Annotation:Lady Rachel Russell
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LADY RACHAEL RUSSELL. Scottish, Strathspey. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by William Marshall (1748-1833). Moyra Cowie, in her book The Life and Times of William Marshall (1999) reports that Lady Rachel was born in 1826, reputedly the daughter of Lady Georgianna Gordon, the Duchess of Bedford, and the famous artist Edwin Landseer with whom she had a passionate affair. Lady Georgianna was then the wife of John Russell, the 6th Duke of Beford, Woburn Abbey, who had brought three stepsons into the marriage. (See also note for "Duchess of Beford's Cairn (The)"). At age 30, in 1856, Rachael married Lord James Butler. She was a writer, publishing the novels Jessie Cameron: a Highland Story in 1857 and The Prophecy in 1863. The latter is the "story of Bulters of Kilkenny, supposedly based on MS found in Brussels in 1822 by Earl of Clancarty; deals with prophecy of Black Earl regarding loss of fortunes and restoration by Jimmy Butler of Kilcash, concerning granting of estatess to Sir Richard Preston by James II, and the elopement of Lady Elizabeth Preston (all circumstances in the biography of Duke of Ormonde)." Some of her books can still be found in print. She died in 1898.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Marshall, Fiddlecase Edition, 1978; 1845 Collection, p. 7.
Recorded sources:
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