Book excerpt: First published in 2004, this book demonstrates that while Britain produced many fewer instrumental virtuosi than its foreign neighbours, there developed a more serious and widespread interest in the cultivation of music throughout the nineteenth century. Taking a predominantly historical approach, the book moves from a discussion of general developments and issues to a detailed examination of violin pedagogy, method and content, which indicates society’s influence on cultural trends and informs the discussion of other instruments and institutional training that follows. In the first study of its kind, it examines in depth the inextricable links between trends in society, education and levels of achievement. It also extends beyond profession and ‘art’ music to amateur and ‘popular’ spheres. A useful chronology of developments in nineteenth-century British music education is also included. This book will be of interest to those studying the history of instrumental teaching and Victorian music.