“Long may its lays be heard on Scotia’s hills, Which call no more her clans in fray to meet, And dye with kindred blood their native rills; And, as blythe echoes the shrill notes repeat, May Scottish hearts with kindling raptures beat; For valour’s throb no more obeys the call, Than laughs the eye with mirthful jollity When the pipe sounds at village festival. Such power, loved pibroch, has thy magic minstrelsy. Thee from her hall let heartless fashion spurn, For softer warblings of the Italian string; Let luxury or wantoned dalliance burn, Yet into hearts that round our Scotia cling, With thy dear lays shall patriot raptures spring; And he who can o’er faded glory sigh, Who to oppression’s children gives the tear, Will say, while awful transport lights his eye, No generous soul is theirs, unmoved thy strains who hear.” APPENDIX. It was at first intended that the Appendix to this book should contain a tutor to the bagpipe. It was, however, seen that to do this would not only be departing from the avowed character of the undertaking—the production of a thoroughly untechnical book, and one that would appeal to players and non-players alike—but it would also be encroaching on the preserves of the publishers of pipe music, nearly all of whom preface their volumes with a tutor. Other, and it is hoped, equally interesting matter has been substituted. Appendix. I.—THE SCALE OF THE PIPES. BY JOHN MAC NEILL, LANGHOLM. In making a few observations on the scale of the bagpipe (_Piob-mhorna h-Alba_) it is not necessary to go deeply into the evolution of instrumental music, but it may be well to state shortly that the earliest instruments devised for expressing musical sounds, that is sounds having a definite relation to one another, were of two distinct orders, the first probably being the reed or pipe, made of various materials, such as straw, reeds, bone, wood, or metal, blown by the mouth and giving a single note which varied in pitch according to the diameter and length of the tube or pipe through which the wind escaped. The second order was a stringed instrument wherein cords varied in length and thickness were fixed at both ends upon a suitable frame, and the sound was produced by plucking with the finger and allowing the cord to vibrate freely.