or GROWTH, a kind of musical instrument formerly in use among the common people in Wales. It is of the fidicinal kind, somewhat resembling a violin, 12 inches in length, and an inch and a half in thickness. It has six strings supported by a bridge, and is played on with a bow: the bridge differs from that of a violin, in that it is flat and not convex on the top; a circumstance from which it is to be inferred, that the strings are to be struck at the same time, so as to afford a succession of concords. The bridge is not placed at right angles with the sides of the instrument, but in an oblique direction; and, which is farther to be remarked, one of the feet of the bridge goes through one of the sound-holes, which are circular, and rests on the inside of the back; the other foot, which is proportionably shorter, resting on the belly before the other sound-hole. Of the strings the four first are conducted from the bridge down the finger board, as in a common violin; but the fifth and sixth, which are about an inch longer than the others, leave the small end of the neck about an inch to the right. The whole six are wound up either by wooden pegs in the form of the letter T, or by iron pins, which are turned with a wrest like those of a harp or spinet. Of the tuning, it is to be remarked, that the fifth and sixth strings are the unison and octave of G; the fourth and fifth, the same of C; and the second and first, the same of D; so that the second pair of strings are a fourth, and the third a fifth, to the first. See Plate CLXIV.

Concerning the antiquity of this instrument, there is but little written evidence to carry it further back than the time of Leland; nevertheless the opinion of its high antiquity is so strong among the inhabitants of the country where it was used, as to afford a probable ground of conjecture, that the cruth might be the prototype of the whole fidicinal species of musical instruments. Another evidence of its antiquity, but which tends also to prove that it was not peculiar to Wales, arises from a discovery lately made and communicated to the society of antiquarians, respecting the abbey-church of Melrose in Scotland, supposed to have been built about the time of Edward II. It seems that among the outside ornaments of that church there is the representation of a cruth, very little different from the description above given. The instrument is now diffused, inasmuch that Sir John Hawkins, from whom we extract, tells us, that there is but one person in the whole principality of North Wales that can play upon it; and as he was at that time near 60 years of age, the succession of performers is probably near an end.