Books › John Askew, the Stanhope violin maker, 1914 › scan 135
Scan 135
John Askew, the Stanhope violin maker, 1914
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 105. See the scan on archive.org.
1to King Edward III., in 1370, at 7½d. a day, but history does not record whether this royal person had his minrel with him when his majesty and his army encamped in Stanhope Park, Weardale, in the County of Durham, in 1327. When the Bishop of Durham, Robert de Insula (1274—1283), and my Lord Prior, Richard Claxton, went to London to interview King Edward the First, we find that on three successive days the Bishop tipped the King's Minstrels in the sums of three, four and five shillings respectively. In Bishop Fordham's time, 1381-1388 we find in the Durham exchequer rolls—"paid to John Dogger of Durham for a horse for Giliot, my Lord's minstrel, by my Lord's orders, 17/6." Amongst the stringed instruments used by these court officials, the viol, in later days, became very popular, and, in its own time, developed into the present day violin. This, admittedly perfect stringed instrument, was, nevertheless, late in coming to England through English makers. Mr. Hart in his book on violins refers to two foreign books on this instrument, and published respectively in 1825 and 1848, as not mentioning any English violin-makers.
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