German, or Helvetian flute, now in use; and yet, although the latter carries the name of these nations along with it, the probability is, that it only owes to them its modern introduction, as the statue of the piping faun, and other antiques, have placed the fact beyond doubt, that the ancient Greeks and Romans were acquainted with it. Even in Germany, early in the sixteenth century, we doubt very much whether it had come into general use. Luscinius's Musurgia, a German work, published at Stuttgard in 1536, only gives one specimen of a flute of this kind; and this, too, differs in some respects from the modern German flute, being much slenderer, and having fewer holes. In a paper on the fashionable amusements in Edinburgh during the seventeenth century,a Mr Tytler has stated, that "the flute à-bec was the only flute used at that time, (that is to say, in 1695.) The German, or traverse, of modern invention, was not then known in Britain. I have heard, that Sir Gilbert Elliot, afterwards Lord Justice Clerk, who had been taught the German flute in France, and was a fine performer, first introduced that instrument into Scotland about the year 1725." In this statement, Mr Tytler has gone a great deal too far. In Strutt's "Manners and Customs of the English," there is a curious representation of a masque in the time of James I. of England; where, among a party of six musicians, the only wind instrument is a German flute. Farther, we have reason to believe, that this instrument was played in Scotland by the common minstrels of the city of Aberdeen, at least, if not of other royal burghs, so long ago as the year 1574. This fact we gather from the Town Council Register of that city, a record to which we have previously had occasion to refer, and which, both for its antiquity and its copiousness, is one of the most valuable we possess. On the 24th November 1574-"The said day, the haill counsale being warnit to this day, ordanit Johnne Cowpar to pas everie day in the morning at four houris, and everie nycht at eight houris at ewyne, throu all the rewis of the toune, playand upon the ALMANY QUHISSEL, with ane servante with him.

Archæol. Scotica, p. 509.

Vol. iii. plate xi.

playand upon the taborine, quhairby the craftismen, their servandis, and all utheris laborious folkis, being warnit and excitat, may pas to their labouris in dew and convenient tyme."

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Almany whistle" in Scotish is synonymous with "German flute;" but from its having been here accompanied with the tabour or tambourine, it is more likely that the term was intended to denote the smaller instrument of that species-the minor fistula Helvetica,b or fife, which is usually associated with instruments of a pulsatile nature, assimilating better with the latter, and being less liable to be overpowered by them than the common flute.

With the ancient inhabitants of Scotland, whether Picts or Celts, Saxons or Scandinavians, we believe that the horn was perhaps the oldest military instrument." In battle (says Pinkerton, speaking of the Scandinavian nations) the horn was chiefly used down to the fourteenth century." Many delineations of this instrument are to be found among Strutt's Illustrations of the Ancient Anglo-Saxon Manners and Customs, and many of the horns themselves are still extant. They generally united the purposes of a drinking cup with those of an instrument for the emission of sound. With our Scotish troops, in former times,d it was customary for every man in the host to carry a horn" slung round his neck, in the manner of hunters," the blasts of which, together with the furious yells with which they were accompanied, not only served to drown the cries of the wounded and dying, but sometimes struck terror into the enemy. That the Scots were more than

Such, also, were their use and effects among the Gauls, as described by Polybius, in the account which he gives of the battle between them and the Romans, on the coast of Tyrrhenia, or Tuscany. B. ii. c. 2. (We quote from Hampton's Translation, p. 185, Edin. 1766.)—“ The Romans were elated with no small joy when they saw that they had thus inclosed the enemy as in a snare ;—but, on the other hand, the appearance of the Gallic forces, and the unusual noise with which they advanced to action, struck them with great amazement; for, besides their horns and

usually expert at these practices, we have the testimony of Froissart in several of his descriptions. One occasion of their employing these horns was within their encampments at night; as the same historian tells us, in detailing the particulars of Edward III.'s first expedition against the Scots" They made immense fires, and about midnight, such a blasting and noise with their horns, that it seemed as if all the devils from hell had been there.” This was a night in August 1337; and the following evening it appears that the performance was repeated. Barbour, in his "Bruce," alludes to the same custom :

"For me to morne her, all the day

Sall mak as mery as we may:

And mak us boun agayn the nycht,
And than ger mak our fyrs lycht;
And blaw our hornys, and mak far,
As all the warld our awne war."b

To any one accustomed to consider the bagpipe, the inspiring effects of which upon our Scotish troops is well known, as our leading national instrument, it must appear strange, that in the very circumstantial accounts which have come down to us of the many sanguinary conflicts in which our ancestors were engaged, there should be no allusion to its spirit-stirring sounds,—and, so far as we have observed, no mention even of its name, in the early part of our history. Although its use unquestionably prevailed in the Lowlands, we see no proof of its ever having been assumed by the inhabitants of that part of the realm, as a warlike

trumpets, the number of which was almost infinite, the whole army Lroke out together into such loud and continued cries, that the neighbouring places every where resounded, and seemed to join their voices with the shouts and clamour of the instruments and soldiers."

