THE HEREDITARY PIPERS.
“’Tis wonderful,
That an invisible instinct should frame them,
To loyalty unlearned; honour untaught;
Civility not seen from others; valour
That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop
As if it had been sowed.”
—_Shakespeare._
Hereditary in two senses—When they ceased—The Mac Crimmons—A
traditional genealogy—A Mac Gregor tradition—The Mac Crimmon
College—Dr. Johnson—College broken up—An Irish college—Its system—A
Mac Crimmon’s escapades—Respect for the Mac Crimmons—The Rout of
Moy—The last of the race—How they excelled—The Mac Arthurs—The Mac
Intyres—The Mac Kays—The Rankins—The Campbells—The Mac Gregors.
The hereditary pipers were hereditary in at least two senses. They were
hereditary because son followed father, generation after generation, in
the service of one chief, no one disputing their claim to the
succession. But they were also hereditary in the sense that their
talents were not self-acquired. They came of a race of pipers, and
piping to them was hereditary. Seven generations of pipers for ancestors
and seven years of personal training were considered necessary to
produce the true hereditary piper. It is this to which Neil Munro
alludes when he says—“To the make of a piper go seven years of his own
learning and seven generations before.”
The hereditary pipers were second only to the chiefs of the various
clans, and their fame has come down through the years with wonderful
persistence. The chiefs were proud of their pipers and treated them as
gentlemen. The pipers, on their part, were proud of their chiefs, and
would do anything for them. Hereditary pipers existed until the passing
of the Heritable Jurisdiction Abolition Act of 1747, which, by
abolishing clanship, made the possession of a retinue by a chief an
offence against the civil law. The chiefs then deprived their pipers of
the lands they had formerly held by virtue of their office, and by that
act degraded them to the level of ordinary musicians. And, with the
absence of a sure position, the enthusiasm for pipe music dwindled,
succeeding generations failed to attain to the high level of their
forebears, and the hereditary pipers were merged in the general race of
Highland musicians.
The greatest of the hereditary pipers were
THE MAC CRIMMONS,
pipers to Mac Leod of Dunvegan. There is nothing to show how or where
the race originated. Some traditions state that the first Mac Crimmon
came from Cremona in Italy, and was named Donald. He settled in Glenelg,
and had a son named _Iain Odhar_, who, about 1600, became the first
piper to the family of Mac Leod. This traditional genealogical tree,
supplied originally by a man who had seen the wife of him who, according
to the tradition, was the last of the Mac Crimmon pipers to Mac Leod of
Mac Leod, shows that a direct descent from this _Iain Odhar_ was:—
[Illustration:
SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT A MAC CRIMMON PLAYING A SALUTE
(From _Mac Ian’s Clans_.)
]
Malcolm, married, with issue:—
1. John, who succeeded him as piper.
2. Donald (Roy), D.S.P.
3. Rachel, who married in Glendale.
4. A daughter who died unmarried.
John (_Dubh_) married first a Mac Askill, with issue:—
1. Donald, D.S.P., a Captain in the Army.
2. Peter, D.S.P., a Captain in the Army, and considered one of the
strongest men of his day. Emigrated to Cape Coast Castle.
3. Malcolm, married in Ardrossan, with several sons.
4. Elizabeth, married a cooper of the name of Mac Kinnon, in Islay.
Had two daughters—(_a_) Mary Ann, married Malcolm Mac Leod,
Shipmaster, Lochmaddy, with issue; (_b_) Effie, married
Chisholm, Tacksman, of Gairnish, South Uist, with issue.
5. Janet, married a Ferguson, in America, with issue, an only
daughter, who resided in Greenock.
6. Flora, who married Mac Donald, Tacksman, of Pein-a-Daorir, South
Uist, factor for South Uist.
7. Marion, married, with issue.
8. Catherine, married with issue.
John, married secondly Ann Campbell, with issue:—
9. Duncan, married a Mac Queen, with issue—(_a_) John, who went to
New Zealand; (_b_) Donald, who married a Mac Leod, went to
America, and had a family.
10. Peter, married Ann Mac Donald from Trotternish, with issue, one
daughter. Married secondly Margaret Morrison, by whom he had
three daughters.
11. John, died unmarried, but left an illegitimate son named John, who
married a daughter of Neil Mac Sween, mason, Roag.
