fic-room was a moft ftately apartment, and that no gilding, carving,
painting, or good contrivance were wanting in the decoration of it ;
the feats he fays were like the pews in a church, and the upper end
being divided by a rail, appeared to him more like a chancel than a
mufic-loft. Of the mufic he gives but a general account, faying
only that it confifted of violins, hautboys, and an organ. The houfe
being a tavern, was accommodated as well to the purpofe of drink-
ing, as mufic; it contained many coftly rooms, with whimfical paint-
ings on the wainfcotting. The kitchen was railed in to prevent the
accefs to the fire of thole who had nothing to do at it, and over-
head was what this author calls an harmonious choir of Canary birds
finging.

The owner of this houfe had, according to Ward's account, ufed
every method in his power to invite guefts to it •, and, under certain

* In a manufcript of the late Mr. Oldys, heing a collection relating to the city of Lon-
don and its hiftory, mention is made of this pamphlet with the following note. ' I have
*- been informed by Sir Hans Sloane that this collection, or a great part of it, was pur-
*■ chafed by him into his noble mufeum of the like curiofities, which now with his library

* is removed from his late houfe by Bloomibury-fquare to his larger houfe at Chelfea.'

It is conjectured that this houfe was fituated in London-houfe Yard, at the north -weft
end of St. Paul's church, and on the-very fpot where now ftands the houfe known by the
fign of theGoofe and Gridiron ; for tl»e tradition is that it was once a mufic-houfe. It
feems that the fucceflbr of Hubert was no lover of mufic, but a man of humour, and it
is faid that in ridicule of the meetings formerly held there, he chofe for his fign a goofs
llroking the bars of a gridiron with his foot, and called it the Swan and Harp.

X x x z ' cir-



3 8 ° HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE Book IV.

circumftances, appeared to be not lefs folicitous for their fafety, than
their entertainment ; for he had contrived a room under ground, in
which perfons were permitted to drink on Sundays, even during the
time of divine fervice, and elude the fearch of the churchwardens *.

Another mufic-houfe, and which fubfifts even at this day, but in
a different form, was that of Sadler's Wells, concerning which a
pamphlet was published in the year 1684, with this title, * A true
« and exact account of Sadler's Wells lately found at Iflington, treat-
* ing of its natures and vertues ; together with an enumeration of the
' chief difeafes which it is good for, and againft which it may be
? ufed, and the manner and order of taking it, publifhed for the
« good of the publick by T. G. Doctor in Phyfick •{-.'

The mufic performed at thefe houfes of entertainment was fuch
as, notwithstanding the number of inftruments, could fcarcely enti-
tle it to the name of a concert. For the moft part it was that of
violins, hautboys, or trumpets, without any diverfity of parts, and
confequently in the unifon ; or if at any time a bafs inftrument was
added, it was only for the purpofe of playing the ground-bafs to thofe
divifions on old ballad or country-dance tunes, which at that time
were the only mufic that pleafed the common people. Some of the

* Within the time of memory it was cuftomary for the churchwardens in London and
the fuburbs, to perambulate their parifhes on Sundays, during the time of divine fervice,
and fearch the taverns and alehoufes ; and if they found any perfons drinking therein, to
turn them out, and deal with the keepers of fuch houfes according to law.

f The author fays the water of this well was before the reformation very much famed
for feveral extraordinary cures performed thereby, and was thereupon accounted facred,
and called Holywell. The priefts belonging to the priory of Clerkenweli ufing to attend
there, made the people believe that the virtues of the water proceeded from the efficacy of
their prayers. But upon the reformation the we-Il was flopped up, upon a fuppofition that
the frequenting of it was altogether fuperftitious ; and fo by degrees it grew out of remem-
brance, and was wholly lofb, until found out by the labourers which Mr. Sadler, who bad
newly built the mufick-houfe there, and, being furveyor of the highways, had employed
to dig gravel in his garden," in the midft whereof they found it flopped up, and covered
with a carved arch of ftone, in the year 1683. It is here alfo faid to be of a ferruginous
tafte, fomewhat like that of Tunbridge, but not fo ftrong of the fteel. It is recommend-
ed for opening all obftruclions, and alfo for purging and fweetening the blood, &c. And
Dr. Morton had that fummer advifed feveral of his patients to drink it, as the owner alfo
•was to brew his beer with it.

