He adds that a flautist has recently studied this instrument, guided by
Hotteterre le Romain's book (1707), and can play more perfectly in tune
than "he ever did before upon a highly improved and most expensive modern
instrument."

The concert-flute of the present day is an elaborate instrument covered
with keys, and it has, I believe, been suggested that its tone is injured
by this elaboration. Bass flutes have been made, one 3 ft. 7 ins. in
length is mentioned, whose lowest note was an octave below middle C.

Shawms. {87}

The next class of wind instruments dealt with by the author is that of
which the oboe and bassoon are typical. Mr Galpin refers to a reed-pipe
with which I am very familiar; it is made from a dandelion stalk pinched
flat at one end. Its principle is that of the oboe. I well remember
admiring its tone as a child, and lamenting its very brief life, for it
soon got spoiled. The reed of serious musical instruments is made of two
pieces of cane which are flat at the free or upper end and terminate
below in a tube which fits on to the instrument. This is an ancient type
of instrument, for the Roman _tibia_ is believed to have been played with
the "double reed," _i.e._ of oboe-type. I may here be allowed to quote
from my _Rustic Sounds_, p. 5: "The most truly rustic instrument (and
here I mean an instrument of polite life--an orchestral instrument) is
undoubtedly the oboe. The bassoon runs it hard, but has a touch of
comedy and a strong flavour of necromancy, while the oboe is quite good
and simple in nature and is excessively in earnest; it seems to have in
it the ghost of a sun-burnt boy playing to himself under a tree, in a
ragged shirt unbuttoned at the throat." A figure is given (Galpin, p.
159) of a goat playing on a shawm {88} from a carving of the twelfth
century at Canterbury. The name is believed to be derived from
_calamaula_, a reed-pipe, which was corrupted to _chalem-elle_ and then
to _shawm_. Shawms were made of various sizes, from the small treble
instrument, one foot long, to the huge affair, six feet in length. The
name Howe-boie, _i.e._ probably Haut-bois, was applied to the treble
instrument as early as the reign of Elizabeth; while the deeper-toned
instruments retained the name shawm. The bassoon is only a bass oboe
rendered less cumbrous by the tube being bent sharply on itself. A tenor
bassoon, known as the oboe da caccia, or teneroon, also existed, and if
my m