Then he goes on to tell us something about the chief violinist. “Tho. Baltzar, a Lübecker born, and the most famous artist for the violin that the world had yet produced, was now in Oxford; and this day, July 24, A. W. was with him and Mr. Ed. Low, lately organist of Christ Church, at the house of Will Ellis, A. W. did then and there to his very great astonishment hear him play on the violin. He then saw him run up his fingers to the end of the fingerboard of the violin and run them back insensibly and all with alacrity and in very good time, which he, nor any in England, saw the like before. A. W. entertained him and Mr. Low with what the house could then afford and afterwards he invited them to the tavern; but they being engaged to go to other company, he could no more hear him play, or see him play at that time. Afterwards he came to one of the weekly meetings at Mr. Ellis’s house and he played to the wonder of all the auditory; and exercising his finger and instrument several ways to the utmost of his force. Wilson, thereupon, the public professor, the greatest judge of music that ever was, did, after his humorsome way, stoop down to Baltzar’s feet to see whether he had a hoof on, that is to say to see whether he was a devil or not, because he acted beyond the parts of man.” Burney goes on to say: “We are able to ascertain the time when concerts consisting of two treble violins, a tenor and a bass violin, or violoncello, came into practice; that they had their origin in Italy can scarce admit of a question; and it is no less certain that they were adopted by the French. “Indeed the idea of a performance where the instruments for the bass and intermediate parts were in number so disproportionate to the treble, seems to be absurd; and there is reason to suspect that the song ‘Four and Twenty Fiddlers all in a row,’ in D’Urfey’s _Pills to Purge Melancholy_, was written in ridicule of that band of twenty-four violins, which, as the French writers assert, was the most celebrated of any in Europe.” This old song begins: “_Four and twenty Fiddlers all in a Row;_ _And there was fiddle fiddle and twice fiddle fiddle._ _’Cause ’twas my Lady’s Birthday,_ _Therefore we kept holiday,_ _And all went to be merry._ “_Four and twenty Drummers all in a Row,_ _And there was tantarra rara, tan, tantarra._ _Rara, rara, rara rar, there was rub, etc._ “_Four and twenty Tabors and Pipers all in a Row_ _And there was whif and dub,_ _And tantarra rara, etc._” and goes on in the same way for several verses. The next name of importance after Lully is that of Corelli. We must not imagine that Corelli suddenly appeared like a great shining star in a dark night. No artist ever leaps suddenly upon an astonished world. Every artist builds on the works of those who have gone before him.