Music: Skirlers

In 1682 a band of Scotsmen, led by Reverend George Keith of Aberdeen, landed on the shores of New Jersey, founded the now-forsaken village of Old Scots. Since that time generations of Scots have settled in New Jersey’s northeastern industrial and mining regions. Today, the clans of New Jersey number 13, most prominent among them the Clan Gordon and the Clan Cameron.

Seven years ago the New Jersey clans decided to commemorate their forbears’ arrival. The celebration was held not on the site of Old Scots itself but in the neighboring hamlet of Holmdel, where at Scot Theron McCampbell’s sylvan Forum estate there was ample elbow room for such Scottish high jinks as sword dancing, piping and tossing the caber. Holmdel’s first Scottish Games became an annual event, and with the passing of the years Scots from far beyond New Jersey’s glens came to witness them, and such famed pipers as the late Angus MacMillan Fraser squealed and skirled for prizes in Holmdel’s pipe contest.

Last week Holmdel attracted some 6,000 clansmen dressed in kilts and plaids. Main event of the day, as usual, was the piping contest. Contestants were judged on points, 100 being regarded as a perfect score. Twenty-five of the hundred points were allowed for time, 25 for tone, 50 for execution (the technique of trills and capers with which every good piper decks out the tune he is playing). If a piper missed a melodic trick, or if he allowed his reed to “choke” (stop vibrating for lack of air), he was docked a point or two by the judges. Last week’s winners: stocky James Bremner of Kearny, Pipe-Major John MacKenzie of Brooklyn, Piper Ed mund Tucker of Manhattan.