Annotation:Lady Caroline Bertie
X:1 T:Lady Caroline Bertie M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance Tune B:William Cahusac – The German Flute Preceptor (c. 1814, p. 19) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D F/G/|Afed|(c/d/c/B/) AF/G/|AF/G/ AF|EAA F/G/| Afed|(c/d/c/B/) AF/G|A/G/ AF|(E/D/E/F/) D|| (d/c/)(d/B/) AF|(d/c/)(d/B/) AF|(d/c/)(d/B/) AF|EAA (B/c/)| (d/c/)(d/B/) AF|(d/c/)(d/B/) AF|(d/c/)(d/B/) Af|{f}(e/d/e/f/) d2|| .f(f/d/) .g(g/e/)|.c(c/A/) .a(a/g/)|.f(f/d/) .g(g/e/)|.c(c/A/) d2| .f(f/d/) .g(g/e/)|.c(c/A/) a(a/g/)|.f(f/d/) .g(g/e/)|.c(c/A/) d2||
LADY CAROLINE BERTIE. English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). Lady Caroline Bertie (1788-1870) was the only daughter of Willoughby Bertie (1740-1799), 4th Earl of Abingdon and Charlotte Warren. Her father earned himself the reputation of a political maverick. His obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine remarked that "his frequent speeches in the House of Peers were peculiarly eccentric". An outspoken critic of Lord North and his administration, he rigorously defended the liberties of the American colonies, yet denounced the French Revolution as a threat to "the Peace, the Order, the Subordination, the Happiness of the whole habitable Globe." He argued that the movement for the abolition of the slave trade was simply the result of a "new philosophy" inspired by the new French republic. Bertie's extravagant lifestyle also led to financial insolvency, necessitating the periodic sale of his various estates and properties.
Lady Caroline wed in 1821 to Charles Baillie-Hamilton, a British Conservative Party politician, and had two sons and two daughters. Hamilton, who was twelve years Caroline's junior, was for some time in the army, but resigned after his marriage. A contemporary, the Irish beauty Frances Pery Calvert, opined: "I do not admire Lady Caroline; she seems very silly"[1].
- ↑ Warrenne Blake An Irish Beauty of the Regency, 1911, p. 85. The unpublished journals of the Hon. Mrs. Calvert 1789-1822.