Annotation:Mrs. Muir of Caldwall’s Strathspey

Back to Mrs. Muir of Caldwall’s Strathspey

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MRS. MUIR OF CALDWELL. AKA - "Mrs. Mure of Caldwell." Scottish, Strathspey. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Gow): AABB' (Athole). Caldwell [1], east Renfrewshire, is a mansion and old estate with the remains of a castle nearby that was in the Muir (sometimes More, Mure, etc.) family for over 500 years (until 1909). It was rebuilt in the 18th century by famed architect Robert Adam.

Caldwell House in the 1870's.

The title probably refers to the wife of Colonel William Muir (or Mure) of Caldwell (generations of the eldest sons of the family were all named William), who succeeded to the title of Baron Mure in 1776. Muir/Mure served on General Cornwallis's staff in the American War of Independence, and who was imprisoned when the British army surrendered at Yorktown. Repatriated, he commanded militia units such as the West Lowland Fencibles and the Renfrew Militia, and was for many years the vice-lieutenant of the county of Renfrew. In 1791 he married Anne, the daughter of Sir William Hunter Blair, who survived until 1858, outliving her husband by nearly thirty years.

Scots painter Alan Ramsay produced a portrait of one Mrs. Muir of Caldwell.

Mrs. Muir of Caldwell, by Alan Ramsay

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 182, p. 68. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 189. Gow (Third Collection of Niel Gow’s Reels), 1792; p. 7 (3rd ed.). Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 119.

Recorded sources:

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