hemispherical frame. The tambourine is an extremely
ancient instrument since it was known in Assyria and Egypt as well as
in Greece and Rome, and it is especially interesting to learn that the
Roman tambourine had the metal discs which make so exciting a jingle in
the modern instrument. The mediaeval tambourine also had what, in the
case of the drum, is called the _snare_, which is a cord tightly
stretched across the membrane, and gives a certain sting to instruments
of this class, but now only exists in the drum proper.

Drum.

An ancient Egyptian drum was discovered at Thebes. It was a true drum
having a membrane at each end of the hollow cylinder which made the
frame, and, what is more remarkable, it had the braces or system of cords
by which we still tighten the drum-membranes.

The drum "suspended at the side of the player and beaten on one head
only" became, with the accompaniment of the fife, the earliest type of
military music. {96a} Mr Galpin concludes {96b} by quoting what Virdung
(1511) had to say of drums: "I verily believe that the devil must have
had the devising and making of them, for there is no pleasure nor
anything good about them. If the noise of the drum-stick be music, then
the coopers who make barrels must be musicians."

Kettle-drums. {96c}

Anyone who has seen the band of the Life Guards must have admired (as I
do) the splendid personage who plays the kettle-drums. These are not of
the ordinary drum-form, being hemispherical instead of cylindrical, and
having but a single membrane. They have a right to be called musical
instruments since their pitch is alterable: {96d} I have often admired
the drummer in an orchestra tuning his instrument at a change of key.
One sees him leaning over his children like an anxious mother until he
gets his large babies into the proper temper.

The earliest record of kettle-drums in this country is in the list of
Edward I.'s musicians, among whom was Janino le Nakerer. Henry VIII. is
said to have sent to Vienna for kettle-drums {97} that could be played on
horseback in the Hungarian manner. In England, Handel was the first to
use the kettle-drum in the concert-room, and he used to borrow from the
Tower the drums taken from the French at the battle of Malplaquet in
1709.

Cymbals and Chimes.

The cymbals are of a great antiquity, being depicted on ancient Assyrian
monuments, and "in the British Museum may be seen a p