[Footnote 8: This difficulty, in the present instance, has yielded to the extensive researches of Mr. Douce, who has afforded assistance to me, which, perhaps, no other antiquary could have bestowed. He has unravelled all the mysteries of minstrelsy with his usual ability; and I give the information in his own words, only observing that the numbers begin from the left.--"No. 1 was called the _violl_, corresponding with our _Viol de Gamba_. As this was a larger violin, though the sculptor has not duly expressed its comparative bulk, I conceive it was either used as a tenor or base, being perfectly satisfied, in spite of certain doubts on the subject, that counterpoint was known in the middle ages.--No. 2 is the largest instrument of the kind that I have ever seen, and it seems correctly given, from one part of it resting on the figure, No. 3, to support it. Twiss mentions one that he saw sculptured on the cathedral, at Toro, five feet long. The proper name of it is the _rote_, so called from the internal wheel or cylinder, turned by a winch, which caused the _bourdon_, whilst the performer stopped the notes on the strings with his fingers. This instrument has been very ignorantly termed a _vielle_, and yet continues to be so called in France. It is the modern Savoyard _hurdy-gurdy_, as we still more improperly term it; for the hurdy-gurdy is quite a different instrument. In later times, the _rote_ appears to have lost its rank in concert, and was called the _beggar's lyre_.--No. 4 is evidently the _syrinx_, or _Pan's pipe_, which has been revived with so much success in the streets of London.--Twiss shewed me one forty years ago, that he got in the south of France, where they were then very common.--No. 5 is an instrument for which I can find no name, nor can I immediately call to memory any other representation of it. It has some resemblance to the old Welsh fiddle or _crowth_; but, as a bow is wanting, it must have been played with the fingers; and I think the performer's left hand in the sculpture does seem to be stopping the strings on the upper part, or neck, a portion of which has been probably broken off.--I suspect it to be the old _mandore_, whence the more modern _mandolin_. The rotundity of the sounding-board may warrant this conjecture.--No. 6 was called the _psalterion_, and is of very great antiquity, (I mean as to the middle ages).--Its form was very diversified, and frequently triangular. It was played with a _plectrum_, which the performer holds in his right hand.--No. 7 is the _dulcimer_, which is very common in sculpture. This instrument appears, as in the present case, to have been sometimes played with the fingers only, and sometimes with a _plectrum_.--No. 8 is the real _vielle_, or _violin_, of very common occurrence, and very ancient.--No. 9 is a female tumbler, or _tomllesterre_, as Chaucer calls them. This profession, so far as we can depend on ancient representation, appears to have exclusively belonged to women.--No.