Mr. John Kay drew Geordie Sime, a famous piper in his time. This is a drawing of an older piper with a border set standing beneath a tree dressed in late eighteenth century attire. It is believed that this is one of Mr. Kay's earlier drawings. Old Geordie was thought to be up in age when the image was recorded. What is interesting is that he was a retainer to the house of
Buccleuch and was given a small salary as well as a suit of clothes each year. His duties were to accompany the family on particular occasions as well as to make the rounds of the town twice daily, at eight o'clock in the evening and five in the morning. Just what we have thought the town waites were supposed to do. It is not known when old Geordie died. The text goes farther to give a list of the town pipers that followed old Geordie. One such piper was listed as Jamie Reid which rings a big bell in my mind. And finally the text ends by stating that the current town piper continued to play through the town until about twenty years ago. I take this to mean
twenty years from the date of the book being published which was 1835 as far as I can ascertain. The text goes on to state that the towns folks had long considered the practice annoying and a useless remnant of barbarous times.
Kevin Scott
https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0103&L=uilleann&T=0&O=A&P=16669
See also Notes & Queries.