COCK A BENDIE. AKA - "Cockabendie." AKA and see "Cawdor Fair," "Hawthorne Tree of Cawdor." Scottish, Country Dance Tune (4/4) or March. The melody appears in both the Drummond Castle Manuscript (1734) and the Bodleian Manuscript, the latter residing in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The MS is inscribed "A Collection of the Newest Country Dances Performed in Scotland written at Edinburgh by D.A. Young, W.M. 1740." The melody appears in Middleton's and, as a march, in Ross's Collection of Pipe Music (1885, 1976).
HAWTHORNE TREE OF CAWDOR (Freumh a's Craobh Taigh Challadair). AKA and see "Cawdor Fair," "Cock a Bendie," "Go on Lads and Give a Tune." Scottish, Strathspey or Slow Air. A Minor. Standard. AABB. "This popular air is mentioned as old, by Mr. Gow. The editor discovering it under the mane now given in MS. of Mr. Campbell of Budyet, formerly mentioned, corroborates that truth. This gentleman was a cadet of the family of Lord Cawdor, and a celebrated composer and modeller of our best strathspeys. The hawthorne tree is still visible in Cawdor Castle, and is so venerated as the roof-tree of the family, that, on an annual meeting of his lordship's tenants and other friends, usually held on the day of Cawdor Fair, to drink 'the hawthorne tree',-- hence the probability of its having been composed by Mr. Campbell for the occasion" (Fraser).
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Although Cawdor is known as the seat of the powerful Campbell clan, it was not originally built by them, and has a long history. The first Thane of Cawdor was appointed by the Scottish king Alexander II in 1236; the third Thane was murdered by a neighbor, Sir Alexander Rait of Rait Castle. Cawdor Castle itself started as a 14th century tower, to which were added parapets, an upper story and a massive iron yett in 1454-1455. The ranges were added in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Campbells obtained control of the fortification by capturing the twelve-year-old heiress in 1511 and marrying her to the Earl of Argyll's son, at which time the clan retained the castle. During Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite Rising of 1746, the Campbells gave refuge to Lord Lovet there. Legend has it that Cawdor Castle is inhabited by, not one but two ghosts; one is a lady in blue velvet and the other is John Campbell, the first Lord of Cawdor
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Cawdor Castle. Copyright (c) 1997-1999 C.Garner & P.Wright (www.darkisle.com)
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Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1815 (republished in 1874); No. 135, pg. 54. Johnson (Airs & Melodies of Scotland's Past), Vol. 10, 1992; pg. 7. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1886; pg. 111 (appears as "Cawdor Fair"). Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 43 (appears as "Cawdor Fair"). CP-R1, Dave MacIsaac.