The Highland bagpipe

“A Hundred Pipers”—Scotland becoming Cosmopolitan—The War spirit of the Pipes—Regiments, not Clans—Annual Gatherings—Adaptability of Pipes— Scots folk from Home—An aged Enthusia...

Ancient musical instruments—Priestly harpers—Hereditary harpers—Irish _versus_ Scottish harpers—Royal harpers—Use of harp universal—Welsh sarcasm—Mary Queen of Scots’ harp—The l...

The time of the Flood—Pipes in Scripture—In Persia—In Arabia—In Tarsus— Tradition of the Nativity—In Rome—In Greece—In Wales, Ireland, and Scotland—Melrose Abbey—In France—In En...

Dr. Johnson—Inspiration of Scottish music—Professor Blackie—Highland music simple—Scottish airs once Highland—Age of Highland music— Capability of the bagpipe—How it has suffere...

Have the pipes a language?—A wild, fanciful notion—How it got a hold— How much of it is true?—The reed actually speaking—A powerful influence—The power of association—Neil Munro...

Ancient music lost—Transmission by tradition—Druidical remains—Systems of teaching—No books—“Unintelligible jargon”—_Canntaireachd_—The Mac Crimmon System—The Gesto Book—A scien...

A Culloden incident—Ancient Celts in battle—The harper and bard superseded—First mention of pipes in battle—First regimental pipers— In the navy—Prince Charlie’s pipers—An “inst...

One cowardly piper—At Philiphaugh—At Bothwell Bridge—At Cromdale—The Peninsular War—At Waterloo—At Dargai—Reay Country pipers—At Candahar— At Lucknow—In America—In Ashanti—In th...

Preserving the pipes—Regimental bands—Pay of army pipers—The seven pipers of Falkirk—Duties of regimental pipers—The meaning of “Retreat”—A story of Napoleon—In a social capacit...

Clan pipers—Chief’s retinue—At weddings—Pipers prohibited—In sorrow—At funerals—Queen Victoria’s funeral—To lighten labour—The harvest dance—The shepherd’s pipe—In church archit...

Royal pipers—In France—At the English court—The Edinburgh Piper— Dumbarton—Biggar—Wigtown—Glenluce—Dumfries—Linlithgow—Aberdeen—Perth— Keith—Dalkeith—Dundee—Peebles—A weird stor...

Poking fun at the pipes—English caricature—Mixed metaphor—Churchism and pipes—Fifteenth century satire—A biographical sneer—Thackeray—Bitter English writers—Testimony of a Jew—H...

_Punch’s_ joke—King Charles’s heads—An amusing competition—A Highlander’s Irishism—Wedding experiences—A piper’s fall—A resourceful piper—A Cameron piper and his officer—Lochabe...

Tam o’ Shanter—The Devil’s favourite instrument—“Sorcerers” burned—A bard’s satire—Glasgow Cathedral story—A Hebridean Tam o’ Shanter— Continental ideas—Reformation zeal—Ghostly...

In fairies’ hillocks—Stories with a common origin—Sutherlandshire version—Away for a year—Harris piper and the fairies—Seven years away—Fairies helping pipers—Helping the Mac Cr...

Allied to fairy stories—Venturesome pipers—The Skye cave—The Mull version—The Argyllshire—The Ghostly piper of Dunderave—“Wandering Willie’s Tale”—A Sutherlandshire cave—A Caith...

Hereditary in two senses—When they ceased—The Mac Crimmons—A traditional genealogy—A Mac Gregor tradition—The Mac Crimmon College— Dr. Johnson—College broken up—An Irish college...

Angus Mac Kay—Queen Victoria’s first piper—His book—Donald Mac Kay—John Bane Mac Kenzie—The Queen’s offer—The piper’s reply—Donald Cameron— His achievements—His theory of pipe m...

The waking—Professor Blackie—Highland Society of Scotland—Highland Society of London—The system of competitions—The first competition— The venue changed—The gold medal—Present d...

Unreliability of tradition—Lost in antiquity—Occasions of tunes— Interest of stories—The Mac Raes’ March—Story of “Suarachan”—Hal o’ the Wynd—The Mac Intosh’s Lament—Two differe...

Mac Crimmon’s Lament—Best known of all pipe tunes—Its story—Blackie’s poetry—Scott’s—The war tune of Glengarry—A tragic story—The Pibroch o’ Donuil Dhu—Too long in this Conditio...

