DR. RIMBAULT'S communication is very interesting, but not quite
satisfactory, not affording me any means of identifying the air. It
would under most circumstances, have given me much pleasure to have lent
DR. R. the MS., for I know no one so likely to make good use of it; but
the fact is, that without pretending to compete with DR. RIMBAULT in the
knowledge of old music, I have also meditated a similar work on the
ballads and music of Shakspeare, and my chief source is the volume which
is said to contain the air of Concolinel. It will be some time before I
can execute the work alluded to, and I would prefer to see the Doctor's
work published first. Whichever first appears will most likely
anticipate much that is in the other, for, although Dr. R. says he has
spent "many years" on the subject, the accidental possession of several
MS. volumes has given me such singular advantages, I am unwilling to
surrender my project. I have the music to nearly twenty jigs, and two
have some of the words, which are curious.