A.D. 1431.—At the battle of Inverlochy in 1431, we are told the pipes were played. This may have been supposed from the fact that we have a pipe tune of that date, but it is probable enough.
THE OLDEST EXISTING PIPES
(By permission of Messrs. J. & R. Glen and the Scottish Society of Antiquaries.)
A.D. 1440.—In Rosslyn Chapel, Midlothian, built in 1440, there are two figures represented as playing the pipes. The first, an angelic piper, is of a class of which specimens are to be found in various sacred edifices throughout England. It is in the Lady Chapel, and is not therefore much noticed by visitors. The other figure is one of a pair which are carved as if they were supporting one end of one of the arches of the roof. What meaning they were supposed to convey it is impossible now to determine, but the representation of the piper is obvious enough.
A.D. 1485–1509.—In Henry VII.’s Chapel at Westminster there is a grotesque carving representing a bagpipe. Similar carvings appear at Hull, Great Yarmouth, Beverley, and Boston.
A.D. 1489.—In July, 1489, we find there was a payment of £8 8s. to “Inglis pyparis that com to the Castel (Edinburgh) and playit to the king;” and in 1505 another to “Inglis pipar with the drone.” So the instrument must have been as much English as Scottish at that time.
A.D. 1491.—Here again we find the “Inglis” piper to the front. In August of this year a party of them received seven unicorns, that is gold coins, at Linlithgow for playing to the king. Both of these payments are recorded in the accounts of the treasurer of the Royal household.
A.D. 1494.—In the ninth year of Henry VII. there was paid to “Pudsey, piper on the bagpipes,” 6s. 8d. Piping was not a short cut to fortune then more than it is now.
A.D. 1500.—At a sale of curios in London in the summer of 1899 a jug was disposed of on which there was a painting of a mule playing a bagpipe. The article fetched £200, but it cannot be proved that the painting dates from the sixteenth century, though that is the certified date of the jug. About this time the second drone was added.
