Annotation:Fascally House

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FASCALLY HOUSE. Scottish, Strathspey (cut time). A Mixoldyian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB & variation sets. Composer by Perthshire fiddler-composer biography:Duncan McKercher, the "Dunkeld Paganini." Faskally House, Pitlochry, Perthshire, was the seat of Archibald Butter in McKercher's time. The Butters were one of the landed Perthshire Highland families, and McKercher composed and published several melodies named after them.

The location of the house was considered one of the finest in Perthshire, commanding a magnificent view,--"wild and strange and romantic, picturesque, in the common acceptation of the term, yet rarely so disposed as to admit of being forced into a picture;--

Wood, meadow, verdant hill, and dreary steep,
Following in quick succession of delight.

Faskally house was built by Archibald's grandfather, and received various embellishments and additions, particularly by Archibald around the time of McKercher's publication. The house had kept grounds and a fine sloping lawn in front that ran down to the River Tummel, which was joined at the spot by the Garry, a little distance below a Fall. The name ‘Faskally’ is derived from the Gaelic and means ‘Stance by the Ferry’, and it is probable that a small ferry over the River Tummell would once have operated near the site. It was also likely a resting place for Highland cattle drovers going to markets in the south.

An early iteration of Faskally House, Perthshire.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Duncan McKercher (A Collection of Original Stathspeys and Reels), Edinburgh, c. 1830; pp. 1-3.

Recorded sources:

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