Annotation:Miss Ann Graham of Fintry’s Strathspey

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MISS ANN GRAHAM OF FINTRY'S STRATHSPEY. Scottish, Strathspey. B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Composed by Ediburgh fiddler-composer and music publisher biography:William Shepherd. Ann(e) Graham of Fintry was the eldest daughter of Robert Graham of Fintry and his wife, a second cousin of his own by name Margaret Elizabeth Mylne of Mylnefield, at Dundee. They married in 1773 and had numberous children, but he was not good with money and sold the estate of Fintry, although the family retained the name. Anne herself married 6th September 1809, General the Honable. J. Brodrick, son of George, third Viscount Middleton, and had by him a son who died unmarried, and three daughters.

The Grahams of Fintry were friends of poet Robert Burns, who inscribed a copy of the first volume of his poems (1793):

TO MRS GRAHAM OF FINTRY.

It is probable, Madam, that this page may be read when the hand that now writes it, is mouldering in the dust - May it then bear witness, that I present you these volumes, as a tribute of gratitude, on my part, ardent & sincere; as your & Mr Graham’s goodness to me has been generous & noble!--May every child of yours, in the hour of need, find such a FRIEND, as I shall teach every child of mine that their father found in YOU!

Robt. Burns.

He wrote a rather elegic poem in 1794 for Anne, entitled "To Miss Graham of Fintry":

Here, where the Scottish Muse immortal lives,
In sacred strains and tuneful numbers joined,
Accept the gift; though humble he who gives,
Rich is the tribute of the grateful mind.

So may no ruffian-feeling in my breast,
Discordant, jar thy bosom-chords among;
But Peace attune thy gentle soul to rest,
Or Love, ecstatic, wake his seraph song,

Or Pity's notes, in luxury of tears,
As modest Want the tale of woe reveals;
While conscious Virtue all the strains endears,
And heaven-born Piety her sanction seals.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Shepherd (2nd Collection of Strathspey Reels), 1800.

Recorded sources:

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