Annotation:Honest Men and Bonnie Lasses

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HONEST MEN AND BONNIE LASSES. AKA and see "Duchess of Manchester's Farewell to the Highlands of Scotland." Scottish, Strathspey (4/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The melody under the above title appears in Nathaniel Gow's Fifth Collection (1809), un-attributed. It earlier appeared as "Duchess of Manchester's Farewell to the Highlands of Scotland" by William Marshall (1748-1833) in his First Collection of 1781. Gow's title comes from Scottish poet Robert Burns six-page poem "Tam o'Shanter" [1] (published 1791):

Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonnie lasses.

The name Tam o Shanter for a traditional Scottish bonnet worn by men also derives from the poem.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 545. Gow (Fifth Collection of Strathspey Reels), 1807; p. 27.

Recorded sources:

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