edly of when my
pupils with childlike pertinacity questioned me as to the origin of
the violin.

That is a useful sort of vase. If ever I come across anyone anxious
to prove something, I shall advise him to use that drawing. That
Ravanastron would prove anything; in fact it proved too much for me.

The more I have searched for pictorial records of bow in old prints
and drawings, the more disappointed I have become. It is
extraordinary how artists of genius have literally "scamped" the poor
unfortunate "fiddle-stick" in such works. In the small room of prints
and drawings at the British Museum is a drawing of a violinist
attributed to Corregio. It is merely a slight sketch, but the violin
is beautifully drawn; the corners are well expressed and the
perspective is good, but the bow would be unrecognisable as such were
it not for the close proximity of the violin. Even in more
highly-finished productions the same thing obtains. I have found
drawings of crowders, violists and fiddlers where every little detail
of dimple, crease and nail has been almost photographically rendered
in a hand holding what one knows must be a bow, but if the other hand
held a shield, or a newspaper, or a child's whip-top would be
accepted with equal readiness by the judicious observer as a sword,
paper knife or whip respectively.

Occasionally one finds minute representations of bows, but these are
more often than not of such a nature as to be impossible of credence
as correct representations.

Another thing that stands in the way of a clear exposition of the
bow's development is that even the most reliable drawings and
sculptures do not show by any means a gradual improvement in the
shape of the bow, for it is no uncommon thing to find fourteenth and
fifteenth century representations of bows of quite eighth and ninth
century type. It is not likely that any of such primitive bows would
have remained in use unbroken for so many centuries, therefore I do
not think these later representations of early bows can have been
copied from actual specimens then in use, but, where not evolved from
the artist's inner consciousness, may have been taken from the
drawings, MSS., etc., handed down from the earlier periods. On this
point Mr. Heron-Allen makes the following very sensible
observations:--"The conclusion we are brought to is consequently
this: _either_ all representations of bows which have come down to us
are unreliable, _or_, the bow, instead