MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS - online book

The History And Development Of Musical Instruments From The Earliest Times.

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	120                   MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. The bagpipe is of high antiquity in Ireland, and is alluded to in Irish poetry and prose said to date from the tenth century. A pig gravely engaged in playing the bagpipe is represented in an illuminated Irish manuscript, of the year 1300 : and we give p. 121 a copy of a woodcut from " The Image of Ireland," a book printed in London in 1581. The bell has always been so much in popular favour in England that some account of it must not be omitted. Paul Hentzner a German, who visited England in the year 1598, records in his journal: " The people are vastly fond of great noises that fill the ear, such as the firing of cannon, drums, and the ringing of bells; so that in London it is common for a number of them that have got a glass in their heads to go up into some belfry, and ring the bells for hours together for the sake of exercise.'"' This may be exaggeration,—not unusual with tra­vellers. It is, however, a fact that bell-ringing has been a favourite amuse­ment with Englishmen for centuries. The way in which church bells are suspended and fastened, so as to per­mit of their being made to vibrate in the most effective man­ner without damaging by their vibration the building in which they are placed, is in some countries very peculiar. The Italian campanile, or tower of bells, is not unfrequently separated from the church itself. In Servia the church bells are often hung in a frame-work of timber built near the west end of the church. In Zante and other islands of Greece the belfry is usually separate

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