Scan 41
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 31. See the scan on archive.org.
1Vol. i., p. 23 (London, 1809), remarks that "cruit, or croith, signifies a trembling motion."
3Joseph Walker ("Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards," p. 73, London, 1786) mentions the cionar cruit, which, he says, "had ten strings, and was played on with a bow or plectrum. As no drawing of this instrument has reached us, we can only suppose it resembled the hashur [asor] of the Hebrews, of which such frequent mention is made in the Psalms by the name of the 'ten-stringed instrument.' . . . In the cionar cruit we have the canora cythara of the Latins of the middle ages, and the origin of the modern guitar." This is, of course, incorrect. There was no particular instrument which was called canora cythara; and our modern guitar is known to be of Arabic origin.
5Furthermore, J. Walker mentions the old Irish creamthine cruit, with the remark that it was identical with the crwth of the Welsh. "It was called creamthine cruit," he explains, "because it was used at potations or carousals; whence cream-nual, designating a noisy, drunken company." He calls it the parent of the violin, and assigns to it an Irish origin, remarking of the Welsh people: "In fact, two of their own historians confess that Gruffydh ap Conan brought it over into Wales from Ireland." Later he says: "But the Welsh are not the only people who, we imagine, borrowed the crwth from the Irish. Our neighbours, the Scots, were in all probability under the same obligation to us, though a trace of that instrument cannot be found in any of their historians. The ingenious and learned Barrington informs us that there is a representation of the instrument which bears an exact resemblance to the Welsh crwth amongst the outside ornaments of the Abbey of Melrose, in Scotland, which, to the best of his recollection, is supposed to have been built about the time of Edward II. From an inscription on this abbey (which was founded A.D. 1136) it appears that the architect was a Parisian, who, it is natural to suppose, borrowed his ornaments from his own country."
7An illustration of the supposed crwth in Melrose Abbey, published by Sir John Graham Dalyell, in his "Musical Memoirs of Scotland," Plate XXIX. (Edinburgh, 1849),
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