ORIGIN OF THE SONG "FOUR AND TWENTY FIDDLERS ALL ON A ROW."

The fiddle was not allowed to be a concert instrument till the reign
of Charles the Second, who, in imitation of Louis the Fourteenth,
established a band of twenty-four violins, alias fiddles, which gave
birth to Tom Durfey's song of "_Four and Twenty Fiddlers all on a
Row_," &c.: a humorous production, in which there is a mockery of
every instrument, and almost every trade, and which used to be performed
between the acts, or between the play and farce, by some man of humour
at benefits.

The author of the Guardian, in No. 67, gives an account of Tom Durfey,
with a view to recommend him to the public notice for a benefit play,
and says, that he remembered King Charles the Second leaning on Tom
Durfey's shoulder more than once, and humming over a song with him.

_Roi des Violons_, or King of the Fiddlers, was anciently a title
in France. It became defunct, in 1685, owing to anarchy--thus _harmony
and discord cannot agree_.

P.T.W.

* * * * *


ROSEDALE ABBEY.

(_For the Mirror_.)