12. Euphemia, married Malcolm Nicholson, with issue—(_a_) Hector, died
without issue; (_b_) John, married with issue; (_c_) Murdo, who
married a daughter of James Wood; (_d_) John, married Janet,
daughter of John _Bàn_ Mac Leod, Lusta, with issue; (_e_)
Donald, married a Mac Nab, with issue; (_f_) Catherine,
unmarried; (_g_) Ann, married Murdo Mac Innes, Roag, without
issue; (_h_) Marion, married Norman Mac Askill, tenant,
Ullinish, with issue; (_i_) Effie, married Samuel Thorburn,
Holmisdale, with issue.
According to this genealogy, which however does not profess to be
complete, the line of hereditary Mac Crimmon pipers was very short
indeed, consisting of only _Iain Odhar_, Malcolm, John, and John
(_Dubh_). That this is not the complete line is undoubted, for we have
historical proof that there were other Mac Crimmons pipers to Mac Leod.
As a matter of fact, one of the family living in Alexandria,
Dumbartonshire, as late as 1898, writes as follows:—
“My uncle, Donald Mac Crimmon, was the last piper of the Mac Crimmons
that was in the Castle, and he died over fifty years ago. My father
also, Norman Mac Crimmon, was a pibroch player, and was taught by
Captain Mac Leod of Gesto, who is now dead fifty-four years. Both were
born at Lowerkill, Glendale. My great grandfather, Donald Donn, was
brother to Donald _Bàn_, who composed ‘Mac Crimmon’s Lament,’ and was
with the Mac Leod Highlanders near Moy Hall, the residence of Lady Mac
Intosh, reconnoitering Prince Charlie.”
Some stories—they are only stories—assert that the Mac Crimmons were
originally Mac Gregors. The Mac Gregors, it is pointed out, had an
academy for the teaching of pipe music in Lochaber many centuries ago,
and the Mac Gregor music, such as the “Reel of Tulloch” (that this is a
Mac Gregor tune is a matter of debate, however) is the merriest and also
the saddest in the Highlands. Rob Roy’s deathbed tune is said to have
simply been “We Return no More,” in other words, “Mac Crimmon’s Lament,”
and his piper was himself a Mac Crimmon, who, under the mournful
circumstances, recalled the traditional strain. There is certainly a
great deal that is probable in this, but that is the most that can be
said about it.
The best, and what, on the face of it, is the most reliable story of the
Mac Crimmons is that given by Angus Mac Kay in his book of pipe
music.[14] It is beyond doubt that high musical talent as well as high
moral principle and personal bravery descended from father to son during
many generations in the family of the Mac Crimmons. They became so
famous that pupils were sent to them from many parts of the Highlands,
and one of the best certificates a piper could possess was his having
studied under the Mac Crimmons. Finding the number of their pupils
increasing daily, they at length opened a regular school or college on
the farm of Boreraig, about eight miles south-west of Dunvegan Castle,
but separated from it by Loch Follart. Here seven years’ study was
prescribed for each scholar, regular lessons were given out, and certain
periods were fixed on for receiving instruction. The tuition was carried
on as systematically as in any of our northern schools, and the names of
some of the caves and knolls in the vicinity still indicate the places
where the scholars used to practise respectively the chanter, the small
pipe and the large bagpipe, before playing in the presence of the
master. This school was not entirely extinct in 1779, for Dr. Johnson,
who was at Dunvegan in that year, alludes to it and says his dinner “was
exhilarated by the bagpipes at Armadale and Dunvegan.” The school proper
was the “ben” end of the dwelling-house, which seems to have been about
seventy feet in length and two storeys in height. In actual practice,
however, the room was little used. The “professors” preferred the open
hillside, a small hollow near the house, or a cave in the neighbourhood,
which came to be known as the Pipers’ Cave. Near the Pipers’ Cave is
another known as the Pigeons’ Cave, which is about a mile in length. To
it, tradition asserts, the daughters of the Mac Crimmons were wont to
slip with a favourite set of pipes, for they too were musically
inclined, and so proficient did some of them become, an ancient
chronicler tells us, that they were able to superintend the class work
in the absence of their fathers.
Footnote 14:
See page 109.
The speciality of the Mac Crimmons was the pibroch, and many students
studied with them for years so as to become proficient in this one
branch of pipe music—a branch which is, in the estimation of most
pipers, far superior to reels and strathspeys. They held the farm of
Boreraig rent free until the time came when all the hereditary pipers
were either dispossessed of their lands or asked to pay rent for them.
