Annotation:Mr. Bushby Maitland’s Reel

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Tune properties and standard notation


MR. BUSHBY MAITLAND. Scottish, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'B. Composed by Nathaniel Gow (1763-1831), third son of the famous Dunkeld fiddler-composer Niel Gow, probably for John Bushby-Maitland (1767-1822), Member of Parliament for Camelford, Dumfries, and a Whig. He was the son of John Bushby of Tinwald Downs and was an advocate and Sheriff of Wigtownshire when he came to the attention of poet Robert Burns. In the second of the Hernon Election Ballads, poet Robert Burns lashes him as an advocate and refers to him as having the heart but not the head of his father. See also other tunes for the family: “Miss Bushby Maitland’s Reel.”

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 294. Gow (Third Collection of Niel Gow’s Reels), 1792; p. 8 (3rd ed.).

Recorded sources:




Tune properties and standard notation