The coffered lid and case of oak (except for the spine, which is of pine) are stained dark on the outside. The interior is profusely decorated. The inside of the lid features a painting of figures in a park scene. The front interior, including the keywell, is ornamented with painted panelling, separated by borders of red cedar and embossed gilt pressed paper. Similar gilt paper covers the entire perimeter of the instrument above the soundboard, which is itself decorated with painted flowers and arabesques, and features a rose of carved wood and parchment.

In the 16th and early 17th centuries the English used the word ‘virginal’ to denote any plucked stringed keyboard instrument. By the time of Leversidge the word was more commonly reserved for rectangular instruments.

Until the late 17th century it was common to build organs with an abbreviated, or ‘short’ octave in the bass. Accidental notes in the extreme bass were not used in music written in the restricted range of tonalities available in the unequally-tempered tuning schemes of the period. The compass of this instrument is GG/BB to f’’’. Accordingly, the lowest notes were assigned to natural notes of the scale that were lower than their apparent keys. With this arrangement the apparent BB was tuned to GG, while the C# and D# sound as AA and BB respectively.