PIPING COMPETITIONS. 483 



merits, and for indemnifying their travelling expenses, 

 &c. ; and a silver plate was ordered to be engraved and 

 fixed on the prize pipes. 



At the presentation of prizes, observations were gene- 

 rally made by the gentlemen who presided, and some of 

 these remarks have been preserved. 



At the piping competition on 22nd July 1818, Sir John 

 Macgregor Murray, Bart., who was Preses of the Judges on 

 the occasion, in delivering the prizes to the successful 

 candidates, addressed them in very appropriate terms. He 

 referred, among other matters, to the qualifications of a 

 piper. A piper's qualifications, he observ^ed, were not 

 limited to his being a good performer on the favourite 

 instrument, and properly dressed in the true garb of his 

 ancestors. There were others not less indispensable. His 

 conduct ought to be strictly correct, and he must never turn 

 his back upon his friend or upon his enemy. The piper 

 had always held an honourable rank in the estimation of 

 our ancestors, and his post was in the front of his comrades 

 on the day of danger. This honourable place had still been 

 continued to him ; his station on such occasions was most 

 generally in the front of his regiment, and there it was his 

 duty to march forward with the cool determination of a true 

 Highlander, stimulating his companions to heroic deeds by 

 the sound of the favourite piobrach of their country. 



The Highland Society of London having resolved to 

 give three premiums to the competitors who should appear 

 at these, competitions most correctly and neatly dressed in 

 the ancient garb of their country, the effect of this stimulus 

 was very conspicuous on the meeting in 18 18, although the 

 first on which such premiums were given. A number of 

 fine young Highlanders, pipers, and dancers appeared very 

 handsomely dressed, most of them in the appropriate 

 tartans of their clans. The first premium for dress was 

 voted to Allan Macdonald, piper to Col. Robertson of 

 Strowan, who obtained the prize pipe ; the second to 

 James Macgregor, from Tomintoul, one of the dancers ; 

 and the third to Robert Gunn, also a dancer, and who, at 

 the competition in 18 19, gained the first premium for dress, 



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