There is also a collection of Byrd’s virginal music called _My Lady Nevell’s Booke_. Lady Nevell may have been a pupil of Byrd. There are two collections of this same kind at Buckingham Palace, the home of the King of England,—_Will Forster’s Virginal Book_ and _Benjamin Cosyn’s Virginal Book_. In the index of the latter, we read: “A table of these Lessons following made and sett forth by Ben Cos.” In all, he copied more than 90 compositions! Later came John Playford, music publisher, whose first musical publication, _The English Dancing-Master_ (1650), contains almost a hundred old folk tunes. _Select Musical Ayres_ appeared three years later, and is a typical 17th century song collection of first-class poems by Jonson, Dryden and others set to music by well-known composers. His book on the theory of music, used for almost a century, contained “lessons” for the viol, the cithern and flageolet. His _Dancing Master_, a collection of airs for violin for country dances, has brought to us many popular ballad tunes and dance airs of the period. In these collections we often find the names _Fancies_, _Fantazia_, or _Fantasies_, a type of composition that grew out of the madrigal and led to the sonata. It was the name given to the first compositions for instruments alone like the _ricercari_ of the Italians, which were original compositions and not written on a given subject (called in England “ground”), or on a folk song. The _Fancies_ were sometimes written for the virginal, and sometimes for groups of instruments such as a “chest of viols” or even five cornets(!). THE CHEST OF VIOLS “Chest of Viols” may sound queer to you, but it isn’t! It was the custom in England at that time for people to have collections of instruments in or out of chests. So, when callers came they could play the viol, instead, probably of bridge! You can read about these interesting old days in Samuel Pepys’ _Diary_. He played the lute, the viol, the theorbo, the flageolet, the recorder (a kind of flute) and the virginal, and he was the proud owner of a chest of viols. He always carried his little flageolet with him in his pocket, and he says that while he was waiting in a tavern for a dish of poached eggs, he played his flageolet, also that he remained in the garden late playing the flageolet in the moonlight. (Poetic Pepys!) Thomas Morley, Byrd’s pupil, who was made a partner in the publishing house after Tallis’s death, wrote his madrigals for virginal, and a collection called _First Book of Consort Lessons for Six Instruments, Lute, Pandora, Cittern_ (an old English form of guitar), _Bass Viol, Flute, and Treble Viol_, and much sacred music. He also wrote a _Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical Musick_, a book of great value and interest to musicians for the last three centuries, for it is a mirror of his time and of his fellow composers.