The proud Mac Crimmons declined to pay rent, broke up the college, and
from that day ceased to exist as a family for the cultivation of pipe
music. Their farm was afterwards let to eighteen different tenants, and
drew over £100 a year in rent, so they must have been treated with
considerable liberality by their chiefs.
No tradition exists, says Mac Kay, relating to the time when the Mac
Crimmons became professional pipers to the Mac Leods, but neither is
their trace of any others holding the office. The first of whom there is
any account is _Iain Odhar_ or Dun-coloured John, who lived about 1600,
but it is evident from their compositions that the family must have been
established long before that date. They were a minor sept, and they are
supposed to have derived their name from the fact that the first
performer studied at Cremona. After _Iain Odhar_ came his son, _Donull
Mór_ or Big Donald, who became a great pibroch player, and getting into
the good graces of Mac Leod, got special opportunities for learning. He
was sent to a college in Ireland, which is said to have been started
there by a celebrated Scottish piper, and he learned all there was to
learn.
The system of this Irish school permitted one pupil only to be in the
presence of the master at a time, but _Donull Mor_, in his anxiety to
learn, hid himself in a corner, where he could hear all the other
students—there were twenty-four—at their lessons. He required only to
hear a tune once to remember it completely, so he very soon exhausted
the repertory of the master. When he came back to Skye, Mac Leod was
delighted with the progress he had made. But the piper was not destined
to remain at peace long. He had a brother who, because of a squint in
one of his eyes, was known as _Padruig Coag_, or Squinting Peter, and
this brother quarrelled with a foster brother of his own, a native of
Kintail, who afterwards treacherously killed him. Big Donald swore
vengeance, and going up to his chief’s room threw his pipes on the bed.
Mac Leod asking what was wrong, Donald told his story, and demanded that
his chief should avenge his clansman. Mac Leod promised to see justice
done within a year, and Donald took his leave. The chief, however, had
no intention of executing vengeance on the Kintail man; he only wished
to give Donald’s anger time to cool. But he did not know his man, for at
the end of the year Donald, without giving a hint to anyone, set out in
pursuit of his brother’s murderer. He found that he was in Kintail, but
in hiding, and as the people of the village declined to give him up, the
wrath of Donald _Mór_ Mac Crimmon broke all bounds. He set fire to
eighteen of their houses, a trick which cost several lives. It was then
his turn to go into hiding, which he did in Lord Reays country. The Lord
of Kintail offered a big reward for his arrest, but he was not caught,
though he was known to be wandering among the hills. His principal place
of concealment was in a shepherd’s house, where a bed was specially made
for him in the wall. At last Kintail came to know of this haunt of Mac
Crimmon’s, and sent his son with a dozen men to seize him. Donald _Mór_
was in the house when the shepherd’s wife saw the party coming, and he
betook himself to bed. The woman then made a big fire in the centre of
the floor, where fires were always made in those days, and when the
avenger of blood came with his men she welcomed them effusively, and,
making them sit round the fire, she hung their plaids on a rope between
them and Mac Crimmon’s bed. Then the fugitive slipped out behind and was
free, profiting as other and more notable men have done by a woman’s
astuteness. When the pursuers had searched the house and found nothing,
the shepherd’s wife entertained them hospitably and kept them for the
night. When they had gone to rest Mac Crimmon came in and, gathering all
their arms while they slept soundly, he placed the weapons all over
their leader and retired. When morning broke, Mac Kenzie of Kintail
immediately realized what had taken place, and was astonished at the
generosity of Big Donald. “If Donald _Mór_ Mac Crimmon is alive,” he
said, “it was he that did this, and it was as easy for him to take my
life as to do so.” When they went outside they saw Mac Crimmon on the
other side of a stream, and when his men essayed to ford the stream and
seize him, Mac Kenzie threatened to shoot the first who touched the
piper, and swore to Mac Crimmon that if he would cross the river he
would not be injured. After all the men had been sworn to the same
purpose, Mac Crimmon did cross, and in consideration of his nobility in
sparing his life during the night, Mac Kenzie took the piper home with
him, and by dint of special pleading managed to obtain for him the
forgiveness of Lord Kintail. Then Donald _Mór_ returned to his
allegiance at Dunvegan, where he remained ever after—a great piper. It
was after his day that the Mac Crimmons were universally acknowledged to
be the best pipers in Scotland, so much so that no piper was considered
perfect unless he had studied for some time under them.
