Annotation:Mrs. Grant of Laggan's Favorite
X:1 T:Mrs. Grant of Laggan’s Favorite C:Donald Grant M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig B:Donald Grant – Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Jigs &c. (1820-21, p. 16) B:The volume was perhaps first issued c. 1790, from a penciled note in a copy. N:The collection was dedicated to Mrs. Col. Grant of Grant (“Sir James and N:Lady Grant of Grant”). S: https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/105814002 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D A|d2e f2d|fed cBA|dcB AGF|BGE E2A| d2e f2d|fed cBA|BdB cec|d3 D2:| |:A|FDF AFA|BGB AFD|FDF AGF|GEE E2A| FDF AFA|BGB AFA|BdeB cec|d3 D3:|
MRS. GRANT OF LAGGAN'S FAVORITE. Scottish, Jig (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Mrs. Grant of Laggan's Favorite" was composed by Elgin fiddler-composer biography:Donald Grant," and published in his Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Jigs &c. (1820-21[1]).
Mrs. Anne Grant (1755 – 1838) was born Anne MacVicar in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1755 the daughter of an army officer who was stationed in America during the Seven Years War. The family accompanied him and they settled in Albany, New York, where she lived among Dutch and British colonists, spending a good deal of time with Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, the wife of General Philip Schuyler. In 1779, when the MacVicar family was stationed at Fort Agustus, Scotland, she married an army chaplain, James Grant, and with him had twelve children[2] He was assigned a church in Laggan where she learned Gaelic and immersed herself in Scottish folklore. James died in 1801 leaving her without an income, and, urged on by friends, she published a book of poems by subscription whose success determined her to write further. Anne published many popular books during her lifetime, including “Letters From The Mountains” (1806), which featured correspondence to some of her friends, including Miss Dunbar of Boath, who is named in another of Donald Grant's tunes. She eventually became connected to the literati of the day, numbering among her friendships Sir Walter Scott and Francis Jeffrey. Anne Grant was also a correspondent of Mr. George Thompson (1757-1851), and several of her contributions appeared in Thompson’s Select collections, alongside those of Robert Burns. Anne also visited Burns' widow, Jean Armour, at her house in Dumfries in 1820, and gave a much quoted, and favorable description of Burns’ widow.
Several of Anne's poems were addressed to Helen Dunbar, and the following is an extract from “To Miss Dunbar of Boath” taken from “The Highlanders and Other Poems” (1803).
Helen by every sympathy allied,
By love of virtue and by love of song,
Compassionate in youth, and beauty’s pride,
To thee those grateful artless lays belong,
For warmly in thy heart the flame of friendship glows,
And sweetly from thy lips the voice of comfort flows.
died in Edinburgh on November 8, 1838;
