The
Georgian era was nearing its end, and regional newspapers were well
established in many towns and cities across Britain, alive with
discussion and gossip of the day. In the spring of 1829 a new
mystery would intrigue the nation with the appearance of a mystery
piper travelling through the land. Who was he, and why had he
undertaken this perambulation?
At
the end of May the Berkshire Chronicle and Bucks and Windsor Herald
printed accounts of a mysterious piper in Cheltenham, and by the 2nd
June 1829 he was in Gloucester providing a distracting anecdote for
the papers there.
On
9th June 1829 the London Morning Post gave a report that
this character had been in Bath on the 5th June; “THE
SPORTING PIPER – This character whose wanderings through the
country have excited great curiosity, made his appearance in this
city yesterday evening, dressed in his suit of coarse grey, with
Scotch cap and green spectacles, and escorted by two attendants, who
kept close behind him to afford protection against the crowd of
people that pushed forward to have a peep at the gentleman beggar.
The terms of the wager for which he has undertaken this extraordinary
enterprise are not known, but it is generally agreed that he has
backed himself against a friend, who is travelling through France as
a fiddler, to collect more money in one year in the United Kingdom,
than his competitor in France with his violin. Opinions differ
respecting the identity of the Scottish piper as much as to the
nature of the wager, but rumour entitles him Captain BARCLAY. He
commenced this itinerant occupation on the 12th June last
year; since which period he has traversed nearly the whole of Ireland
and Scotland. We understand that in Ireland his contributions
amounted to upwards of 127 l
and in Scotland he received about 144 l.”
 |
| Captain Barclay, the noted pedestrian who was at first confused with our piper. |
The identification of this mystery piper with Captain Barclay was persistent in the reports, but incorrect. Robert Barclay Allardice was a well known 'Sporting Pedestrian' and made the idea of wagers for walking feats popular in early 19th century Britain. His most famous walk was undertaken in 1809 when he walked 1000 miles in 1000 hours for 1000 guineas. That Captain Barclay was Scottish by birth no doubt fuelled the (mis-)identification as the wandering piper. However Barclay's popularisation of such activities may have encouraged our mystery piper.
A
few days after his appearance in Bath, the mystery bagpiper was in
Exeter, described by the Western Times as “the incognito gentleman
bagpipe player”. By the 20th
June the Westmorland Gazette was printing a short item in its
miscellany columns about “The Sham Bagpiper” currently
perambulating through Somerset, and how he contradicted the claims
that he was Captain Barclay and he was tired of hearing this. This
account also claimed that he was nearing the end of his travels.
By Friday 14th August 1829 more details were appearing, or
at least the story was becoming more elaborate, when the Chester
Chronicle related the following; “THE GENTLEMAN PIPER – Our
brother editors are very much divided in opinion as to the identity,
and rank in society, of this wandering minstrel. Some will have it
that he is a sporting Captain, who is bent on winning a wager, by
maintaining himself, with something to spare, by the gratuitous
rewards of his minstrelsy, while others, and amongst them the
Scotsman Edinburgh paper, denounce him as “a puir carle”
to whom the fare at an English inn is a luxury far beyond what he
ever enjoyed in his “ain kintry”. Be this as it may, a tall
gaunt figure, dressed in gray linsey wolsey, with flaxen wig and
“spectacles on nose” has been sojourning amongst us for two or
three days past. He walks through the streets every day playing a
lilt on an instrument something between the Irish and Scotch
bagpipe. It has all the shrillness and “singing i'the nose” of
the latter, but the airbag is supplied by a pair of bellows as in the
former. The minstrel is but an indifferent performer and does not
excite much attention, nor apparently seems to care if he does or
not. We understand that his papers come to Mr Kearsley's, the Nag's
Head, where he puts up, addressed “Capt Gordon” and that
he has numerous receipts from the parish officers in the various
districts through which he has passed, for the sums he has paid into
their hands, the surplus from his receipts after defraying his
expenses. We guess the burden of the poors' rates in this city will
not be materially lessened by the minstrel's donations at his
departure.”
As well as a new possible identity of the mystery piper, this account
gives a rare description of what the instrument was, and from this we
learn that it was a bellows blown pipe, though the journalist was not
really knowledgeable enough to leave us a full detail. From other
reports it is clear that he can walk along whilst playing, so these
were not a set of uilleann pipes.
The reporter in the Chester Chronicle continues the article by
showing how the mystery piper has inspired imitators; “We find the
following in the Paisley Advertiser of last week:-'The
flattering accounts of the supposed gentleman who is now
vagabondising it through the country, has, in the present dulness of
trade in this town, induced an individual of sporting celebrity, for
some large bets, to undertake a similar trip of profit and pleasure.
He has engaged to beg for three weeks in England, and at the end of
that time to return with £20 as the fruits of his mendicity. His
first attempt, we understand, will be made, as we have heard, on the
sympathies of the good folks of Liverpool. Our Paisley gaberlunzie
does not intend “with cauk and keel to win his bread,” but rests
his hopes on the music of a hand organ and the grimaces of a large
monkey, with both of which he has, as we understand, already provided
himself.”
