ite instrument the Cruth; and it is even said, that the Scots (we quote Mr Walker's own words)" are in all probability under the same obligation (to the Irish) as to the last mentioned instrument, though not a trace of it can be found in any of their historians!"—a remark conceived in so truly Hibernian a spirit, that it carries its own refutation along with it, and renders any farther comment superfluous.

That the Irish, however, introduced their national harp or Clairseach into this country, is more probable. Indeed, considering the extent of their early settlements in Argyleshire and Galloway, it is scarcely possible that it could have been otherwise. But there was a large portion of what is now comprehended within the territories of Scotland which was never occupied by the Scoto-Irish; and here it is equally probable that the early inhabitants possessed an instrument of this nature to which the Irish could lay no claim. Even the Picts were likely to have been acquainted with the harp,-and this, too, whatever theory we adopt in regard to their origin-whether we consider them to have been aboriginal Britons, or settlers of Gothic extraction. If the former, we have already seen that the harp was the favourite instrument of their bards, from whom it. would no doubt have been transmitted to their descendants :-if the latter, (now the more generally received, and, as we are inclined to think, the sounder opinion,) they must have derived it from their Scalds, a race of men who appear to have stood in the same relation to the Scandinavians, as the Bards, to the British and other Celtic nations. The Laureate Bard among the latter is said to have been the eighth officer of the King's household-to have occasionally sat at his table, and to have been otherwise honourably distinguished. In the same way, we are told that the Scalds were ranked among the sovereign's chief officers, and always of his council; and the functions which they performed seemed to have been precisely of the same nature with those of the Bards. They were the historians and genealogists, as well as the poets and musicians, of the Court

stretched, or drawn tight;" and argue, that it must consequently have been coeval with the first stringed instrument with which their ancestors had ever been made acquainted.

a Walker's Irish Bards, p. 74.

Pinkerton's Enquiry, vol. i. pp. 272,273-389. Also Percy's Reliques, Introduction, pp. 20, 63.

-their verses, also, were sung with the accompaniment of the harp. It is reasonable, therefore, to suppose, that within the Pictish kingdom, and whereever Gothic population and influence extended, they, and not the Celts, were the introducers of that instrument. The learned Dr Percy, whose opinions on these matters have stood the test of time, as well as the pointless and misdirected shafts of Mr Ritson's ridicule, in speaking of the origin of the French and English Minstrels, observes-" Though the Bards of the ancient Gauls and Britons might seem to have a claim of being considered as their more immediate predecessors and instructors, yet these, who were Celtic nations, were ab origine, so different a race of men from the others, who were all of Gothic origin, that I think one cannot in any degree argue from the manners of the one to those of the other; and the conquering Franks, Saxons, and Danes, were much less likely to take up any custom from their enemies the Gauls and Britons, whom they every where expelled, extirpated, or enslaved, than to have received and transmitted them from their own Teutonic ancestors in the North, among whom such customs were known to have prevailed from the earliest ages." All who are versed in the history of our literature are aware that the earliest Scotish, we may add, the earliest English, poetry which, it is well known, was first cultivated in the north of England, furnishes strong hereditary proofs of its Scandinavian parentage ;nay, some authors have considered these northern nations to have been the originators of all European poetry whatever; it might well be asked, therefore, to whom should we ascribe the first introduction of this instrument amongst us, but to those from whom the most ancient relics of our minstrelsy appear to have emanated ?

Percy's Reliques, Introduction, p. 67.

b Ibid. p. 27.

The most ancient Scotish representation of the harp is that which is delineated in the carved work of the monument near the church of Nieg in Ross-shire. An engraving of it will be found in "Cordiner's Remarkable Ruins." The figure of the harp is perfect, except that it wants the strings, probably from their having been effaced in the original. Mr Cordiner considered this monument to be nearly as old as the 11th century, and it is no slight confirmation of the foregoing views, to find it situated in a part of the country so essentially and indisputably Gothic in its origin, as the East Coast of Ross-shire. See also Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland, p. 230.

In considering the origin of our musical instruments, and the circumstances which attended the formation of our national music, we must not only take into view the ancient Scandinavian part of our history, however obscure, and the extensive kingdom of the Picts, but the large and fertile tracts of country from an early period in the possession of a people, very slightly, if at all, differing from their Southern neighbours on the other side of the Tweed-and this, too, long before the junction of the Pictish and Scotish crowns in 843. It was in the fifth century that the Anglo-Saxons first of all made a descent upon Scotland, and in the course of the century following, they established the kingdom of Northumbria, which, besides the English provinces connected with it, embraced most of the Border district, Berwickshire, and the Lothians as far as the Firth of Forth; and this country did not fall under Scotish dominion until it was ceded to Malcolm II. at the beginning of the eleventh century. During this dark period of our annals, the inhabitants of this part of Scotland consisted of Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Normans, and Ottadini or ancient North-Britons, a colony of which last occupied Clydesdale, with Peeblesshire, Selkirkshire, and the upper parts of Roxburghshire, which were long maintained by them as a separate kingdom under the name of Strath-Clyde; besides which, independently of the Scoto-Irish part of the nation, the islands and several of the northern counties were in the possession of Scandinavians and Norwegians. A considerable number of Danes, also, the natural result of their occasional invasions between the ninth and eleventh centuries, had become intermingled with the inhabitants of the North-East Coast.

