Annotation:Miss Cumming Bruce
X:1 T:Miss Cumming Bruce C:Sir Archibald Dunbar of Northfield M:C L:1/8 R:Strathspey B:James Taylor – A Collection of Strathspeys & Reels, together with a Set of Scots Quadrilles (Elgin, c. 1835, p. 2) N:”Most respectfully dedicated to Lady Dunbar of Northfield.” Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D D>DFA d>BAF|E>EFA B>ABd|D>DFA d>BAF|A>ABA A>ddB:| d>BAF E>DEF|D>A B/A/G/F/ ADFA|d>BAF E>DEF|A>ABA A>ddB| d>BAF E>DEF|D<A B/A/G/F/ A>DFA|d>BAF E>DEF|D<d B/A/G/F/ A>ddB||
MISS CUMMING BRUCE. Scottish, Strathspey (whole time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Elizabeth Mary Cumming-Bruce (d. 1843) was the only daughter of Major Cumming Bruce of Dunphail and Kinnaird (AKA Charles Lennox Cumming-Bruce of Roseisle and Kinnaird). In 1841 she married James, Lord Bruce, eldest son of the Earl of Elgin, and was styled Countess of Elgin and Kincardine. The marriage was short-lived, as she died two years later. She had one daughter.
During a tour of the north of Scotland in 1838, poet Evan MacColl attended a dinner party hosted by Sir William Gordon-Cumming at Altyre House where Major Cumming-Bruce, his wife and daughter, were present and recorded:
Miss Cumming-Bruce a very delightful girl, an exquisite singer, and having the good sense to prefer Scotch and Highland airs to any foreign music[1].
The composer of the strathspey "Miss Cumming Bruce", Sir Archibald Dunbar, was related to Elizabeth. She was his niece by marriage, as his wife Helen Cumming-Gordon and Elizabeth's father were brother and sister.
- ↑ Evan MacColl, The English Poetical Works of Evan MacColl, 1887, p. 332.