Since 1756 the Percy family, residing at Alnwick Castle, has appointed, as the only noble family in England (and probably the entire world), family pipers; The first in the still uninterrupted line is "Piper to the Countess of Northumberland" Joseph Turnbull, who became, after the creation of the Dukedom in 1766, "Piper to the Duchess, &c."; In 1892 the "rank" "Piper to the Duke of Northumberland" was introduced, the fee then being £30 per annum [today’s rate?; ws]; Since 1931 the duty is to play at the annual Shrove Tide football match and "other functions at the discretion of the Duke"; Marcuse treats the term small-pipe dubiously as its name, to which she adds "of Northumberland", continuing with 2 other "types" (Lowland and Highland small-pipes); Copying her, as usual, Podnos excludes its origin from its name, as well...; NB: When the plural form is used to refer to 1 instrument only,
it is actually a plurale tantum.

Cylindrical chanter (with a double reed) and drones (with single reeds); The chanter is stopped, each of the drones can be stopped individually by a sliding plug inserted in its end; Nowadays [i.e. late 20th century; ws] only stopped chanters are played; Instruments with open chanters have been built, and survived; Both are played with closed fingering; The number of keys varies, having increased, in the 19th century, by Robert Reid to 14, and later, by his son James, to 17, today’s standard being 7, allowing playing in two major keys (G/D) and two minor keys (Am/Em), plus an A scale with characteristics similar to that of the Scottish pipes; The usual number of drones is 3 (2 of which are an octave apart, the third pitched at the dominant between the other two) or 4 (3 of which are allowed to sound simultaneously, the 4th being stopped).

Bead (tuning ~), ·? (drone stopper [Term not mentioned in available sources])

Northumbrian double smallpipe, Northumbrian smallpipes, Northumbrian smallpipes, Northumbrian smallpipes