Annotation:Lord Airlie
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LORD AIRLEY. AKA - "Lord Airly's Reel." Scottish, Reel. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Gow): AABB (Athole). Composition of the melody was claimed by Niel Gow (1727-1807), or for him by his son Nathaniel, although John Glen (1895) insists the tune was published earlier by another composer. He was probably referring to Biography:Malcolm MacDonald of Dunkeld, who published the tune in his 3rd Collection, a volume dedicated to Miss Drummond of Perth.
The seat of the Ogilvie family, Lords Airlie, is Cortachy Castle, in north-western Angus, near the River Esk. Lord Airlie in Gow's time was David, Lord Ogilvie, who had gone out for Bonnie Prince Charlie in the rising of 1744. After the defeat at Culloden, Ogilvie managed to escape to France, where he found service with the Bourbon king who made him a Knight of St. Louis. Upon his father's death in 1761, Ogilvie syled himself Earl of Airlie, though of course his titles had been forfeit. He disdained to have anything to do with French service after the French Revolution and the execution of King Louis XVI, and refused Napoleon's offer of his pension, which had been in arrears. Ogilvie was finally allowed to come home, and died at Cortachy at the age of 79. However, more interesting is the story of his ardently Jacobite wife, Margaret, Lady Ogilvie--another tale.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 269. Gow (Fourth Collection of Strathspey Dances), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 28. MacDonald (A Third Collection of Strathspey Reels), c. 1792; p. 3. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 235.
Recorded sources:
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