Such being the general description of the population, it is clear that-abstracting from the Celtic districts-there must, at this time, have been but a slight difference between the people of Scotland and the English nation. Before the great change which took place in the latter after the Norman conquest, it is believed that the language spoken by the Scoto-Saxons and the Anglo-Saxons was the same; and it would even appear, that there was no essential distinction between that spoken by them and the natives of Denmark and Norway. The manners and customs See Paper by Dr Jamieson, Archæologia Scotica, vol. ii. p. 279.

of the Lowlands of Scotland, during these ages, could not, therefore, have been materially different from those of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. And scanty and defective as are the early chronicles of that period, there is no feature connected with their character, which is more prominently brought forward, than their passionate attachment to the arts of poetry and music. To them the harp owes its modern name, (the AngloSaxon being Hearpt, and the Icelandic Harpa;a) and so invariably does that instrument appear to have been employed by them as an accompaniment for the voice, that in their translations from the Latin into Anglo-Saxon, it has been observed, that the word " psalmus" is sometimes rendered “harp-song," and "cantare," "to sing to the harp❞—an accomplishment which must have been nearly universal, as it appears to have been customary to hand round a harp at their entertainments, when each of the guests was expected to perform by turns. This is well illustrated by the story of Cedmon, their earliest poet whose remains have come down to us, and who died in 680. Not being able to sing, it is said that when he was present on these occasions, and saw the harp on its way towards him, he generally contrived to effect his retreat, rather than expose his ignorance. As Cedmon was a Northumbrian, this may be taken as a proof of the cultivation of music in that part of our territories, which, as we have above described, was annexed to the Scotish crown in the eleventh century. The high estimation, again, in which the character of the minstrel was held both by the Saxons and the Danes-the readiness with which he was at all times listened to-and his perfect freedom of access to the presence of persons of the highest distinction at all times, are amply testified in a variety of instances; but in none are they placed in a more conspicuous light than in the incidents known to every schoolboy, where Alfred, the King of the Saxons, and at a subsequent period, Anlaff, the King of the Danes, availed themselves of their skill on the harp to personate minstrels, and in that character succeeded, it is said, in penetrating into the enemy's camp, and even in gaining admission into the royal

Percy's Reliques, vol. i. Introduction, pp. 50, 51.

See Bede's Ecclesiastical History, b. IV. c. xxiv. See also a Life of Cedmon, in Young's History of Whitby, vol. i. p. 182.

pavilion, where they acquired a perfect knowledge of the position and resources of the party with whom they were contending. The date of the first of these occurrences is 878-that of the latter 938; and they are both recorded by William of Malmesbury, who died in 1142; while that which relates to Anlaff is also mentioned by an historian of a somewhat earlier date,-Ingulphus, who was born in 1030, and died in 1091. There is some reason, therefore, to believe that the narratives are well founded; and whether true or false, they may at least be presumed to contain faithful representations of the manners of the age.

There can be no doubt that, at this time, the Minstrels were a numerous body. Du Cange says, that the courts of Princes, during the middle ages, swarmed with them; and that the royal treasuries were frequently drained by the large sums which were lavished upon them. Indeed, this sort of extravagance seems to have continued to much later times. The Minstrels of the Anglo-we would add the Scoto-Saxons are said to have retained many of the honours of their predecessors, the ancient Bards and Scalds ; but they were obviously persons, in point of station and acquirements, very inferior to the latter. This is evident from the fact, (if Dr Percy's statement be correct,) that the name of Scald comprised both poet and musician, and that the Danes had no separate and peculiar name for either of these professions taken singly; but among the AngloSaxons, although many of the minstrels "composed songs, and all of them could probably invent a few stanzas on occasion," the poet and the minstrel were early distinguished as separate persons. They also appear "to have accompanied their songs with mimicry and action, and to have practised such various means of diverting as were much admired in those rude times, and supplied the want of more refined entertainments." The Troubadour or Provençal bards were doubtless of a higher grade; but the French minstrels are described by Mr Ritson in similar terms to the above, They sung either their own compositions, or the compositions of

C 66

These anecdotes are related by other writers of good credit, besides the above; and among these, by Henry of Huntingdon, Speed, Sir Henry Spelman, and Milton.

b Percy's Reliques, Int. p. 1.

Ritson's Essay on National Song, vol. i. p. 26.