Annotation:Lady Eglintoune
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LADY EGLINTOUNE. Scottish, Reel. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of this tune in print in John Riddell's 1782 collection (p. 41), although it was published a few years earlier in Robert Ross's Choice Collection (Edinburgh, 1780). The Menzies Manuscript (1749) contains a dance called The Montgomeries' Rant which is set to the reel "Lady Eglintoun" by the RSCDS; the Eglintouns are of clan Montgomery. Emmerson (1972) writes of the select Scottish public assemblies of the latter 18th century and states that the presence of a matron or quality and rank was a guarantee of extreme respectability for any dance:
Of course, many a distinguished mother, such as Grisel Baillie or Lady Eglintoun, escorded her charges to the assembly as did many A matronly aunt or guardian. The long procession of sedans containing Lady Eglintoun and her seven beautiful daughters halting to disgorge their lofty and graceful freight was one of the treasured spectacles of old Edinburgh. What a flurry of bongraces, lappets, hoops, petticoats, scarlet stockings, and clutched fans! (p. 101).
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: John Riddell (Collection 2nd), Edinburgh, 1782; p. 27. Robert Ross (Choice Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances& Strathspeys), Edinburgh, 1780; p. 19.
Recorded sources: