Moderns
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.]