left me a legacy of that inestimable Violin,
provided that I outlive him. But not for a thousand such would I part
with my old friend."--_Altrine Tales_.--_Hogg's Reminiscences of
Former Days_.

THE FIDDLE TRADE.

"There is, for instance, Old Borax, whom those who want to know
whereabouts to look for--within the shadow of St. Martin's Church.

"Borax makes but little demonstration of his wealth in the dingy hole
that serves him for a shop, where a Double-Bass, a couple of
Violoncellos, a Tenor or two hanging on the walls, and half-a-dozen
Fiddles lying among a random collection of bows, bridges, coils of
catgut, packets of purified resin, and tangled horsehair in skeins,
serve for the insignia of his profession. But Borax never does
business in his shop, which is a dusty desert from one week's end to
another. His warehouse is a private sanctum on the first floor, where
you will find him in his easy chair reading the morning paper, if he
does not happen to be engaged with a client. Go to him for a Fiddle,
or carry him a Fiddle for his opinion, and you will hardly fail to
acknowledge that you stand in the presence of a first-rate judge. The
truth is, that Fiddles of all nations, disguised and sophisticated as
they may be to deceive common observers, are naked and self-confessed
in his hands. Dust, dirt, varnish, and bees'-wax are thrown away upon
him; he knows the work of every man, of note or of no note, whether
English, French, Dutch, German, Spaniard, or Italian, who ever sent a
Fiddle into the market, for the last two hundred years; and he will
tell you who is the fabricator of your treasure, and the rank he holds
in the Fiddle-making world, with the utmost readiness and urbanity--on
payment of his fee of one guinea.

"Borax is the pink of politeness, though a bit of a martinet after an
ancient and punctilious model. If you go to select a Fiddle from his
stock, you may escape a lecture of a quarter of an hour by _calling_
it a Fiddle, and not a Violin, which is a word he detests, and is apt
to excite his wrath. He is never in a hurry to sell, and will by no
means allow you to conclude a bargain until he has put you in complete
possession of the virtues, and failings, if it have any, of the
instrument for which you are to pay a round sum. As his Fiddles lie
packed in sarcophagi, like mummies in an Egyptian catacomb, your
choice is not perplexed by any _embarras de richesses_; you see but
one masterpiece at a ti