Annotation:Lady Caroline Bligh's Reel
X:1 T:Lady Catherine Bligh’s Reel C:Robert Mackintosh M:C L:1/8 R:Reel B:Robert Mackintosh – “A Fourth Collection of New Strathspey Reels, B:also some Famous old Reels” (c. 1804, p. 35) 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:Bb f|(d/c/B/A/) BF DB,FD|ECed cGcA|(BABF) GBeg|fedc dBB|| f|fbab fbdB|ecdB (Acce)|dbdf egce|dfAc dBBf| dbab fbdB|ecfB (AccA)|BFDF GBEG|AcFe dBB||
The reel was composed by Edinburgh fiddler-composer and bandleader biography:Robert Mackintosh (c. 1745-1808) as "Lady Catherine Bligh's Reel." "Nimble Fingers (1), printed in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), is nearly identical, save for a change of key. Both tunes are cognate versions of "Miss Thornton’s Reel."
The tune appears in the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper Canon biography:James Goodman, who included another version of the reel under the title "Down the Street."