This is a tune from south of the border that I learned recently but have been aware of for a long time. I’d heard Northumbrian pipers play it and it appears in the Willam Dixon manuscript of 1733 (Matt Seattle’s publication of this manuscript is an essential purchase for all Lowland / Border pipers). I wasn’t inspired to learn the tune until I saw the setting in Robert Riddell’s ‘A Collection of Scotch, Galwegian and Border Tunes‘, published in 1794. Like many of the tunes in Riddel’s collection it is an elaborate variation suite, this one having nine parts, but in the ground (the first two parts) I could hear a tune that I wanted to play.

Riddell has it notated in 2/2 but I think these types of tunes should be played with four beats to the bar so have notated in 4/4 and added it to the 4/4 reel section. I have stripped back many of the 16th notes from Riddell’s setting as it felt too cluttered and busy. I often play 4/4 reels like with a bit of swing on the 16th notes which isn’t reflected in the midi player below.