Annotation:Lads of Leith (1) (The)
X:1 T:Lads of Leath [1], The M:6/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:John Walsh - Caledonian Country Dances (1731, p. 16) N:"London. Printed for and sold by J. Walsh, Music Printer and Instrument maker N:to his Majesty, at ye Harp & Hoboy in Catherine Street the Strand." Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Gmin Bc|d2e2d2 c4 B2|A2B2G2 ^F4D2|G2A2B2 c2A2^F2|G6-G4:|| |:Bc|d2B2b2 a4g2|(f2d2)g2 f4 f2|B3c B2f2d2g2|c3d c2 A3G F2| B2c2B2 c2B2c2|d4G2 ^F3ED2|G2A2B2 c2A2^F2|G6-G4:|]
LADS OF LEITH [1], THE. AKA and see "Beauties of the Ballroom," "Gearrbhodaí Laoise," "Lads of Laois," "Lads of Laoise," "She's Fair and Fause." English, Scottish; Jig and Country Dance. England, Northumberland. G Minor (Oswald, Seattle/Vickers, Young): E Minor (Gatherer). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Gatherer): AABB (Vickers): AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII (Oswald). The melody appears in the Bodleian Manuscript (in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), inscribed "A Collection of the Newest Country Dances Performed in Scotland written at Edinburgh by D.A. Young, W.M. 1740." A few years later James Oswald reprinted it in his Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book III (c. 1747, 1752). It was collected and adapted by the Scots poet Robert Burns as the vehicle for his song "She's Fair and Fause (that causes my smart)," printed in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (No. 398, 1792). Another early setting was mentioned in James C. Dick's book The Songs of Robert Burns (1903) where he states that the Scottish collector John Glen finds "Lads of Leith" in Walsh's Caledonian Country Dances (c. 1744). The jig appears as an untitled 'A' Minor tune in J. Scott Skinner's Beauties of the Ballroom, as the third figure of "Ettrick Vale Quadrille." In Ireland the tune is called "Lads of Laois," and see also "Beauties of the Ballroom," by which name the tune is known on Cape Breton Island.