After the deceafe tf Mr. Sad'er abovementioned, one Francis Forcer, a mufician, and
the compofer of manyfongs printed in the Theater of Mufic, publifhed by Henry Play-
ford and John Carr in the years 1685, 1686, and 1687, became the occupier of the Wells
and mufic houfe. His fuccefFir therein was a fon of his, who had been bred up to the
law, and, asfomefaid, a barrifter ; he was the firft that exhibited there the diverfions of
rope-dancing, tumbling, &c. He was a very gentlemanly man, remarkably tall and
athletic, and died in an advanced age, about the year 1730, at the Wells, which for
many years had been the place of his refidence.

moft



Chap. i. AND PRACTICE OF MUSIC. 381

mod admired or theie were tnen Known, ana are Kill remembered
by the following names, John Dory * ; Paul's Steeple ; Old Simon the
King ; Farinel's Ground -j- j Toilet's Ground ; Roger of Coverly ;
John come kifs me, a tune inferted in the earlier editions of Play-
ford's Introduction J ; Johnny cock thy Beaver, a tune to the fong
in D'Urfey's Pills to purge Melancholy; ' To Horfe brave Boys,' &c.
Packington's, quafi Bockington's Pound ; Green Sleeves, which is
the tune to the air in the Beggar's Opera, ' Though laws are made
« for every degree ;' The Old Cebell, compofed by Signor Baptiit
Draghi, and printed with a fong to it in dialogue, fung in an opera
called the Kingdom of the Birds, written by D'Urfey, and printed in
the firft volume of his Pills to purge Melancholy : A fweet air compofed
by Mr. Solomon Eccles, with divifions, printed as a country-dance
tune, and called Bellamira, in theDancing-Mafter, published by Henry
Play ford in 1701, page 149.

Befides thefe there occafionally came into practice divers fong and
dance-tunes that had been received with applaufe at the theatres, and
which by way of eminence were called play-houfe tunes, fuch as Genius
of England, Madam Subligny's minuet, the Louvre, and many others.
The principal compofers of this kind of mufic not already named, were
Mr. John Reading ||, John Banifter, Godfrey Finger §, Mr. Bulli-
more, John Lenton, Chriftopher Simpfon, Matthew Lock, Henry

* The fong of John Dory, with the tune to it, is printed in the Deuteromelia, or the fe-
cond part of Mufick's Melodie, 1609. The legend of this perfon is, that being a fea-
captain, or perhaps a pirate, he engaged to the king of France to bring the crew of an
Englifh (hip bound as captives to Paris, and that accordingly he attempted to make prize
of an Englift) veflel, but was himfelf taken prifoner. The fong of John Dory, and the
tune to it were a long time popular in England : In the comedy of the Chances, written
by Beaumont and Fletcher, Antonio, a humourous old man, receives a wound, which he will
not fuft'er to be drefied but upon condition that the fong of John Dory be fung the while.

+ Mentioned page 316 of this volume, to have been compofed by Farinelli of Hano-
ver, and to have been made the fubject of Corelli's twelfth Solo.

% This was a very favourite tune : In the firft part of the Divifion Violin there are two
fetsof divifions on it, the one by Mr. Davis Mell, the other by Baltzar the Lubecker, of
whom Anthony Wood fpeaks fo highly in his life. Mod of the tunes above mentioned,
together with many others of great antiquity, in a flyle peculiar to this country, are infert-
ed in an appendix to this work.

| A fcholar of Dr. Blow ; organift of Hackney, and afterwards of St. Dunftan in the
Weft, and St. Mary Woolnoth. He published a book of anthems by fubferiptiori, and
died but a few years ago.

