Annotation:Cadgers of the Canongate

Back to 

 CADGERS OF THE CANNONGATE. Scottish; Strathspey, Fling or Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB' (Carlin, Kerr): AAB (Bremner, Gow, Neil, Skye). The Cannongate is a famous street of some antiquity in Edinburgh which links the Castle and Holyrood Place. Robin Williamson (1976) explains that a 'cadger' was originally a word for a 'carrier', or one who whose job it was to ferry about customers in sedan chairs. He suggests the word may have derived from the tinker's cant word 'gadgie', meaning a man, and notes that in more recent times it has come to mean a beggar or someone who wheedles or sponges something. There was atone time a country dance of the same name, written down in 1752 for his students by one John McGill, at the time a dancing master in Girvan (Alburger). Glen (1891) finds the tune first published in Robert Bremner's collection (1757, p. 51), though it also appears in Lowe's Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Jigs. London publishers Charles and Samuelt Thompson included it in their Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1, also published in 1757 (as "Codger's in the Cannongate").  Source for notated version: Bobby McLeod [Williamson].  Printed sources: Bremner (Scots Reels), 1757; p. 51. Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; p. 106, No. 183. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; p. 12. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 4; No. 106, p. 13. Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 6, p. 8. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 78. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1), 1757; No. 29. Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; p. 66.  Recorded sources: Beltona BL 260 (78 RPM), Bobby McLeod's Highland Dance Band.

Back to