Annotation:Lord Fife's Welcome to Elgin
X:1 T:Lord Fife’s Welcome to Elgin C:Donald Grant M:C L:1/16 R:Strathspey B:Donald Grant – Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Jigs &c. (1820-21, p. 19) B:The volume was perhaps first issued c. 1790, from a penciled note in a copy. N:The collection was dedicated to Mrs. Col. Grant of Grant (“Sir James and N:Lady Grant of Grant”). S: https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/105814035 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:A d2|ce3e3c d3BB3d|c3AF3A G3EE3d|ce3e3c d3BB3a|{a}g3e (gf).e.^d e4 (e>=d)| ce3e2c2 d3BB3d|c3AF3B G3EE3d |c3eA3c d3fB3a|{a}g3e (gf).e.^.d e4d2|| cd|e3ca3c d3BB3d|c3AF3B G2E2E2cd|e3ca3c d3BB3a|{a}g3e (gf).e.^.d e4 e2c=d| e3ca3c d3BB3d|c3AF3B G3EE3d|ceA3c d3fe3d|{d}c3A (cB).A.G A4 A2||
LORD FIFE'S WELCOME TO ELGIN. Scottish, Strathspey (whole time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Lord Fife's Welcome to Elgin" was composed by Elgin fiddler-composer biography:Donald Grant and published in his Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Jigs &c. (1820-21). The title of Donald Grant's strathspey may be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the near conflict of large groups of men loyal to the Whigs and their leading magnate, Lord Fife, and the Tories, led by Colonel Grant of Grant. In another sense, it was the last event in the long centuries of sporadic conflict between Highlanders and Lowlanders, between two different ways of life in one country, Scotland. The Tories had long been secure in their control of Elgin town, but in 1820 there came an opportunity for the Whigs to unseat them in the upcoming election for the representative Member of Parliament due to a confluence of events whereby key Grants (including Colonel Grant) were absent. Whig partisans abducted key Grant voting members of the local council and made sure they could not return in time for the vote. The Highland clans of Strathspey marched to Castle Grant to protect their leaders, while Fife men also gathered to oppose them. At the 11th hour violence was averted, and at the council meeting held in March of that year, protracted legal bickering resulted in the election of the Grant candidate, Archibald Farquharson, who remained M.P. for Elgin Burghs until 1826[1].
Donald Grant, who dedicated his collection to 'Mrs. Colonel Grant of Grant' and who composed many tunes for the Grant family and their aristocratic friends, would of course have been a Grant partisan, and thus his (probably) satiric title for the tune.
