The Highland Bagpipe [Illustration: “THE CORONACH” (_From the Painting by R. R. Mac Ian_) ] The Highland Bagpipe Its History, Literature, and Music WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE Traditions, Superstitions, and Anecdotes Relating to The Instrument and Its Tunes BY W. L. MANSON _The tune with the river in it, the fast river and the courageous, that kens not stop nor tarry, that runs round rock and over fall with a good humour, yet no mood for anything but the way before it._—NEIL MUNRO. ALEXANDER GARDNER Publisher to Her late Majesty Queen Victoria PAISLEY; AND 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON 1901 TO A. DEWAR WILLOCK EDITOR OF THE _Glasgow Weekly Herald_ WHO JUDICIOUSLY BLUE-PENCILLED THE FIRST ISSUE OF THESE ARTICLES AND ENCOURAGED THE WRITER TO GIVE THEM TO THE PUBLIC IN THIS MORE PERMANENT FORM Preface. This book was not written on a preconceived plan, drawn up from the beginning of the work. It “growed.” It had its inception in a commission to write for the _Weekly Herald_ half-a-dozen biographical articles on famous pipers. The necessary investigation produced a mass of material too interesting to be left unused, and the half-dozen articles of the original commission became twenty-seven, with very little of the biographical in them. These, after being finally recast, revised, and in several cases re-written, are now in the form of a book flung at an unoffending public. If the volume interests any one—well. If not—well. There is nothing more to be said on that point.