Donald _Mór_ Mac Crimmon was succeeded by his son Patrick _Mór_. This
Patrick had eight sons, seven of whom died within twelve months. On this
great bereavement he composed a tune called _Cumha no Cloinne_, or “The
Lament for the Children.” In 1745 Mac Leod’s piper was Donald _Bàn_ Mac
Crimmon, the composer of “Mac Crimmon’s Lament.” Mac Leod was opposed to
Prince Charlie, and when he was defeated at Inverurie by Lord Louis
Gordon, Donald _Bàn_ was taken prisoner. On this occasion a striking
mark of respect was paid to Mac Crimmon by his brother pipers in Lord
Louis Gordon’s following. The morning after the battle they did not play
as usual, and on inquiry it was found that they were silent because Mac
Crimmon was a prisoner. He was immediately set at liberty, but was
killed shortly after at “The Rout of Moy,” a rather tragic incident in
Highland Jacobite History. It was before leaving on the expedition in
which he met his death that Donald _Bàn_ composed “Mac Crimmon’s
Lament,” under the presentiment that he would never see Dunvegan again.
On the night of the Rout of Moy, it was said, a second-sight man saw the
body of Mac Crimmon shrunken to the proportions of a child, a sure sign
of impending death. Donald _Bàn_ was said to excel most of his race by
the beauty and neatness with which he noted on paper the tunes he played
and composed.
[Illustration:
A MAC ARTHUR PIPER
]
How the race became extinct—if it is extinct—cannot be determined. John
_Dubh_ Mac Crimmon was the last who held the hereditary office, and of
him it is related that about 1795 he determined, probably because of the
changed circumstances, to emigrate to America, that he actually went as
far as Greenock, but that there his love for the misty island became too
much for him, and he went back to Skye. But he was not then piper to Mac
Leod, and he spent the rest of his life in retirement. When he became
too infirm to play the pipes, he would sit outside and run over the
notes on his walking stick. He lived to the age of 91, dying in 1822,
and was buried with his fathers in the kirkyard at Durinish. _Music of
the Highland Clans_, written in 1862, states that the last of this noble
race of minstrels was a blind and venerable old gentleman then living at
Gourock; but Logan’s _Scottish Gael_, written in 1831, says a Captain
Mac Crimmon “died lately in Kent at an advanced age, and the descendant
of these celebrated pipers is now a respectable farmer in Kent.” The
author of _Musical Memoirs of Scotland_ (1849) says the Mac Crimmons
ended in a woman then keeping school in Skye, who could go through all
the intricacies of the pibroch on the family instrument. There is said
to have been a piper of the name in Glasgow about 1872, who claimed to
be a direct descendant of the Mac Crimmons. He was an old man then, and
all trace of him is now lost. If he is dead, which is highly probable,
it is almost certain, that although the race as dimmed. So Mac Crimmon
generally found some excuse for sending Mac Arthur away to some distance
when he wished to play these tunes. One day his master had a visitor who
desired to hear one of the highly-prized melodies, and in order to get
the boy Mac Arthur out of the way Mac Crimmon sent him a message to a
neighbouring township some miles distant. But the boy, suspecting the
plot, lingered about the door until he heard the tunes, and then rushed
off on his message. Afterwards in a secluded spot he practised the airs
until he became perfect. But Mac Crimmon one day suddenly heard a tune
which he thought he alone could play, and angrily approaching the
performer, whom he found to be his pupil, he said:—“You young rascal,
where have you picked up that piece of music?” “I picked it up in the
back door that day you entertained your friend to it,” said Mac Arthur,
assuming the utmost indifference; “and,” he continued, “I shall lose no
more time than the boat shall take on her voyage to Mull in telling my
master that you are not giving me the full benefit of your talents, for
which you were amply paid by my benefactor.” Old Mac Crimmon felt
somewhat alarmed at the cool indifference with which his pupil addressed
him, and, knowing what would result from the matter being made known to
his influential patron, he very discreetly confessed his guilt, and
promised his clever pupil better attention in the future. Pupil and
tutor seem to have got on very well after this incident, and when, in
the course of a year or two, Mac Arthur quitted the Mac Crimmon College,
he was ranked among the foremost pipers of his day.
