His arrowes drouped not with fethers lowe,
And in his hand he bare a mighty bowe."

Prol. to Cant. Tales.

In order to show the dandyism displayed by the archers of former times, it may be stated, that, in the wardrobe accounts of the 28 Edw. I. p. 359. is a charge of verdigrise to stain the feathers of the arrows green. A wardrobe account of the 4 Edw. II. furnishes an entry for peacock arrows, " Pro duodecim flecchiis cum pennis de pavone, emptis pro rege de 12 den.”

As this note has some connection with the shuttlecock, as well as the arrow, we may take this opportunity of introducing a passage, which was accidentally omitted in the text; it refers to the method of playing this game at Turon, in Cochin China; and which is described by a traveller as follows: "Instead of using a battledoor, as is the custom in England, the players stood seven or eight in a circle; and, after running a short race, and springing from the floor, they met the descending shuttlecock with the sole of the foot, and drove it up again with force high in the air. The game was kept up with much animation, and seldom did the players miss their stroke, or give it a wrong direction. The shuttlecock was made of a piece of dried skin rolled round, and bound with strings. Into this skin were inserted three feathers, spreading out at top, but so near to each other, where they were stuck into the skin, as to pass through the holes, little more than a quarter of an inch square, which were always made in the centre of Cochin copper coins. We made one or two awkward attempts at the game, not only to

our own confusion, but much to the amusement of the natives. It must, however, be remembered, that, amongst these ingenious people, the feet assist, as auxiliaries to the hands, in the exercise of many trades, particularly that of boat building."

NOTE 11. p. 165.

A beautiful experiment was lately instituted at Paris, to illustrate this fact, by Biot. At the extremity of a cylindrical tube, upwards of 3000 feet in length, a ring of metal was placed, of the same diameter as the aperture of the tube; and in the centre of this ring, in the mouth of the tube, was suspended a clock bell and hammer. The hammer was made to strike the ring and the bell at the same instant, so that the sound of the ring would be transmitted to the remote end of the tube through the conducting power of the matter of the tube itself; while the sound of the bell would be transmitted through the medium of the air included within the tube. The ear being then placed at the remote end of the tube, the sound of the ring, transmitted by the metal of the tube, was first distinctly heard; and, after a short interval had elapsed, the sound of the bell, transmitted by the air in the tube, was heard. The result of several experiments was, that the metal of the tube conducted the sound with about ten and a half times the velocity with which it was conducted by the air; that is, at the rate of about 11,865 feet per second.

NOTE 12. p. 205.

The Memoirs of Madame de Genlis first made known the astonishing powers of a poor German soldier on the Jew's harp. This musician was in the service of Frederick the Great, and finding himself one night on duty under the windows of the king, played the Jew's harp with so much skill, that Frederick, who was a great amateur of music, thought he heard a distinct orchestra. Surprised on learning that such an effect could be produced by a single man with two Jew's harps, he ordered him into his presence; the soldier refused, alleging, that he could only be relieved by his colonel; and that, if he obeyed, the king would punish him the next day, for having failed to do his duty. Being presented the following morning to Frederick, he was heard with admiration, and received his discharge and fifty dollars. This artist, whose name Madame de Genlis does not mention, is called Koch; he has not any knowledge of music, but owes his success entirely to a natural taste. He has made his fortune by travelling about, and performing in public and private, and is now living retired at Vienna, at the advanced age of more than eighty years. He used two Jew's harps at once, in the same manner as the peasants of the Tyrol, and produced, without doubt, the harmony of two notes struck at the same moment, which was considered by the musically-curious as somewhat extraordinary, when the limited powers of the instrument were remembered. It was Koch's custom to require that all the lights should

be extinguished, in order that the illusion produced by his playing might be increased.

It was reserved, however, for Mr. Eulenstein to acquire a musical reputation from the Jew's harp. After ten years of close application and study, this young artist has attained a perfect mastery over this untractable instrument. In giving some account of the Jew's harp, considered as a medium for musical sounds, we shall only present the result of his discoveries. This little instrument, taken singly, gives whatever grave sound you may wish to produce, as a third, a fifth, or an octave. If the grave tonic is not heard in the bass Jew's harp, it must be attributed, not to the defectiveness of the instrument, but to the player. In examining this result, you cannot help remarking the order and unity established by nature in harmonical bodies, which places music in the rank of exact sciences. The Jew's harp has three different tones; the bass tones of the first octave bear some resemblance to those of the flute and clarionet; those of the middle and high, to the vox humana of some organs; lastly, the harmonical sounds are exactly like those of the harmonica. It is conceived that this diversity of tones affords already a great variety in the execution, which is always looked upon as being feeble and trifling, on account of the smallness of the instrument. It was not thought possible to derive much pleasure from any attempt which could be made to conquer the difficulties of so limited an instrument; because, in the extent of these octaves, there were a number of spaces which could not be filled up by the talent of the player; besides, the most simple modulation became impossible. Mr. Eulenstein has remedied that

inconvenience, by joining sixteen Jew's harps, which he tunes by placing smaller or greater quantities of sealingwax at the extremity of the tongue. Each harp then sounds one of the notes of the gamut, diatonic or chromatic, and the performer can fill all the intervals, and pass all the tones, by changing the harp. That these mutations may not interrupt the measure, one harp must always be kept in advance, in the same manner as a good reader advances the eye, not upon the word which he pronounces, but upon that which follows.

NOTE 13. p. 227.

This project has lately been revived; in a late number of the Revue Encyclopédique there is a proposal to communicate verbal intelligence, in a few moments, to vast distances, and thus not by symbols, as in the Telegraph, but in distinct articulate sounds uttered by the human voice. The plan is said to have originated with an Englishman, Mr. Dick, according to whose experiments the human voice may be made intelligible at the distance of twenty-five or thirty miles. It has been stated, in Note 11., that the celebrated Biot had ascertained that sound travels more than ten times quicker when transmitted by solid bodies, or through tubes, than when it passes through the open air; at the distance of more than half a mile the low voice of a man was distinctly heard. Father Kircher relates, in some of his works, that the labourers employed in the subterranean aqueducts of Rome heard each other at the distance of several miles.