songs have either entirely
ceased, or are gradually decaying Whether they were originally the
composition of minstrels, professing the joint arts of poetry
and music; or whether they were the occasional effusions of some
self-taught bard; is a question into which I do not here mean to
enquire. But it is certain, that, till a very late period, the pipers,
of whom there was one attached to each border town of note, and whose
office was often hereditary, were the great depositaries of oral,
and particularly of poetical, tradition. About spring time, and after
harvest, it was the custom of these musicians to make a progress
through a particular district of the country. The music and the tale
repaid their lodging, and they were usually gratified with a donation
of seed corn[63]. This order of minstrels is alluded to in the comic
song of _Maggy Lauder_, who thus addresses a piper--

"Live ye upo' the border?"

By means of these men, much traditional poetry was preserved,
which must otherwise have perished. Other itinerants, not professed
musicians, found their welcome to their night's quarters readily
insured by their knowledge in legendary lore. John Graeme, of Sowport,
in Cumberland, commonly called _The Long Quaker_[64], a person of this
latter description, was very lately alive; and several of the songs,
now published, have been taken down from his recitation. The shepherds
also, and aged persons, in the recesses of the border mountains,
frequently remember and repeat the warlike songs of their fathers.
This is more especially the case in what are called the South
Highlands, where, in many instances, the same families have occupied
the same possessions for centuries.

[Footnote 63: These town pipers, an institution of great antiquity
upon the borders, were certainly the last remains of the minstrel
race. Robin Hastie, town-piper of Jedburgh, perhaps the last of the
order, died nine or ten years ago: his family was supposed to have
held the office for about three centuries. Old age had rendered Robin
a wretched performer; but he knew several old songs and tunes, which
have probably died along with him. The town-pipers received a livery
and salary from the community to which they belonged; and, in some
burghs, they had a small allotment of land, called the Piper's Croft.
For further particulars regarding them, see _Introduction to Complaynt
of Scotland_, Edinburgh, 1801, p. 142.]

[Footnote 64: This person, perhaps