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Thomas Gray wrote to Rev. William Mason, May 23, 1767, "You will tell me what to do with your Zumpe, which has amused me much here. If you would have it sent down, I had better commit it to its maker, who will tune it and pack it up... The base is not quite of a piece with the treble, and the higher notes are somewhat dry and sticky. The rest discourses very elegant music." (The Works of Thomas Gray, in Prose and Verse. vol. 2, Letters. ed. Edmund Gosse. London: Macmillan & Co. 1884. p.267 - E. F. Rimbault attributes the invention of the English action to William Mason in his entry in British Manufacturing Industries, ed. G. P. Bevan. v11? London: Edward Stanford, p. 124. and the footnote to Gray's letter reads "This I presume alludes to the musical instrument invented by Mason, mentioned in the Walpole and Mason correspondence as the Celestinette. Does Gray call it a Zumpe from the Zampogna, and instrumento pastorale, mentioned by Bonnanni in his Descrizione degli Instrumenti Armonici, 1806, 4to, pp.85, 86. figs. xxvii. xxviii.? but that was a wind instrument. - [Mit.] Was it not rather a noun derived from the sound of the verb zombare, to thump or bang, Mason's instrument being one, the keys of which had to be struck? - [Ed.]") - Mireut 23:10, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
