| My Father the Bagpiper,
Leopard Magazine, Aberdeen. Edith Paterson's
memory of her father James MacHardy is part of a slim
story put together for his descendents in Canada. There
would still be some whose toes itched to his sprightly
music, but they become rapidly fewer each year, and I
having past the alloted span cannot count on many more
anniversaries. Hence a certain feeling of urgency to give
to a wider circle the story....
My Father the Bagpiper
After Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Consort, bought
the lands of Balmoral in 1852 they lived in the old
castle, but plans were put in hand for the erection of
larger house able to accommodate a Queen's retinue and
guests. When it was built between 1853 and 1855, my
grandfather carted lime for the building. Thus he was no
stranger to the twelve miles of road over the Glaschoeil
between Corgarff and on Donside and Crathie on Deeside.
When news came that the Queen was looking for a junior
piper, Jamie's name and that of his elder brother Alick,
were put forward.
Came an autumn day 1877 when they and another hopeful
boy climbed into a boxcart with grandfather for the
journey to Balmoral, the pipes cushioned in straw among
their feet. the day was hot and the pipes mute when Jamie
would fain try a tune before the final descent on the
Castle. "Ach," said grandfather, "ther'll
be pipes there !" and they trundled on again.
The Queen had them play in the rose garden; there was
no sign of the other pipes but desperation may have
brought Jamie extra wind - or, maybe, Providence was
helping. By some means The Back o' Benachie was
soon sounding loud and clear. Alick and the other boy
also played, but the Queen's choice fell on fourteen year
old Jamie. One can imagine the excitement in the
farmhouse at Burnside when they arrived home with the
news.
At first Jamie was to be at the Castle til the Queen
left in the autumn after which he would return to school
for the winter. Subsequently, he travelled south with the
Royal retinue and lived at Windsor Castle or Osborne
House on the Isle of Wight.
He also travelled abroad with the Queen in Italy and
Paris where she went under an assumed name and sometimes
without the redoubtable Mr. Brown. As her attendant,
Jamie accompanied her on shopping expeditions and other
excursions.
One story he liked to tell was of a visit to a small
antique shop where the proprietor was obviously not
fooled by the alias. His nervous excitement was
considerable, and, when the Queen asked to see something
high up in a showcase, the man sprang to open up the
doors and, poor soul, pulled the whole thing down on his
head. The Queen had to run from the shop, but safely
outside, she was overcome with paroxysm of laughter. She
being stout, my father said that she "hobbled up and
down" silently. Doubtless, she would make good the
shop's losses, but the wee man would never live down his
misfortune.
At Balmoral, much of Jamie's time was spent in
attendance on the Queen when she went driving or tramping
amongst the hills. On one particular occasion, they were
caught in torrents of rain, and Jamie's kilt jacket was
soaked. Reaching the shelter of one of the Shiels, the
Queen charged Jamie to take off his jacket immediately
and get it dried. Jamie heard her as he heard her not and
repaired to a room where he continued in the drenched
jacket as he busied himself with some job. Presently the
door opened and who should present herself but the Queen
Empress. She looked at him sternly and said, "I told
you to take off that wet jacket!". Jamie tried to
make little of the matter saying, "It's not very
wet, Your Majesty.". Putting her motherly solicitude
in the background and assuming the authority of Head of
the Realm she said, "I command you to take it off".
There could be no further argument.
Part of each day was taken up by instruction from
Ross, the Queen's piper. His methods were summary; in the
early stages of chanter practice a wrong note was
rewarded by a sharp stroke from the maestro's chanter. My
father used to remember in later years the agony of
having a finger whanged between two chanters. As he said,
"Ye dinna mak the same mistake twice!", When he
had, as he supposed, practised a tune enough to know it,
Ross did not ask to hear it but set Jamie the task of
writing it down complete with grace notes. Hard times for
a young lad already a skilled player if untaught. But the
stringent training bore rich fruit and Jamie became a
master of his instrument.
