Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/55



Mersenne's work, from which he takes a picture (Plate ix., Fig. 4) of a transverse flute or fife, which he calls "Fistula Militaris," and mentions that it was used by the Swiss Guards of the Pope.

The exact date at which the transverse flute was first used in England is not known; but certainly the fife was in use in the time of Henry VIII. Transverse flutes are depicted in an engraving to Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, dated 1579; in Ghieraert's picture of the Marriage Feast of Sir Henry Unton, painted about 1596, and now in the National Portrait Galleryin both cases the player is left-handedand in a contemporary picture of Sir Philip Sidney's funeral (now in the Heralds' College); and such instruments are mentioned in an inventory of Hengrave Hall, Sussex, in 1602. The earliest English description of the transverse flute I have met with is in