he like before." Wood tells us that Baltzar "was buried in the
cloister belonging to St. Peter's Church in Westminster." The
emoluments attached to the Royal band, according to Samuel Pepys,
appear to have been somewhat irregular. In the Diary, December 19,
1666, we read: "Talked of the King's family with Mr. Kingston, the
organist. He says many of the musique are ready to starve, they being
five years behindhand for their wages; nay, Evens, the famous man upon
the Harp, having not his equal in the world, did the other day die for
mere want, and was fain to be buried at the alms of the parish, and
carried to his grave in the dark at night without one linke, but that
Mr. Kingston met it by chance, and did give 12d. to buy two or three
links."

The state of the Merry Monarch's exchequer in 1662, according to an
extract from the Emoluments of the Audit Office, seems to have been
singularly prosperous. An order runs as follows: "These are to require
you to pay, or cause to be paid, to John Bannister, one of His
Majesty's musicians in ordinary, the sum of forty pounds for two
Cremona Violins, by him bought and delivered for His Majesty's
service, as may appear by the bill annexed; and also ten pounds for
strings for two years ending 24th June, 1662."

The King's band was led in 1663 by the above-named John Bannister, who
was an excellent Violinist. His name is associated with the earliest
concerts in England, namely, those held at "four of the clock in the
afternoon" at the George Tavern, in Whitefriars. Roger North informs
us the shopkeepers and others went to sing and "enjoy ale and
tobacco," and the charge was one shilling and "call for what you
please."

In the year 1683, Henry Purcell, organist of the Chapel Royal,
published twelve sonatas for two Violins and a Bass. These famous
instrumental compositions were written, the author tells us, in "just
imitation of the most famed Italian masters, principally to bring the
seriousness and gravity of that sort of musick into vogue." Purcell,
in conformity with an age of dedications, thus addressed the Merry
Monarch:--

"May it please your Majesty, I had not assum'd the confidence of
laying ye following compositions at your sacred feet, but that, as
they are the immediate results of your Majestie's Royal favour and
benignity to me (which have made me what I am), so I am constrained to
hope I may presume amongst others of your Majestie's over-obliged and
altogether undeser