It was the duty of the pipers to play on the terrace
each morning and at dinner each evening. On the occasion
of the wedding of, I think, the Duke of Connaught. Ross
for some reason was unable to be present for the
reception and Jamie had to face the ordeal of marching
alone around the board.
Royalties were there from many lands, the chandeliers
glistened, the table shone with dishes of gold, and the
boy from remote Corgarff blew up his pipes and played
some stirring tunes - he was not sure afterwards what he
had played, but Queen Victoria told Ross later that Jamie
"marched round the table as if it had been his own!"
The Balmoral Ghillies Ball was then, as it still is, a
highlight of the season. The Royal ladies were not
'sought' as partners but made every dance a Lady's Choice
by sending John Brown or other messenger to their desired
partner. I once asked my father whether he had ever
danced with the Queen. he admitted that he had never been
her partner but had 'turned her' in a dance.
As something of a protégé of the Queen, Jamie could
scarcely hope to be looked on with favour by a jealous
John Brown, but in 1882, when that irascible man became
very ill with erysipelas in his head, Jamie was appointed
his attendant and erstwhile nurse. Indeed, the great Dr.
Jenner went so far as to say that Jamie's careful
attention hastened John Brown's recovery, and, indeed
probably saved his life. He must have been quite ill over
a period of weeks requiring night nursing for a time. My
father used to tell how at midnight a small scraping
noise would be heard on the door of the room. Opening it,
he would find the Queen herself standing there. "How
is he?" she would whisper, and, having got a
bulletin on Brown's progress, would creep away again to
her own apartments.
Whether Jamie would have continued in Royal Service
and would have eventually become the Queen's head piper
is debatable. All his life he enjoyed going on to
pastures new, and, perhaps his circumscribed routine
became irksome as had his occasional brush with John
Brown. At any rate, a day came when he "streeve wi"
John Brown and begged to be relieved of his assignment.
Having asked for a testimonial, he was given the
following; 'James McHardy left. Gave no
offence, signed : John Brown.' Would it be the shortest
testimonial ever penned? My father, with youthful
impatience, tore it up. A wonderful relic lost!
Return to Table Index
|
Obituary Biography 1
Unsourced newspaper clipping 1938.
Piper to Queen Victoria
Composed his own Funeral Lament
Had Dispute with John Brown
To a lament which he composed for his own funeral,
"Hame to the Glen," and with the Lonach
Highlanders in kilt, and plaid as escort, Pipe Major
James MacHardy, once piper to Queen Victoria, was buried
yesterday in his native glen at Corgarff, which inspired
him to write the lament.
Pipe-Major MacHardy, who was only a youth when in the
Royal service was a favourite with Queen Victoria and
travelled abroad with her Majesty, having piped to her
command not only at Balmoral Castle but also at
Buckingham Palace, Windsor and France and Italy.
His service with the Queen lasted only five years,
before a difference arose between him and the famous John
Brown. Pipe-Major MacHardy's own account of the his
difference with the Queen's Highland favourite was
expressed to a friend in these terms:- "I streeve
wi' John Broon." The outcome was that he received
from Brown perhaps the shortest reference on record. It
read:-
"James McHardy
left, Gave no offence. John Brown."
His life story reads like romance of Victorian days.
Born and bred in humble circumstances at Burnside in the
wild and lonely glen of Corgarff in 1863, he and his
brother, Alexander, were entered by their father for the
vacant post of junior piper to Queen Victoria.
Box-Cart Journey
One autumn morning, when James was only fourteen, his
father took the two boys over the mountain in a box-cart
to Balmoral Castle. In those days such a journey was an
adventure. The box-cart, with straw covering the floor,
rumbled up the high mountain, and the boys and their
father made a halt for their meal of oatcakes and cheese.
Down the other side of the mountain brought them to the
gates of Balmoral Castle.
Other pipers sought the post, and all were heard by
the Queen, but Her Majesty was so taken with the playing
and erect bearing of the boy of fourteen that she chose
him as junior to her chief piper, Pipe-Major Ross.
