Annotation:Lady Charlotte Durham (1)
X:1 T:Lady Charlotte Durham [1] M:C L:1/8 R:Strathspey Q:"Slow" B:J. Anderson - Anderson's Budget of Strathspeys, Reels & Country Dances B: for the German Flute or Violin (Edinburgh, c. 1820, p. 1) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G D|G<G g<g g>dB>d|G>G (GA/B/) E3 (F/G/)|D>DD>E F>GA>B| c>AB>G A>GE>F|G<G g<g (g/b/)(a/b/) (g/d/)(B/d/)|GG GA/B/ E3 F/G/| D>DD>E F>GA>B|c>ed>F {F}G2G||(B/c/)|.d.d.dg .d.d.d(B/c/)| .d.d.d.g d3 (B/c/)|d<d b>a g>fe>d|(c>B)(A>G) (FE)(FD)| G<G g<g (g/b/)(a/b/) g/d/B/d/|GG(GA/B/) E3F/G/|D>DD>E F>GA>B|c>e dF (F2G)||
LADY CHARLOTTE DURHAM [1]. Scottish, Strathspey. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. One of the 197 compositions claimed by Nathaniel Gow (1763-1831), and one of the ones which "shows Nathaniel at his best" (Emmerson, 1971). John Glen (1895) agrees, listing it among those of Gow's "exceedingly good melodies". Lady Charlotte Matilda Bruce (1771-1816) was the only surviving daughter of the 9th Earl of Kincardine, and sister to the Earl of Elgin. She married a highly distinguished naval officer, Admiral Sir Philip Durham (1763-1845), on March 28, 1799, who "courted in society and generously spen(t) an ample fortune". She died at Edinburgh in 1816, without issue.
Lady Charlotte evidently loved to dance, as we see in this excerpt from a London paper called The Star (06/01/1799), which reported on a recent ball at Oatlands Palace, Surrey, England:
At the fete given by Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of York, at Oatlands on the 30th of May (1799), the dances were as follows: 1. Ramah Droog. 2. Miss Murray of Auchtertyre. 3. The Tartan Plaidie. 4. Lady Harriet Hope's Reel. And lastly, the enchanting tune of Miss Gordon [Garden] of Troupe's Strathspey was called for by Princess Augusta, and danced twice over by all the fet. Between the second and third dance, Their Majesties desiring to see the Highland Reel in all its purity, it was danced by the Marquis of Huntley and the Lady Georgiana Gordon, Colonel Erskine and Lady Charlotte Durham, with all the elastic motion, hereditary character, and boundless variety of the Scottish dance.
See also "Lady Charlotte Bruce's Favorite", "Lady Charlotte Bruce," and "Lady Charlotte Durham (2)." Additional notes at Annotation:Lady Charlotte Bruce."
