Habbie Simpson the Piper of Kilbarchan

Kilbarchan now may say alas!

For she hath lost her Game and Grace

Both Trixie and the Maiden Trace:

But what remeid?

For no man can supply his place,

Hab Simpson’s deid.

Now who shall play ‘The day it daws’ ?

Or ‘Hunt up when the cock he craws’ ?

Or who can for our Kirk-town-cause,

Stand us in stead ?

On Bagpipes now nobody blaws

Sen Habbie’s dead.

Robert Sempill of Beltrees, c1594-c1668

[Habbie Simpson was the celebrity of the

little town of Kilbarchan, a few miles south-

west of Paisley, in the late sixteenth century.

He was apparently a wonderful piper, and

the town has a memorial to him in a

prominent position.]