BARGENNY'S BOWLING GREEN. AKA - "Balgeney's/Balgener's/Balginie's/Ball gownie's Bowling Green." Scottish, English; Jig (6/8 time). England; London, Northumberland. D Aeolian or Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD (Bremner, Glen, Gow, Riddell): AABB (Vickers). Composition of the melody is credited to fiddler-composer biography:John Riddell (1718-95) of Ayr by Glen, Gow, Seattle and others. Seattle (1987) notes Riddell's (or sometimes, Riddle's) best known tune is "Dumfries House," and the composer was alive at the time the Northumbrian musician William Vickers was compiling his large 1770 collection. Glen finds the tune earliest in print in the collections of Riddell (1766, p. 46) and Bremner (1757), and it also appears in the [James] Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768). Bremner's version is set in 12/8 time.
Bargenny House, Ayr, near GirvanBargenny Castle, on the south Ayrshire coast, was a stronghold of the Kennedys of Ayrshire and originally was a tower house enclosed by a courtyard with four-story corner towers. It was demolished in the 17th century to build the three-story mansion of Bargenny, nearby, which possibly incorporated a fortified house. However, the Kennedys sold the estate to John Hamilton in the 1630's, who then became Lord Bargenny. The present Bargenny House dates from 1681, built for the Hamiltons (later Dalrymple Hamiltons, then later Earls of Stair). At the time of Riddell's publications (1766 and 1782) Bargenny was the seat of John Dalrymple, great grandson of the 2nd Lord Bargany, who assumed the name Hamilton. He carried out some alterations to the house and commissioned William Adam, William Bouchart and George Robertson to remodel the grounds. Installing a bowling green by your estate was a fashion for a time, much as a tennis court or swimming pool is today. See also Riddell's "Woods of Bargenny (The)."
18th century London music publisher David Rutherford, apparently unfamiliar with the Scottish name, printed the title as "Ball gownie's Bowling green."
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Bremner (Scots Reels), c. 1757; p. 39 (appears as "Balgeny's Bouling Green"). Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 514. Glen (The Glen Collection of Scottish Dance Music, vol. I), 1891; p. 21. Gow (Complete Repository, Part 2), 1802; p. 33 (appears as "Bargenny Bowling Green"). Riddell (Collection of Scots Reels, Minuets, &c.), 1782; p. 46. David Rutherford (Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances, vol. 2), c. 1775; No. 148, p. 74. Seattle (Great Northern Tune Book/William Vickers), 1987, Part 2; No. 230.
