Transcribed from the 29 July 1828 edition of The Newry Commercial Telegraph newspaper, by permission of The British Library: A Scottish piper, reported (we will not say how truly) to be an eminent sporting character--a Gentleman, forsooth! in disguise, attracted considerable attention, last week, in Newry, Armagh, and the neighbouring towns and villages. He was meanly dressed--and is said to be making the circuit of this country, in the character we have mentioned, for a wager. Be this as it may, we can only say that the bait has taken most admirably with the good people of Ireland. Cash was pouring in on this most unfortunate piper from every quarter--and it is calculated he has received not less than from ten to twelve pounds per day! But, then, it is no matter--it has been well bestowed--for he is not a common stroller--oh, no!--he has the honor to be a Gentleman vagabond. We only wish that the money thus lavishly and, we will add, shamefully, thrown away on a nameless wanderer had been appropriated to the relief of our wretched countrymen in Paisley, or to some other equally benevolent purpose. Pro pudor! ======================== Transcribers' note: The following URL should direct subscribers' browsers to the January - June 1850 compilation of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal (new series, Nos. 314-339, pp. 87-90), published by William and Robert Chambers, Vol. XIII: http://books.google.ca/books?id=H7gCAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA87&dq=piper+1828+ireland ... to an article entitled, "Modern Myths - The Gentleman Bagpiper". Here, clues were given as to the identity of the "certain half-pay Captain", who was mentioned in a recent posting of a similar newspaper article to this newsgroup on July 18. [The article in Chambers's is an extract from "Tour of the Wandering Piper Through Part of Scotland and Ireland, Written by Himself", pub. 1833, Portland, Maine, USA]. The URL for that earlier posting is: http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.genealogy.britain/browse_thread/thread/49675ea8b1633272?hl=en# ... or that URL, processed by TinyURL into: http://tinyurl.com/62fck3 Chambers's cites the following clues for the identity of the "Gentleman Bagpiper" who, according to that article, was: - a retired officer, who had served in the Peninsular war and sold his commission after the battle of Waterloo - educated at the same school in Scotland as Count Bender (the other party to the dispute and subsequent wager mentioned in the contemporary Irish newspaper articles posted to this newsgroup) - an excellent musician Also found via Google Books is the book entitled, "Thomas Hardy's 'Facts' Notebook, a Critical Edition" (ed. by William Greenslade (2004, Ashgate, Aldershot, Surrey), which provides another clue. Citing the 13 May 1830 edition of the Dorchester County Chronicle, Hardy stated that the "Gentleman Bagpiper" called himself Capt. Barclay, or Col. Stewart (p. 210).