Annotation:Honorable Miss Charteris (The)
X:1 T:Honourable Miss Charteri's [sic] Reel M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Gow - 3rd Collection of Niel Gow's Reels, 3rd ed., p. 15 (orig. 1792) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Gmin d|gaba {a} Tg2 fd|cdfg {f/g/}agfa|gaba {a}g2 fd|cdfA G/G/G G:||c| (B/c/d) .B.G BdgB|(A/B/c) .A.F AcfA|(B/c/d) .B.G BdgB|{B}A>G^FA G/G/G Gc| (B/c/d) .B.G BdgB|(A/B/c) AF AcfA|Bcde fgfd|cf {d}cA G/G/G G||
HONOURABLE MISS CHARTERIS, THE. AKA - "Miss Charters," "Miss Charteri." Scottish, Reel. G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB: AAB (Lowe). Composed by biography:Daniel Dow, "Miss Charteris" first appears in his c. 1775 collection (p. 7). Dow was an Edinburgh composer and music teacher who lived from 1732 to 1783, and is perhaps most famous as the composer of “Money Musk.” He published a collection of Scots tunes called Thirty-seven new reels and strathspeys (1775) which appears to be the first collection to include the word "strathspey" in its title. His family is known to have stayed in Strathardle and his son (John Dow) was born "at Kirkmichael. Dow, whose first name has been given as Daniel or Donald (both acceptable translations for the Gaelic ‘Domhnull’) was buried in the Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, on January 20th, 1783.
The Earls of Wemyss adopted the name Charteris (absorbing the ill-gotten gains of the infamous Colonel Charteris). The title may honor one of the daughters of Francis Wemyss Charteris, Lord Elcho (1749-1808) and Susan Tracy-Keck, whom he married in July 1771. The daughters were Susan, Augusta, Henrietta and Katherine. See also Malcolm MacDonald's "Miss Chartere’s Reel."
