Annotation:Lament for the Death of Lady Dunbar of Northfield
X:1 T:Lament for the Death of Lady Dunbar of Northfield C:William Christie (1778-1849) N:Christie was a dancing master, fiddler N:and composer from Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire. M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Slow" B:Christie - Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Hornpipes, B:Waltzes &c. (Edinburgh, 1820, p. 37) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Gmin (G/A/)|(B2A) (G2~^F)|GD=E .F.C z/A/|B2-A G2-~^F|.G(Bc) {Bc}d2 (B/d/)| fBd {d}Tc2B|ABG .F.C z/D/|E2-D C2-B,|A,D^F G2:| |:(d/e/)|f2g f2e|(de)c .d.B (d/f/)|g2d {d}b2g|(fd)Tc {Bc}B2 (g/a/)| b2B f2B|AdG ^.F.D z/D/|E2-D C2-B,|A,D^F G2:|]
LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF LADY DUNBAR OF NORTHFIELD. Scottish, Slow Air (6/8 time). G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This lament was composed by Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire, fiddler-composer, dancing master and postmaster biography:William Christie (1778-1849). Lady Dunbar was Helen Penuel Cumming, the second daughter to Sir Alexander Penrose Gordon Cumming of Altyre and Gordonstown, by his wife Helen, daughter of Sir Ludovick Grant of Grant, and grand-daughter of James Earl of Findlater and Seafield. Young Helen married Sir Archiblad Dunbar of Northfield, 6th Baronet, on Nov. 6th, 1794. The couple had sixteen (!) children; nine sons and seven daughters, although only four of them seem to have survived to adulthood. She died in 1819, having produced a child every sixteen months or so after her wedding.