§ A native of Olmutz in Moravia, and of the chapel to James II. He compofed feveral
Operas of Sonatas for violins, and alfo for flutes, the titles whereof are in the Catalogue
of Eftienne Roger. Lenton, the two named Eccles, and Banifter, were of the band to
king William ; Banifter was his firft violin ; of him, as alfo of Simpfon and Lock, men-
tion will be made hereafter.

and



3 $2 HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE Book IV.

and jona »*.<.!.-<,, iv« r i— ~i o-*..to,:n*., onj »tk«r lefo eminent
muficians.

This, as far as it can be now traced, was the flate of popular mu-
fic about the end of the laft century. Of the gradual refinements in
the practice of it at large, and of the introduction of the opera into
this kingdom, the following is the hiftory.

The reftoration of king Charles II. muft be considered as a re-
markable epoch in the hiftory of mufic in two refpedts ; firft was,
the re-eftablifhment of choral fervice, and the commencement of a
new ftyle in church-mufic is to be dated from thence ; and, fecond-
ly, as it gave a new form to that kind of mufic, which, in contradis-
tinction to that of the church, is ufually termed fecular mufic. The
inftruments commonly ufed in this latter appear to have been the
lute, the harp, the fiddle, cornets, pipes of various kinds, and,
laftly, viols, the latter of which were at length fo adjufted with ref-
pect to fize and tuning, that a concert of viols became a technical
term in mufic.

Hitherto in England the violin had never been confidered as an
inftrument proper for a concert, or indeed of any other ufe than as
an incentive to dancing, and that kind of mirth which was anciently
the concomitant of religious feftivity, particularly at Chriftmas, in
the celebration whereof fidlers were deemed fo neceftary, that in the
houfes of the nobility they were retained by fmall ftipends, as alfo
cloaks and badges, with the cognizance or arms of the family, like
certain other domeftic fervants *. From the houfes of great men to
wakes, fairs, and other arTemblies of the common people, the tran-
fition of thefe vagrant artifts was natural. Biftiop Earle has given a

* This ufage is mentioned in the Dialogue on Old Plays and Players, and is alluded to
in an old comedy entitled Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, written by Lodowic Barrey, and
printed in 16.1 1, in which Sir Oliver Small-fhanks fays to the fidlers that attend him,

*■ This yeare you (hall haue my protection,

* And yet not buy your liuerie coates yourfelves.''

The retainer of thefe fervants, like watermen at this day,, might poffibly leave them at
liberty, as occafion offered, to feek a livelihood elfewhere than in the families to which
they properly belonged ; and they might neverthelefs be itinerants in fome degree, as may.
be collected from the following fpeech in the old play of the Return from Parnaffus or the-
Scourge of Simony, to a company of fidlers, who defire to be paid for their mufie :

♦ Faith fellow fiddlers, here is no filver found in this place ; no notfo much as the
4 ufual Chriftmas entertainment of muficians, a black jacke of beer, and a
*• Chriftmas gye.'"

1 very



Chap. i. AND PRACTICE OF MUSIC. 383

very humourous character of a common fidler, which exhibits this
particular of ancient local manners in a ftrong point of view *.

* * A poor fidler is a man and fiddle out of cafe, and he in worfe cafe than his fiddle.

