The dulcimer was once one of the world's most popular instruments

The dulcimer - basically a stringed box which is played by being struck by small hammers - was at one time played throughout Europe and Asia.

And in a famous section of the dream-like Kubla Khan, Coleridge referred to a "damsel with a dulcimer."

However, with only around two hundred dulcimer players left in Britain, the chance of such a sight being seen anywhere in the modern world is not high.

"I don't want it to disappear," Roger Frood, of Dove Dulcimers in England's West Country, told BBC World Service's The World Today programme.

A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw It was an Abyssinian maid And on her dulcimer she played Singing of Mount Abora Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Mr Frood explained that the instrument has been a victim of the instrument it originated - the piano.

"It was a bit like a cuckoo in the nest - it almost killed the parent," Mr Frood said.

"All the interest went towards pianos - it was bigger, louder, newer.

"From then on the dulcimer has really just been surviving as a folk instrument."

Alexander the Great

There is one tonne of tension in the wires stretched over the top of the box that is the main body of the dulcimer.

The wires are pegged at one end, cross over two bridges on the dulcimer's flat surface, and are nailed in on the other side. It is then played by striking with small, leather-padded hammers.

The thickness of the leather determines the sound the dulcimer produces.

Mr Frood (right) is part of Britain's only specialist dulcimer makers

Mr Frood stated that at one time, the instrument was popular in almost every country in what was then known of the world.

"You actually find members of the dulcimer family in every country right the way across Europe and Asia, from Ireland to Mongolia," he said.

"In every country it has its own name in the local language.

"In Germany it's the hackbrett - which means chopping board. In medieval France, it has the name which was the forerunner of the dulcimer which is ducimel."

He added that it was clear the dulcimer had been played much in the time of Alexander the Great, as from Greece its name becomes sanduri - and from there through Turkey, the Middle East and India, the name is very similar.

"It's the same name, even though they're very different cultures," he said.