(The Proceedings of the Peebles Collogue, 1997)
The Lowland and Borders Pipers' Society is please to announce the long-awaited publication of this book. Many members will already be aware of the subject matter of the book; indeed many will have attended that particular Collogue. However, for those members unfamiliar with it, this was a Collogue entirely devoted to the William Dixon manuscript, rescued literally 'out of the flames' in 1908 and unearthed again in 1995 by Matt Seattle. This exceptional collection of bagpipe tunes forms a major landmark in the rediscovery of traditional piping in the Scottish/English borders.

"In November 1997 the  Lowland and Borders Pipers' Society convened in Peebles to discuss the William Dixon manuscript, a small enough event in the long annals of piping history, perhaps, but one which nonetheless spawned some strikingly fresh and original thinking about one of the least understood of instruments, the Border bagpipe. At the Peebles Collogue topics ranged widely, from the nuances of early 'ground and division music', to the relative merits of 'open' and 'closed' fingering on Scottish smallpipes. Difficult and obscure material? Not in the least! In the hands of a distinguished cast of scholars and musicians, Roderick Cannon, Matt Seattle, Dick Hensold, Rob MacKillop, Peter Stewart and David Johnson, the subject comes to life, the tunes start to make perfect sense and William Dixon's magnificent musical legacy is given the recognition and scholarly attention which it so richly deserves." (Iain MacInnes)