ancient Celtic bards had long
before this used a bow instrument--the chrotta or crwth, derived from
the lyre, which was introduced by the Romans in their colonizing
expeditions. As early as 560 A. D., Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of
Poitiers, wrote to the Duke of Champagne:

_"Let the barbarians praise thee with the harp,
Let the British crwth sing."_

This instrument, whose name signifies bulging box, was common in
Britain, and was used in Wales until a comparatively recent period. One
of its distinguishing features was an opening in the lower part for the
admission of the fingers while playing. A fine specimen is preserved in
the South Kensington Museum, corresponding well to the following
description by a Welsh poet of the fifteenth century: "A fair coffer
with a bow, a girdle, a finger-board and a bridge; its value is a pound;
it has a frontlet formed like a wheel with the short-nosed bow across.
In its centre are the circled sounding-holes, and the bulging of its
back is somewhat like an old man, but on its breast harmony reigns, from
the sycamore melodious music is obtained. Six pegs, if we screw them,
will tighten all its chords; six advantageous strings are found, which,
in a skilful hand, produce a varied sound."

In this same museum is a curious wedge-shaped boxwood fiddle, decorated
with allegorical scenes, and dated 1578. Dr. Burney states that it has
no more tone than a violin with a sordine. It is said to have been
presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Leicester, and bears both of
their coats-of-arms in silver on the sounding-board. Besides her other
accomplishments, the Virgin Queen, we are told, was a violinist. During
her reign we find the violin mentioned among instruments accompanying
the drama and various festivities, and viols of diverse kinds were
freely used. Shakespeare, in Twelfth Night, has Sir Toby enumerate among
Sir Andrew Aguecheek's attractions skill on the viol-de-gamboys, Sir
Toby's blunder for the viola da gamba, a fashionable bass viol held
between the knees. A part was written for this instrument in Bach's St.
Matthew Passion, and a number of celebrated performers on it are
recorded in the eighteenth century. Two of these were ladies, Mrs. Sarah
Ottey and Miss Ford.

Violers and fiddlers formed an essential part of the retinue of many
monarchs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Charles II., of
England, had twenty-four at his court, with red bonnets and flau