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Description: | The tunes from here to the end of the book appear to be written in a mixture of the same two fine hands which occur earlier in the collection. The tunes are mainly either standard or extremely obscure. The tune was in the repertoire of fiddler John Armstrong of Carrick and is on a recording at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library; when Matt Seattle played the tune to Annie Snaith, John Armstrong's sister, she remembered it but did not know where he had got it or what he had called it (see The Morpeth Rant, Dragonfly Music 1990).Balloon ascents were popular in Newcastle from the late eighteenth century onwards. As portrayed in the song these events drew large crowds from the surrounding area and caused much excitement. William Sadler's balloon ascent was made from the Bowling Green (later Prudhoe Street) in Newcastle. These ascents were often extremely dangerous and a number of fatal flights have been recorded. A number of years after Mr. Sadler's ascent a man named William Henry Hall attempted a balloon ascent in the old Cricket Ground on Bath Road in Newcastle. After performing a number of acrobatic tricks mid air, Hall was thrown from the balloon by its sharp ascent, falling a distance of 120ft. He later died from his injuries. Sadler himself was killed in a later balloon ascent on September 29th, 1824.The tune is taken from an early nineteenth century manuscript tune book. The book is part of the Cocks Collection and is now in the Northumberland Record Office at Gosforth, with photocopies at the Black Gate and Morpeth Chantry. It is signed C J Surtees and dated 1819, but is the work of many different hands. It contains some standard tunes, especially Scottish ones, some obscure tunes (probably taken from obscure publications) and a few more interesting items, some of which seem to be local, which are reproduced here. ; Early nineteenth century tune book compiled by C.J. Surtees and others | Rights holder: | rights holder : Society of Antiquaries | Temporal: | start=1801;end=1840; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:R0406503 | Go to resource |
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