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Scan 209
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 195. See the scan on archive.org.
1reference to a "croudero," evidently an itinerant crouth player, is a curious instance of the confusion in nomenclature which then prevailed. Anthony Wood, in the "Diary of his Life," says, "but before the Restoration of K. Ch. 2, and especially after, Viols began to be out of fashion, and only violins used, as Treble Violin, Tenor, and Bass Violins, and the King according to the French mode, would have twenty-four Violins play before him while he was at meals, as being more airey and brisk than Viols." These celebrated "four-and-twenty fiddlers" originated with Louis XIII. of France, and not at the Court of Charles II., where that number was only borrowed from the French fashion. Evelyn, describing a visit paid to the Royal Chapel in 1662 says, "One of his Majesties Chaplains preach'd, after which, instead of the antient, grave and solemn wind music accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of twenty-four violins between every pause, after the French fantastical light way, better suiting a tavern or playhouse than a church." And an exchequer document, which was in Dr. Rimbault's possession, contains the names and salaries of these "four-and-twenty," headed and signed by Thomas Purcell. As the "four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row" have now some slight historical interest, I may be permitted to give the document here, from Dr. Rimbault's notes. This distinguished musician and writer on musical matters has done as much as any single individual, previous to his time, towards furthering, in this country, a knowledge of the history of purely English music. He was secretary of the Musical Antiquarian Society which he had largely helped to establish. He was born in 1816 and died in 1876.
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