"Now who shall play the Day it Daws?" asks the 17th century elegy that mourns the passing of Habbie Simson, the most celebrated of those pipers who were once such a feature of life in the Scottish Lowland Burghs,
In the first volume of this hidtory of the Lowland bagpipers, Pete Stewart draws on contemporary literary sources and burgh records to explore the social role of these pipers and their music, from the earliest days to the first appearnace of written bagpipe music at the beginning of the 18th century
"In bringing togwther this splendid repertoire with the historical context within which it was set, Pete STewart has set a new standard in the published scholarship of the lowland piping tradition." (Dr Gary West, Dept. of Celtic and Scottish Studies, Univeriwsty of Edinburgh, 2007)