A well-looking young man, dressed in full Highland costume, with modest
manners and of slow speech, as if translating his words from the Gaelic
before he uttered them, gave me these details:--
“I am a native of Inverness, and a Grant. My father was a soldier, and
a player in the 42nd. In my youth I was shepherd in the hills, until my
father was unable to support me any longer. He had 9_d._ a-day pension
for seventeen years’ service, and had been thrice wounded. He taught me
and my brither the pipes; he was too poor to have us taught any trade,
so we started on our own accounts. We travelled up to London, had only
our pipes to depend upon. We came in full Highland dress. The tartan is
cheap there, and we mak it up oursels. My dress as I sit here, without
my pipes, would cost about 4_l._ in London. Our mithers spin the tartan
in Inverness-shire, and the dress comes to maybe 30_s._, and is better
than the London. My pipes cost me three guineas new. It’s between five
and six years since I first came to London, and I was twenty-four last
November. When I started, I thought of making a fortune in London;
there was such great talk of it in Inverness-shire, as a fine place
with plenty of money; but when I came I found the difference. I was
rather a novelty at first, and did pretty well. I could make 1_l._
a-week then, but now I can’t make 2_s._ a-day, not even in summer.
There are so many Irishmen going about London, and dressed as Scotch
Highlanders, that I really think I could do better as a piper even in
Scotland. A Scotch family will sometimes give me a shilling or two when
they find out I am a Scotchman. Chelsea is my best place, where there
are many Scotchmen. There are now only five real Scotch Highlanders
playing the bagpipes in the streets of London, and seven or eight
Irishmen that I know of. The Irishmen do better than I do, because they
have more face. We have our own rooms. I pay 4_s._ a-week for an empty
room, and have my ain furniture. We are all married men, and have no
connexion with any other street musicians. ‘Tullochgorum,’ ‘Moneymusk,’
‘The Campbells are comin’,’ and ‘Lord Macdonald’s Reel,’ are among the
performances best liked in London. I’m very seldom insulted in the
streets, and then mostly by being called an Irishman, which I don’t
like; but I pass it off just as well as I can.”