e inches high by
eighteen inches wide, and was played resting on the left knee of the
performer, leaning against the left shoulder; the upper strings were
played by the left hand. These harps were strung with brass or steel
wire, and plucked with the finger-nails, which were kept long on
purpose. Queen Mary took her harp for a tour in the Highlands, and while
there gave it to a lady who, by marriage, passed it over to its present
owners, the Stewarts of Galguse.

No amount of repression and misery during the ceaseless rebellions
against their English masters seems to have affected the Welsh love for
their national instrument. In the year 1568, Queen Elizabeth herself
brought her mind to bear upon the matter, and ordered a congress of
bards to be held at Caerwys. Here the really good players received
degrees and rewards, whilst the indifferent performers were invited to
seek some other honest profession; failing this they were liable to be
apprehended and punished as rogues and vagabonds. From this meeting the
Eistedfodd seems to have arisen, though after awhile Welsh music
suffered an eclipse, only reappearing in force during the nineteenth
century. The chief prize for many years of the musical contests was a
model of a harp in silver, about six inches high, and beautifully
executed.

[Illustration: Harp of Brian Boru.]

[Illustration: Silver Prize Harp.]

[Illustration: Harp of Mary Queen of Scots.]

England also had its harpists, and we all remember that King Alfred
visited the camp of Guthram and delighted him with his music. Chaucer, in
his Prologue to the 'Canterbury Tales,' speaks of one who played a sort
of harp so well that when he sang,

'His eyes twinkled in his head aright,
As do the stars upon a frosty night.'

HELENA HEATH.

THE KESTREL'S EGGS.

[Illustration]

Ralph Norton was home on leave from the _Britannia_, and it was not easy
to find a sufficient outlet for his energies in the quiet neighbourhood
where he lived. So when his sister Marjorie told him that she wanted a
kestrel's egg for her collection, he explored a wood not far away, and
discovered a nest which would give him a good piece of climbing.

'Don't take more than one--or two, at the most,' Marjorie said. 'I can't
bear to make the birds miserable, but I don't think they can mind
losing one egg out of a whole batch.'

[Illustration: "'Hold hard there!'"]

It was a lovely spring morning and Ralph stood at the foot