The expression “a payre of regalls,” used by writers some centuries ago, evidently implies only a single instrument. Thus also the virginal is not unfrequently mentioned as “a payre of virginalls.” Moreover, it appears that the regal was occasionally made with two sets of pipes, so as to constitute a double organ of its kind.
In the following lines from Sir W. Leighton’s “Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soule,” London, 1613, this little organ is mentioned in combination with other curious instruments now antiquated, most of which will be found in the present collection:――
“Praise him upon the claricoales, The lute and simfonie: With the dulsemers and the regalls, Sweete sittrons melody.”
The _bagpipe_ (Fig. 77) appears to have been from time immemorial a special favourite instrument with the Celtic races; but it was perhaps quite as much admired by the Slavonic nations. In Poland, and in the Ukraine, it used to be made of the whole skin of the goat in which the shape of the animal, whenever the bagpipe was expanded with air, appeared fully retained exhibiting even the head with the horns; hence the bagpipe was called _kosà_, which signifies a goat.
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.
[Illustration: FIG. 77.――BAGPIPES. English. 18th century. L. 30 in. No. 1197-’03. Victoria and Albert Museum.]
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 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 bell tower, 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 from the church. The reason assigned by the Greeks for having adopted this plan is that in case of an earthquake the bells are likely to fall and, were they placed in a tower, would destroy the roof of the church and might cause the destruction of the whole building. Also in Russia a special edifice for the bells is generally separate from the church. In the Russian villages the bells are not unfrequently hung in the branches of an oak-tree near the church. In Iceland the bell is usually placed in the lych-gate leading to the graveyard.