McLachlan's Reel
In Robert Burns’ “The Brigs of Ayr”, the New Brig says:
O had M’Lauchlan, thairm-inspiring sage,
Been there to hear this heavenly band engage,
When thro’ his dear strathspeys they bore with Highland rage,
Or when they struck old Scotia’s melting airs,
The lover’s raptur’d joys or bleeding cares,
How would his Highland lug been nobler fired,
And ev’n his matchless hand with finer touch inspired!
No guess could tell what instrument appear’d,
But all the soul of Music’s self was heard;
Harmonious concert rung in every part,
While simple melody pour’d moving on the heart.
James McLauchlan was a fiddler much admired by Burns
and it was to “MacLauchlin’s Scots-Measure” that he set his song “My Highland Lassie, O”.
A Highlander once attached to the household of “Colonel Jack”,
Colonel Lord John Campbell of Mamore, later 5th Duke of Argyll (1723–1806),
McLauchlan came to Ayrshire with one of the many Fencible Regiments
raised in the latter half of the 18th century.
With cellist Matthew Hall, McLauchlan travelled about the Lowlands and in Edinburgh and Glasgow
performing in country houses and at balls and assemblies.
From “Scotland Dances”, by Eugenia (Jeannie) Callander Sharp
(Used by permission.)