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International Bagpipes Day
🎶 Send up on wings of blood our fathers' cry,
Though the unhearing dead brook not your sound,
And flesh yet binds us to the groaning ground,
Release your paeans to the boundless sky,
O plaintive Pipes, endearing Drones, resound!
Raise faithful hearts, though brave men break and die!
On International Bagpipes Day, we raise a glass to pipers everywhere, honoring the deep-rooted connection between bagpipes and Scotland’s culture, particularly their role in military history. The earliest known mention of bagpipes in Scotland dates back to a 1396 account of the Battle of the North Inch of Perth, where "warpipes" were recorded in combat. By 1598, their presence in Scottish tradition was further cemented in a poem later included in The Complaynt of Scotland, which vividly describes various pipes, most notably the Highland bagpipe, underscoring its prominence in Scottish music.
A striking visual tribute to Scottish piping is Piper to the Laird of Grant, painted by Richard Waitt in 1714. This portrait, housed in the National Museum of Scotland, captures William Cumming, a member of a Strathspey musical lineage that served the Lairds of Grant for over a century. Clad in traditional tartan and livery, Cumming stands as a proud symbol of the clan’s heritage. The painting, rich with cultural motifs such as the heraldic banner and Castle Grant, is one of a pair commissioned by the Grants—the other often misidentified as Rob Roy, though it actually portrays Alexander Grant Mor. 🧡 ❤️ 🤎 🖤 🎶 🖌️ 🎨
This tartan was designed from an estimated threadcount, taken from the portrait of William Cumming, Piper to the Laird of Grant, by Richard Waitt (1714).
The painting shows a fully developed piob mor (Great Highland bagpipe) with all three drones - the two tenordrones set into an older style fork-shaped stock. Note that the piper is holding the pipe bag under his right arm.
The subject of this painting, William Cumming (c. 1687 - c. 1723) belonged to a family of Strathspey musicians who served the Lairds of Grant for about 170 years through seven or more generations. They were an important part of the clan chieftain's traditional retinue and William Cumming is symbolically provided with a uniform of livery, tartan, the bratach or heraldic banner, and with the chieftain's head house of Castle Grant in the background.
For more on the musical legacy of the Cumming family and Clan Grant, click the portrait!