarded as an extraordinarily successful piece of jugglery.
9"A story is told of a young woman, a Miss Rees, the only daughter of a farmer living near Llandruidion, who on paying the lighthouse a visit with several others, during its temporary erection, and viewing herself in the angular reflectors of the light-room, exclaimed, 'People say that Georgy Rees has only one daughter, let them come here and they'll see that he has many. I am quite beside myself with the beauty of my sisters.'
11"It is said that he often went out to the cliffs during a storm and tuned his fiddle to the wail of the wind. It is also said that he spent all his spare moments, when not occupied in constructing the lighthouse (or, after it was completed, in acting as agent to the establishment), in making harpsichords, spinets, and fiddles.
13"On his arrival in Solva, he lodged in the (Old) Ship Inn, at that time one of the two public-houses in Lower Solva, and indeed one of the four or five straw-thatched dwellings that then constituted the now important and improving place. The Old Ship stood where the establishment of the Messrs. Davies—the Mariners' Inn—now stands. It was kept by
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.