* One that rubs two (licks together (as the Indians ftrike fire) and rubs a poor living out
' of it ; partly from this, and partly from your charity, which is more in the hearing than

* giving him, for he fells nothing dearer than to be gone. He is juft fomany firings above
4 a beggar, though he have but two ; and yet he begs too, only not in the downright for

* God's fake, but with a fhrugging God blefs you, and his face is more pin'd than the

* blind man's. Hunger is the greateft pain he takes, except a broken head fometimes, and

* the labouring John Dory. Otherwife his life is fo many fits of mirth, and 'tis fome

* mirth to fee him. A good feaft (hall draw him five miles by the nofe, and you (hall
4 track him again by the fcent. His other pilgrimages are fairs and good houfes, where

* his devotion is great to the Chriftmas, and no man loves good times better. He is in
4 league with the tapfters for the worfhipful of the inn, whom he torments next morning
' with his art, and has their names more perfect than their men. A new fong is better

* to him than a new jacket, efpecially if baudy, which he calls merry, and hates naturally
' the Puritan, as an enemy to this mirth. A country wedding and Whitfon ale are the
' two main places he domineers in, where he goes for a mufician, and overlooks the bag-

* pipe. The reft of him is drunk and in the ftocks.'

In the times of puritanical reformation, the profeffion of a common fidler was odious ;
Butler has fpoken the fentiments of the party in the invectives of Hudibras againft Crow-
dero and his profeffion ; and by the way the following lines in his poem,

* He and that engine of vile noife,
' On which illegally he plays,

* Shall dictum factum both be brought

4 To condign punifhment as they ought."

are a plain allufion to an ordinance made in 1658, in which is the following claufe :
' And be it further enacted by the authority aforefaid, that if any perfon or perfons,

* commonly called fiddlers or minftrels, (hall at any time after the faid firft day of July,
4 [165 7 J betaken playing, fiddling, and making mufick in any inn, ale-houfe, ortavern>
4 or (hall be taken proffering themfelves, or defiring, or intreating any perfon or perfons
« to hear them play, or make mufick in any of the places aforefaid, that every fuch per-
4 fon and perfons fo taken, (hall be adjudged, and are hereby adjudged and declared to be

* rogues, vagabonds, and fturdy beggers, and (hall be proceeded againft and punifhed as
4 rogues, vagabonds, and fturdy beggers within the faid ftatute, any law, ftatute, orufage

* to the contrary thereof in any wife notwithftanding.'

Of Whitfon-a!es, mentioned in the above character, as alfo of Church-ales, little is now
known befides the name. In the Anatomie of Abufes by Philip Stubs, a book already
cited, is the following defcription of both :

4 In certaine towns where drunken Bacchus beares fwaie, againft Chriftmas and Eafter,

* Whitfunday, or fome other time, the churchwardens, (for fo they call them) of euery
4 parifh, with the confent of the whole parifh, prouide halfe a fcore or twenty quarters of
4 mault, whereof fome they buy of the church itocke, and fomeisgiuen them of the pa-

* rifhoners themfelues ; euery one conferring fomewhat according to his ability : which
« mault being made into ftrong ale or beere, is fet to fale eythcr in the church, or in fome

* other place aligned to that purpofe. Then when this Nippitatum, this Huffecappc (as
« they call it) and this Neflar of life is fet abroach, well is he that can get the fooneft to
4 it, and fpend the moft at it, for he that fitteth the clofeft to it, and fpendes the moft at

* it, hee is counted the Godlieft man of all the reft, and moft in God's favour, becaufe it

* is fpent uppon his church forfooth ; But who either for want cannot, or otherwife for

•fear



384 HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE Book IV.

But farther to {hew in how (mall eftimation the violin was for-
merly held in this country : It appears that at the time when An-
thony Wood was a young man, viz. about the year 1650, that the
tuning of it was fcarcely fettled ; for in the account by him given of
his learning to play on that inftrument, he fays that he tuned it by
fourths, and the notation was borrowed from the tablature of the
lute, which had then lately been transferred to the viol da gamba.
But the king, foon after his return to England, having heard Baltzar's
exquifite performance on the violin, took him into his fervice, and
placed him at the head of a band of violins, but he dying in 1663,
was fucceeded by Mr. John Banifter, who had been bred up under his
father, one of the waits, as they are called, of the parifli of St. Giles in
the Fields, near London j this perfon was fent by Charles II. to
France for improvement, but foon after his return was difmiffed the
king's fervice for faying that the Englifh violins were better than the
French *.

