Annotation:Honorable Mrs. Graham of Balgowan (The)
Tune properties and standard notation
HONORABLE MRS. GRAHAM OF BALGOWAN. Scottish, Reel. D Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABCCD. Composed by Daniel Dow. Mary Cathcart (1757-1792), second daughter of the 9th Earl Cathcart, married Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, on the 26th of December, 1774, the same day her elder sister married the Duke of Athole. Thomas inherited a fine estate in the valley of the Almond, and was content to work on improving it, sporting, and attending to the classics. Their marriage appears to have been a love match for both. After Mary's decline and early demise at age 42, the griefstricken Graham concentrated on the military, rising to the rank of General and participating in the Napoleonic Wars. Mrs. Gramham's portrait was painted twice by Thomas Gainsborough, albeit the first was a study for the full-length portrait which hangs in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh-it shows Mary as an extremely beautiful young woman, some few weeks after her marriage to Thomas. After her death Graham could not bear to have the portraits in the house, and had them crated and sent away for safekeeping, where they remained for decades. After his death in 1842 the portrait was rediscovered by his heir, and donated to the museum, with the proviso that it never leave Scotland.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Cranford (Jerry Holland: The Second Collection), 2000; No. 88, p. 35. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 3 1806; p. 38. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 109.
Recorded sources:
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]