Lowland Piper

The Piper is shown seated and smoking a tobacco pipe to emphasise the different posture for playing and the use of bellows for inflating the bagpipe. Referred to as the 'caul wind pipes', bagpipes inflated with bellows avoided the effects of warm moist air of the player's breath on the instrument's reeds.

The Lowland pipes, or Border bagpipe, was a distinctive instrument by the 18th century. It has a chanter and three drones - two tenors and a bass - and sounded and tuned as the Great Highland bagpipe but would generally not have produced such a strident and carrying sound.

A distinguishing characteristic was the mounting of the three drones in a common stock, and the use of bellows strapped under the arm to provide a supply of air. Such a bagpipe would sometimes be described as a 'cauld wind pipe', in contrast to the mouth-blown bagpipe in which the player's breath was hot and lurid. The lowland pipes were the instrument favoured by the Town or Burgh Piper of Lowland Scotland.

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