By means of this circumftance, and the feveral particulars before
enumerated, refpecting the tafte of Charles II. - for mufic, we are en-
abled to trace with fome degree of certainty the introduction of the
violin fpecies of inftruments into this kingdom, and to afcertain the
time when concerts, confifting of two treble violins, a tenor, and a
bafs violin or violoncello, came into practice -j-j that they had their

' feare of God's wrath will not, ftick to it, he is counted one deflitute both of uertue and

* godlinefle. In fo much as you (hall haue many poore men make hard fhift for mo-
1 ney to fpende thereat. And good reafon for being put into this Corban, they are per-

* fwaded it is meritorious and a good feruice to God. In this kinde of practife they con-
' tinue fixe weekes, a quarter of a yeare, yea halfe a yeare together, fwilling and guiling
' night and day, til they be as drunke as fwine and as mad as March hares.'

The above paffage may ferve for an explanation of the word Bridale, which differs
from Bridal, a nuptial feftival, and may poflibly fignify the diftribution of drink to a
neighbourhood upon occaGon of a nuptial folemnity.

The fame author fays, that to juftify thefe diforderly practices, it is pretended that the
money received at thefe affemblies is expended by the churchwardens, &c. in the repair of
their refpeftive churches and chapels and that with it they buy ' bookes for feruice, Cuppet

* for the celebration of the Sacrament, Surplejfes for Sir John, and other neceffaries,
' and maintaine other extraordinarie charges in their parifhes befides.'

* It feems that he had good reafon for laying fo, for at the time when Lully was placed
at the head of a band of violins. created on purpofe for him by Lewis XIV. and called Les
petits V iolons, in contradiftiiidion to that of twenty-four, not half the muficians in France
were ab'e to play at fight.

+ Of the French concerts there are few memorials remaining, other than fome fcatter"-
ed paflages in Merfennus, cited or referred to in the courfe of this work. In this king-
dom the mufic for concerts of violins, before the invention of the Sonata, confifted aho^
gether of airs in three, and fometimes four parts. Of thefe fundry collections were pub-
lifhed by Playford, and others : fome of the molt celebrated of them were thofe entitled

* Cour*



Chap. i. AND PRACTICE OF MUSIC. 385

origin in Italy can fcarce admit of a queftion -, and it is no lefs certain
that they were adopted by the French ; though it is not eafy to con-
ceive the ufe of a band wherein were twenty-four performers on the
fame inftrument j nor indeed how fo many could be employed to ad-
vantage in any fuch concerts as were known at that time.

Indeed the idea of a performance, where the inflruments for the
bafs and intermediate parts were in number fo difproportionate to the
treble, feems to be abfurd; and there is reafon tofufpeel that the fong

* Four and twenty fidlers all on a row,' in D'Urfey's Pills to purge
Melancholy, was written in ridicule of that band of twenty-four vio-
lins, which, as the French writers affert, was the mod celebrated of
any in Europe *.

During the refidence of Charles at the court of France, he became
enamoured of French manners and French mufic ; and upon his re-
turn to England, in imitation of that of Lewis, he eftablifhed a
band of violins, and placed at the head of it, at firfl: Baltzar the Lu-
becker, and after him Banifter, who, for a reafon above afhgned, was
removed from the direction of it.

Beiides the perfon that prefided over the violins, who can hardly
be fuppofed to have been any other than he that played the princi-
pal violin part, there was alfo a mailer or director of the king s mu-
fic } the perfon who firit. occupied this ftation was Nicholas Laniere,
as appears by a grant or Charles I. herein before inferted. Upon the
death of Laniere, who lived fome years after the reftoration, Matthew
Lock was appointed to that office, with the fame allowance of 200I. a
year j but about the year 1673, Cambert, a French mufician, who
had been matter of mufic to the queen-mother Ann of Auftria, and
the Marquis de Sourdeac, and alfo joint manager of the opera at
Paris, came into England, and by Charles II. was made fuperintendunt
of his mufic.

