The typical harp of the Welsh was called _telyn_; but it does not seem to have differed much from the Irish harp. Harp competitions were a feature of the Welsh Eisteddfod that corresponded to the Irish Feis. In the Highlands of Scotland the harp was called _Clarsach_. It is mentioned in almost every poem, ballad, song, and story. Everybody played the harp; even the children eagerly tried to sweep the strings with their little fingers. In the Poem of _Trathal_ the hero’s wife remains at home. “Two children with their fair locks are at her knees. They bend their ears above the harp, as she touches with her fair hands the trembling strings. She stops. They take the harp themselves, but cannot find the sound they admired. ‘Why,’ they ask ‘does it not answer us? Show us the string where dwells the song.’ She bids them search for it till she returns. Their little fingers wander among the wires.” There was hardly a household of the Highland chieftains which did not have bard, or harper; and in many old castles the “harper’s seat,” “the harper’s window,” or “the harper’s gallery” is shown with pride to visitors. Playing the harp was a general accomplishment. George Buchanan, in his _History of Scotland_, published in 1565, says the people “delight very much in music, especially in harps, of their own sort, some of which are strung with brass wire and some with intestines of animals. They play on them either with their nails grown long, or with a pectrum. Their only ambition seems to be to ornament their harps with silver and precious stones. The lower ranks, instead of gems, deck theirs with crystal. They sing poetical compositions celebrating the exploits of their valiant men. Their language is that of the ancient Gauls, a little altered.” [Illustration: HARP OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY _King David_] In England the harp was a regal accomplishment, and every gentleman as well as prince could sing to the harp and play his own accompaniment. Every one knows how King Alfred, who was a fine musician, explored the Danish camp in the guise of a minstrel. All the early literature of England is full of allusions to the harp and harp-playing. The harp always appeared at ceremonies. For instance, in 1413, at the Coronation of Henry V, “the harmony of the harpers drawn from the instruments struck with the rapidest touch of the fingers, note against note, and the soft, angelic whisperings of their modulations, were gratifying to the ears of the guests.” In 1251 the new coinage of Ireland “was stamped in Dublin with the impression of the King’s head in a triangular harp.” The arms of Leinster on a field _vert_, a harp, _or_ stringed _argent_, were subsequently applied to the whole kingdom of Ireland.