Annotation:Wearmouth Lads
X:1 T:Wearmouth Lads M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:William Vickers' 1770 music manuscript collection (1770, Northumberland) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D D2d F2A|E2c C2E|D2d F2A|DFA gfe| D2d F2A|E2c C2E|agf gfe|dAF D3:| |:g|fdg faf|ece gfe|fdg fag|fda bag| fdg faf|ece gfe|agf gfe|dAF D3:|]
WEARMOUTH LADS. English, Jig (6/8 time). England, Northumberland. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody appears in the 1770 music manuscript collection of Northumbrian musician William Vickers as "Wearmouth Lads," with no mention of his source. There was a Wearmouth at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea in northern England, which became the town of Sunderland.
The melody has been attributed to Dunkeld, Scotland, fiddler Niel Gow (1727-1807) under the title “Colonel Robertson of Strewan's Welcome Home,” however, as Fr. John Quinn points out, only the first several bars are similar in contour. However, beginning with the fifth bar the melody takes a distinctive descent and the melodies drift apart.
