SANDY'S CORNER

Wanganui Chronicle, 13 April 1948, Page 4

SANDY'S CORNER

SCOTTISH BAG PIPES. Now that Sir John Falconer is definitely coming to Wanganui and has, as one of his purposes, the task: of tracing Scottish ancestry back to the days of porridge traps, Highland and Lowland rivalries, to Mary, Queen of Scots, to the great Bruce and Wallace, most of the many Scots of Wanganui have been looking up their tartans, and deciding just which clan to own allegiance to —that on the father’s side, or the other on their mother's, depending, of course, on the merits or demerits of the clans in question. In this delving into the past, with its Highland grandeur and Lowland beauty, we have discovered that that greatest of all musical instruments, the bagpipe, is not the national instrument of Scotland. It was a sickening blow. We are informed that Scotland deserted the violin fox’ the pipes. That Scotland has any prior claim to the bagpipes is disproved by their age. Apart from being known to the Greeks and the Egyptians, the pipes were known to the Chinese. And it is said < lot It be whispered) that the Sassenach can even outdate the Scot in use of this instrument. A former Lord Advocate once quoted Shakespeare to support his belief that the pipes were English rather than Scottish. That resulted in one of the McGregor clan (there are descendants here in Wanganui) telling him that he had never held with Shakespeare and thougt more of Bacon. The Lord Advocate pointed out that Shakespeare frequently referred to pipes and localised them about Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, but in his Scottish play “Macbeth" there is no mention of pipes. Court accounts in the days of Edward I and Edward 111 include payment for pipers, and it is rather significant that the accounts of James IV of Scotland include payment for "Inglis pypars.” When Sir John Falconei’ comes here tracing ancestry he is liable to be asked who did first use Scotland's national instrument, which is so seductive in Sasenach ears?