The songs have no words to them. Most of the airs are signed "Mr. William
Birde."
A modern MS. note in the book states that the book is "Lady Nevell's
Music-book," and that she seems "to have been the scholar of Birde, who
professedly composed several of the pieces for her ladyship's use;" and
that sixteen of the forty-two pieces are "in the Virginal Book of Queen
Elizabeth," and that "Jo. Baldwine was a singing-man at Windsor." The music
is written on four-staved paper of six lines, in large bold characters,
with great neatness. The notes are lozenge-shape. Can any of your
correspondents furnish rules for transposing these six-line staves into the
five-line staves of modern notations?