Mac Donald granted the Mac Arthurs a perpetual gift of the farm of
Peingowen, near the castle of Duntulm. Like the Mac Crimmons, they kept
a “college.” Their establishment, which was at Ulva near Mull, was
divided into four apartments, one for their own use, one for receiving
strangers, one for the cattle, and one for the use of the students while
practising. Charles Mac Arthur, the best known of the race, received his
education from Patrick _Og_ Mac Crimmon, staying at Dunvegan Castle for
this purpose for eleven years. He taught a nephew, who afterwards
settled in Edinburgh, became piper to the Highland Society of Scotland,
and was known in the capital as “Professor” Mac Arthur. At a competition
in 1783, he performed, we are told, “with great approbation,” receiving
a splendid set of pipes specially made for him, and a number of the then
leading pipers subscribed to a testimonial to his merits. It was also
agreed to support a plan of his for a college to instruct those whose
services might be useful in Highland regiments, but of this nothing more
was heard. The last of the Mac Donalds’ hereditary pipers was another
nephew of the great Charles Mac Arthur, who died in London. He was piper
to the Highland Society of London, and composed many pieces of
considerable merit. Like the Mac Crimmons, the Mac Arthurs noted their
music by a system of their own, and they made large collections of
pibrochs.
The Archibald Mac Arthur, of whom a sketch is given on another page, was
a native of Mull, and was acknowledged to be well skilled in bagpipe
music, having been taught by a Mac Crimmon. In 1810, the date of the
print, he entered for the annual competition at Edinburgh, but failing
to carry off the first prize, he refused to accept the second, thereby
debarring himself from again appearing on a similar occasion. When the
King visited Edinburgh in 1822, this Mac Arthur followed in the train of
his chief, from whom he held a cottage with a small portion of land.
That part of the island of Staffa on which this croft was situated was
sold, but Mac Arthur, though no longer employed in his former capacity,
was allowed by the new proprietor to remain in his old home. Angus Mac
Kay, it should be added, tells of a John Mac Arthur, who, in 1806,
obtained second place in the Edinburgh competition, but declined to
accept the prize. Probably there was but one such incident although name
and date are mistaken in one case or the other.
THE MAC INTYRES
were hereditary pipers to Menzies of Menzies. The Menzies’ lived in
Rannoch, and the first Mac Intyre of whom we hear was Donald _Mór_, who
is said to have returned from the Isles about 1638, having apparently
been at Skye receiving the finishing touches to his musical education.
His son, John Mac Intyre also studied at Dunvegan. Donald _Bàn_, his
son, succeeded him as piper to the chief, Sir Robert the Menzies, third
Bart. When he died his son Robert, who should have succeeded him, was
piper to the chief of Clan Ranald, and although, being the eldest son,
he inherited the pipes which, according to tradition, were played at
Bannockburn, he did not take up his father’s office. Ultimately he went
to America, leaving the old pipes with the Mac Donalds of Loch Moidart.
John Mac Intyre, his only brother, lived in the Menzies country, but
cannot have been a piper, for he does not seem to have filled the office
either. He died about 1834, and men of other names were afterwards
pipers to the Menzies. Descendants of the Mac Intyres were living near
Loch Rannoch about the middle of the last century, and some are probably
there to this day.
THE MAC KAYS
were pipers to the Mac Kenzies of Gairloch, and one of them at least was
accounted second only to the Mac Crimmons. The family came originally
from Sutherlandshire, and began with Rorie, or _Ruaraidh_ Mac Kay, who
about 1592 found it advisable to leave his native place. As a boy he was
appointed piper to the laird of Mac Kay, and on one occasion he
accompanied his master to Meikle Ferry with John Roy Mac Kenzie of
Gairloch, who had been on a visit to the Mac Kay Country. At the ferry
the servant of another gentleman, who was also about to cross, tried to
retain the boat, and Mac Kay, then a lad of seventeen, in hot-headedness
drew his dirk and cut off the servant’s hand. Thereupon his master said
he could not keep him in his employment. Mac Kenzie at once gave the
piper an invitation to come with him, and the matter was arranged on the
spot. Rorie ever after was a Gairloch man, but beyond the story of how
he came to the district, little of his personal history is known. In his
duties as piper he was frequently assisted by his brother, Donald _Mòr_
Mac Kay, who, however, returned to the Reay Country before his death.
