_Violin and Kit._

We meet with but few players on the violin, and it is usually
mentioned in connexion with other instruments, though it was to
the strains of a solitary fiddle that Simon Tappertit danced a
hornpipe for the delectation of his followers, while the same
instrument supplied the music at the Fezziwig's ball.

In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to
the lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned
like fifty stomach-aches.

The orchestra at the 'singing-house' provided for Jack's
amusement when ashore (_U.T._ 5) consisted of a fiddle and
tambourine; while at dances the instruments were fiddles
and harps. It was the harps that first aroused Mr. Jingle's
curiosity, as he met them being carried up the staircase
of The Bull at Rochester, while, shortly after, the tuning
of both harps and fiddles inspired Mr. Tupman with a strong
desire to go to the ball. Sometimes the orchestra is a little
more varied. At the private theatricals which took place at
Mrs. Gattleton's (_S.B.T._ 9), the selected instruments were
a piano, flute, and violoncello, but there seems to have been
a want of proper rehearsal.

Ting, ting, ting! went the prompter's bell at eight
o'clock precisely, and dash went the orchestra into
the overture to the _Men of Prometheus_. The pianoforte
player hammered away with laudable perseverance, and the
violoncello, which struck in at intervals, sounded very