Of the Irish Pipers, a well-dressed, middle-aged man, of good
appearance, wearing large green spectacles, led by a young girl, his
daughter, gave me the following account:--
“I was eleven years old when I lost my sight from cold, and I was
brought up to the musical profession, and practised it several years
in Ireland, of which country I am a native. I was a man of private
property,--small property--and only played occasionally at the
gentle-people’s places; and then more as a guest--yes, more indeed
than professionally. In 1838 I married, and began to give concerts
regularly; I was the performer, and played only on the union pipes
at my concerts. I’m acknowledged to be the best performer in the
world, even by my own craft,--excuse what seems self-praise. The union
pipes are the old Irish pipes improved. In former times there was no
chromatic scale; now we have eight keys to the chanter, which produce
the chromatic scale as on the flute, and so the pipes are improved in
the melody, and more particularly in the harmony. We have had fine
performers of old. I may mention Caroll O’Daly, who flourished in the
15th century, and was the composer of the air that the Scotch want to
steal from us, ‘Robin Adair,’ which is ‘Alleen ma ruen,’ or ‘Ellen, my
dear.’ My concerts in Ireland answered very well indeed, but the famine
reduced me so much that I was fain to get to England with my family,
wife and four children; and in this visit I have been disappointed,
completely so. Now I’m reduced to play in the streets, and make very
little by it. I may average 15_s._ in the week in summer, and not half
that in winter. There are many of my countrymen now in England playing
the pipes, but I don’t know one respectable enough to associate with;
so I keep to myself, and so I cannot tell how many there are.”