Pete Stewart introduces the transcription of a presentation given to the International bagpipe Conference in London, March 10th, 2012.

 The paper combined images from three Common Stock articles published over the last two years, two by Pete Stewart and one by Paul Roberts together with some new thoughts on their significance, arguing that in London and Edinburgh in the 18th century, the common bagpipe was indeed the bellows-blown, common-stock bagpipe. Unfortunately Paul was unable to attend the conference, and the paper was presented by Pete Stewart. You can read the transcription, with images by clicking HERE [10MB pdf].

One intriguing consequence of this paper arose during the questions session; at the end of the day Jan-Pierre van Hees showed me an image of a French bagpipe said to date from 1603, which not only has bellows but also common-stock drones held horizontally. I hope to follow up this information in the near future and investigate whether this bagpipe was an inspiration for the development of the 'Lowland or Border Bagpipe'.

Having delivered this paper at the conference I now feel even less confident about using the term 'Lowland or Border' to describe these pipes but have yet to encounter a more useful description.