Among the English public performers on the _viola da gamba_ are recorded a Mrs. Sarah Ottey, in the year 1723, and a Miss Ford in 1760. Carl Friedrich Abel, a German, who lived in London during the latter half of the eighteenth century, was the last performer of celebrity on this instrument. Johann Sebastian Bach has employed it in his admirable “Passionsmusik des Matthæus”; and there are some fine “Suites,” still occasionally to be met with, composed for it by M. de Caix d’Herveloix, published in the year 1710. The tone of the _viola da gamba_ is rather nasal, but sweet and expressive; indeed, it is to be regretted that this charming instrument has fallen into disuse. There is, however, a _gamba_ stop in the organ, which resembles the famous _vox humana_ stop, and which has recently been much favoured by organ builders. The _violoncello_ came into competition with the _viola da gamba_ at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and has now entirely superseded its predecessor. A _viola di bardone_ in the Museum (Fig. 56) has a neck of carved and pierced box-wood, terminating in a figure of Apollo playing the lyre; the principal finger-board is of ivory, engraved and inlaid with ebony and tortoiseshell, with figures of Jupiter and Juno, and a lady playing a lute; the second finger-board is also of pierced and engraved ivory. The instrument has four catgut and fourteen metal sympathetic strings, and a double wrest. It was made by Jaques Sainprae, of Berlin, and is said to have belonged to Quanz, music master of Frederick the Great. The most accomplished performers on the _viola di bardone_ were Anton Lidl of Vienna (to whom is sometimes erroneously ascribed the invention of this instrument) and Karl Franz, a musician of the band of Prince Esterhazy, about the middle of the 18th century. Lidl played on the _viola di bardone_ in concerts in England during the year 1776. Joachim Tielke of Hamburg, the manufacturer of a specimen in the Museum, was an instrument maker whose lutes were much esteemed on account of their fine tone, and their elegant ornamentation. He made them of ebony inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl, silver, and gold. Joseph Haydn wrote sixty-three compositions for the _viola di bardone_ by order of Prince Esterhazy, who was himself a performer on this instrument, and who admired it greatly. Its tone is soft and very expressive, but rather tremulous; owing to this quality, probably, it was also called _viola di fagotto_. It never became very popular, since its rather complicated construction offered too many difficulties in its treatment. In Germany it was generally called _Baryton_.