Annotation:Lady Stopford's Reel (1)
X:1 T:Lady Stopford's Reel [1] M:C L:1/8 R:Reel B:John Watlen - The Celebrated Circus Tunes (Edinburgh, 1791, p. 18) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:A e|dcBA {cd}e2 {fg}a2|cBAc BB/B/ Be|dcBA (c/4d/2<a)|E>dcB A/A/A A:|| CEAE cE e>c|BABc AFFE|CEAE cE e>c|B>ABc A/A/A AE| CEAE cE e>c|dcBA F3d|(c/4d/2<e) (f/4g/2<a) (A/4B/2<c) (c/4d/2<e)|E>dcB A/A/A A||
LADY STOPFORD'S REEL. Scottish, Reel. A Major (Watlen): D Major (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The reel was first published in John Watlen's Celebrated Circus Tunes (Edinburgh, 1791). It was republished some five years later by Glasgow publisher James Aird, with no credit to the source.
The title may refer to Lady Mary Scott, the daughter of Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch and Lady Elizabeth Montagu, born in 1769 at London, England. She married in 1791, the year Watlen published his collection, to James George Stopford, 3rd Earl of Courtown, an Anglo-Irish peer and Tory politician. In 1810 she became the Countess of Courtown when her husband was raised. The couple had had five sons and one daughter, although the two eldest sons died as infants. Lady Mary died in 1823 at Courtown House, Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland, survived by her husband.