In Canada, says the late Mr. Alexander Mac Kenzie, the jumping, tossing the caber, stone throwing, and various other Highland competitions, would do credit to some of the best athletes at home gatherings, although, he adds, “the pipe music was nowhere.” Since he travelled through Canada, however, there have been great improvements, and the visits of leading pipers from home have borne good fruit. Canada now has her own Highland pipers and dancers, reared on her own soil but on the home model, not perhaps so good as the best at home, but better than the average. Scotland abroad is more Highland than Scotland at home, and the hope of the future of the language and music lies as much in Canada and Australia as it does in Argyllshire, Perthshire, or Inverness-shire.
It was Sir Walter Scott who wrote:—
“The Highlands may become the fairy ground for romance and poetry or subject of experiment for the professors of speculation, political and economical. But if the hour of need should come—and it may not perhaps be far distant—the pibroch may sound through the deserted regions, but the summons will remain unanswered. The children who have left her will re-echo from a distant shore the sounds with which they took leave of their own.—Cha till, cha till, cha till, sinn tuillie.—We return, we return, we return no more,”
but the Wizard of the North hardly saw into the future so clearly as he might have done. Had he seen the latest war in South Africa, he would not have put the “return no more” so strongly. The hour of need did come, the pibroch did sound, and from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand the answer came, in the shape of regiments of loyal Britons, who fought and died for the old land. There is now a far bigger Scotland than ever existed, or could exist, between Maiden Kirk and John o’ Groats. Thus has good come out of evil.
CHAPTER XXI.
The Oldest Pipe Tunes.
“At present I’ll content mysel’,
A hamely Scottish tale to tell,
Whilk happened years and years back;
An’ says tradition its a fact: