the hole has been enlarged, badly directed or even made
ragged by a bad tool, it should be a stopped up very carefully with
a plug, neatly glued in, and a fresh hole bored. Sometimes this has
proved necessary from the carelessness of the original maker. The old
masters were not always exact with their mechanical fittings in
connection with the violin. The moderns, for obvious reasons, have paid
much attention to them. I remember coming across an Italian violin that
had changed hands frequently for the asserted reason of insufficient
tone. The maker having a renown for considerable power, it appeared
to me that the tone was possibly there, but that from some undiscovered
cause it was not properly emitted. On examination I found that the maker
had joined the ribs, not at the central part as usual, but too much
to the left, perhaps a pupil or assistant had bored the hole at the
junction. There were besides, some tinkerings by modern regulators
endeavouring to counteract the uneven strain over the instrument. The
right spot, or it may be called the axis of the instrument, having been
found, the peghole was neatly and permanently plugged, and a fresh one
bored, which allowed the strain to be better distributed. The result
was satisfactory and delightful; the tone of much power and purity had
free play in manifesting itself, and the violin was enabled to take
its rightful position among its brethren. A few words as to the right
spot for the peghole. This was treated by many of the old Italian
liutaros as a matter for mere guess work apparently, when there was
no join in the upper table, nor in the lower one, sometimes the lower
rib being continuous. The best spot, and therefore the right one, may
be fixed upon by finding the centre between the two inner edges of the
purfling on the upper table at the lower part, the same between that
of the upper, and drawing a faint line through the points with a piece
of soft white chalk cut to a point, and guided by a flexible rule or
straight edge down to the nut. If this line does not touch at the centre
of the nut, then the latter is out of place, and it should be rectified.
The line should pass through the centre of the nut, and immediately
underneath this and midway between the edges of the upper and lower
table will be the spot for the centre of the peghole. The line thus
made will not always be found to agree with the centre joint of the
pine; many of the old Italian makers may have