Annotation:Miss Burnet's Reel

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X:1 T:Miss Burnet's Reel M:C L:1/8 R:Strathspey K:G (D<G) (G>g) d<GTB2|D<GG<g d<GB<g|(D<G) (G>g) d>G TB2|(c>A)TB>G TA>GE<A:|

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MISS BURNET'S REEL. AKA and see "Miss Jane Stewart (1)," "Miss Jane Stewart's Strathspey--Pittyvaich (1)," "Miss Jane Campbell's Strathspey," "Johnny Pringle" {Gow's title}. Scottish, Strathspey. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by William Marshall (1748-1833) and first published in an attachment (c. 1788) to his 1781 First Collection. In 1822 Marshall included it in his 1822 collection under the title "Miss Jane Stewart's Pittyvaich." The strathspey was called "Johnny Pringle" by Gow when he published it in his Repository, Part Third (1806), undoubtedly in honor of fiddler-composer John Pringle who had published the melody in 1801 under the title "Miss Jane Campbell's Strathspey." Alburger points out that the octave slur in the first measure forces movement to the third position to accomplish.

Miss Burnet was the daughter of James Burnet (1714-1799), Lord Monboddo, and tragically died in “the bloom of her youth”, although not before being immortalized by being included among the subjects of several 18th century paintings. Her father, the Lord, was a man of letters and at the center of Edinburgh intelligencia of the time; he postulated a theory of the origin of the species prior to Darwin (Cowie, The Life and Times of William Marshall, 1999). He was recognized in his day as "learned but eccentric" and his "theory that the human race was originally 'gifted with tails' was the subject of so many jokes." In domestic circumstances Monboddo was particularly unfortunate. His wife, a very beautiful woman, died in child-bed. His son, a promising boy, in whose education he took great delight, was likewise snatched from his affections by a premature death; and his second daughter, in personal loveliness one of the first women of the age, was cut off by consumption when only twenty-five years old. Burns, in an address to Edinburgh, celebrated the beauty and excellence of Miss Burnet: -

Henry Home, Lord Kames; Hugo Arnot; James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, by John Kay (died 1826)

Thy daughters bright thy walks adorn,
Gay as the gilded summer sky,
Sweet as the dewy milk-white thorn,
Dear as the raptured thrill of joy!

Fair Burnet strikes the adoring eye,
Heaven's beauties on my fancy shine;
I see the Sire of love on high,
And own his work indeed divine."

His eldest daughter was married to Kirkpatrick Williamson, Esq., keeper of the outer house rolls who had been clerk to his lordship, and was eminent as a Greek scholar.

See also Robert Mackintosh's reel "Miss Burnet of Monboddo" and Alexander Campbell's strathspey "Miss Burnets of Monbodo's."

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