FEATHERS [1], THE. Scottish, Scots Measure (whole time). B Flat Major (McGlashan, Thompson): D Major (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. Published in Aird (Selection, vol. 2) and McGlashan (Scots Measures), cited below. The melody also appears in Charles and Samuel Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances, vol. 4 (London, 1780) and in Neil Stewart's Selection Collection of Scots, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, Jiggs & Marches (Edinburgh, c. 1788). The tune seems to have been published in English and Scottish volumes at nearly the same time, and provenance is uncertain. A manuscript version appears in American fiddler John Turner's commonplace book (Norwich, Conn., 1788).
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Aird (Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. II), 1785; No. 129, p. 47. McGlashan (A Collection of Scots Measures), 1780?; p. 2. Thompson (Compleat Coll. of 200 Favourite Country Dances Vol. IV]), 1780; No. 75
