The filidh or bard.
The bleadaire or orator, whose duty it was to make harangues to the great folks his chief visited.
The gille-mor or armourer, who carried his sword, target, and gun.
The gille-casfhliuch, who carried the chief on his back over the brooks.
The gille-comshreang, who led his chief’s horse in difficult paths.
The gille-truisernis, who carried his knapsack.
The piobair or piper.
The gille-piobair or piper’s man, who carried the pipes; with probably a dozen lads besides, who were always ready to do the bidding of their chief.
The chief of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had a retinue twice as large as that of the chief of the degenerate eighteenth century. Besides those named, he had his gentlemen of the house, his harper, his seneschal, his treasurer, his standard-bearer, his jester, his body guard, his quartermaster, his cup-bearer, and his forester, all with clearly defined duties and rights. The offices of piper, standard-bearer, harper, cup-bearer, and treasurer descended from father to son. These “tails” were indeed so formidable that they were at last prohibited from appearing in Edinburgh.
In 1809, out of all the big retinue, only the piper remained. He remains still, not exactly as a clan piper—where there are no clans there cannot be clan pipers—but as an appendage to families having a Highland lineage, and to many that have but the remotest connection with the Highlands. His duties are still pretty much what they were. He has not now a gille, for the piper of those days is not too proud to carry his pipes himself, but the description written in the early years of the century is still partly applicable to pipers at houses where the Highland traditions are reverenced:—