Page 8 - What's In A Name - The Barry Pipes Canon

WHAT’S IN A NAME? The Barry Pipes Canon • 2005 - 2018 The Haddington Assembly 015-2008-March-Set&Link
Visiting Edinburgh any time soon? Why not take the opportunity to travel east for about 20 miles on the Great North Road (a.k.a. the A1) to Haddington, the county town of East Lothian. With a long and illustrious history extending back to the eleventh century, although less well known in modern times, Haddington is believed to be the birthplace of the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland,
John Knox, in or around the year 1510.
The word “Assembly” can of course be construed to mean any gathering of people for a range of purposes. Time was, however, when its connotation also meant a particular location where dancing would be held. In other words, a Ballroom! In my English home town of Derby (with very significant Jacobite connections around 1745), the premier ballroom was called The Assembly Rooms — but that is another story.
In the fourteenth century, Haddington’s growth and importance made it the fourth largest city in Scotland after Edinburgh, Dundee, and Aberdeen. It still proudly maintains the largest parish church in Scotland, St. Mary’s, which is not Presbyterian by affiliation, as one might have thought, but Church of Scotland.
The Duke of Atholl’s Reel 016-2008-April-Set&Link
Is this a really old dance? Surely no contemporary SCD deviser would be creating a reel in jig tempo! Yet the dance does come from RSCDS Book 16, issued as recently as 1951. But here’s the real question: which Duke of Atholl is at reference?
There have been eleven Dukes of Atholl since 1703, and several centuries’ worth of Earls existed before them. In days of yore, Picts of the first century even had a King of Atholl. The incumbent 11th Duke, John Murray, is a seventy-nine-year-old South African, born in Johannesburg, who only infrequently visits the family seat at Blair Castle. Of significance is that these Atholl folks all seemed to be Murrays. In fact, Blair Castle, which is just a few minutes’ drive up the road from Pitlochry, is the Murray clan headquarters.
Of particular interest, the Dukes of Atholl legally own a private army... the Atholl Highlanders. This hundred-man unit, complete with pipes and drums, is recruited from within the Atholl estates and is unconnected with the British Army. Its status appears to be unique throughout Britain and Europe. Originally formed as the 77th Regiment of Foot and later disbanded, this unit was reactivated by the 6th Duke of Atholl in the 1830s as his personal ceremonial bodyguard, with Queen Victoria’s consent. They were also used as Victoria’s regimental escort when she was in the area, or on her way to nearby Balmoral Castle.
From Set&Link, newsletter of RSCDS Toronto
A number of years ago, Jean Henderson, a deviser of Scottish country dances and resident of the East Lothian community of North Berwick, created what became a very popular leaflet dance called The Haddington Assembly and presented it to the East Lothian Branch of RSCDS. The Haddington Assembly, a 32-bar jig, leads off our March Monthly Dance program. I know we are sure to enjoy it. ◼︎
The Duke of Atholl’s Reel is featured in the April Monthly Dance, but don’t try dancing it in reel time, especially if you are a Murray, or you will throw the whole jigging set off-balance. ◼︎
The Fountain, Court Street, Haddington, East Lothian
Woe is me!
In my recent WHAT’S IN A NAME?
article about The Haddington
Assembly, I included the somewhat
heretical comment that St. Mary’s
Church in Haddington was
affiliated with The Church of
Scotland and was therefore not a
Presbyterian Church. Well of course it is! Apart from some break-away sects, the Church of Scotland is Presbyterian by polity. I was reminded of my error by Presbyterian friends. The shame of it! And me a mere Anglican! What would I know? ◼︎
Blair Castle, seat of the Dukes of Atholl