Like lords and princes, from the early fifteenth century at least, cities themselves had their troups of minstrels: “London, Coventry, Bristol, Shrewsbury, Norwich, Chester, York, Beverley, Leicester, Lynn, Canterbury, had them, to name no others. They received fixed fees or dues, wore the town livery and badge of a silver scutcheon, played at all local celebrations and festivities and were commonly known as _waits_.”[274] Besides money and good meals, those musical wanderers often received a variety of gifts, such as cloaks, furred robes, and the like. Langland alludes more than once to these largesses, which proves that they were considerable, and he regrets that all this was not distributed to the poor who go, they too, from door to door, and are the minstrels of God: {207} “Clerkus and knyghtes · welcometh kynges mynstrales, And for love of here lordes · lithen hem at festes: Much more, me thenketh · riche men auhte Have beggers by-fore hem · whiche beth godes mynstrales.”[275] But his advice was not heeded, and long after his time the minstrels continued to be admitted to the castle halls. In erecting the hall the builder took into account the probable visits of musicians, and often raised a gallery for them above the entrance door, opposite to the dais, the place where the master’s table was set.[276] This custom long survived the Middle Ages. At Hatfield a minstrels’ gallery of the seventeenth century adorns the hall of that beautiful place, and is still, on great occasions, put to the use it was originally intended for. [Illustration 38. PLAYING UPON THE VIELLE. (_From the MS. 10 E.IV; English; early Fourteenth Century._)] The classic instrument of the minstrel was the _vielle_, a kind of violin or fiddle with a bow, something like ours, a drawing of which, as used in the thirteenth century, is to be found in the album of Villard de Honnecourt.[277] It was delicate to handle, and required much skill; in proportion therefore as the profession lowered, the good performer on the _vielle_ became rarer; the common tambourine or tabor, which needed but little training, replaced the _vielle_, and true artists complained of the music and the taste of the {208} day. It was a tabor that the glee-man of Ely wore at his neck when he had his famous dialogue with the King of England, which proved so bewildering for the monarch: “He came thence to London; in a meadow he met the king and his suite; around his neck hung his tabor, painted with gold and rich azure.”[278] The minstrels played yet other instruments, the harp, the lute, the guitar, the bag-pipe, the rota (a kind of small harp, the ancient instrument of the Celts), and others.[279] [Illustration 39. _Cittern._ _Bagpipe._ _Clarion._ _Rebec._ _Psaltery._ _Syrinx._ _Sackbut._ _Regals._ _Gittern._ _Shalm._ _Timbrel._ _Cymbals._ THE MINSTRELS’ GALLERY AT EXETER. (_Fourteenth Century._)]