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By Dr S.T.Chapman
[Transcribed by Chris Partington, 2005. All the tunes
mentioned can be found in the Village Music Project files..C.G.P.]
From the Westmorland Gazette, May 8th, 1987
"While the literature and art of the region have been fairly well
documented, very little attention has been given to its musical
heritage. This is due, in part, to the scarcity of surviving
manuscripts and copy books, and for this reason the tunes
preserved among some papers which belonged to the Browne family of
Townend, Troutbeck and part of the Armitt Trust Collection in
Ambleside are all the more important.
Here we have good evidence of a vigorous vernacular musical
tradition in the Lakes, which appears to have survived until the
turn of the last century. The books contain about 200 jiggs,
reels, hornpipes and airs, pieces which were played at social
events in the village and further afield. This accounts for
some of the place names which appear as titles in the repertoire
of Troutbeck tunes. Here as elsewhere the village did not always
rely upon its own band for musical entertainment but would on
occasion welcome players from other parts of the county. Perhaps
this system of tune naming also reflects that indepenence of
character associated with the old Cumrian dalesmen, for north of
the border tunes such as these were traditionally named after the
ladies and gentlemen of the nobility.
Typical titles include "Hawkshead Rant" "Appleby Election
Hornpipe" "Ullswater Regatta" "Gilsland Hornpipe" "Dalton Watches"
and "Lord Brougham's Hornpipe". The latter could well have
enlivened the memorable 1818 election, for the copy-books date
from the early years of the eighteenth century.
The fiddle was the main instrument used, though occasionally a
band would have formed comprising two fiddles, a whistle, flute or
recorder, (a fingering chart for which has survived with the
manuscripts) and a drum to cut through the noise of the dance.
Some pieces appear to have been composed by an individual, others
to have been collected from a local repertoire. There are
influences detectable from other parts of England and at times an
Irish sound can be heard.
The Irish workers came to make hay and get the harvest in, landing
at Holyhead and moving north as the season advanced. They would
stay for up to a fortnight, scything and housing the hay before
moving on to the next farm, much as Allison Uttley has described
in her accounts of rural Derbyshire. The tunes were adapted here
as elsewhere by the local musicians.
It is to our very good fortune, or rather the habit of the Browne
family of Troutbeck of recording meticulously all manner of
information, that these tunes were written down at all. They
belong to what would otherwise be an aural tradition - just as in
Ireland today where it is not uncommon to find a player with
a repertoire of two thousand tunes but unable to read or write
music. It is reassuring to find that one of the tunes, "The Rose
Tree", is still in use for the dancing of the Cumberland Square
Eight; a less worthy tradition is commemorated in a long set dance
called "Drunk At Night And Dry In The Morning". Some of the fiddle
airs sound distinctly quaint to the modern ear; for example "The
Trip To Cartmell".
The "Hawkshead Rant" is typical (also of many which are evidence
of thriving home grown invention) and similarly "Keswick Bonny
Lasses".
The institution of the village fiddler and music making in the
Lake District obviously deserves more attention. Correspondence
such as that of the Browne family themselves can be a fruitful
source; in 1719 Benjamin Browne, then aged 27, wrote from London
to his father of the same name in Townend, Troutbeck.
Young Benjamin had gone up to London to be clerk to one Richard
Rowlandson, lawyer in the Temple, brother of a Kendal wool draper.
He requests that his wig, three pairs of new stockings and his
violin be sent to London via Mr Greenhow the Kendal carrier.
Six weeks later he writes "You give account you have sold honest
Bob the violin and flute for us, the best bargain he ever made in
that kind for the flute would have cost him 8s". He also describes
a violin purchase "There was such that Robin The Fiddler bought of
you and he (the dealer) would abate anything of £1 5s for one of
them but he swore he never sold such a one as this I have got
under 30s. It is the same colour as Coz. Mary's".
Even accounts can inform; from those of Sir Daniel Le Fleming we
learn that the fiddler was certainly in favour with his household
in Rydal. When his daughter Catherine (who was devoted to
harpsichord playing) was married in 1663 we find one "Renny the
Fidler" receiving 2s 6d for providing music at the wedding.
