Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/32

 cite the fact; but it is purely a mistake—giving the name Westminster instead of Winchester—which, originating with Dom. Bedos, has been handed down to the present day without investigation.

In the twelfth century many general improvements may be traced in the continental organs—improvements which, however, made but small way in our own country. The keyboard was invented, and although of very clumsy mechanism, it was a step in the right direction. Each key was originally many inches broad, and struck down by the fist of the performer, a method resembling that of carillon playing still in use in some parts of France, Germany and Holland. The use of compound stops also became known towards the end of this century, and the examples of Hucbald and Guido found illustration and interpretation.

A gradual course of improvement is traced in organs erected at Dijon in the thirteenth century, at Halberstad in 1360, and at Nuremberg in 1468, about which