Annotation:Captain Charles Leith Hay's Reel
X:1 T:Captain Charles Leith Hay's Reel (Royal Aberdeenshire Highlanders) C:Alexander Walker M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Walker - Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Marches etc. (1866, p. 40) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion F:http://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/105875554 K:E f|e2 ce BGGc|BGeG (B2 B)d|e2 ce BGGc|BGFE (F2F)d| e2 ce BGGc|BGeG (B2B)e|gbfg efgf|ecBG (F2F)|| f|geBe ceBe|defg (a2 a)b|geBe ceBG|AGFE DFFf| geBe ceBe|defg (a2 a)b|gefd ecBG|AcBd eagf||
CAPTAIN CHARLES LEITH HAY'S REEL. Scotland, Reel (cut time). E Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB: ABB'. Composed by biography:Alexander Walker. Charles Leith-Hay was a military man who began his career as a Lieutenant with the Royal Aberdeenshire Highlanders, a militia unit that became the 3rd Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders. He is recorded as having resigned his commission in May, 1860, but was reinstated in 1862. He was promoted to Captain the next year, and was granted the honorary rank of Major in August, 1880. Leith Hay served in the regiment with a son of Sir Charles Forbes of Newe, Alexander Walker's employer, and was a friend of the family. See also Walker's composition "Royal Aberdeenshire Highlanders' (The)."
Captain Leith Hay was a guest at Castle Newe, Sir Charles's seat in western Aberdeenshire, when Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their daughters, the Princesses Alice and Helena, stopped to visit and take refreshment during a tour of Strathdon in September, 1859. Sir Charles introduced his guests, including Colonel John Forbes, C.B., Mr. Sept. Carlisle, Captain Mantagu Battye (Lady Forbes's brother, as well as Charles Leith Hay, to her Majesty. The Royal Visit was fairly brief however, for the Queen and her party returned to their Scottish estate of Balmoral that day.