Malcolm, a beautiful litograph! And the stamp, too; now there's a country whose government knows what's important. Also- years ago someone sent to me a postcard from Finland, showing a woman in traditional dress playing the langspil. You may have heard that, less than a month ago, my state (Kentucky) passed a law designating the Mountain Dulcimer it's official instrument...SO we're catching up!

As far as there being an "English dulcimer," Chicken Charlie (and Catspaw), I can tell you that when I was there on my Fulbright in 1952, I searched the country over, amongst real folks, libraries and other records, and could find NO historical reference to the dulcimer or any similar instrument- except one description of the one-string rebec having been played by traveling French musicians in- I believe- the late 1930s. John Pearce (sp?) was one of the first in England to build a dulcimer, after my visit in the early '50s.

There has been good research done recently. I'll look up the names of resultant books if you cannot find them under "Dulcimer" somewhere yourself. Jean