Annotation:Little Bench of Rushes (1)
X:1 T:Bench of Rushes, The T:Little Bunch of Rushes [1] M:C| L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Slow" B:Smollet Holden - Collection of favourite Irish Airs (London, c. 1841; p. 17) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Dmin (A/B/c/d/4e/4)|~f3g agfe|d4 edcA|c4 dcAG|A2A2!fermata!A2 (A/B/c/d/4e/4)| ~f3g agfe|d4 edcA|c4 dcAG|TE3D D2:| |:DE|~F3G A2A2|AGFE F3 F/A/|c2f2 d>cAG|A2A2!fermata!A2 (A/B/c/d/4e/4)| ~f3g agfe|d4 (ed)cA|c4 (dc)AG|TE3D D2:|]
LITTLE BENCH OF RUSHES [1] (An Beinsín Luacra). AKA - "Bench of Rushes." AKA and see "Bonny Bunch of Roses (2) (The)." Irish, Air (4/4 time, "gracefully"). D Minor (Holden, O'Neill): D Dorian (Darley & McCall). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Haverty, O'Neill): AABB (Holden). Darley & McCall note the air became popular in Ireland and was adapted in England to a Napoleonic ballad called "The Bonny Bunch of Roses, O!" Both titles are allegorical, with "The Bonny Bunch of Roses" being England and "The Little Bench of Rushes" standing for Ireland. O'Neill's setting is similar to uilleann piper O'Farrell's "Bunch of Rushes (2) (The)," printed a hundred years earlier, and is also similar to O'Neill's own "Bonny Bunch of Roses (2) (The)."
The tune is unrelated to the similarly-titled "Bunch of Green Rushes (2) (The)", which is a variant of the "Black Rogue (1)" family of jigs.