Annotation:Grand Hornpipe (2)

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GRAND HORNPIPE [2]. AKA and see "Port Einon Whim", “Mympwy Portheinon." English, Hornpipe. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Source Henry Stables (c. 1810-c. 1895) lived in Walthwaite, Langdale, in the Lake District of the old county of Westmoreland (now Cumbria), and was a boot and clog maker by trade. He later moved to Ambleside and started a shoe business which remained a family concern through the generations to sometime in the 1960's. He was a pupil of Langdale, Cumbria, fiddler William Irwin (1822-1889), who, while a younger man, was an accomplished and semi-professional area musician in demand for pub gigs and local events. At age 81, in 1891, Henry ascended Scafell Pike (the highest mountain in England at 3,209 feet), via Rosset Ghyll, reaching the summit before noon at the end of a six-hour walk from Chapel Stile (according to a contemporary account in the Westmoreland Gazette). An earlier source for the tune is the c. 1817 music manuscript book of Charlotte Louisa Talbot as "Port Einon Whim" or “Mympwy Portheinon."

Source for notated version: Henry Stables' manuscript Book of Walthwaite (1881) [Knowles].

Printed sources: Callaghan (Hardcore English), 2007; p. 18. Knowles (A Northern Lass), 1995; p. 27.

Recorded sources: The Boat Band - "Trip to the Lakes" (2006).




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