of Advocates, that that learned body had at one time made him a douceur, and although a quid pro quo must in these cases be presumed, it is not easy to conjecture what the consideration was which had led to this act of liberality towards the musical professor, unless we are to suppose that it was intended as a public testimony of the estimation in which his talents and services were held; and that they had tended, not inconsiderably, towards the improvement of the public taste in music, may be presumed from the high character of his master, whose system he introduced into Scotland. Sir John Hawkins says of M. Lambert, who was born in 1610, and died at Paris in 1690,-" He had an exquisite hand on the lute, and sung to it with peculiar grace and elegance: his merit alone preferred him to the office of Master of the King's (Louis XIV.) Chamber-music, upon which he became so eminent, that persons of the highest rank became his pupils, and resorted to his house, in which he held a sort of musical academy. Lambert is reckoned the first who gave his countrymen a just notion of the graces of vocal music;" or rather, in the words of La Borde, he was the first to give expression and elegance to the French style of singing, which, before his time, was little better than plain chant or canto fermo, which is precisely the sort of music to which the songs in Forbes's Cantus are adapted; and, if M. Lambert was the first person who in France appears to have successfully laboured to supersede that system by something approaching to the modern school of vocal melody, it is not likely that it had ever been imported into Scotland before the arrival of M. Louis, his pupil; so that, by securing the services of this gentleman, the city of Bon Accord would seem to have rendered even a more important service to the interests of music, than by the publication of their Cantus.

a

From about this era, we may perceive something like the dawn, we should rather say, the revival, of a taste for popular and national music in Scotland, to which the plays, balls, and other gaieties at Holyroodhouse, in 1682, during the short period when the Duke of York (afterwards James II.) and his Duchess held their court there, no doubt gave

a secret impulse; not that any great progress could be expected, scarcely two years after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, in what was denounced by the puritanical spirit of the times, as part and parcel of the forbidden articles of our creed; but the seeds were probably at this time sown, which were destined in a succeeding age to spring up and ripen into maturity.

It may at first sight appear strange that this work, Forbes's Cantus, should not contain a single Scotish melody. In the edition of 1666, there are three pieces, not in the other impressions, and of these, two are sufficiently national in the subject, the one being "the Pleugh Song," in which all the "hynds" are summoned by name, and the various appurtenances of the plough are enumerated; the other a Medley, consisting of scraps of old songs, to many of which, no doubt, favourite Scotish airs had once been attached. But even here, the music, instead of being of a national character, consists of a mere church chant, and the songs themselves, along with another commenc

Our readers may be amused with the following catalogue of "abominations," which we extract from the manifesto of four unfortunate Covenanters, who were seized in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and incarcerated in the Canongate Tolbooth. We should premise, however, that the body of the party were but slightly tinctured with the extreme fanaticism of the opinions which are here set forth. "We renounce the names of months, as January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; Martimas, Holydays, for there is none holy but the Sabbath day; Lambas day, Whitsunday, Candlemas, Beltan, Cross stones, and Images, Fairs named by Saints, and all the remnants of Popery; Yool or Christmas, Old Wives' Fables and By-words, as Palmsunday, Carlinesunday, the 29th of May, being dedicat by this generation to prophanity, Peacesunday, Halloweven, Hogmynae night, Valentin's even; no marrying in the month they call May, the innumerable relicts of Popery, Atheism, and Sorcery, and New Year's day, and Handsell Monday, Dredgies and Likewakes: Valentein's Fair, Chappels and Chaplains; likewise Sabbath days Feastings, Blythmeats, Banquetings, Revelling, Pipings, Sportings, Dancings, Laughings, Singing profane and lustfull songs and ballads; TableLawings, Monklands, Frierlands, Blackfriar-lands, Kirk and Kinkyards, and Mercat Crosses, Fountstones, Images, Registers of Lands and Houses, Register Bonds, Discharges, and all their Law-works, Inhibitions, Hornings, Letters of Adjudications, Ships-passes, Prophanity, and all unchast thoughts, words, and actions, formality and indifferency, Story-books and Ballads, Romances and Pamphlets, Comedy-books, Cards and Dice, and all such like, we disown all of them, and burns them the 6th day of the week, being the 27th day of the 5th month, 1681, at the Cannongate Tolbuith Iron-house."

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ing, "All Sones of Adam," are, with some reason, conjectured to have been a sort of Christmas carols, sung by peasants before the Reformation. But we should recollect, that the songs and melodies, of which we are in search, did not suit the austere sentiments and deportment of the Puritans, and were perhaps no great favourites with the aristocratic faction, so that, between the two, it is not to be wondered at, if Mr Forbes, in his courtierlike anxiety to render his work "most pleasant and delightful for all humours," had been induced to omit them.

The Cantus, however, is highly characteristic of the music then in vogue throughout Scotland, and which was publicly taught at the different music-schools.

