When in 1599 Will Kemp, great clown of the age, late a member of Shakespeare’s company and probably the creator of Bottom and Dogberry among other roles, undertook the publicity stunt of dancing from London to Norwich, it seems that there were men in the land who suspected that he didn’t actually do it. To this outrageous slur on my kinsman (well, maybe) we owe his pamphlet Nine Daies Wonder, in which he set out to prove himself with a description of his adventures along the way, which included enjoying lavish hospitality from Sir Edwin Rich at Thetford, being honoured by the city waits in Norwich and treading a jolly measure over the course of a full mile of his journey near Melford with a lippy lass with ‘well-larded’ sides. Ah, those were the days.

The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments have allowed themselves to be inspired by these feats but not attempted to devise a historical musical reconstruction, as the inclusion of such un English instruments as nyckelharpa and hardanger fiddle should alert us. These are not prominent, however, and the sound created by their collection of citterns, guitars, viols, hurdy-gurdy and assorted winds (including dulcian and cornett) is pretty much along the lines one might expect. The music foots it through the bawdy (rude rhymes thwarted in ‘Hard by a Mighty Pine Tree’), the courtly (‘Essex Anticke Masque’ and ‘Adsonns Maske’), the folksy (‘Kemp’s Jig’, though not in the tune I know) and the high art (‘The Silver Swan’ arranged for solo voice and instruments, and songs by Dowland and Pilkington). The standard of playing is strong (in particular in some skilled cornett divisions from Ian Harrison), and the singing from Harrison and Jeremy Avis characterful and rightly wary of over-refinement. Good times all round, it seems, when Mr Kemp is in town.