Annotation:Berwick Lasses (2)

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BERWICK LASSES [2]. English, Country Dance Tune (4/4 time). England, Yorkshire. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The editors identify this tune as a variant of the Lowland/Border tune "Carrick's Rant/Carrack's Reel," which itself is a variant of "Mary Scott (1)." The Old English name Berwick has to do with a dwelling place or outlying farm involved with barley. The town of Berwick-on-Tweed the northernmost town in England and was constantly the scene of disputes with the neighboring Scots, so much so that it changed hands thirteen times since it was founded in 870 before passing finally to England in 1482. Queen Elizabeth I began a fortification of the city in 1558 (completed in 1565) called the Elizbethan Wall. See also note for "Annotation:Sir John Fenwick's the Flower Among Them All."

Source for notated version: a MS by fiddler Lawrence Leadley, 1827-1897 (Helperby, Yorkshire) [Merryweather & Seattle].

Printed sources: Merryweather & Seattle (The Fiddler of Helperby), 1994; No. 124, p. 65.

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