Books › The violin, how to make it, 1880 › scan 25
Scan 25
The violin, how to make it, 1880
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 19. See the scan on archive.org.
1I assure you that they drink their crowned cups roundly, strain healths through their smocks, dance after the Fiddle, kiss freely, and term it an honorable treat;" and amongst the numerous odd devices used on tavern signboards, the Violin formed one, as in a work in 1665, treating of "fanatic reformers," the author observes, "Such ridiculous work they make of their reformation, and so zealous are they against all mirth and jollity, as they would pluck down the sign of the Cat and Fiddle too, if it durst but play so loud as they must hear it." The art of playing by the different shifts appears to have been introduced into Britain during the reign of this sovereign, by Thomas Baltzar, a native of Lubeck, and leader of the Royal band of Violinists, whose performances are graphically depicted in the amusing works of Anthony Wood.
3We may now consider the Violin as a standard and common instrument throughout Britain about this period; and a few years afterwards, mention is made of it as being used in the Highlands of Scotland at the lyke-wakes, where a melancholy ball, attended with dancing and greeting, preceded the wails and ejaculations of the mourning-women in attendance. About the commencement of the following century, the supreme merits of the Cremona Violin were appreciated in our Northern metropolis, for in 1708 mention is made of "two Cremona Violins, along with a parcel of fine music books," to be sold. Pasquali, who arrived here in 1752, had "some Cremona" and other Violins for sale, and about the same period several other Cremonas were advertised for sale in the same city. Numerous have been the various so-called improvements in the Violin by some of our modern makers and repairers, but in reality few of them are of any essential importance, as assuredly no artist by means of any different proportions or combination of parts dissimilar to those used by the chief Cremona makers, has reached anything like the same perfection. Doubtless Violins have been made closely approximating in character to our Cremonas, but those have been formed upon a similar system, without any extra additions or peculiar changes of construction. A few of those fantastic and diversified changes may be herein enumerated.
5The first, and perhaps the most ridiculous of all, is the following, as related of J. J. Hawkins, the inventor of the
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