BAGPIPES SATIRISED

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1936, Page 9

BAGPIPES SATIRISED

C’ATH EDR A L WINDOW Englishmen have- always regarded bagpipes as a joke, and probably always will. In mediaeval times they "sed to put funny pictures of them in ecclesiastical manuscriptsand stain-ed-glass windows. In Lincoln Cathedral the bagpipes are represented by a man with a cat under his arm, biting its tail. Sometimes pigs, monkeys, and bears have ijeen depicted playing them. At one time .however, bagpipes were not so much of a joke as a crime. Death was regarded as a fitting punishment. for possessing the Highland bagpipe in 1765. It was considered ns an instrument of war—but only l;y Englishmen. There have been times, even in Scotland, when pipe playing was condemned as a misdemeanour. Free Church ministers branded the pip.es as an instrument of the devil, and went .round cottages breaking or burning pipes when they found them. Some ignorant Sassenachs think the haggis itself is a musical instrument. The confusion may be due to the fact that on Burns Night it is “piped in.” This custom may explain the phrase “piping hot.”