Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 169
Scan 169
the history of the violin, 1864
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 147. See the scan on archive.org.
1who was himself a self-taught performer on the violin, which he tuned in fourths until better instructed by one Charles Griffith, gives an account of these meetings; some being before the Restoration, but in a quiet way. Gentlemen who attended them "play'd three, four, and five parts with viols, as treble-viol, tenor, counter-tenor, and bass, with an organ, virginal, or harpsicon. They esteemed a violin to be an instrument only belonging to a common fidler, and could not endure that it should come among them, for feare of making their meetings to be vaine and fidling. But before the restoration of King Charles II, and especially after, viols began to be out of fashion, and only violins used as treble-violin, tenor, and bass-violin; and the king, according to the French mode, would have twenty-four violins playing before him while he was at meales, as being more airie and brisk than viols."
3He mentions among his friends, Ralph Sheldon, admired for his smooth and admirable way in playing on the viol; Thomas Jackson, a bass-violist; William Ellis, counter-tenor viol; Gervace Littleton, a violist; Will Glexney play'd well on the bass-viol; Joh. Haselwood, an apothecary, a conceited player on the bass-viol, sometimes on the counter-tenor, with little skill—being ever ready to take up a viol before his betters, was called Handlewood; Proctor (a pupil of the celebrated John Jenkyns), skilled on the lyra-viol, division-viol, treble-viol, and treble-violin; Nathan Crew, afterwards Bishop of Durham, violinist and violist, but always out of tune; Richard Rhodes, a confident Westmonasterian, a violinist, to hold between his knees; Matthew Hutton, excellent violist; and several other violists. He tells an amusing anecdote of himself and some of his companions. Himself and Will. Bull on the violins, Edm. Gregorie,
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