Annotation:Seymour's Fancy
X:1 T:Seymour's Reel M:C L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Preston's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1793 (No. 227, p. 94) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G G2 BG BddB|c2 ec eggB|G2 BG Bcdg|edcB A2G2:|| g2 bg afed|edef gdBG|g2 bg agfd|edef g2 ga| bagf gfed|edef gdBG|cBcd efge|dcBA G2G2||
SEYMOUR’S FANCY. AKA and see “Comely Jane Downing.” AKA – “Seymour’s Reel," "Lord Seymour's Reel.” English, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The melody was first printed in Preston’s Twenty-Four Country Dances for the Year 1793 (London) as “Seymour’s Reel.” Francis O'Neill printed a very close version in his Music of Ireland (1903) under the title "Comely Jane Downing," a title that honors the daughter of his next door neighbor and flute teacher in his boyhood hone of Trailibane, County Cork. He later must have come across the correct title, for he included it as "Seymour's Fancy" in his later volume Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922). This suggests he learned the tune, sans title, in Ireland, perhaps via farmer Downing. County Leitrim piper and fiddler Stephen Grier (c. 1824-1894) included the reel as "Lord Seymour's Reel" in Book 2 of his c. 1883 music manuscript collection. See also versions under the titles "Larry Bourn," "Lord Summer's Reel," "Tady's Wattle," "Tory Burn Lasses," and "Torry Burn Lasses."