Annotation:Earl of Moira (1) (The)

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 EARL OF MOIRA, THE. AKA and see "Earl of Moira's Welcome to Scotland (The)." Scottish, Slow Strathspey. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB. The tune is attributed to Duncan MacIntyre (as "Earl of Moira's Welcome Home"), an expatriate Scottish dancing master residing in London (who may have gone to India, and died there). The Earl of Moira honored by the tune was Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marqis of Hastings, 2nd Lord Moira (1754-1826) a British soldier and administrator. Moira first made a name for himself in the American Revolution and went on to have a distinguished militory career. In middle age he began a political career and played an active role in the House of Lords where he was a partisan of the Prince of Wales (later George IV). Hastings married Flora Campbell, daughter of the Earl of Loudoun and Countess on her father's death in 1786. In 1813 he went to India as Governor-General of Bengal (in effect the ruler of British India) and was accompanied by his wife and their young children; they were at the center of Calcutta society and took an interest in the arts, partronizing several British as well as Indian painters. Hastings expanded British frontiers in the subcontinent, waged war on the Gurhas of Nepal (1814-16), the marauding Pindaris, and the Marathas, while maintaining a vigourous and progressive government. John Glen {1895} thinks dancing master MacIntyre may have served as a Master of Ceremonies to the Governor-General's Court. In 1817 Moira received the title of Marquis of Hastings, but remained in India until 1823. He died in 1826 while Governor of Malta, outlived by his wife who died in 1840. Robert Tannahill's "Louden's Bonnie Woods and Braes" was composed in 1807 in honor of Lord Moira (to the tune of "Lord Moira's Welcome Home to Scotland." The tune has been adapted for use in other genres: see the Irish fling "Bonnie Scotland (1)," and the southwestern Pennsylvania collected variants "Old Aunt Katy" and "Cluck Old Hen (3)."  Source for notated version:   Printed sources: Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 36.  Recorded sources:

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