Annotation:Colonel Hamilton's Delight
COLONEL HAMILTON'S DELIGHT. AKA and see "Hamilton House (1)," "Honorable Colonel Hamilton's Delight (The)," "New Bumpkin (The)." Scottish, Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC'. "Colonel Hamiton's Delight" was composed by wikipedia:Joseph Reinagle (1762–1836) around 1783 or earlier. Joseph was the English-born son of an Austrian trumpet player who lived in Portsmouth, and first gained prowess on horns. According to Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Joseph gave up playing French Horn and trumpet due to his brother's skill on them, althought later returned to them after the death of his sibling. He transferred his skill to the violin and cello, and gained great fame as a teacher and performer on those instruments. It was Reinagle who taught Nathaniel Gow the cello, and he became leader of the theatre band, St. Cecelia's Hall, Edinburgh. After a two-year stay in Dublin, Reinagle moved to London and became a prominent cellist with orchestras there, and even a principal player for the Haydn and Salomon concerts.
The tune appears in Niel Gow's Strathspey Reels, the Sharpe Manuscript, and Davie's Caledonian Repository. Niel Gow printed it as "The Honorable Colonel Hamilton's Delight," but in a later volume the Gows renamed the tune "New Bumpkin (The)."
The Scottish Country Dance 'Hamilton House' is danced to this tune.