In February 1669/70 he had attended a wedding at Esthwaite at
which he gave a fiddler 1s 6d for his accompaniment., and in July
1671 the accounts reveal that his son James was christened to the
tune of a fiddler.
The use of a violin in churches without an organ, sometimes as
part of a small band, is further suggested by an entry in the
Grasmere church records for the neighbouring Langdale chapel,
where violin strings were itemised in the expenses, and the
Troutbeck records indicate that a band including fiddlers played
in the gallery in the early part of the seventeenth century. The
Rydal squire sometimes payed for the musical entertainment of his
shearers while they worked - one entry stating "Given to George
Benson, piper, for playing to my shearers when they got the
churne" and "Given to Renny Fidler for playing this day to my
clippers".
Other interesting disbursements for his own entertainment include
payment to a harper at Crook, a piper at Calgarth and the piper
and Lord of Misrule's men at Hutton over Christmas; regarding the
latter it is probable that a form of bagpipes was the instrument
in question and one is reminded of the patronage extended to
pipers by Scots Lairds and the Duke of Northumberland in our own
day.
There may be some relevence in an entry in the Ambleside parish
register for 1688 recording the death of the son of "George
Benson, piper"; this notice of his occupation implies that local
demand was sufficient to have provided him a living.
Furthermore, such retaining is suggested by some verse of the
Westmorland born Richard Braithwaite ("Dapper Dick"). His poetry
often has a north-country setting, and in his "Whimzies, or a New
Cast of Characters"(1631) he characterised a piper, kept in an
official capacity "injoyned by his place, to rise early, rore
highly and rouze the whole family".
There are several references to the popularity of the Lancashire
bagpipes in the north west as late as the eighteenth century. The
Yorkshire antiquary Ralph Thoresby, for instance, was present at a
guild pageant in Preston in 1702 and noted: "Got little rest, the
music and Lancashire bagpipes having continued the whole night."
A local custom which was also the occasion for the services of the
local fiddler was the "barring out", the ancient ritual whereby
the schoolmaster was denied entry to the school until he had
settled the matter of Christmas holidays. T.W.Thompson, the
Hawkshead historian, found a reference to a fiddler engaged for
this purpose by the Hawkshead Grammar School boys. We know that
Sir Daniel Le Fleming gave money to his children to celebrate the
event in November 1670, and we can surmise that a fiddler's fee
was called for.
About 50 years ago Anne Gilchrist, who had a strong interest in
the heritage of Cumbrian music and dialect, interviewed a
descendent of William Irwin of Elterwater, one of the last of
these fiddlers, who was born in 1822 and died in 1889. He had been
a cooper by trade and had worked for the Elterwater Gunpowder
Company. A self-educated man, he collected his own library of
books from the proceeds of his playing. A pupil of the Keswick
fiddler Gillespie in the 1840's, he was connected with the
King's Arms in Hawkshead. Some titles from his repertoire include
the "Elterwater Quickstep" "Raughton Head" "Dalston Forge" and
"Windermere Regatta". There is also "Miss Greenop's Reel"; the
flattery of this dedication seems to have had the desired effect,
for the lady shortly afterwards became his wife.
His own pupil was Henry Stables of Walthwaite who died in 1906.
The fact that the tune "Keswick Bonny Lasses" survives in both
collections with the same title suggests a vernacular repertoire
surviving at least 30 years and probably much longer; here also is
an example of how modern taste can prejudice authenticity, for
Gilchrist had transcribed the sixth note of this tune in Irwin's
collection as an E, suspecting the D in the Manuscript - whereas
the script of the tune in the Browne collection confirms that D
was intended.
