st century and the early part of
this, had the disadvantage of heaviness, besides their rounded forms
which prevented their being placed with a flat side downwards on a shelf
or convenient horizontal surface without some unsteady rolling; also
being often studded with brass nails like a coffin, a very grave
objection (diagram 4). The leather cases which require the instrument
to be placed in sideways have the advantage of giving good protection
against rain, but there is insufficient defence against accidental
violence; they are, further, more expensive than the foreign boxes made
of poplar wood, which are light and of sufficient strength when
carefully made. There was one good thing about the ancient cases,
however, the violin being inserted at the large end, the performer knew
at once whether the case was sufficiently capacious for the instrument.
Not so with those in common use at the present time, opening as a box.
To these may be laid the charge of causing an immense amount of
irreparable injury to numbers of violins of any standard of excellence
or costliness. This in the way mostly of depressions--"wells" as they
are termed by repairers--where the feet of the bridge rest. These are
caused by the lid of the case coming down on to the hard wood of the
bridge and pressing its feet like dies, into the comparatively softer
pine (diagram 5). It is a disfigurement to the violin and is sometimes
in a bungling manner altered by inlaying--badly in most
instances--square pieces of wood to bring the surface level. This kind
of damage to the violin has been attributed to the prolonged pressure
on the upper table by the strings being stretched up to modern pitch,
but this is a mistake, no strings at all playable would press
sufficiently hard and directly downwards to produce this result. The
double-cases in use are worse than the single, as they are necessarily
stronger and heavier. Both present the same difficulties in estimating
whether the violin with its bridge is too high for the roof inside when
the lid is closed. A good way of testing it is by rubbing a little soft
white chalk over the top of the bridge and then gently shutting the
lid down, which also should show no indisposition to do so; if on
lifting the lid any of the white chalk is seen to have changed places
and got on to the lining of the lid, put aside at once and for ever
the condemned case as being an unfit receptacle for your cherished
Cremona. Further, if th