Annotation:Foot it Feathy
Appearance
FOOT IT FEATHY. AKA - "Foot it, Featly." AKA and see "Drummond Castle (2)." Scottish, Reel. A Mixolydian/Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. A 'double-tonic' melody composed by John Turnbull (according to James Manson), suitable as a pipe reel (which it is in William Ross's 1869 collection as "Drummond Castle (2)"). "Feathy" is a misprint on the page with the music notation in MacDonald's publication, as the word is spelled "Featly" in the index. Indeed, foot it, featly is a Shakespearean phrase meaning to dance nimbly, as when Ariel sings:
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Courtsied when you have and kiss'd
The wild waves whist,
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.