In England some rude species of organ is said to have been used in public worship as early as about the middle of the seventh century. It was, however, on the Continent, principally in Germany, that almost all the important improvements originated which gradually brought the organ to its present high degree of perfection. Many old organs of fine workmanship are still extant in the churches of Germany. During the 18th century especially several large organs of deserved celebrity were built in that country; suffice it to instance those of the brothers Andreas and Gottfried Silbermann. In England the important inventions of the continental builders were not readily adopted. Recently, however, several huge organs of very fine workmanship have been constructed in England, chiefly for use in concert rooms, or public halls. The _regal_, often mentioned in English literature of the time of Shakespeare, and earlier (_see also_ p. 96), was a small _organ portative_. There was till about the end of the 18th century a “Tuner of the Regals,” in the Chapel Royal St. James’s, with a salary of 56_l._ The name _regal_ is supposed to have been derived from _rigabello_, a musical instrument of which scarcely more is known than that it was played in the churches of Italy before the introduction of the organ. The expression “a payre of regalls,” used by writers some centuries ago, evidently implies only a single instrument. Thus also the virginal is not unfrequently mentioned as “a payre of virginalls.” Moreover, it appears that the regal was occasionally made with two sets of pipes, so as to constitute a double organ of its kind. In the following lines from Sir W. Leighton’s “Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soule,” London, 1613, this little organ is mentioned in combination with other curious instruments now antiquated, most of which will be found in the present collection:―― “Praise him upon the claricoales, The lute and simfonie: With the dulsemers and the regalls, Sweete sittrons melody.” The _bagpipe_ (Fig. 77) appears to have been from time immemorial a special favourite instrument with the Celtic races; but it was perhaps quite as much admired by the Slavonic nations. In Poland, and in the Ukraine, it used to be made of the whole skin of the goat in which the shape of the animal, whenever the bagpipe was expanded with air, appeared fully retained exhibiting even the head with the horns; hence the bagpipe was called _kosà_, which signifies a goat. The bagpipe is of high antiquity in Ireland, and is alluded to in Irish poetry and prose said to date from the tenth century. A pig gravely engaged in playing the bagpipe is represented in an illuminated Irish manuscript, of the year 1300. [Illustration: FIG. 77.――BAGPIPES. English. 18th century. L. 30 in. No. 1197-’03. Victoria and Albert Museum.]