Eastscott's Sketches

Eastscott's sketches are rendered in prose, mainly apocryphal, but rarely uninteresting.

He begins with the ancient world of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Hebrews. One example is the legend of the first Lyre, which was found by the God Hermes while he was walking by a riverside. He stumbled across a hollowed out tortoise shell, except for strings of meat and fiber across its rim, which had decayed and became loud when plucked.  

He travels into English history, relating the story of King Alfred the Great who disguised himself as a wandering minstrel and found out secrets from an invading Saxon king by playing at his camp. Eastcott admits the dubiousness of these stories, but believes they still are important for the understanding of music in history.