Annotation:Mrs. Colonel Gordon of Leitchieston’s Reel

Tune properties and standard notation

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MRS. COLONEL GORDON OF LEITCHIESTON'S REEL. AKA and see "Mrs. Ross's Reel." Scottish, Reel. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by William Marshall (1748-1833), although it originally carried the title of "Mrs. Ross's Reel" and was printed in his first collection of 1781. The "Mrs. Colonel Gordon" title is a later application. Mrs. Gordon was Janet Ross, who married Colonel George Gordon in 1798, according to Moyra Cowie (The Life and Times of William Marshall, 1999). The Colonel was the illegitimate son of Alexander Gordon, the 4th Duke of Gordon, and his marriage to Janet was reportedly not a happy one. They lived in the old house of Leitcheston, south of Portgordon, but Cowie says the Colonel preferred to spend time in his hunting lodge at Glen Tromie (Badenoch). It is remembered that he asked a local Portgordon boat-builder to fashion him a boat with wheels with which he transported his six children and the maid Peggy Green to the lodge for their summer holiday.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Marshall, Fiddlecase Edition, 1978; 1822 Collection, p. 17.

Recorded sources:

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Tune properties and standard notation