The Irish Bagpipes
It has been asserted that the bagpipes were invented by the Irish and introduced by them into Scotland; and that the Scots haven't seen the joke yet. Here is a different theory.
We cannot find that the bagpipe was indigenous to the Irish. To the Caledonians, we believe, they must be content to owe it. We got it, as it were, in exchange for the harp. The early history of this instrument is enveloped in the mists that hangs over the Dark Ages. According to Aristides Quintilianus, it prevailed in the very first times in the Highlands of Scotland. The genius of the Highlanders seems to favour this opinion. Ever a warlike people, ardent in the field of battle, and impatient of control in times of peace, the sound of the bagpipe must have been peculiarly grateful to their ear. Hence their hasty adoption of it, on its introduction of it amongst the Romans. A Scottish writer, speaking of this instrument, says "it is the voice of uproar and misrule, and the music calculated for it, seems to be that of rude passion". Even in very late times, the Scots used the bagpipe to rouse their courage to battle, to alarm them when secure, and to collect them when scattered; purposes to which they taught the Irish to apply it.
--Walker, Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1786) |
