Lady Auckland's Reel
Eleanor Elliot, the second daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet of Minto (1722–1777),
was born at Minto House near Denholm in lovely Teviotdale in Roxburghshire.
Sir Gilbert was a statesman and a poet.
A member of Parliament in 1754, he became a Lord of the Admiralty
and in 1770 was made Treasurer of the Navy.
It was he who influenced George III
against permitting the rebellious American colonists to tax themselves.
Two of his songs, one a pastoral and one an elegy,
were included in James Johnson’s
The Scots Musical Museum
.
Jane Elliot (1727–1805), sister of Sir Gilbert,
wrote perhaps the best loved of the three versions of “The Flowers of the Forest”,
the only one written in the vernacular,
and one that was much admired by Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott.
(See “The Auld Alliance”)
On 26 September, 1776, Eleanor Elliot married William Eden (1745–1814),
an English statesman in the government of George III,
whom the king referred to as “a man of deep intrigue”.
Eden was Under Secretary of State in 1772, commissioner to the American colonies,
and Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1780.
Later he was made Ambassador to Spain and Holland.
His only Scottish activity was the purely honorary post of Chancellor of Marischal College in Aberdeen.
In 1793 William Eden was created Baron Auckland and this dance, published in 1794,
is quite obviously in honour of the new Lady Auckland.
From “Scotland Dances”, by Eugenia (Jeannie) Callander Sharp
(Used by permission.)