Annotation:Lady Cathcart of Earlston
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LADY CATHCART OF EARLSTON. Scottish, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of this tune in print in Ayrshire fiddler-composer biography:John Riddell's Collection of Scots Reels, Minuets &c. for the Violin (1782, p. 21), published in Glasgow by musician and music publisher James Aird.
The tune title may refer to Lady Cathcart of Carleton (there is no 'Earlston' estate), who was born Margaret Hamilton, daughter of Robert Hamilton of Bourtreehill. She married John Cathcart, 2nd Bart. of Carleton, on Christmas Eve, 1764. The couple remained childless. Lord and Lady Cathcart of Carleton were subscribers to poet Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. See also "Sir John Cathcart's Reel."
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Riddell (Collection of Scots Reels, Minuets &c. for the Violin), 1782; p. 21.
Recorded sources:
