Annotation:Miss Fordyce Ayton
X:1 T:Miss Fordyce of Ayton's Favorite Reel C:Robert Mackintosh M:C L:1/8 R:Reel B:Robert Mackintosh – “A Fourth Collection of New Strathspey Reels, also some Famous old Reels” (1804, p. 25) N:Dedicated to the Dutchess [sic] of Manchester N:Robert “Red Rob” Mackintosh (c. 1745-1808) was a Scottish violinist and N:composer active in Edinburgh at the end of the 18th century. Originally from N:Tullymet, near Pitlochry, Perthshire. He moved to London in the last decade N:of his life. Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:F c|A2 (FA) BdfB|Acfa g(GGB)|A2 (FA) BdfB|AcBG AFF:| c|AFcA BGdB|AfcA (BGGB)|AFcA Bcde|fcdB (AFFB)| AFcA BGdB|Acea g(GG)B|Acf_e dBgf|(e/f/g) (cb) aff||
MISS FORDYCE (OF) AYTON. AKA - "Miss Fordyce of Ayton's Favorite Reel." Scottish, Reel. E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Composed by 'Red Rob' Biography:Robert Mackintosh (c 1745–1807), a late 18th century violinist and composer. The scion of the Fordyce family was an Edinburgh lawyer who brought up the Ayton estate in Berwick along with several other forfeited estates in 1715 in the aftermath of the first Jacobite rebellion. The head of the family at the time of Mackintosh's publication was John Fordyce (1735–1809), a banker whose fortunes took a disastrous turn in 1772. Despite this blow to his reputation his social life did not seem to be irreparably harmed. Boswell saw him in Edinburgh in 1779 and wrote:
I took no manner of notice of him, as I have all along thought that his living in plenty while numbers have been reduced to indigence by him, is (without going deeper) such dishonesty that he ought not to receive any countenance. Besides, his manners are forward and assuming, and he is a fellow of low extraction.
The tune presumably honors one of his daughters, Eglantine, Madeline and Catherine (the youngest daughter, who married in 1803). See also Annotation:Mrs. Fordyce of Ayton's Strathspey for more on the family.
