: HARP; 
az different from thofe of other nations as their mufic and 
poetry 
“ "Thefe inftruments are five in rape the telyn, or harp 5 
the aes rdd; or tabret 5 
primitive form an lyre ; fo 
records that the Celi bards re on inftruments like lyres: 
‘Inthe time of the Welth pre an hereditary se wa 
i on in the houfehold af 
an 
harp, has ie rows of 
unifon ; the middle row. 
oe it to a fingle row of ftrings.’ 
is may, probably, not only improve the inftruments in 
the principality, but the ftyle ay ufic and tafte of the coun- 
try, which feem to have been totally confined to national 
tunes and on variations. Mr. Jones hi i 
‘many years, was the chief bard; and beft performer on the 
telyn, an ancient Welfh harp, has quitt tted that inftrument for 
the Rnd harp, on account of the fuperior facility i mech 
inds of mufic ic for keyed inftruments ca be e ted 
eee: ; and it pa we 
that Mr. Jones fays, 
p Sahay 1. ma balan tones.”” 
The triple bar, feems to imply that there have been in 
Wipes! chtee feveral kinds of nares the fingle harp, with only 
g to each ect the doub le harps with two; and the 
ey kath with three tings. 
was a favourite cat with our Saxon an- 
ethers. All our bifborians relate the romantic ftory of Alfred 
reconnoitring the Danifh cantp in the difguife of a harper. 
Aanlaff, and ine aly rie played Athelitan the fame 
trick’in the Saxon camp 
The of David, as + gel ‘on.that. Alfred, muft have 
a of a different fize and con from the triple 
when he danced before the ark. 
re indeed, calls it a lyre, and informs us. that he 
with him wherever he went, to confole him in his 
when in this ° country, in’ 1774s oe 
harp3 
‘lyre, was 
The -. Trith harp i is a fingle seat aclipad ftrung with 
: wat of brafs wire, age number, nd calculated 
> as we ha 
pest of Ireland, and a good ju dge 
pee rt bere 
late Keane ew 5 
mulic, d old Carolan a 
f Henry II., 
Henry VIII. (Walkcer’ 8 Irith Bards); 
Ction 
to be portable; particularly that of David, ump and beautiful 
It was only after his pers in 1738, that his tunes were 
colleéted and fet for the harpfichord, violin, and German 
flute; with a bafe, Dublin, folio, by his fon, who publithed 
them in Londen by fubfcription, in 1747. 
- Galilei, the father of the great a Galileo, — 
fays that the Italians, who were in a, the harp be- 
fore the time of —— had it from 
According to Mr. Walker, in his * « Hitt orical Account 
of the Irifh Bards,’ the Irifh have four different fpecies of 
harp: rft. The Clar-/ch, or clar-feach, commonly denominat- , 
ed the Irifh harp. 
2d, Keirnine, a {pecies of spr (not a facbut, a dou. 
bie sept or baffoon, which ar inftruments.) 
3d. The Cionu cruit, of ten fis oe a kind of guitar. 
4th. The Greamthine cruit, the crv wth of the Welfh. 
Whether the Welfh had their mufic from Ireland; accord- 
ing to Giraldus Cambrenfis, or ea Irith had theirs from the 
Cambro-Britons, we eae ttempt to determine, but 
fhall leave St. David and St. “Pick, and their champions 
Jones and Walker, parotcally to difpute the poin 
In the late laborious Mr. Strutt’s “ Saxon Agi, 
. ¥..we have reprefentations of antique harps, one with 
nine ftrings, and another with vei’ vay from illuminated 
MSS. in the Britifh Mufeum ; ‘four ftrings of 
the middle ages, “ beaten with a @ final inftrument r 
purpofe ;"? meaning a : 
The early mufical Gosek of all countries, like thofe 
of Greece and Rome, are of {mall compafs. 
« ‘Tibia non, et nunc, orichalco junéta tubeque 
ee Sve tenuis, fimplexque foramine vacuo 
Afpira 
Inall our inquiries we can obtain no fatisfactory account - 
of the time when, and on, what occafion, the harp was affum- 
ed in the arms of pepe: The arg Mr. O’Halleran f 
it was by order o d Mr. neerce by that 2 
< 
“© 
ras 
entlemen a8 a reafon for it, or gives an 
a ‘their great tell heroes, pag ancient 
Greek bards did the lyre. ; 
This inftrument was in fuch general favour, via an old 
oet has made it the a of a poens calle Di& de 
la E The Pe or Poem,. paar the Harp?” and 
Lhands ; and that 
tle founds fhould be tows only + ~ " degant 
good. 
It had twenty-five Be to each of which the poet 
gives an allego rical nan calling one Hbrality, an another 
pay a third plik, a | fourth youth, &c. applying al 
qualities to his miftrefs, and ‘comparing her to the 
mufical inftrunient of the ftring kind, es 
eis: ‘Bell, a 
about by thofe who play u 
