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Annotation:Lady Susan Stewart's Reel
X: 1 T:Lady Susan Stewart's Reel P:Hold the Lass 'till I Get at Her C:Caledonian Country Dances c.1754 B:RSCDS 5-9 Z:Anselm Lingnau <anselm@strathspey.org> R:Reel (8x32) M:C| L:1/8 F:http://www.john-chambers.us/~jc/music/abc/mirror/AnselmLingnau/Lady_Susan_Stewarts_Reel_AL.abc K:G "Am"A2 eg "D"fd"C"ec|"Am"A2 eg "G"BGdB|"Am"Aeeg "D"fd"C"eg|"D"fe"G"dg BGdB| "Am"A2 eg "D"fd"C"ec|"Am"A2 eg "G"BGdB|"Am"Aeeg "D"fd"C"eg|"D"fe"G"dg BGdB|| "Am"A2 a2 "D"fd"C"ec|"Am"A2 a2 "G"BGdB|"Am"A2 a2 "D"fd"C"eg|"D"fe"G"dg BGdB|| "Am"A2 a2 "D"fd"C"ec|"Am"A2 a2 "G"BGdB|"Am"A2 a2 "D"fd"C"eg|"D"fe"G"dg BGdB|]
LADY SUSAN STEWART'S REEL. AKA and see "Had the Lass Till I Win at Her," "Haud the Lass Till I Come at Her," "Hold the Bonny Lass," "Hod the Lass, Hod the Lass While I Run at Her," "Ha'd the Lass Till I Win at Her," "Lads of Boot." Scottish, Reel (cut time). A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The reel was published under several titles in the London in the 1750's by leading music publishers of the time. First, it was printed by John Johnson (1750) as "Lads of Boot" in his Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances vol. 5. Towards the middle of the decade (1754) it appeared as "Lady Susan Stewart's Reel" in one of several Caledonian Country Dances volumes published by John Walsh. At the end of the decade, in 1759, publisher David Rutherford included the reel in his Compleat Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country Dances vol. 2, albeit under the title "Had the Lass till I win at her" ("Haud the Lass Till I Come at Her"), a title that appears in other collections and manuscripts with several variations in spelling. Rutherford's "Had the Lass..." title was not original with him, however, for it was entered into Scottish dancing master and musician David Young's MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1740, p. 42), and was printed in Edinburgh in 1757, a few years before Rutherford, by Robert Bremner.
The title may refer to Lady Susanna Stewart (1742-1805), the daughter of Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway, although she would have been quite young (at age 12) to have had Walsh's version of the dance and tune dedicated to her. Susanna was also known as Lady Susan Stewart, and married Granville Leveson-Gower in 1768. In 1786 she became the Marchioness of Stafford when her husband was raised. He was a career diplomat and teh British Ambassador to Russia for a time. The family was also involved in the politics and society of Stafford. It is thought the Malcolm MacDonald's 1788 "Lady Susan Stewart's Strathspey" refers to Lady Susanna's niece, also named Lady Susan Stewart.