Historically there were several types of social event at which
fiddler and band would perform. The "Merry Nights" celebrated
throughout the Christmas season drew most attention in the early
literature, but similar festivities held impromptu in the warmer
months were popular. These were known as "Upshots", and were
described by Thomas Sanderson in his preface to Robert Andersons
"Poems" of 1820, in which he writes about the character, manners
and customs of the rural folk of Cumberland. "It is a meeting" he
says "among a number of merry-hearted swains and nymphs.. It
generally takes place in a barn during the summer season when
there are no Merry Nights to animate the dragging moments of a
leisure hour. The humble assembly room is commonly well
illuminated by a number of tallow lights stuck in tins or iron
sockets and sometimes in cloven sticks and excavated turnips or
potatoes. The dance is kept up to the witching time of night...
each rustic lover accompanying his fair one to her own
habitation."
The poet Mark Lonsdale described such an event vividly in verse.
The dancing routines were taught at an early stage to children in
groups by itinerant teachers; the lessons were in themselves a
social event, the villagers turning out en masse to view the
spectacle.
A good account stems from a chance encounter; it occurs in "A
Fortnight's Ramble To The Lakes" written by Captain Budworth,
alias Joseph Palmer, in 1792. He and his colleague describe how
they visited Heversham and while staying at the Eagle and Child
they were induced, from seeing a number of boy's shoes and hearing
the sound of the fiddle in the barn, to become spectators. About
thirty boys and girls were assembled. "The master", noted the
writer, "had more the appearance of a man than a dancing master,
although he was well qualified for the latter in the opinion of
the children's parents. One of the boys danced a hornpipe with hat
aside, and stick under his arm, tipping most vehemently with head
and toe but in very good time".
Budworth continues "As I wished to take in all I could, I observed
a wooden hoop with three tin sockets hanging in the centre of the
barn to be ready any evening for a village dance". Following the
boy, nine girls danced a Cottillon, and - what Budworth thought
had a singular rustic effect - while they were going in pairs the
odd number stepped into the centre, pulled a red rose from her
breast, which she held up as she danced.
Sanderson in his "Preface" already mentioned, is critical of the
great expense and time spent by parents in having their children
taught country dances, hornpipes, jiggs and reels. Travelling
professors, he claims, have more merit in their feet than in their
heads.
From old advertisements we know that the classes of Mr Casson,
held twice weekly in the 1840's "at Mr Cape's, Innkeeper,
Crosthwaite" were very popular.
The skills and steps acquired were put to the fullest use during
the twelve nights of Christmas, which used to be celebrated much
more fully than nowadays. These were Merry Nights writ large, with
dancing at a public house with fiddler for orchestra. There were
several accounts of dalesmen throwing off their coats, rolling up
their trousers, and going for it till they had to desist from
shear exhaustion, the women entering into the contest with equal
vigour. There may be some truth in H.S.Cowper's comment that the
"Merry Nights" originally took place in the barn, but with the
decline in the weaving trade which turned two thirds of the people
into farm hands, the better-off yeomen did not care any longer to
entertain their neighbours in this way.
A description of a fiddler's calling at this time of year occurs
in a letter written by Dorothy Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont in
December 1805: "According to local custom" she writes "our
Grasmere fiddler is going his rounds, and all the children of the
neighbouring houses are assembled in the kitchen to dance... It is
a pleasant sound they make with their little feet pattering upon
the stone floor". Another detail is given in a lecture published a
century ago. It was pointed out by a Mr Wilson in Keswick,
that the air "St Dunstan's Hunt's Up", said by Sir Walter Scott to
be long lost and forgotten, was still being played on the fiddle
from house to house every Christmas Eve in some vales in our
region. At each household the fiddler would bid goodnight to every
member by name, and after greeting each, played his tune. The same
tradition is described at some length by Wordsworth in the 13
stanzas which preface the "Duddon Sonnets" of 1820. Composition of
these verses was begun about Christmas and the music of the
strings left a vivid impression; it was for him a never-failing
rite, symbolic of the traditions and way of life of the Lakes
counties.
The decline of this institution seems to have
coincided with that of the "estatesman" in Cumbria, and sadly
S.H.Scott in his book "A Westmorland Village" published in 1904,
referred to one old James Airey, the last of the Troutbeck
fiddlers, who had forsaken his art and could be seen sitting in
Holbeck Lane beside a pile of rocks breaking stones for a living.
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