Comely Garden

 COMELY GARDEN. Scottish, Reel. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. One of the most celebrated compositions by Donald (sometimes Daniel) Dow (1732-83) originally of Kirkmichael, Perthshire. John Glen (1891) believes the earliest printing of the tune in Daniel Dow's c. 1775 collection (p. 10), although it had appeared earlier in the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768). It is one of the "missing tunes" from William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript and was also later published by the Gows. In the opinion of Mr. Troup of Ballater (as cited by David Baptie in Musical Scotland, Past and Present, 1894, p. 46) "Comely Garden" is among the dozen or so of Dow's best compositions. Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 410. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 3, 1806; p. 24. Köhlers’ Violin Repository, Book 2, 1881-1885, p. 119. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 13.

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