His clever piping and likeable personality won him the
Queen's favour, and her Majesty made him many gifts, some
of them bearing her own signature. He became piper-attendant
to the Queen and went with her on tours in France and
Italy besides being at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle
and Balmoral Castle.
Then came the break with John Brown which terminated
his Royal service, and he returned to his native Donside
to become piper to Sir Charles Forbes, Bart., at Castle
Newe.
Third Generation
Pipe-Major MacHardy was proud of a distinction he had
in his associations with the Forbes family. At Allargue
House three years ago, he had the honour of piping to a
third generation of the family at the christening of the
daughter of Sir John Forbes.
In between times, however, he had gone into service in
other parts of the North-east, as he was employed on the
Whitehouse Estate for some time, and then took a farm at
Torphins. Later, he gave up farming and returned as
overseer to Whitehouse, to Mr N. D. Farquharson, with
whose the father the late, the late Mr. W. S.
Farquharson, he held a similar post.
He retired seventeen months ago and continued to live on
the estate.
At Gatherings
As a piper at Highland Gatherings and games he won
renown throughout the northern half of Scotland as a
consistent prize-winner. He possessed two cups and fifty
medals.
At these gatherings the winning piper plays for the
dancing contest, and Highland dancers everywhere loved to
perform to his piping. Many of them declared that "it
was a treat to dance to his music," because his time
was perfect.
In recent years he also judged the piping at the Lonach,
and Aboyne Highland Games.
Pipe-Major MacHardy composed many bagpipe tunes. One
he composed in honour of the visit of the Duches of
Gloucester to Aberdeen in September last year when she
opened the St. Katherine's Club. It was entitled "The
Duchess of Gloucester's Welcome to Aberdeen," and he
played it himself when the Duchess arrived at the door of
the club.
A year or two ago, he was taken up to his native Glen
at Corgarff and a flood of memories came to him. It
inspired him to compose a tune called "Hame to the
Glen," for his own last homecoming. It can be played
as both a lament and as a 6-8 march. To-day it welcomed
him back, as stately Highlanders laid him to rest.
Fiddler Too
His musical genius which made him an asset at local
entertainments was not confined to the bagpipes. He was
also a very good fiddler, composed melodies, reels and
strathspeys for the fiddle.
Pipe-Major MacHardy broadcast on the bagpipes in a
programme contributed to by entertainers over seventy
years of age, and he had been engaged to take part in a
similar entertainment in the near future.
He died in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where he was to
undergo an operation.
Return to Table Index
|
Obituary Biography 2
Unsourced newspaper clipping 1938.
Aberdeen and Twal' Mile' Roon'
by S.J.A
Aberdeen, Wednesday.
How ell I remember meeting, in August last year, Pipe-Major
James MacHardy, laid to rest today in native Corgarff
among the hills of famous Strathdon.
We chatted together in the green covered arena in the
little Donside village of Bellabeg. It was at the Lonach
Gathering.
He loved the skirl of the pipes. I like to hear them in
the distance, but I must confess that five hours' piping
would get me down.
What a record for Pipe-Major MacHardy. For 50 years he
had judged piping at Lonach [Note:
not sure how correct this is ?]. A wrong note
could not escape his musical ear. I tried to draw him at
a meeting. I wanted him to talk about himself, but he did
not. He talked about Strathdon, it's people and his
native Corgarff.
The end was sudden. Only a week ago he was at his home
in the valley of Donside. He came to Aberdeen Royal
Infirmary, was confident that he would be out in time to
take part in a radio broadcast from the Aberdeen studio
in two weeks time. A piper marching at the head of the
Lonach Highlanders played the lament which he wrote for
his own funeral. Pipe-Major MacHardy, one time favourite
piper to Queen Victoria, had come "Hame to the Glens."
That was the title he gave to the composition which he
requested be played at his funeral. he will be missed at
Lonach next year.
Return to Table Index
With thanks to Jimmy and Rachel Moir of
Banchory for some of the above.
|
