Page:The Early English Organ Builders and their work.djvu/41

 instrument "with a double row of pipes." Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire, says, "a pair of organs was the term at that time when there were two kinds of organs, the one fixed and the other portable." A more recent writer, Mr. Ashpitel, enlarging upon this passage, adds, "a payre of organs consisted of two organs conjoined, with two sets of keys one above the other; one small, and called the choir, or more probably the chayre organ; and the other the great organ, built, as its name imports, on a large scale, and used in forte passages." This is by far the most erroneous explanation of the term yet given. It was probably hastily penned, as the writer is far too well acquainted with ancient documents to have written it after even the slightest reflection. Let us hope, however, that the question is set at rest for the future.

The Household Book of the Duke of Norfolk, an interesting document of the fifteenth century, printed by the