The travels continued, on September 2nd 1829 he was seen
in Oxford, recorded by the Berkshire Chronicle “...a person in
disguise, with bagpipes, paraded the principal streets in Oxford,
dressed in a blue cap, a coarse grey short coat, and trowsers, with a
dark handkerchief around his neck, collecting money. - He put up at
the Three Goats Inn, and stated he had been recognised but once
during his journey, and that was at Portsmouth. Various conjectures
are afloat as to who this singular character could be.”
Then, in October the wandering piper's appearance was reported in the
Derby Mercury, still full of mystery; “On Monday, a bag-piper of
singular appearance passed through the town, and attracted
considerable notice. His dress was of coarse frieze, his cap of the
same material, and was tied under his chin by a black ribbon. His
figure was good, and he appeared between fifty and sixty years of
age. He played on his instrument as he went along, but he did not
solicit alms. Indeed, his countenance indicated he was travelling
more for fun than for money. He returned the salutation of the
writer of this account, whose curiosity led him to follow the
stranger into a small room in the Old White Hart, in the Bridge Gate,
with a mingled grace and archness which seemed to say I am not what I
appear to be. His hands also were those of a gentleman.”
In November the wandering piper was making his way through
Leicestershire and by early December 1829 had arrived at Stamford in
Lincolnshire, where an old woman, giving him a penny, curtsied and
said “I know you my lord.” The wandering piper denied this,
saying he was “no laird” but it all kept up the intrigue. By
late January 1830 he was in Winchester still playing his bagpipes
long after the date when the newspapers said he would have concluded
his wager. His arrival in Brighton soon after was not met with the
success he was accustomed to, as he tried to play 'O'er the hills and
far away' he was followed by local boys questioning his identity and
challenging his wig and costume, so that he left rather sooner than
he might have planned.
The attention from regional newspapers seems to lessen from 1830,
though the wandering piper continued his travels. Reports from this
point on suggest that he had won the wager and this was how he was
able to continue in this lifestyle. In 1830 he appeared in Devizes,
Portsmouth, Sherborne and Southampton. Then in October 1832 he was
playing in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, still in his Scottish dress
and wearing the green spectacles. Though it seems not to have been
widely published, J. M. Johnson printed a lithograph in 1832 of a
drawing by Thomas Charles Wageman of 'The Wandering Piper' which
clearly shows his clothing including the cap, black cravat and green
spectacles by which he was recognised. It also shows the bagpipes to
be border pipes, in the bellows-blown, one bass and two tenor drone
form we are familiar with. As has often been discussed in Chanter,
the print is likely to be reversed as it shows the bag, bellows
and fingering to be on the opposite side to that we are familiar with
today.
By January 1833 he was recorded as being in Durham, heading for
Berwick but intending to stop at Newcastle, and North Shields en
route. The Newcastle Journal reported that there had been an
extension on the period of the wager, following an injury obtained by
the piper whilst at Carlow in Ireland requiring fifteen months rest
at the mansion of Sir Thomas Butler. The paper hoped that the
wandering piper would be successful in beating his fiddler rival, so
that the hospitality of Great Britain would be clearly demonstrated.
But the mystery didn't end there. Through 1833 the wandering piper
was also seen in Hereford, then disappears from newspaper accounts
for a couple of years. Surviving letters in the Library and Archive
of Canada reveal he was in Montreal in July of1834, asking the Mayor
for permission to play in public buildings, (the Mayor was ashamed to
say he was only in charge of markets and the piper would have to ask
the Justices of the Peace instead!) In 1837 though he re-appeared
once more in British newspapers, again at Chester, playing at a
fundraising concert at the 'Town Hall' (more correctly 'The Old
Exchange' a lovely building which sadly burnt down in 1862), also at
Tiverton in Devon, and also even made a trip to New York. But there
was a major development in the story that year. The wandering piper
himself wrote a letter addressed to “the British Public”
explaining his story, and this was published in many newspapers. The
following is how it appeared in the Oxford Journal;
“The unprecedented civility which I have met with from all grades
of society in Great Britain and Ireland, during my rambles as the
'Wandering Piper' has induced me to lay before them the following
accurate statement of an undertaking, which, as yet, stands
unrivalled in the annals of sporting. This much-talked-of campaign
originated in the London Coffee-house on the 4th of Nov.
