Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed text > Story of the bagpipe

Story of the Bagpipe
In virtue of which a king - of the minstrels was to be
appointed annually, " with four officers, to preside over
the institution in Staffordshire, Derby, Nottingham,
Leicester, and Warwick."
Not only do the arms of Winchester School display
an angel playing a bagpipe, but the exquisite crozier
_ presented by William of Wykeham to New
w , , College, Oxford, in 1403, has the figure of
an angel bagpiper. It is natural to con-
clude that even in the first decade of the fifteenth
century the bagpipe was supposed to be one of the
instruments in the celestial orchestra. Certain it is
that the bagpipe was extremely popular in pre-
Reformation days.
The ancient Pyrrhic dance found its development in
England in the Morris dance, which first appeared
about the year 1400, and attained con-
Morris -J VI 1 •. A c
siderable popularity. A piper was one or
the invariable characters, and the dance
was always performed to the accompaniment of the
bagpipes, or the pipe and tabor.
But it was at the May-day revels that the bagpiper
was heard at his best. Right through the fifteenth
century there are indications of the extra-
r ay ordinary popularity of May games all over
England. The characters who performed
in these revels were as a rule : — The Lady of the
May, a Fool, a Piper, and three dancers. In the case
of the Robin Hood pageants the piper was also in
evidence, in the company of the famous outlaws
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