The State Kettledrum of silver and draped with the Royal banner, represents the only member of the Drum family capable of being tuned to the pitch of the band with a clearly recognisable note. The head is of vellum stretched upon a ring fitting closely round the kettle of the drum. Screws, working on this ring, tighten or slacken the head to produce the note required from its compass. The pair of kettledrums are usually tuned to tonic and dominant, but inequalities of tension in the head, owing to the membrane not being perfectly homogeneous, interfere with the notes being strictly accurate.
PLATE XXXVI.
CAVALRY BUGLE, WITH TASSELS.
CAVALRY TRUMPET, EMBOSSED.
TRUMPETS,
THREE INSTRUMENTS—WITH CROOKS, GILT, AND SILVER MOUNTED.
THE Cavalry Bugle, decorated with tassels and graciously contributed by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, President of the International Inventions Exhibition, 1885, to the Music Loan Collection, has an historical interest in having been used by Trumpeter Smith to sound the moonlight charge of the Household Cavalry and 7th Dragoon Guards, at Kassassin in Egypt, August the 28th, 1882.
The Trumpet with crooks was carried by Sergeant-Major Webb of the 5th Dragoon Guards, Field Trumpeter to the Duke of Wellington, and with this instrument he sounded the grand charge at the Battle of Salamanca, July the 22nd, 1812. It is the property of a descendant of the Sergeant-Major, Mr. Joseph Webb, who contributes the veteran's description, often repeated to him, of the anxious moment when the command was given to sound the charge. "I trembled all over as I lifted the trumpet to my mouth, for I could see what the boys had before them, but as soon as my lips touched the mouthpiece fear left me, and I blew such a charge as I never had before or could afterwards."
The embossed Cavalry Trumpet, with a very heavy mouthpiece, belonging to Mr. A.W. Malcolmson, is English, and was made by William Sandbach in the last century. The remaining trumpets belong to Mr. Thomas Harper, the gilt one having been made by John Harris about 1730, and the silver-mounted one by William Bull about 1680.