Annotation:Lady Ann Hope (1)

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LADY ANN HOPE [1]. AKA and see "Blue Bonnets (2)," "Frank Roche's Favourite," "John Roche's Favourite," "Here Awa'," "Mike Coen's Fling," "Miss Hope’s Strathspey," "Queen of Clubs," "Woodford Fling (1) (The)." Scottish, Strathspey. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Gow, Hunter, Kennedy, Kerr): AABB' (Athole, Skye). Composed by John Pringle, a border fiddler chosen by Lord Minto to lead his band when he was the governor of India. It was first published in Pringle's First Collection (1800) as "Miss Hope’s Strathspey." Lady Ann Hope (1768-1818) was the eldest child of James, the 3rd Earl of Hopetoun, and her older brother, John, the 4th Earl of Hopetoun (1765-1823) was general of the 92nd Gordon Highlanders. The family manse was Hopetoun House (see notes for Annotation:Hopetoun House).

In 1792 Anne married Sir William Johnstone Hope [1], a distant cousin who became an admiral and politician. The couple would have two daughters and four sons before Anne's death in 1818. When she died Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine eulogized:

As her house in George-street, Edinburgh, Lady Ann Hope Johnstone of Annandale, wife of Rear-admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope, K.C.B. member for the county of Dumfries. Lady Ann belonged to that class of characters whose deaths are justly regarded as a public calamity as well as a private loss. In her own family she was every thing that is amiable and excellent; the most affectionate wife, and the most indulgent, yet the most judicious mother. When she mingled in the fashionable world, her demeanour was such as befitted the daughter of a Scottish noble- man, and the spouse of a British admiral; but home, the native soil of all the domestic virtues, was the scene of her truest enjoyments; and there are few who have visited her hospitable mansion without retaining a warm sense of the unbounded goodness of her manners. To every victim of misery and misfortune she was the unwearied and beneficent friend. Indeed, to the poor in general, as well as to her own family, her loss is irreparable.

Irish fling settings of the tune go by the names "Frank Roche's Favourite," "John Roche's Favourite," "Mike Coen's Fling," and "Woodford Fling," reel settings as "Miss Thornton's Reel" and other titles, and hornpipes as "Tiger Hornpipe" and "Signora Ferze's Hornpipe" (Goodman). Breathnach thought the tune related to "Miss Thornton's Reel" and "Spike Island Lasses (2)." American settings are "Blue Bonnet (1)" and "Queen of Clubs."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 81. Hope, 1988; No. 78. Henderson (Flowers of Scottish Melody), 1935. Kennedy (Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Reels and Rants), 1997; No. 88, p. 23 (erroneously attributed to Niel Gow). Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; Set 15, No. 3, p. 10. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 95. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 157.

Recorded sources: SMD615, Pete Clark - "Even Now."

See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index: [2]

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