Annotation:Lady Mary Montague
X:1 T:Lady Mary Montague’s Reel C:J. MacDonald M:C| L:1/8 R:Strathspey B:John Bowie – “Collection of strathspey reels & country dances &c.” B:(Edinburgh, c. 1789, p. 19) F:https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/104982626 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D V:1 B|AFdF TA2 FA|BGAF GEEG|FADF GBEd|ceAc dDD:| g|fdad Tf2 df|gfed ceeg|fdad fadf|gbag fdda| fdad Tf2 df|gfed ceeg|TB2 GB ceAc|dfeg fd d|| V:2 clef = bass z|D,,2D,2F,2D,2|E,2D,2D,2A,,2|D,2F,2E,2G,2|A,2A,,2D,2D,,:| z|D,2F,2D2D,2|E,2^G,2A,2C2|D2F,2D,2F,2|E,2A,,2D,2F,2| D,2F,2D2D,2|E,2^G,2A,2C2|D2G,2A,2z2|A,2A,,2D,3||
LADY MARY MONTAGUE. Scottish, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune was composed by James MacDonald, and first appears in the c. 1789 collection of Perthshire fiddler-composer biography:John Bowie. MacDonald as one of the professional fiddlers who contributed to the Gow collections, and made his living by playing and composing. One Lady Mary Montagu (1689-1762, probably not the one for whom this tune was composed, but perhaps illustrative of a family dancing tradition) wrote from Vienna in 1717: "The ball always concludes with English Country Dances to the number of thirty or forty couples, and [they are] so ill danced that there is very little pleasure in them" (Emmerson, 1972).
See also the Irish variants of MacDonald's tune, under the names "Carrowcastle Lass," "Joe O'Dowd's Reel," "Lass of Carrowcastle (1) (The)," "Morrison's Reel (3)," and "Miss Langford."
