The viol, however, was not destined to die a sudden death, at any rate, in this country. The soft wailing tone of the viol still found many admirers, principally amongst amateurs, who regarded the violin in the nature of an interloper. Their cause too was vindicated by one Thomas Mace, who, curious to relate, was born in the same year as John Playford (1613). This worthy lived in Cambridge, and in 1676 published a work entitled “Musick’s Monument, or a Remembrancer of the best practical music both Divine and Civil that has ever been known to be in the world,” certainly a most ambitious title and one that does not in the least suffer on its comparison with the precepts contained in the book. He was one of the clerks of Trinity College, Cambridge, and seemed to have acquired considerable knowledge of matters musical. Under whom he was educated, or by what means he became possessed of so much skill as to be able to furnish matter for the above work, he has nowhere informed us. We may collect from it that he was enthusiastically fond of music, and of a devout and serious disposition, though cheerful and good humoured. His knowledge of music seems to have been confined to the practice of the lute (his favourite instrument) and the viol. The third part of this work is devoted chiefly to the viol, and in this he censures the abuse of music in the number of bass and treble instruments in the concerts of his time, in which he says, it was not unusual to have but one small weak-sounding bass viol to two or three “scoulding violins.” This disproportion he seeks to remedy by the observance of the following instructions. He says: “Your best provision (and most compleat) will be a good chest of viols six in number, viz., 2 basses, 2 tenors, and 2 trebles. All truly and proportionably suited. Of such, there are no better in the world than those of Aldred, Jay, Smith (yet the highest in esteem are), Bolles and Ross (one bass of Bolles I have known valued at £100).