Was it not Schopenhauer who said to a German officer, who watched the philosopher’s mighty appetite with astonishment: “I eat much, sir, because I have a great mind,” adding that thought required vigorous nourishment? Of course! Then let us enter the spacious restaurant, guarded by two of Flaxman’s _chefs-d’oeuvre_; seize a white-robed table; beckon to a black-robed waiter; and take the food of thought, _à la_ Schopenhauer. A BASS-VIOL OF 1584 “WHILE cleaning the attic of the house of Dr John I. Orton yesterday, workmen found an old church bass-viol. Inside the viol is engraved the name of the maker and the date, ‘G. Billini-Onna, 1584.’ Experts place its value at at least $1000. The viol has been in the possession of the Orton family for three generations but for a number of years has been missing.”--_Newhaven Register_, 1902. EXTRACTS FROM ANTHONY WOOD’S DIARY “The 25th December 1656, Th. I paid young Mr Bishop 3s. for mending my base violl. “February 18th, 1658, to Bishop for mending my viol 1s., to Rich for my shoes and spent 1s. “25th, for violl strings, 7d.; the same, for my musick meeting, 9d.” EPITAPH SAID TO BE ON JOHAN JENKINS’ GRAVESTONE “Under this stone rare Jenkyns lye The Master of the Musick Art, Whom from the Earth, the God on high Called up to him to bear his part In Anno 78, he went to heaven.” --John Jenkins was an extraordinary player on the Lyra viol in the time of Charles I. CHAT THE SECOND Lunch, and the Emperor Albinus--The Crwth--The immature Bow Instruments which preceded the Fifteenth-century Viol--M. Coutagne and Gaspar Duiffoproucart While under the shadow of the friendly double-bass, we were particularly favoured and aided by the punctuating poke of a finger at the instruments mentioned. Now, however, isolated in that inartistic invention--a Restaurant--we have no such aid. There is no inspiration to be gained from knives and forks, plates and spoons, unless one be a cutler, a potter, a _chef_, or rejoices in the voracious appetite of the Emperor Albinus. This monarch--says our classical dictionary--thought nothing of devouring 500 figs, 100 peaches, twenty pounds of dry raisins, 10 melons, and 400 oysters for breakfast. What the heavier meals of the day were composed of is a matter upon which we are left to cogitate. There is no necessity to dwell upon the many immature bow instruments which preceded the fifteenth-century viol, but, for the sake of context, they must be allowed a passing interest and a glance at these pictures of them, which we have here upon the table. The Welsh crwth we will not mention, for it has already been effectually cast out of the fiddle family’s ancestry by an eminent authority in such matters. Likewise, for the same reason, we will pass the rote or rotta, with a vacant stare. [Illustration: Fig. 5.--REBEC]