Annotation:Jenny Sutton

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JENNY SUTTON. Scottish, English; Reel or Country Dance. A Major (most versions): G Major (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Jenny Sutton" was the title of a bawdy song by Captain Morris set to the air. The words begin:

Come, charge your glasses, let us raise
From dull oblivion's slumber;
A gallant nymph, well worth the praise,
Whose feats no man can number.
Her hand, like Caesar's, grasp'd it all,
Till envy mark'd her station;
Then like great Caesar, did she fall,
By foul assassination.

For every letch alike prepar'd
She valued not a button;
And culls of ev'ry humour shar'd
The charms of Jenny Sutton!

The melody was included in the music manuscript collections of John Rook (Waverton, Cumbria, 1840), R. Hughes (Whitchuch, Shropshire, 1823), and William Mittel (1799, Kent). The earliest 'recorded' version can be heard as the last tune on the No. 3 barrel of a c. 1805 barrell organ made by Broderip & Wilkinson, London, (Royal College of Music). Early printed sources include, Aird and Thompson (see citation below), and Preston's Twenty four Country-Dances for the Year 1787 (London, p. 16).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. IV), 1796; No. 40, p. 15. Gow (The 2nd Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 1788; p. 4. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 21. Jones [ed]. (Complete Tutor Violin), c. 1815; p. 2. Manson (Hamilton’s Universal Tune Book vol. 1), 1854; p. 134. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 28. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5), c. 1788; p. 98. Wilson (Companion for the Ballroom), 1816; p. 112.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [1]

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