Well. as a sort of occasional fiddler I'm not sure that my motivation for fiddling is the same as Dave's. Or perhaps I'm just not as successful a player.

The contributor who suggested that Perkin's fiddle coud have been destroyed in the wrack of the mill may be close, though I think Pepys' uncle might have mentioned this, and Sam would have recorded it as something interesting. So many questions, so few answers.

And why just the girls? Here we have Sam Pepys, a lad from the country making his mark as not yet a definite gentleman, but a talented technocrat so indispensible to the powers-that-be that he hobnobs with the mighty (the Duke of York and Lord Sandwich among others). And he's asked for a favour by a rustic connection that is so athwart his track of life, and so recalling his origin, that he perhaps wants to belittle that part of his past- not just provincial, but unmasculine as well?

I know no more than you do about the times: go and read Pepys' Diary and live his life in slow realtime ( a new entry every day). Let's compare (musical) notes.