THE BAGPIPE.
The Bagpipe. By. A. Duncan Frazer. (W. J. Hay, Edinburgh. 10s. 6d. net.)—The literature of the bagpipe is so scanty that Mr. Duncan Frazer need have had little diffidence in giving the result of his reminiscences and researches to the public. He has delved into ancient history and the classics for his facts and early history of the pipes. and has some beautiful illustrations of the various pipes of Europe, with explanations of their peculiarities. Of these we may mention the French, the " musette " and the beautiful " chalumeau," the small pipes of. Italy and Africa, with the " piva " of Northern Italy and that most historically interesting of Continental bagpipes the " za.mpogna," lineally descended from the " symphonia" of the Greeks. They are some7 times seen in this country, and the players are well known as " pifforari." Hardly less interesting than these excursions into Italy and Greece are the chapters which discourse on the Irish and North Country pipes, and Mr. Duncan Frazer has illustra- tions of all, and a famous collection of the instruments himself. It has been a very interesting revival to Scotsmen, and they must owe much to such a whole-hearted enthusiast as the author. The peculiarly national and popular character of the Highland pipe, its raciness, its independence of science and study, make it an instrument not of national but ethnical interest. Its antiquity is obvious, and its scope remarkable. The Italian " zamporna," curiously enough, notwithstanding its antiquity, has very few tunes, and it has boon left to the High- lander to show what can be done. Mr. Frazer would have made his most entertaining volume more instructive if he had imparted some more elementary information to his readers. We are not all experts, and he should have dissected a pipe for us and explained the whole theory of the instrument. His reminiscences of boyhood and his wanderings in search of old pipes are amusing, and he writes well on his favourite hobby. All good Scotsmen ought to real his book, for it is most interesting and patriotic, and for those who have wandered far from the Highlands—and they are many—it ought to be a strong link to their old home.
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