Dance Kelso Races 3424

The race meetings held in Kelso in March, May and October were great social events,
especially with the Duke of Roxburgh's splendid Floors Castle
(See “The Duke of Roxburgh's Reel”)
and the Earl of Haddington's Mellerstain House in such close proximity.
Allan Ramsay (1686–1758) wrote a song “We'll A' To Kelso Races Go”
for the *Tea Table Miscellany* of 1726.
Far more amusing and interesting from a social point of view
is the song set to the tune of “Logan Water” by the 6th Earl of Kellie called “Kelso Races”.

You have heard of our sweet little races at Kelso;  
Of the riders and horses, and how they all fell so,  
Of Dirleton and Kelly Sir J ohn – an, what's still more,  
The famed clerk of the Green Cloth, Sir Alexander Gilmore.

Of Dukes there were two, of Duchesses one,  
As sweet a dear woman as e'er blest a man;  
Of mien most engaging, how finely she dances,  
With her sister -in-law, full of mirth, Lady Frances.

His Grace of Buccleugh would have been most extatic,  
But, alas, he was seized with a fit of sciatic.  
As he could not attend to make us all mellow,  
He left t'other Duke, a clever little fellow.

Of Nabobs a pair, their names shall have strait,  
Tall Archibald Swinton, and far Thomas Rait,  
As fine jolly fellows, I'm sure to the full,  
As ever set their faces to the Great Mogul.

The bald-pated Knight soon had them in view,  
And set at these Nabobs like any old Jew;  
Quoth he to himself, I think I with ease,  
Could plunder these Indians of all their rupees.

Gentlemen, says he, will you bet on a horse,  
I'll lay what you please, without any remorse;  
If that does not suit, I'll do what you list,  
Perhaps you would choose a rubber of whist.

Down sat the great dupes, and with them a Peer –  
Lord! how the bald Knight did joke and did jeer;  
The Nabobs and Peer he left not a groat,  
And even condescended to steal a great-coat.

Young Nisbet comes next, whom they call Maccaroni,  
The sweet youth whom he and we think so bonny,  
That whene'er he appears, the ladies cry bless us,  
I vow and protest he's a perfect Narcissus.

My dearest sweet girls, pray tell me what mean ye,  
Cries his spruce little cousin, Mr John Cantoucini;  
Pray look at me, a'n't I a fine little man,  
A trig dapper fellow, deny it who can?

O' my drunken friend Jock, I'll tell you a story, O,  
He had of his own a complete oratorio;  
Three hours after midnight his concert begun,  
Where he drank and he danced and he had all his fun.

His company consisted of Mr Stewart Shaw,  
My Lord Percy's piper who travels to blaw;  
And Irish dear joy, two captains of foot,  
And Lord North the waiter who danced so stout.

Melvina appeared next like a bright star,  
She stole the heart of a young man of war.  
Of all her solicitors he lives for but one,  
And solicitor Dundas is the happy man.

The great little Percy came down from the border,  
To keep us poor Scotch a l ittle in order;  
He nothing remarkable did, but we hope,  
Next year when he's steward, he'll take his full scope.

There were many more besides, well I wot,  
Sir Gilbert and Lady, Miss Bell Elliot,  
There was sweet Anne Scott, and Lady Diana,  
And bold Mrs Ker, like any hyena.

I cannot pass by where I ever so brief,  
That loveliest of girls, Miss Jeany Moncrieff;  
To Kelso she came with her uncle beau Skeene,  
Whose person is always so neat and so clean.

There was fat Sandy Maxwell as big as a tun,  
A fine laughing fellow in whom there's much fun;  
Sir William Lorrain, Jack Askew, and Selby,  
As fine jolly bucks as e'er a pint bottle fell by.

There was John Scott of Gala, and Wat Scott of Harden,  
Who they say is possessed of many a farthing;  
And numbers more over – but I'm in a hurry,  
I had almost forgot sweet Peter Murray.

We laught and we danced, and we sat up all night,  
A thing, I confess, in which I delight.  
And I very dear my pleasure did earn,  
For I was obliged to return to Blanearn.

The Hon. Andrew Erskine, youngest son of Alexander, 5th Earl of Kellie,
attributed the above rollicking verses – a veritable 18th century gossip column –
to his brother, Thomas Alexander, 6th Earl of Kellie (1732–1781).
Lord Kellie was certainly one of the most fascinating characters of the mid-18th century.
After several years at Edinburgh High School,
the then Viscount Penton returned to the family castle near Pittenweem in Fife.
The fifth earl, an active Jacobite in the Rising of 1745,
had been imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle from which he was not released until 1749.
The young viscount was showing signs of musical talent at an early age
and, a violinist, he became a member of the Edinburgh Musical Society in 1750.
In 1753 he left on the Grand Tour and spent his time abroad
studying music with the greatest Continental musicians of the time.
The fifth earl died while his heir was abroad
and  he returned in 1756 as the sixth Earl of Kellie.
From then until his death at the age of forty-nine,
Lord Kellie, one of the finest composers of the time,
was a leader of the social and cultural life of Edinburgh.
He was on teh committee of the St. Cecilia's Musical Society
and in 1767 became Deputy Governor of the Edinburgh Musical Society.
He was the compose of symphonies, concertos, minuets and overtures,
the best known being the overture to Samuel Arnold's “The Maid of the Mill”,
first performed at London's Covent Garden in 1765.

Kelso, in the Border county of Roxburgh
and situated at the place where the Teviot River joins the Tweed,
was called by Sir Walter Scott,
“The most beautiful, if not the most romantic village in Scotland”.
Kelso is a market town surrounded by parkland
with an unmistakable aura of provincial France floating over it.
The vast cobbled Market Square with its ancient coaching inns contributes greatly to this atmosphere.
The five-arch bridge over the River Tweed was designed by John Rennie (1761–1821)
and served as a model for his Waterloo Bridge in London.

Kelso Abbey, perhaps the greatest of the Border abbeys, is magnificent even in its ruins.
Built in 1128 by David I (1084–1153) at about the same time that Holy Rood Abbey was built,
it was like Holy Rood,
also destroyed by the English under Edward Seymour,  1st Earl of Hertford.
(See “Holyrood House”)