* Court Ayres, Pavins, Almains, Corants, and Sarabands,' by Dr. Child, Dr. Cole-
man, Dr Rogers, Will. Lawes, Jenkins, and others, publifhed by Playford in 1656,

* Tripla Concordia, or a Choice Collection of new Airs in three parts for treble and Bade
' Violins,' by Matthew Lock, Robert Smith, AVilliam Hall, John Banifter, Robert Kin?,
and Francis Forcer ; printed for John Carr, 1677, obi. quarto ; and a collection of airs
by Matthew Lock, called his little Confort.

* Notwithftanding this eftablifhment and the pains that Lewis XIV. took to introduce
the opera into France, it is to be doubted whether the fcenery, the decorations, and,
above all, the dances, were not the principal object ofhis regard in thefe fplendid repre-
fentations: And it is faid of Lully, that to gratify his matter he laboured as much in
compofing the dances as the airs of the opera. Hift. dc la Mufique et de fc» EfTets, torn. 111.
page 321.

Vol. IV. Y y y Cam-



386 HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE Book IV.

Cambert, though he died in 1677, lived here long enough to ex-
hibit an opera of his compofition, entitled Pomone, which had been
received at Paris with general applaufe, and to introduce into con-
certs the violins, and thofe other inftruments of that fpecies, the
tenor violin and violoncello, the chara&eriftic whereof is that they
have uniformly four firings tuned in fifths. To thefe were adapted
compofitions of a new ftructure, namely, Sonatas, the invention of
fome of the mod eminent performers on the violin among the Ita-
lians ; thefe were of two kinds, viz. Sonate da Chiefa, and Sonate da
Camera; the firft confifled of flow folemn movements, intermixed
with fugues ; the other of preludes and airs of various forms, as
Allemands, Courants, Sarabands, Gavots, and Jigs.

But here a diftindtion is to be noted between the airs abovemen-
tioned, and thofe of the age preceding, and this will require a par-
ticular fpecification of each.

The word Air is rather a modern term in mufic ; it had its original
among the Italian mafters ; Lord Bacon makes ufe of it in his effay
on Beauty, faying that the fweeteft airs in mufic are made by a kind
of felicity, and not by rule. Thefe were the Paflamezzo, the Pavan,
the Galliard, the Allemand, the Coranto, the Jig, and fome others,
which may be termed old airs.

The Passamezzo, from pajfer to walk, apd mezzo the middle or
half, is a flow dance, little differing from the action of walking. As a
Galliard * confifls of five paces or bars in the firft drain, and is there-

* In leflbns for the harpfichord and virginal the airs were made to follow in a certain
order," that is to fay, the floweft or moft grave firft, and the reft in fucceffion, according as
they deviated from that character, by which rule the Jig generally ftood lait. In gene-
ral the Galliard followed the Pavan, the firft being a grave, the other a fprightiy air ; but
this rule was not without exception. In a manufcript collection of leffons compofed by
Bird, formerly belonging to a lady Neville, who it is fuppofed was a fcholar of his, is
a leflbn of a very extraordinary kind, as it feems intended to give the hiftory.of a military
engagement. The following are the names of the feveral airs in order as they occur.

* The Marche before the battell, The Souldiers Sommons, The Marche of foote-men,
'The Marche of horfe-men : Now folowethe the Trumpets, The Bagpipe and the drone,
' the Flute and the Drome, the Marche to the Fighte, Here the battells be joyned,

• The Retreate, Now folowethe a Galliarde for the victory.' There is alfo in the fame
collection a leflbn called the Carman's Whittle.

The airs compofed about the tinve of. queen Elizabeth, however excellent in their kind,