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

John Hastie
1506 refers to a payment made to " the English piper
with the drone."
George Buchanan (1506-82) gives testimony as to the
use of the Scotch bagpipe in warfare, and he also states
that the pipe as a domestic instrument was
bein°f ousted in favour by the harp. In fact „ ,
,. _ . Buchanan
the disappearance of any payment to pipers
in the Lords Treasurer's Accounts after the year 1508
gives an indication that the bagpipe had ceased to be
popular at Court, and was replaced by lutes, viols,
fiddles, etc.
An unsupported tradition is quoted by Leyden in his
Introduction to the Complaynt of Scotland that John
Hastie, hereditary town piper of Jedburgh
— who flourished during the first quarter of „ .
the sixteenth century — actually animated the
borderers at the Battle of Flodden Field, in 151 3, with
the sound of his pipes. Indeed, Leyden fully believed
that the original bagpipe on which Hastie played was
still preserved, and he mentions that he himself had
seen the instrument — a Lowland bagpipe — in the
possession of Hastie's descendant. Certain it is that
Hastie's instrument cannot now be traced, and I fear
that the story is apocryphal — somewhat on a par with
the evidence claimed for the bagpipe dated " 1409,"
which belonged to the late John Glen.
As regards the use of the bagpipes in Scotch warfare
in the second quarter of the sixteenth century there
is ample testimony. A French military officer, 1 in
1 LHistoire de la Guerre d'Ecosse. Paris, 1556.
63 F