Rorie was piper in succession to four chiefs of Gairloch. He died in
1689 at an extreme old age, leaving one son. Him he sent to Dunvegan to
be trained by Patrick _Og_ Mac Crimmon, and when he left, after seven
years’ study, it was acknowledged that he had no equal except his
master. This piper, _Am Piobaire Dall_, _Iain Dall_, or, in plain
English, John Mac Kay, was the most famous of the Gairloch pipers. He
was an enthusiast in his profession, and composed twenty-four pibrochs,
besides a number of strathspeys and reels. He was well read, though
blind, and knew the histories of Ireland, France, Greece, and
Scandinavia, while none excelled him in knowledge of Ossianic poetry and
legendary lore. When he became advanced in years he was superannuated,
and passed his time in making excursions into the Reay country and Skye,
visiting at gentlemen’s houses, to which he was always welcome. He died
in 1854, at the age of ninety-eight, and was succeeded by his son Angus,
who in his turn was succeeded by his son John Mac Kay. The four members
of the family were pipers in succession to eight chiefs of Kintail, the
succession in each case being from father to son. The Mac Kays, as has
been said, came originally from the Reay Country, the home of all the
Mac Kays, where there seems to have been a college similar to that kept
at Dunvegan by the Mac Crimmons; at any rate, a peculiarly large number
of Mac Kay pipers came from the district, just as if they had been
trained in a school.
The changing times were too much for the Mac Kays, as for the other
pipers, and in 1805 the representative of the family, the John Mac Kay
last mentioned, went to America. He died in Pictou in 1835, when over
eighty years of age. The late Mr. Alexander Mac Kenzie, editor of the
_Celtic_ Magazine, on a tour through the States in 1880, met one of the
family. “More interesting to me,” he wrote, “than all my other
discoveries on this continent was finding a representative of the famous
pipers and poets of Gairloch in the person of John Mac Kay, who occupies
the most honourable and prominent position in this thriving town (New
Glasgow), that of stipendiary magistrate. His great-grandfather was the
celebrated blind piper of Gairloch.” Afterwards Mr. Mac Kenzie tells of
the circumstances of the family in America. They had, he says, ceased to
be pipers, and no one of the race kept up the traditions of their
fathers in the strange land.
THE RANKINS
—called in Gaelic _Clann Raing_—were anciently called _Clann Duille_,
being descended from one of the progenitors of the Clan Mac Lean called
_Cudulligh_, or _Cu-duille_. They were pipers to the Mac Leans of Duart,
the High Chief of the Clan, and became pipers to the Mac Leans of Coll
after the Duarts lost their lands, when Sir John Mac Lean was chief in
the beginning of the eighteenth century. They were hereditary pipers
from time immemorial, and the most noteworthy incident associated with
them of which we have any authentic record occurred when the great Dr.
Johnson visited their island. The piper who played every day while
dinner was being served attracted the doctor’s attention, and he
expressed admiration of his picturesque dress and martial air, and
observed that “he brought no disgrace on the family of Rankin.” We have
few dates connected with the Rankins, but we have on record a letter
from a John Mac Lean, on the garrison staff of Fort-William, Bengal,
written in January, 1799, which states that thirty years before “Hector
Mac Laine was piper to John Mac Lain of Lochbuoy, and was allowed to be
the first in Scotland.” This “Mac Laine” was probably a Rankin. Like so
many of the others, America provided them, too, with an ultimate home,
the last hereditary Rankin emigrating to Prince Edward Island.
THE CAMPBELLS
were pipers to the Campbells of Mochaster, in Argyllshire, and they,
too, were indebted to Patrick _Og_ Mac Crimmon for a good deal of their
training. The latest record of them in their official capacity is to be
found on a tombstone, in Bellside Churchyard, Lanarkshire, erected by
Walter Frederick Campbell of Isla and Shawfield, an M.P. in the year of
grace 1831, over his piper, John Campbell.
Besides those mentioned, there were famous, if not actually hereditary,
pipers in different parts of the Highlands. A branch of the Mac Gregors
established a school in Rannoch, and, the Mac Phersons of Cluny and
nearly all the other Highland chiefs of any note had excellent pipers,
many of whom produced pieces of considerable merit. But the hereditary
pipers have all passed away long ago, with the passing of that phase of
life which was necessary to their existence. Their names, however, are
still names to conjure with, and are likely to be so long as a love for
their music remains a prominent trait of Highland character.