Annotation:Lady Elinor Butler's Reel
X:1 T:Lady Elinor Butler's Reel M:C L:1/8 R:Reel B:Smollet Holden - A Favourite Collection of Dances for the Present Season (Dublin, 1805) K:F B|A/F/F FF Acfc|A/F/F FF EGGB|A/F/F FF Acfc|BGAF DF F2:| f|cffa gfaf|bgaf {a}gfdf|cffa gfag|fdcA FF/F/F| cffa gfaf|bgaf efgb|afca gcAf|dbag fdcB||
LADY ELINOR BUTLER'S REEL. AKA - "Miss Elliner Butler's Reel." Irish, Reel (whole time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Researcher Conor Ward finds the first strain is cognate with the first strains of "Diamond (1)" and "Bunch of Roses (1)" (both in Ryan's Mammoth Collection), while "Miss Butler's Reel" (from a music manuscript copybook of 'Master' McDermott, collected and published by Brendan Breathnach) is cognate in both parts. Ward also finds the tune in several fiddlers' manuscripts from County Leitrim, entered with title variations such as "Miss Eleanor Butler's Reel," "Miss Butler's Reel," "Miss Elliner Butler's Reel," etc.
Lady Eleanor Butler (1739-1829) was a member of the powerful Butler family in Ireland, Earls and later Dukes. She was educated abroad in a convent and spoke fluent French, and was one of the modestly famous literary Ladies of Llangollen [1], after she and her life partner, Sarah Ponsonby, removed to the village of that name in North Wales where they lived for some fifty years. They denied a sexual relationship, but rather had an intimate romantic friendship, and, as time went by they were viewed somewhat as a curiosity by the literary establishment, many of whom came to visit them in their cottage.