MKMOIR OF SIR J. O. DALYKLL. XX 



The harp furnishes nn mten-.-ting chapter. It seems to have been* 

 very simple instrument in early times. Several engravings are given 

 from sculptured crosses in the north of Scotland ; and one of the Calr- 

 dnnian Harp preserved in the family of Robertson of Lude since 1460, 

 when it came into their possession by marriage. It is a superior instru- 

 ment, having thirty- two strings. The rlnir*ha a species of harp was 

 aLto much in use at one time in Scotland. 



The violin, as sculptured on Melrose Abbey, as well as in an illumi- 

 nated MS. once belonging to Dunfermline Abbey both of the fourteenth 

 century appears first with two strings. It is not till the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries that we find it in its present form. The viol, though 

 differing in shape, was played in a similar manner, and violer and violin 

 player are frequently used as synonymous in old documents. According 

 to the song of" Logic o' Buchan," written by George Halket, who died 

 in 1756, the viol was still in use in his time : 



" Logic o' Buchan, Logic the I^urd, 

 They ha'e U'cn awa' Jamie, that delved i' the yard, 

 Wha play'd on the pipe and the viol tae ima', 

 They ha'e ta'en awa' Jamie, the flower o' them a'." 



In the begining of last century Hew M'Quyre, Ayr, is styled ' violer" in 

 the parish records ; but locally he was known to be a violin player. 



Sir John finds that most of our reputed Highland airs save those 

 adapted for the bagpipe which are peculiar have been composed for 

 the violin so that they cannot be quite so ancient as some writers assert. 

 When the harp was the prevailing instrument, considerable intercourse 

 was kept up between the minstrels of the three countries. In the house- 

 hold accounts, both of the Scotish crown and nobility, numerous pay- 

 ments appear to English and Irish musicians as, for example in 1502, 

 " the Ingli-s harpar," " the Irland clarschar." The Highland harpers were 

 styled Earsch, not Irish, as the two terms are sometimes confounded. From 

 the intercourse thus maintained especially between the Irish and High- 

 land harpers the national music of Ireland and Scotland became to some 

 extent intermixed. 



