Annotation:Sir Robert Peel
X:1 T:Sir Robert Peel M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Stewart-Robertson – The Athole Collection (1884) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Bb F|~B2 FE DB,FD|CccB AFcA|~B2 FE DB,FD|CcAF ~B2 B:| e|dBfB dBfB|GccB AFFe|dBfB dBfB|GcAF ~B2 B||
SIR ROBERT PEEL. Scottish, Reel. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Sir Robert Peel" was composed by biography:William Marshall (1748-1833). Peel was the son of Robert Peel, a Lancashire industrialist who became minister for Ireland in the second decade of the 19th century was was known for his support of the Protestant Church of Ireland over the more popular native Catholic Church. This garnered him a reputation as a strict Tory, the Party of the established British Church, and the nickname 'Orange Peel.' Peel founded the modern police service, lending his name to the slang word ‘peelers’ for policmen. He was Prime Minister three times from 1834 to 1846, finally voted out of office during the beginning of the Great Famine in Ireland.
A version of the the reel appears under the title "Miss Brander (2)" in Donald Grant's Collection of Strrathspey Reels, Jigs, &c. (1820-21) with a cognate first strain and a second strain that is harmonically congruent and uses very similar melodic material. Fr. John Quinn also suggests the tune is a "first cousin" of "Countess of Louden's Reel."