1824 among fourteen worthies who had retired there to put the
copestone on a dinner given by an American gentleman, who was then
making the tour of Europe. In the course of the conversation,
politics, religion, and the internal affairs in general of Great
Britain and America were freely discussed and among other topics, the
laws affecting the poor of both nations were not forgotten. Much was
said by the American party of their charitable institutions, their
warlike prowess, magnanimity, independence and unexampled
hospitality. These arguments were so vigorously replied to by those
representing the British Isles; the swindling and thieving
propensities of the Yankees, their delph china ware, mahogany
cucumber seeds, and wooden nutmegs were dealt out without mercy or
remorse. In the course of this lengthened discussion, it was
remarked by one of the members as a lift to his own side of the
question, that beggars and itinerant musicians had been known to make
a competency for life in England in a very short period: whereas in
America they might pipe like Orpheus, or like Tommy Puck in Aster
Fair and 'draw iron tears down Pluto's cheek' without being able to
coax a copper out of the grasp of a Yankee. A good deal of
disquisition ensued pro and con, which terminated in my
finally and firmly agreeing to travel through Great Britain, Ireland
and the United States of America, disguised as a piper. Large wagers
were offered and accepted on both sides, his Majesty's lieges still
contending, that, for one shilling the piper would receive in
America, he would clear double that sum in Britain and Ireland. I
accordingly commenced my piping in the summer of 1825 at Morpeth, a
borough in Northumberland, reached London in the course of a few
weeks, visited several towns in the county of Kent, and was driving a
tolerably fair business, when my drone was silenced all at once, by
the interference of a relation whom I durst not contend with. This
gentleman died in the beginning of 1827, in consequence of which
hostilities were again renewed in July of the following year, in
connection with a young man who, like myself, had more money than
judgement, and who had bound himself to travel with a fiddle on the
continent of Europe. To this gentleman some of the journals gave the
name Count Bender, but peace to his manes, he died at Rome in the end
of 1831.
“The public have already been made acquainted, through the columns
of the different journals, with my perambulations in the United
Kingdom, and the unprecedented kindness shown to me by some of the
first families in Ireland, during a confinement of many months,
occasioned by the overturning of a stage coach in the county of
Carlow. To Sir Thomas Butler and family, and the Rev. Mr Roberts,
&c., I lie under such obligations, that a whole life, devoted to
their service would be but an inadequate recompense. Various
attempts had been made to put an end to this arduous frolic, and, at
the time above-mentioned, a northern nobleman used great exertions to
accomplish the wished for consummation, but without effect. I
continued me wanderings for upwards of twelve months after my
recovery, and then sailed for America, in March 1832, where I
succeeded far beyond my own expectations, or those of the other
parties concerned; and had I been at liberty or disposed to give the
present explanation while in that country, there is little doubt by
my earnings would have amounted to double the sum. As it is, I
collected 27,600 dollars, every cent of which I expended or bestowed
on charitable institutions. It is my intention to wind up the whole
of this complicated freak by performing once more, in all the
principal cities and towns in Great Britain and Ireland, after the
same manner that I did in the United States – that is, to solicit
permission from the Chief Magistrate of every place that I visit, and
also the use of some public building to perform in. In America, the
state-houses, court-rooms, theatres, city halls, and in many
instances churches, were freely tendered. Should the same immunity
be granted to me in this country, I have no doubt but I shall leave
the field with honour to myself, and the heartfelt good wishes of
thousands, both rich and poor. I certainly anticipate much pleasure
from my second tour through the Great Nation, as I expect to see many
of the cheerful faces with which I was so much pleases on former
occasions, and to shake many a friendly hand.
“Although my gains have been invariably applied to the use of the
poor on both sides of the Atlantic, still I wish the world to know,
that I am under no obligation whatever to give them to private
individuals or charitable establishments; nor do I publish the amount
of my former donations as a lure to bring people forward to my future
exhibitions. I consider the money which I receive for piping
entirely my own property, and shall in all cases use it accordingly.
Public opinion has been much at variance concerning me, and all
descriptions of titles, from a Prince of the Royal Blood to a common
mendicant, have been conferred on me. I merely announce myself as Mr
Stuart, the Wandering Piper – by which appellation I wish only to
be known for the present – and although I allow that large bets are
pending on the favourable termination of this extraordinary feat,
yet, I never told any one how far I am personally implicated. Every
one who has heard of me is aware, that my principal aim has all along
been to preserve my incognito, and to those busy bodies who try to
unmask me while out of my piping garb, I feel under no very
particular obligation, and consequently shall treat them with the
contempt they merit.
“My present tour will be concluded in much less time that the
former, as I intend to travel with a horse and carriage; and I bind
myself, that all secrets will be disclosed without reserve at the
conclusion. To the gentlemen of the press who have at all times
spoken well of me, I feel grateful for a good opinion from so high a
quarter; to a very few editors and private individuals who have
represented me in a different light, I shall only say, I trust that
they will never change their opinion of THE WANDERING PIPER.
Liverpool, September 9 1837.”
Our wandering piper did indeed continue his travels,appearing in
places as far afield as Gravesend, Paisley, Norfolk and Sligo in
1838, but sadly he never completed his planned itinerary. On
Saturday 23rd February 1839 the following notice from a
Dublin newspaper was reprinted in the London Standard; “Death of
the Wandering Piper'. This singular individual died on Sunday night,
in Mercer's Hospital, in this city, where he had been for three weeks
previously. It is stated in an advertisement in the papers that
'Graham Stuart, commonly called the wandering piper, died in the
hospital, having previously made his will, and thereby bequeathed all
his property for the uses and purposes of the said hospital.”
A few more short comments appeared in other papers and allusions to
endeavours being like that of 'the wandering piper' can be found in
newspapers over the following few years, after which his story seems
to have vanished into obscurity. I was pleased to dig it out from
these newspapers and journals after much time spent trawling through
the British Library's online digitised collections. I think it was
an admirable, if eccentric, endeavour well worth celebrating.