• Froissart's Chronicles, b. i. c. 18.

A similar custom seems to have prevailed among the Jews. "Blow the trumpet in Tekoah, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem, for evil appeareth out of the north." Jeremiah, ch. vi. verse 1.

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instrument; and in so far as regards the Highland portion of the population, the earliest notice which we can remember of it in that character is in the narrative of the Battle of Balrinnes, in 1594, in which many of the Highland clans were engaged, and where it is spoken of, as "the principal military instrument of the Scotish mountaineers." We should have thought, that the bagpipe must have been in requisition at the Battle of Harlaw, in 1411; but in the ballad, in which the details are very minutely commemorated, it is not mentioned, although trumpets" and "drums" are particularised. This is the more extraordinary, as a "pibroch," called "The Battle of Harlaw," appears, from Drummond's "Polemo-Middinia," to have been popular in Scotland during the early part of the seventeenth century; and the probability after all is, that the tune, like the ballad, was coeval with the event; although it must be confessed, that the absence of all mention of an instrument, which in modern times has had such an effect in inciting the valour of the native Highlander, would lead us to infer, either that it had not been used on that occasion, or that its martial character had not at that time been fully established.c

a

Dalyell's Scotish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, vol. i. p. 151.

The following are the lines in which it is alluded to :

"Interea ante alios dux Piper Laius heros,

Precedens magnamque gerens cum burdine pypam,

Incipit Harlaii cunctis sonare battellum.”

Through the medium of one of Mr Blaikie's MSS., precisely contemporaneous with Drummond's poem, this tune, hitherto supposed to be lost, has been recovered, and is now presented to the public in the Appendix of this work.

We mean among our Gaelic countrymen. The bagpipe is said to have been a martial instrument of the Irish kerns or infantry, as far back as the reign of Edward III., and to have continued as such down to the sixteenth century. In the sixth century, we find it mentioned by Procopius, (lib. ii. c. 22,) as the instrument of war of the Roman infantry, while the trumpet was that of the cavalry; and Pinkerton (Enquiry, vol. i. p. 391) observes, that from this circumstance, commenced its warlike use in Britain and the other countries subject to the Romans. It may be so; but we cannot say that we have seen any evidence of its having been employed in that manner so near the time of the Romans as to countenance that supposition.

Dr Leyden has gone even farther than this, and maintained that there is no direct evidence that the bagpipe was known to the Highlanders at a very early period. But although its adoption as an instrument of war may have been an event of more recent occurrence, as almost every nation in Europe appears, from the earliest ages, to have been acquainted with it, we have no doubt, that, long prior to this, it contributed to their amusement in their hours of relaxation. Dr Solander told Mr Pennant,a that in the oldest northern songs in the Hebrides, the bagpipe was mentioned under the name of the soeck-pipe; and we have already seen, that Giraldus Cambrensis, towards the end of the twelfth century, speaks of it as one of the instruments in use both in Scotland and in Wales. His words are as follows :-" Hibernia quidem duobus tantum utitur et delectatur instrumentis-cythara scilicet et tympano: Scotia tribus, cythara, tympano, et choro: Gwallia vero cythara, tibiis et choro."b

It will be remembered, that the same word "chorus" is used by Bower, in his enumeration of the musical accomplishments of James I., (of Scotland,) and in rendering that word by bagpipe, we are quite aware that we have entered upon debateable ground. Mr P. F. Tytler, in his History, has faltered as to its meaning, and substituted for it (as he himself admits, somewhat rashly) the word "cornu." That he should have hesitated as to the proper signification of the word "chorus," is not to be wondered at. Pinkerton did not comprehend it; Leyden, Ritson, and Jones, misinterpreted it; and the Reverend Mr Macdonald,d who was one of our best informed writers on Scotish music, proposed it as a sort of enigma for the solution of the Scotish antiquary. Under these circumstances, it would ill become any one to obtrude his own particular opinion with a feeling of confidence; but after having given the matter all the attention in our power, we see as little reason, on the other hand, to vacillate as to the interpretation which we have given.

a Pennant's Tour to the Hebrides, p. 302.

Topog. Hib. lib. ii. c. 2.

• Vol. ii. p. 370.

Essay on the Influence of Music on the Scotish Highlanders.