ruled by hand for music in 6-line staves, 209 of which are filled with music written in a small but distinct handwriting. The volume measures 33910 centimetres in height by 22 centimetres in breadth, and the binding (a fine specimen of English 17th-century workmanship) is of crimson morocco, enriched with beautiful gold tooling, the sides being sprinkled with fleurs-de-lis. The water-mark on the paper is a crozier-case, measuring 4½ inches in height and 2½ inches in its widest part. It is possible that this mark indicates that the paper was manufactured at Basel, as the arms of that town are similar to it. The manuscript has in places been cut by the binder, but the binding is probably not of later date than the bulk of the book. Nothing is known of the history of the volume before the early part of the 18th century, when it was first noticed as being in the possession of Dr. Pepusch, but there is sufficient evidence to prove that it can never have belonged, as is generally supposed, to Queen Elizabeth. As has been already stated, the whole of the manuscript is in one handwriting; in many cases the compositions it contains bear the dates at which they were composed, and these dates (as will be seen from the list printed below) are in no sort of chronological order. The latest dated composition contained in the collection is an 'Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, a 4 voci,' by the Amsterdam organist Jehan Peterson Swellinck (1577-81-1621), which occurs on page 216, and bears the date 1612, nine years after the death of Queen Elizabeth, to whom the book is said to have belonged. But there is another piece in the volume which proves that the collection must have been written even later than this. At page 255 is a short composition by Dr. John Bull, entitled 'D. Bull's Juell ' (i.e. 'Dr. Bull's Jewel'). Another copy of this occurs on folio 49b of a manuscript collection of Bull's instrumental music preserved in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 23,623), which is particularly valuable as containing the dates at which most of the compositions were written, and this copy bears the inscription 'Het Juweel van Doctor Jan Bull quod fecit anno 1621. December.' The volume must therefore have been written later than this, and in all probability it dates from the third decade of the 17th century, the character of the handwriting, as well as the absence of compositions by musicians of a later date precluding the possibility of its being of more recent origin. Mr. Chappell, at the beginning of his work on the 'Popular Music of the Olden Time'[1] (p. xv.) surmises that this collection may have been made for, or by, an English resident in the Netherlands, and that Dr. Pepusch obtained it in that country. This conjecture he founds upon the fact that the only name which occurs in an abbreviated form throughout the book is that of Tregian, and that a sonnet signed 'Fr. Tregian' is prefixed to Verstegan's 'Restitution of Decayed Intelligence,' which was published at Antwerp in 1605. The abbreviated name occurs as follows: at p. 111 is a composition of William Byrd's headed 'Treg. Ground'; at p. 152 is a 'Pavana Dolorosa. Treg.,' set by Peter Philips and dated 1593; at p. 196 is a short piece entitled 'Heaven and Earth,' to which no composer's name is given besides the syllable 'Fre' (probably a contraction of 'F. Tregian'); and at p. 297 in the margin, the initials F. Tr.' are written against the first line of a jig by William Byrd; on p. 315 'Mrs. Katherin Tregian's Pauen' is written in the margin against a Pavana Chromatica by William Tisdall. These few clues certainly point to some connection of the volume with the Tregian family, and it so happens that the history of at least two individuals of the name of F. Tregian is known with a considerable degree of certainty. The Tregians were a very rich and powerful Catholic family, whose seat was at Golden or Volveden in Cornwall, in which county their estates were said to have been worth £3000 per annum. Towards the close of the 16th century the head of the family was named Francis Tregian: his mother was named Katherine, and was the daughter of Sir John and Lady Elizabeth Arundell of Lanherne.[2] In the year 1577 the Tregian family seem to have become suspected, probably as much on account of their wealth as of their religion, and (according to one account) a conspiracy was planned for their ruin. On June 8 the house at Golden was entered and searched, and one Cuthbert Mayne, a priest of Douay, steward to Francis Tregian, was arrested and imprisoned, with several other of Tregian's servants, 'all gentlemen saving one,' says a contemporary account, in Launceston Gaol. At the following assizes, Mayne was convicted of high treason, and was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Launceston on Nov. 29 of the same year. Tregian himself, who had been bound over to appear at the assizes, was committed a close prisoner to the Marshalsea, where he remained for ten months. He was then suddenly arraigned at the King's Bench and sent into Cornwall to be tried. For some time the jury would deliver no verdict, but after they had been repeatedly threatened by the judges, a conviction was obtained, and Tregian was sentenced to suffer the penalty of præmunire and to perpetual banishment. On hearing his sentence he exclaimed, 'Pereant bona, quae si uon periissent, fortassis dominum suum perdidissent!' Immediately judgment was given, Tregian was laden with irons and thrown into the foul common gaol of the county; his goods were seized, his wife and children were expelled, and his mother was deprived of her jointure, so that 'she remained oppresst with calamity untill her death.'
After being moved from prison to prison, and
- ↑ The edition of this work referred to in this article is that published by Chappell & Co. in two volumes, without a date. The full title-page runs as follows: 'The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time: a History of the Ancient Songs, Ballads, and the Dance Tunes of England, with numerous Anecdotes and entire Ballads. Also a Short Account of the Minstrels. By W. Chappell, F.S.A. The whole of the Airs harmonized by G. A. Macfarren.'
- ↑ Harleian Society Publications, vol. ix., Visitation of Cromwell [App. p.813 "Cornwall"] of 1620. p. 275, note. See also Cooke's Visitation in 1673 (Harl. MS. 1079).
