In very early times Irish professors of music were as eagerly sought after on the Continent as those of literature and general learning, so that they were sometimes placed at the head of great music-schools. At a later time it was quite common among the Welsh bards to come over to Ireland to receive instruction from the Irish harpers. In the eleventh century one of the Welsh kings, Griffith ap Conan, brought over to Wales a number of skilled Irish musicians, who, in conference with the native Welsh bards, carried out some great improvements in Welsh music. Ireland was long the school for Scottish harpers also, who regularly came over, like those of Wales, to finish their musical education--a practice which continued down to about 150 years ago. Giraldus Cambrensis, a Welshman, who visited Ireland in 1185, though very much prejudiced against the Irish, says that Irish harpers were incomparably more skilful than those of any other nation he had ever heard play. From that period, in spite of wars and troubles, music continued to be cultivated, and there was an unbroken succession of great professional harpers, till the end of the eighteenth century, when, for want of encouragement in the miserable condition of the country under the penal laws, the race died out. The Harp is mentioned in the earliest Irish literature: it is constantly mixed up with our oldest legends; and it was in use from the remotest pagan times. The old Irish harps were of a medium size, or rather small, the average height being about thirty inches: and some were not much more than half that height. They had strings of brass wire which were tuned by a key, not very different from the present tuning-key. Irish harpers always played with the fingers or with the finger-nails. The Irish had a small stringed instrument called a Timpan, which had only a few strings. It had a body like a flat drum, to which at one side was attached a short neck: the strings were stretched across the flat face of the drum and along the neck: and were tuned and regulated by pins or keys and a bridge. It was played with a bow or with the finger-nail, or by both together, while the notes were regulated in pitch--or ‘stopped’ as musicians say--with the fingers of the left hand, like those of a fiddle or guitar. This little instrument was a great favourite, and is constantly mentioned in Irish literature. Harpers and timpanists were honoured in Ireland beyond all other musicians; and their rights and privileges were even laid down in the law. Kings had always harpers in their service, who resided in the palaces and were well paid for their services.