Although the custom has been for many years in disuse, insomuch as scarcely to have left a vestige of its former existence, Music, both secular and sacred, unquestionably formed a branch of ordinary education in Scotland, upon the same footing as it now does in Germany and other parts of the Continent, not only during the sway of the Roman Catholic Church, but for many years after the Reformation. While, in England, the change of religion did not produce any great immediate alteration on the music of the church-in this country, there can be no doubt, that the annihilation of the great choral establishments, the exclusion of organs and other instruments from the service, and the severe simplicity of the style of psalmody introduced by the rigid disciples of Calvin and Knox, had a considerable effect in checking the progress of the art. This,-James, or rather, his advisers, saw with regret; and they, not improbably, thought, that there was some danger lest the same fierce and intolerant spirit, which, in destroying the images and idols of Popery, had, along with them, swept away many of the richest and most costly monuments of art, would shortly carry its indiscriminate zeal so far as to attack the whole system of Musical instruction, as one of the remaining symbols of Antichrist. Hence the following statute, passed on the 11th November 1579"For instruction of the youth in the art of musik and singing, quhilk is almaist decayit, and sall schortly decay, without tymous remeid be providit, oure Soverane Lord, with avise of his thrie estatis of this present

parliament, requeistis the provest, baillies, counsale, and communitie of the maist speciall burrow is of this realme, and of the patronis and provestis of the collegis, quhair sang scuilis are foundat, to erect and sett up ane sang scuill, with ane maister sufficient and able for instructioun of the yowth in the said science of musik, as they will ansuer to his hienes upoun the perrell of their fundationis, and in performing of his hienes requeist do unto his Majestie acceptable and gude plesure."

This Act must have had the effect not only of keeping up such music schools as had been previously established, but of causing the erection of others. We have documents before us, showing that in Aberdeen, Ayr, Cupar, Dunbar, Dundee, Elgin, Irvine, Lanark, St Andrews, &c., for many years after, and in some instances before, the passing of the act 1579, besides the teacher of the grammar school, an individual held the appointment of master of the music or song school. These consist of extracts from the accounts of the common good of certain Scotish burghs preserved in the General Register House, relative to schools, and specifying the amount of salary paid to the different teachers. It would appear that the charge of the master of the music school was usually extended to the departments of reading, writing, and arithmetic; and that the teachers were, originally at least, respectable members of the ecclesiastical body. Indeed, we find several instances of clergymen being advanced from this situation to wealthy benefices, and even bishoprics. Thus, William Hay, master of the music school at Old Aberdeen, in 1658, was

a Acta Parl. iii. 174. In the wording of this Act, which does not command, but simply requests the different functionaries therein specified to erect song-schools, &c., coupled with the sanction that they shall answer therefor, on the peril of their foundations, and followed up by the assurance that, "in performing of his hienes requeist, (they will) do unto his Majestie acceptable and gude plesure," there is something so anomalous and absurd, so exceedingly like the strange and not very consistent deportment of the sapient, half-witted Monarch, from whose counsels it sprung, that it is most likely that the statute had been dictated by himself, and if so, we may regard it as one of his earliest efforts at legislation. He always took a great interest in musical matters, and although he most probably thought with his preceptor, Buchanan, that it was neither becoming nor expedient for a king to possess much skill in that art, he appears about this time to have been ambitious of acquiring proficiency as a performer on the virginals. See infra, p. 111. ↳ See Appendix.

• See Extract Accounts above mentioned, and Orem's Description of Old Aberdeen, p. 211.

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appointed minister of Perth, and subsequently Bishop of Murray; and about the middle of the sixteenth century, we find officiating in the same capacity in New Aberdeen, John Lesly, afterwards better known as Bishop of Ross, the historian, one of the most conspicuous agents of the Catholic cause during the reign of Queen Mary, and the associate and instigator of the Duke of Norfolk in the conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth, which, in 1572, cost that nobleman his life."

Kennedy mentions," that Mr Davidson, whose system of musical tuition is given in Forbes's Cantus, had teachers under him, and taught both vocal and instrumental music, particularly the virginal and the lute; and Orem not only describes the music in Old Aberdeen as being taught by the same master, who gave instructions in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but under the same roof with these branches of education; its connexion with which may be still farther traced in the following entry in the Town Council Register of New Aberdeen, (vol. xlv. p. 858,) though the circumstance there recorded would seem to show that the system, at this period at least, was not very conducive to harmony:-" 1612, 1 Dec.-On this day, the scholars of the grammar, sang, and writing schools, rose against their masters, seized the sang school, and held it by force of arms for three days." From a list of the ringleaders, it appears that they were for the most part the sons of the landed gentlemen and

a It is right, however, to mention, that we state this fact solely on the authority of Mr Kennedy, the author of the Annals of Aberdeen, and that it is very possible that the annalist may have drawn his inference from the mere name without farther evidence. If true, it is a circumstance in the life of this eminent person, which his biographers have hitherto omitted to notice. The following is a copy of the minute of appointment, as it appears in the town council register of Aberdeen, and from the date, it would seem that at this time he could not have been more than eighteen years of age. As he is styled" Sir John Lessly," it may be proper to state, for the information of those who are not versed in these matters, that this was a title formerly given to ecclesiastics, like the "Reverend" of modern times.-" 1544, 18th September. The said day, the hale consale being convenit togidder, hes ordanit and elect Sir Jhon Lessly to be ane of the Prebendaris of the queir, and to haif the organis and Sang-schole for instructioun of the minds of gudis bairns, and keping of thame in gude ordour; and he to mak continual residence in the said queir. For the quhilk thai haif gifen him xx lib. yeirlie of fee, thankfullie payit to him yeirlie salary, as he remanis and makis gude service to the towne."

b Annals of Aberdeen, vol. ii. p. 135.

History of Old Aberdeen, p. 191.