Countess of Louden's Reel

COUNTESS OF LOUDEN('S REEL). AKA and see "Blackthorn Stick (4) (The)," "Countess of Lothean's Reel (The)," "Irishman's Blackthorn Stick," "Mahon's Reel," "Rising Sun (2) (The)." Scottish, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Lerwick): AB (Cole). The melody appears to have been first published in James Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5 (1797, p. 16) under the title "Countess of Lothean's Reel (The)". Nigel Gatherer remarks that the reel has similarities with "Kitty Clyde's." Irish versions are numerous, see the "Jolly Clam-diggers (1) (The)"/"Blackthorn Stick (4) (The)" family of tunes.

The 'Countess of Louden' title is from William Bradbury Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), a publication of the Boston-based Elias Howe firm. British titles did not always transfer intact to the Howe publications, and although there was a Countess of Lothian and a Countess of Loudoun, it may be that the 'Louden' [sic] title is simply a miss-hearing of 'Lothian' (as it appears in Aird's 1797 publication).

If in fact the 'Countess of Loudoun' title was meant, it may have been in honor of Flora Mure Campbell (1780-1840), only child and daughter of Major-General James Mure Campbell and Flora MacLeod (daughter of MacLeod of Raasay), who in 1804 married the Earl of Moira (created Marquis of Hastings in 1816). She came into her inheritance at age six after the suicide of her father, and was entrusted into the care of the earl and countess of Dumfries, with who she remained until the earl's death in 1803. Other accounts (Chambers and Wallace (Life and Works of Robert Burns, 1896, p. 137) have Flora being raised by her aunts, the Misses MacLeod (sisters of MacLeod of Raasay). She later extended Loudon Castle into one of the stateliest manors in Ayrshire. Her husband, the Marquis, was an eminent statesman and held for some years the office of Governor-General of British India. Flora went with him. She was known as a gracious and intelligent woman, notable for her respect for Indians and those of mixed-blood. She found a school for Indian boys and some Eurasian and European girls at Barrackpore. There three languages from textbooks that she not only selected, but translated into Hindustani and Bengali. He later became the governor and commander-in-chief of the strategic British-held Island of Malta in the Mediterranean and died there in 1836. The Marquis had promised his wife that they should lie in the same grave, and, although the state of mortuary arts and the Mediterranean heat did not permit that at the time of his death, he compromised with the direction that his right hand be amputated upon his death and sent home, that it might be buried with the Marchioness. This was done and the appendage was deposited in the family vault in Loudoun Kirk. When the Marchioness died at Kelburn House, Ayrshire (the seat of the Earl of Glasgow), in 1840, it was laid in the grave beside her body. See also "Lady Flora Charlotte Hastings" for another tune written for her.

Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 19. Lerwick (The Kilted Fiddler), 1985; p. 22. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 42.

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X:1
T:Countess of Louden (sic)
L:1/8
M:C|
K:D
|:f|d2 dA FDAF|Eeed cABc|d2 dA FDAg|fdec d(D D):|
g|fdad fdad|gebe gbeg|fdad fdad|fdec d(DD)g|
fdad fdad|gebe gbeg|fdec dBAG|FAdf e(d d)||

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