The Clan Stewart March—Mac Gregor of Ruaro—The Braes of the Mist— Episode at a Dunvegan competition—A Mac Crimmon surpassed—Mac Pherson’s Lament—Burns and the story—Rob Roy’s La...

“I have power, high power for freedom, To wake the burning soul; I have sonnets that through the ancient hills, Like a torrent’s voice might roll; I have pealing notes of victor...

“O’er all this hazy realm is spread A halo of sad memories of the dead, Of mournful love tales, of old tragedies; Filling the heart with pity, and the eyes With tears at bare re...

“No stroke of art their texture bears, No cadence wrought with learned skill, And though long worn by rolling years, Yet unimpaired they please us still; While thousand strains...

“A wind instrument whose fixed characteristic has always been two or more reed pipes attached to and sounded by a wind chest or bag, which bag has in turn been supplied either b...

“What needs there be sae great a fraise Wi’ dringing, dull, Italian lays; I wadna gie our ain strathspeys For half a hunder score o’ them; They’re dowf and dowie at the best, Do...

“Wild as the desert stream they flow, Wandering along it’s mazy bed; Now scarcely moving, deep and slow, Now in a swifter current led, And now along the level lawn With charming...

“I hin-do, ho-dro, hin-do, ho-dro, hin-do, ho-dro, hin-da, ho-dra, hin-do, ho-dro, hin-da, chin-drine, hin-do, ho-dro, hin-do, ho-dra, hin-do, ho-dro, hin-do, ho-dro, hin-do, ho...

“Fhairshon swore a feud Against the Clan Mac Tavish, Marched into their land, To plunder and to rafish. For he did resolve To extirpate the vipers, With four-and-twenty men And...

“Never in battlefield throbbed heart so brave As that which beats beneath the Scottish plaid, And when the pibroch bids the battle rave And level for the charge their arms are l...

“The Esk was swollen sae red and sae deep, But shouther to shouther the brave lads keep; Twa thousand swam ower to fell English ground, And danced themselves dry to the pibroch...

“Dear to the Lowland reaper, And plaided mountaineer— To the cottage and the castle The Scottish pipes are dear— Sweet sounds the ancient pibroch O’er mountain, loch, and glade;...

“The piper cam to our toun, To our toun, to our toun; The piper cam to our toun, And he play’d bonnilie; He play’d a spring the laird to please, A spring brent new frae yont the...

“Then bagpipes of the loudest drones, With snuffling broken-winded tones, Whose blasts of air, in pocket shut Sound filthier than from the gut. And make a viler noise than swine...

“Wha wadna be in love Wi’ bonnie Maggie Lauder? A piper met her gaun to Fife And spiered what was’t they ca’d her; Richt scornfully she answered him, ‘Begone, you hallan shaker:...

“A winnock bunker in the east, There sat Auld Nick in shape o’ beast; A towzie tyke, black, grim, and large, To gi’e them music was his charge; He screw’d the pipes and gart the...

“The green hill cleaves, and forth with a bound Comes elf and elfin steed; The moon dives down in a golden cloud, The stars grow dim with dread; But a light is running along the...

“The Banshee’s wild voice sings the death dirge before me, The pall of the dead for a mantle hangs o’er me; But my heart shall not flag and my nerve shall not shiver, Though dev...

“’Tis wonderful, That an invisible instinct should frame them, To loyalty unlearned; honour untaught; Civility not seen from others; valour That wildly grows in them, but yields...

“Ours the strains renowned in story, Of peaceful hall or deadly corrie, Would you call to field or foray, Melt to love or rouse to glory? Sound our mountain melody.”

“O, wake once more! how rude soe’er the hand That ventures o’er thy magic maze to stray, O, wake once more! though scarce my skill command, Some feeble echoing of thine earlier...

“At present I’ll content mysel’, A hamely Scottish tale to tell, Whilk happened years and years back; An’ says tradition its a fact: Be’t true or no I canna say, I was nae up to...

“Oh, heard ye yon pibroch sound sad on the gale, Where a band cometh slowly with weeping and wail, ’Tis the chief of Glenara laments for his dear, And her sire and her people ar...

“Ye voices of Cona, of high swelling power, Ye bards who can sing of her olden time, On whose spirits arise the blue panoplied throng Of her ancient hosts, who are mighty and st...

The Clan Stewart March—Mac Gregor of Ruaro—The Braes of the Mist— Episode at a Dunvegan competition—A Mac Crimmon surpassed—Mac Pherson’s Lament—Burns and the story—Rob Roy’s la...