Mainstream news outlets are using a an advance promotional blurb sent out by the publisher on new book by the well piping historian Hugh Cheape as an opportunity to take pot-shots at Scotland's national instrument.

The respected Guardian, Telegraph and United Press International (UPI) so far are three major sources that have speculated widely on the content of the book, Bagpipes - a National Collection of a National Instrument, due to be released in May, without actually having read the work. The Guardian and the Telegraph are based in England.

The outlets use the opportunity to skewer the reputation of the Highland pipe, speculating that the instrument was "invented" only a few hundred years ago, ignoring historical and physical evidence to the contrary.

The Guardian writes, "Like most tartan regalia and the modern kilt, the great Highland bagpipe and many of its traditions known worldwide were manufactured by the Scots middle classes in the early 1800s in their romantic quest to rediscover their past."

One observer said the reports are "In the usual English sneering manner: 'Har, har, up yours, Jock', which apparently stem from the press handout ahead of Hugh Cheape's new book Bagpipes. I think I can probably guess what it was he actually meant, and that they have taken him up deliberately sideways; but we could have done without this."

Hugh Cheape, the grand-nephew of Brigadier-General Ronald Cheape, recently retired as curator of the piping collection of the National Museums of Scotland. He published The Book of the Bagpipe in 2000.