“A baggepipe wel cowde he blowe and sowne,
And therewithal he broughte us out of towne.”
So it seems that the company of pilgrims left London, accompanied by the strains of the bagpipe. It must have been in fairly general use, else the poet would not have worked it into his composition, but there are no means of discovering how long before this it had been in favour in England.
A.D. 1390.—At the battle between the clans Quhale and Chattan on the North Inch of Perth, Rev. James Mac Kenzie tells us in his History of Scotland, which is generally accepted as authoritative, the clans “stalked into the barriers to the sound of their own great war pipes.”
A.D. 1400.—The bagpipe is supposed to have been first used officially in war in Britain at the beginning of the fifteenth century, quickly superseding the war-song of the bards.
A.D. 1406–37.—James I. of Scotland played on the “chorus,” a word which some interpret as meaning the bagpipe. Besides we are also told that he played on “the tabour, the bagpipes, the organ, the flute, the harp, the trumpet, and the shepherd’s reed.” He must have been a versatile monarch. If he really wrote Peblis to the Play, the fact proves that if he did not play the pipes he was quite familiar with their existence, for he says:—
“With that Will Swane came smeitand out,
Ane meikle miller man,
Gif I sall dance have done, lat se
Blow up the bagpype than.”