The key-board is of narrow compass--three octaves and a minor third--from the second E below, to the second G above, middle C, this note being the ledger-line C between the bass and treble clefs [Music]--an extent about the compass of the human voice, which long ruled that of key-board instruments. In Virdung's time their compass was being extended. It is, however, more than likely that the lowest E key was here tuned down to the still lower C, according to the so-called "short octave" arrangement, which altered the lowest E, F[sharp], and G[sharp], to make fourths below F, G, and A, instead of semitones, and thus get deep dominant basses for cadences. Examination of the plectra or "jacks" of this instrument shows they were furnished with little tongues of wire, and not quills or leather, as in later spinet instruments. It is in a painted pine case, the inside being also painted. An unusual feature of the interior is the Calvary below the narrow sound-board, in which the sound holes, judging by the ornament that remains in one, have been Flamboyant windows. There must also have originally been figures, perhaps the Transfiguration or the Crucifixion, but there is no trace of them left. The treatment of the landscape, without other evidence, nearly determines the epoch when the instrument was made. The stand and the paintings on the door, one of which represents a figure holding a mirror and a serpent, are of later date. The dimensions of this truly remarkable spinet are--height of instrument, 4 feet 10-1/2 inches, and extreme width, 2 feet 3 inches--the key-board being 2 feet wide. The depth of the case at base, 11 inches, diminishes in ascending to 5-5/8 inches. The table upon which it stands is 2 feet high and 2 feet 11 inches wide. [Illustration: VII] PLATE VII. OLIPHANT. An ivory Hunting Horn belonging to Earl Spencer, called Oliphant because it is of ivory, and bearing in the ornament the arms and badges of Ferdinand and Isabella of Portugal, may be regarded as belonging to the first half of the sixteenth century, the strap and buckle being evidently an addition of later date. The beautiful carving, so conspicuous in this horn, is supposed to have been executed by negroes of the West Coast of Africa, who carved ivory for the Portuguese; the arms of Portugal, with the supporters, two angels, holding the shield upside down, often appearing on their work. Philip II. of Spain married Mary, daughter of the King of Portugal, in 1543. She died in 1545. The carving of the Horn was probably completed within that interval, and when Philip came to England to marry Mary Tudor, he may have brought the horn with him.