e of repair, it will
be borne in mind, is when the upper and lower plates are in fairly good
condition. Different treatment would be adopted if both were separated
or the upper one taken off.

Sometimes the cramping, although sufficient for getting a good mend
where there is a good extent of surface, will not be quite the thing
for a small part, perhaps a slight opening at the extreme edge; in this
instance a wooden mould, cut in a few minutes from a flat board large
enough to allow of an oval aperture being made that will admit of the
body of the violin being passed through. This being done and a small
wedge being here and there judiciously inserted, will enable the
operator to get enough purchase, or advantage may be taken of the
juxtaposition of the cramp, and using both to gain the requisite
pressure against the bend of the rib in the manner before mentioned.

There are as a matter of course extremely numerous kinds of fractures
or injuries arising from almost as many different causes. If time and
space permitted, they might be classified and each credited to their
different agencies. Sufficient for our purpose, however, will be the
separation of them into three divisions: firstly, those which may be
the outcome or result of ordinary wear and giving way of parts through
atmospheric influence, such as damp or excessive dryness, or both at
times, in combination with varying temperature. People are apt to debit
the climate of Britain with many shortcomings and the cause of much
undoing of good work in the fiddle world and the prevention of its being
accomplished in the concluding stages of fiddle facture.

Much of the good quality attached to Italian instruments has been
attributed to the beautiful and dry air of Italy. Now that Italy has
beautiful air no one can deny, that is, while not standing in the
streets of some of the most interesting cities therein, but that it
is dry generally is perhaps going beyond the mark; remember it is a
very mountainous place with some exceptional portions, this may be
easily verified by a glance over a good map of the place, or better,
a tour by railway from the northern provinces down as far as Naples.
Knowledge is fairly general as to mountainous districts, much more than
plains, being the localities where rain is most frequent, the more or
less saturation of the atmosphere following as a matter of course.

But let Italian fiddles speak for themselves, otherwise than through
the