Travellers and writers, poets and rhymsters encountered the traditional music, song and dance of Ireland in many places and wrote down their impressions. Some of these encounters were casual and unexpected, and the spontaneous reactions can make for fascinating reading. The Deputy Governor of a group known as the Honorable Society of Ireland in London came over on official business in 1825, and wrote an account of his travels in a book called "Narrative of an Excursion in Ireland," published in London. He and his companions were staying in a hotel in Dawson Street in Dublin, and it was suggested to them that they visit the Spa at Lucan outside Dublin to sample the health-giving waters. They left at half-past five in the morning, got to the Spa Hotel but they didn't confine themselves to the waters. "We sauntered about the walks for half an hour, when a messenger arrived to say that breakfast was ready, which was composed of lamb chops, fried delicately brown as if they had come from the kitchen of the Albion; tongue, fresh eggs, cream, that a mouse might run over without being bogged, butter just emerged from the churn, bread of many sorts, and glorious griddle cake, tea and coffee, and all these good things for two tenpennies a-head! We made a royal repast, and, by way of keeping all quiet, I absorbed half a glass of most exquisite white Cognac. Our ears were now suddenly saluted with delightful music, accompanied by the voice. The sounds were sweet, though strange, and created a debate as to what and how many instruments the band consisted of. On opening the door of the room, a lad of about sixteen, of a very pensive air, and minstrel-like mien, sat in one of the recesses of the saloon, with his Irish pipes; and with these alone did produce 'the concord of sweet ! sounds' which we had heard. They were the wild, pathetic airs of his own dear island, and he played them with great expression and feeling. I stood beside him while playing, and found, in addition to the chaunter and drone of the Scots bagpipes, there were three or four pipes of different lengths and calibre, with keys, which he pressed with the ball of his hand, and, at the same time, another, and sometimes two, with the wrist and arm; thus producing exquisite harmony, which I did not think capable of. I supposed that the extra pipes were 3rds and 5ths to the key note, and some of the others to supply the faulty notes, common to the Scots chaunter, or probably they might be semitones. I enquired, at the bar, if he were a player of any note in the country, thinking that 'His notes so wild, and ready, thrill, They shew'd no common piper's skill;' but, I was told, that they did not know him 'at all, at all' - he was just a lad that had come in from the road. I wished that ! I had been an Irish peer, or an Irish prelate, for the latter seem to be the richest, and I would have retained him for my own piper; but, perhaps, he might have preferred his own wandering mode of life." Who the youthful piper was at Lucan we shall probably never know. The pipes which produced the 'concord of sweet sounds' were of course uilleann pipes which are different from the Scottish bagpipes because the air is produced by a bellows under one arm, and not with a mouthpiece. -- Excerpt, "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine