Above is a transcription [the original is in G] of the first three strains of a tune that appears in a music manuscript now in the National Library of Scotland and known as the Margaret Sinker manuscript, although it is in two halves, one starting from the front [for fiddle?] and the other, inverted, from the back [for keyboard]; one carries Margaret Sinkler’s name, the other that of Graham Kincaid . It is dated 1710.
When you call up the manuscript you are also delivered a small, paper bound pamphlet which is a list of the contents of the manuscript, drawn up by Lady Dorothea Ruggles-Brise [she who rescued William Dixon’s book from the flames] In the manuscript itself this tune is untitled but in Lady Dorothea’s list, she has identified it as Tail Toddle.
But is she correct in this instance? Pipers may immediately notice that this is not Tail Toddle as they know it. Highland pipers may even recognize it as the Sword Dance, Gillie Callum. And those who have dabbled in the Scottish lute repertoire may note that it is almost identical with the tune in the Balcarres manuscript [1695-1710] titled ‘Cuttie spoon and treeladle’. What, then is going on here?
Answering this question turns out to involve an exploration of two rather different systems of harmonic thinking as well as of melodic structure; both these systems were current at the turn of the 18th century, when this manuscript was compiled.  
Now anyone considering arguing with Lady Dorothea should be aware that, according to her obituary, published in The Glasgow Herald in 1938, 'She never forgot a tune and could trace tunes back to their earliest forms … she knew the contents of every volume that she possessed and could give the history of many an air from its skeleton form to the final shape it took in the corpus of Scottish song' [This obituary also relates the story of her rescuing 'a rare volume of old Scottish dances']. But she was not the only one to have made an error in titling this tune; others before her and after would make the same mistake; as we shall see, it is a mistake that persists today. So it may be worth investigating a little closer how this confusion came about.

We should start by looking for the earliest versions of all these tunes. The first appearance of Tail Toddle is in the Gairdyn fiddle manuscript¹ which carries the date 1710, but contains some music which must have been added in 1740 or thereafter, since it includes a version of ‘Rule Britannia’. (Fig. 1)
This is pretty much the standard setting, mirrored closely by George Skene in 1717 and used by David Young as the basis for his 8-strain version in the McFarlane Manuscript [1740] (Fig. 2) and in Gow’s Repository vol. I [1799] (Fig. 3)
Gow’s claim, ‘Supposed Welsh’, added above his tune, might easily be dismissed as fanciful, but it seems to have been inspired by its inclusion, in 1794, in Edward Jones’ Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards where it is titled ‘Fiddle Faddle’. (Fig. 4) That title, however, was first used for the tune when it appeared in John Walsh’s Country Dance collections published around 1730-1740. Walsh’s settings are more or less as in Gairdyn/Skene. We shall see how this new title further added to the confusion of at least one 19th century authority.

Fig. 2 David Young’s setting, MacFarlane Manuscript 1740

Fig. 3 Gow’s Repository of the Dance Music of Scotland  Vol 1, 1799

Fig. 4 Fiddle Faddle from Jones’ Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, 1794 edition [it was not included in the earlier edition]

Fig. 5 Gilecallum, David Young, Duke of Perth MS 1734

Fig. 6 Gille Callum, from Gow’s Repository vol 4 [1817]

Gillie Callum
As for GillieCallum, the first sighting is in David Young’s Duke of Perth MS [1734] (Fig. 5) and this is echoed in Gow’s Repository in vol 4 [1817] (Fig. 6) and in any number of GHB settings since, each departing a little further from Young’s.
When we compare this with Margaret Sinkler’s tune we can see that they are essentially the same, with various elements appearing in different orders until the final strain, where, allowing for the fiddle semi-quavers [a feature of the later strains in many of David Young’s variation sets] we have the same melody as Sinkler’s opening strain. With one exception – the final bar [two bars in Sinkler, since, as became the norm in the early years of the 18th century, the note values are halved in Young’s setting], has not just a different harmonic cadence but also a different rhythmic scansion. The significance of this difference is revealed when we look at the chorus of the Gaelic words to Gille Callum :
Gille-Caluim : da pheighinn
Gille-Caluim : da pheighinn
Da pheighenn, da pheighinn
Gille-Caluim Bonn a sia.

These words clearly fit the final rhythm of Young’s tune, but they do not fit Sinkler’s. In fact, Sinkler’s are much better suited to what must have been the last line of the early Tail Toddle; ‘That’ll gar your Tail Toddle’.
Does this mean that Lady Dorothea was right in assigning the Tail Toddle title to Sinkler’s tune? We can only decide this when we know what distinguishes one tune from another that shares some similarities, and such a decision may well be a question of individual taste.
Perhaps it is best to start with obvious differences, the first of which is that the two tunes here are set in different keys; for pipers this means that they are related to the drones in different ways. If we start from the notion of the 6-finger note as the ‘Home’ tonic then, whilst Gillie Callum is set in this tonic, Tail Toddle, in all the settings we have looked at, is set in the 3-finger tonic. This immediately creates a different relationship between tonic and drone, in the first it is the tonic, in the second it is a fifth below, the dominant.
This difference introduces two rather different harmonic vocabularies, one essentially pentatonic and the other diatonic [by which is implied the ‘standard’ European concept of harmony]. Gillie Callum employs what has become known as the ‘double-tonic’ harmonic vocabulary, a system which creates the notion of a ‘home’ tonic [here A] and an ‘away’ tonic [here G], determined by the relationship with the drones. Matt Seattle has called the ‘away tonic’ a ‘substitute dominant’.
However, Tail Toddle, having D for its tonic,  has a ‘true’ dominant available [here A], one which is supported by the drone, and thus employs a diatonic harmonic language. This is clearly discernible in the first strain where we have  [using four letters per bar] the sequence DDGG|DDAA|DDGG|ADAA||
 In fact this sequence would be the classic ground known to renaissance composers as the ‘passamezzo moderna’ if it were not for that final bar, which in the true ground should read DADD; this is the ground of tunes such as ‘The Keel Row’ or ‘Up an war them A’. Given the ‘inverted’ final bar, we might call this ground the passamezzo frontiera, to claim its Border provenance. Gillie Callum, on the other hand, is persistently
 AAGG|AAAA|AAGG|AAGA|
and this applies to both strains, since the second is really a variation of the first. The second strain of Tail Toddle, on the other hand, consistently across the early settings begins with the G chord:
GGGG|GGAA|GGAD|ADAA||
Matt Seattle has described a subtle analysis of this allowing G [and B minor in the versions with variations] to substitute for the D chord as what he calls ‘floating’ tonics. Matt’s objective, however, is to view the tunes from the perspective of what he has termed ‘harmonic proportion’, the relative occurrences of the home and away chords, by means of which analysis he has proposed his 3:1 model. It is a powerful tool in understanding the harmonic structure, but leaves unvisited another aspect of structure. Here we are more concerned with the melodic structure, which can be seen as binary, the two halves of each strain opening with the same pattern but closing with different patterns. In the passamezzo moderna, this produces the basic ‘statement|question| |statement |answer’ structure, but here and in a number of other Lowland tunes, we have something more like statement|question|statement |can you repeat the question?.[It’s also worth noting that we can employ Matt’s concept of ‘fractal’ proportion by observing that each element of the statement/answer pairs are themselves binary in structure.]
DDFD|GEFD|DDFD|EACA||
This is all very well, and reveals something of the structure of the two tunes, but there is a fundamental difference, alongside the matter of key that allows us to say, these are not the same tune in different keys. It occurs in the ‘answer’ in the first unit: In Tail Toddle we see the ‘answer’ finishing on what classical musicians call an ‘open cadence’ – it ends on the dominant, the A, just as the question does; in Gillie Callum the answer is a ‘closed’ cadence, ending on the tonic, also A, though the two A’s serve very different functions in the harmonic landscape. Moreover, in Tail Toddle the second ‘statement’ is a repeat of the first, but in GillieCallum it is almost as if the answer and the statement are reversed. In essence it is almost as if the two tunes are ’90 degrees’ out of phase. Start one on the second bar and put the first bar at the end and they become much more closely related.
Put these differences together and there is a strong argument that says, though they share a good deal of musical ideas, these really are two different tunes, but it does ultimately depend on how much difference you require in order to separate them. It should also be said that once we allow how the tunes are developed in variations, then they increasingly part company, but our confused authorities were not taking variations into account, and they obviously saw enough similarities to cause their confusion.So it seems that Sinkler’s tune can be separated from Tail Toddle. But if that is so, what would have been a better title for it? As we have seen, we have two suggestions. Having looked at Gillie Callum, we can now turn to the that suggested by the Balcarres manuscript’s title.Cutty spoon and treeladle.

Sinkler’s tune, as we have observed, appears almost note for note in the Balcarres Lute Book with the title ‘Cutty spoon and treeladle’, which may be merely a mistaken title [it would not be the only one in the Balcarres MS]. As we shall see, one hundred and fifty years later, authorities were still adding this title to their confusion. So can we say whether Balcarres is right in this case, or is Sinkler’s tune really Gillie Callum? The answer, we might guess, all hangs on that final cadence.
What can we learn about the early days of a tune called ‘Cutty Spoon’, apart from the Balcarres version? At one point it looked as if the answer would be very little if anything; no earlier setting appeared to exist, until Matt Seattle recalled seeing the title in a remarkable little book called A Collection of original Scotch Tunes for the Violin. The Whole Pleasant and comical being full of Highland Humour, a copy of which is in the NLS. It was published in London in 1720 by John Young, instrument maker. It contains a number of intriguing tunes, some not found elsewhere, among which is one titled ‘Cutty spoon and Treen Ladle’.² (Fig. 7)

The relationship between John Young’s setting and that in Sinkler and Balcarres is so close as to satisfy us that Sinkler’s tune is indeed ‘Cutty Spoon’. David Young’s 1740 setting has the simple title ‘Cuttie Spoon’ and follows pretty much the same pattern, with  enhancements typical of Young’s work. (Fig. 8) By the time of Gow’s Repository it has undergone some modifications, and these persists in all subsequent settings (Fig. 9). The first is in the title. Gow’s comment below the first line reads ‘This is the tune mentioned in the old poem Christ Kirk on the Green Canto 2nd.Line 96’. This poem was indeed old, having been written by James I, but ‘Canto 2nd’ was added in 1715 by Allan Ramsay, and published in his Poems in 1721. Gow’s setting seems to be the first appearance of the tune since David Young’s over 60 years before, so it is hardly surprising that it has undergone some changes. In fact, it has more or less migrated to the ground of Tail Toddle, though based on the A tonic, rather than the D, and a transposition has occurred, shifting the melodic position from the tonic to the 5th. However, immediately following Cuttymun in the book is Blair Drummond (Fig. 10):

Fig. 8 Cuttie Spoon from David Young’s McFarlane MS vol II #191, 1740

Fig. 10 Blair Drummond, from Gow’s Repository, Vol 2, 1802

This is an almost identical tune, except that here the first strain is back in position on the tonic, making it even more recognizably related to Tail Toddle, with the second strain transposed to the tonic,  from the Tail Toddle’s G. No wonder that by this time both collectors and commentators became confused.
To see just how tangled the matter became, witness the bewildered Stenhouse in 1853, writing his note to the tune ‘Little Wat Ye Wha’s Coming’ that appears in Volume 6 of The Scots Musical Museum, published in 1803. (Fig. 11)
“The old tune, to which the words are adapted, was formerly called "Fiddle Strings are dear, Laddie," from the first line of an ancient, though now almost forgotten song. It began— .
Fiddle strings are dear, laddie,
Fiddle strings are dear, laddie,
An' ye break your fiddle strings,
Ye'se get nae mair the year, laddie.“The same tune, in Gow's and other recent collections, is called Tail Toddle, but from what cause the Editor has been unable to discover. The old tune, called "Cuttyman and Treeladle" … has a considerable resemblance to " Fiddle Strings are dear, Laddie.'" Both airs seem to have been composed about one period, if not by the same minstrel.”
We might conjecture that the words Stenhouse quotes belonged with that species of the tune we have seen published in 1740 in London by John Walsh as ‘Fiddle Faddle’ (see Fig, 4).  
Although the first strain of this ‘old tune’ is closely related to the early Tail Toddles, its second is again based on A, rather than the G of the early settings. Stenhouse wanted this song to date from 1715; however, the first appearance of the title seems to be in Vickers’ 1770 fiddle manuscript,  a setting which is much the same as Gairdyn’s Tail Toddle. In Bewick’s collection, as in some other settings from Northumberland, the ‘Little wat ye’ title was used for the Tail Toddle tune set  in B minor, to accommodate the characteristics of the Northumbrian smallpipes.

Fig. 11 ‘Little Wat Ye Wha’s Coming’ from The Scots Musical Museum, vol 6, 1803

As a final example of the confusion here is another setting of Tail Toddle published by Neil Gow, this one in 1798 in his first volume of A Collection of Strathspey Reels: Note that the tune is said to be ‘composed for the Harpsichord and German Flute by Mr Nisbet. We can presumably credit Mr Nisbet with the variations, and probably the G#s, as well as the bass in triplets. Altogether a bravura setting - of Gillie Callum. (Fig. 12)

Fig. 12 ‘Tail Toddle, by Mr Nesbit’, from Gow’s A Collection of Strathspey Reels, 1798

Above is a transcription [the original is in G] of the first three strains of a tune that appears in a music manuscript now in the National Library of Scotland and known as the Margaret Sinker manuscript, although it is in two halves, one starting from the front [for fiddle?] and the other, inverted, from the back [for keyboard]; one carries Margaret Sinkler’s name, the other that of Graham Kincaid . It is dated 1710.
When you call up the manuscript you are also delivered a small, paper bound pamphlet which is a list of the contents of the manuscript, drawn up by Lady Dorothea Ruggles-Brise [she who rescued William Dixon’s book from the flames] In the manuscript itself this tune is untitled but in Lady Dorothea’s list, she has identified it as Tail Toddle.
But is she correct in this instance? Pipers may immediately notice that this is not Tail Toddle as they know it. Highland pipers may even recognize it as the Sword Dance, Gillie Callum. And those who have dabbled in the Scottish lute repertoire may note that it is almost identical with the tune in the Balcarres manuscript [1695-1710] titled ‘Cuttie spoon and treeladle’. What, then is going on here?
Answering this question turns out to involve an exploration of two rather different systems of harmonic thinking as well as of melodic structure; both these systems were current at the turn of the 18th century, when this manuscript was compiled.  
Now anyone considering arguing with Lady Dorothea should be aware that, according to her obituary, published in The Glasgow Herald in 1938, 'She never forgot a tune and could trace tunes back to their earliest forms … she knew the contents of every volume that she possessed and could give the history of many an air from its skeleton form to the final shape it took in the corpus of Scottish song' [This obituary also relates the story of her rescuing 'a rare volume of old Scottish dances']. But she was not the only one to have made an error in titling this tune; others before her and after would make the same mistake; as we shall see, it is a mistake that persists today. So it may be worth investigating a little closer how this confusion came about.We should start by looking for the earliest versions of all these tunes. The first appearance of Tail Toddle is in the Gairdyn fiddle manuscript which carries the date 1710, but contains some music which must have been added in 1740 or thereafter, since it includes a version of ‘Rule Britannia’. (Fig. 1)
This is pretty much the standard setting, mirrored closely by George Skene in 1717 and used by David Young as the basis for his 8-strain version in the McFarlane Manuscript [1740] (Fig. 2) and in Gow’s Repository vol. I [1799] (Fig. 3)
Gow’s claim, ‘Supposed Welsh’, added above his tune, might easily be dismissed as fanciful, but it seems to have been inspired by its inclusion, in 1794, in Edward Jones’ Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards where it is titled ‘Fiddle Faddle’. (Fig. 4) That title, however, was first used for the tune when it appeared in John Walsh’s Country Dance collections published around 1730-1740. Walsh’s settings are more or less as in Gairdyn/Skene. We shall see how this new title further added to the confusion of at least one 19th century authority.
Gillie Callum
As for GillieCallum, the first sighting is in David Young’s Duke of Perth MS [1734] (Fig. 5) and this is echoed in Gow’s Repository in vol 4 [1817] (Fig. 6) and in any number of GHB settings since, each departing a little further from Young’s.
When we compare this with Margaret Sinkler’s tune we can see that they are essentially the same, with various elements appearing in different orders until the final strain, where, allowing for the fiddle semi-quavers [a feature of the later strains in many of David Young’s variation sets] we have the same melody as Sinkler’s opening strain. With one exception – the final bar [two bars in Sinkler, since, as became the norm in the early years of the 18th century, the note values are halved in Young’s setting], has not just a different harmonic cadence but also a different rhythmic scansion. The significance of this difference is revealed when we look at the chorus of the Gaelic words to Gille Callum :
Gille-Caluim : da pheighinn
Gille-Caluim : da pheighinn
Da pheighenn, da pheighinn
Gille-Caluim Bonn a sia. These words clearly fit the final rhythm of Young’s tune, but they do not fit Sinkler’s. In fact, Sinkler’s are much better suited to what must have been the last line of the early Tail Toddle; ‘That’ll gar your Tail Toddle’.
Does this mean that Lady Dorothea was right in assigning the Tail Toddle title to Sinkler’s tune? We can only decide this when we know what distinguishes one tune from another that shares some similarities, and such a decision may well be a question of individual taste.
Perhaps it is best to start with obvious differences, the first of which is that the two tunes here are set in different keys; for pipers this means that they are related to the drones in different ways. If we start from the notion of the 6-finger note as the ‘Home’ tonic then, whilst Gillie Callum is set in this tonic, Tail Toddle, in all the settings we have looked at, is set in the 3-finger tonic. This immediately creates a different relationship between tonic and drone, in the first it is the tonic, in the second it is a fifth below, the dominant.
This difference introduces two rather different harmonic vocabularies, one essentially pentatonic and the other diatonic [by which is implied the ‘standard’ European concept of harmony]. Gillie Callum employs what has become known as the ‘double-tonic’ harmonic vocabulary, a system which creates the notion of a ‘home’ tonic [here A] and an ‘away’ tonic [here G], determined by the relationship with the drones. Matt Seattle has called the ‘away tonic’ a ‘substitute dominant’.
However, Tail Toddle, having D for its tonic,  has a ‘true’ dominant available [here A], one which is supported by the drone, and thus employs a diatonic harmonic language. This is clearly discernible in the first strain where we have  [using four letters per bar] the sequence DDGG|DDAA|DDGG|ADAA||
 In fact this sequence would be the classic ground known to renaissance composers as the ‘passamezzo moderna’ if it were not for that final bar, which in the true ground should read DADD; this is the ground of tunes such as ‘The Keel Row’ or ‘Up an war them A’. Given the ‘inverted’ final bar, we might call this ground the passamezzo frontiera, to claim its Border provenance. Gillie Callum, on the other hand, is persistently
 AAGG|AAAA|AAGG|AAGA|
and this applies to both strains, since the second is really a variation of the first. The second strain of Tail Toddle, on the other hand, consistently across the early settings begins with the G chord:
GGGG|GGAA|GGAD|ADAA||
Matt Seattle has described a subtle analysis of this allowing G [and B minor in the versions with variations] to substitute for the D chord as what he calls ‘floating’ tonics. Matt’s objective, however, is to view the tunes from the perspective of what he has termed ‘harmonic proportion’, the relative occurrences of the home and away chords, by means of which analysis he has proposed his 3:1 model. It is a powerful tool in understanding the harmonic structure, but leaves unvisited another aspect of structure. Here we are more concerned with the melodic structure, which can be seen as binary, the two halves of each strain opening with the same pattern but closing with different patterns. In the passamezzo moderna, this produces the basic ‘statement|question| |statement |answer’ structure, but here and in a number of other Lowland tunes, we have something more like statement|question|statement |can you repeat the question?.[It’s also worth noting that we can employ Matt’s concept of ‘fractal’ proportion by observing that each element of the statement/answer pairs are themselves binary in structure.]
DDFD|GEFD|DDFD|EACA||
This is all very well, and reveals something of the structure of the two tunes, but there is a fundamental difference, alongside the matter of key that allows us to say, these are not the same tune in different keys. It occurs in the ‘answer’ in the first unit: In Tail Toddle we see the ‘answer’ finishing on what classical musicians call an ‘open cadence’ – it ends on the dominant, the A, just as the question does; in Gillie Callum the answer is a ‘closed’ cadence, ending on the tonic, also A, though the two A’s serve very different functions in the harmonic landscape. Moreover, in Tail Toddle the second ‘statement’ is a repeat of the first, but in GillieCallum it is almost as if the answer and the statement are reversed. In essence it is almost as if the two tunes are ’90 degrees’ out of phase. Start one on the second bar and put the first bar at the end and they become much more closely related.
Put these differences together and there is a strong argument that says, though they share a good deal of musical ideas, these really are two different tunes, but it does ultimately depend on how much difference you require in order to separate them. It should also be said that once we allow how the tunes are developed in variations, then they increasingly part company, but our confused authorities were not taking variations into account, and they obviously saw enough similarities to cause their confusion.So it seems that Sinkler’s tune can be separated from Tail Toddle. But if that is so, what would have been a better title for it? As we have seen, we have two suggestions. Having looked at Gillie Callum, we can now turn to the that suggested by the Balcarres manuscript’s title.Cutty spoon and treeladleSinkler’s tune, as we have observed, appears almost note for note in the Balcarres Lute Book with the title ‘Cutty spoon and treeladle’, which may be merely a mistaken title [it would not be the only one in the Balcarres MS]. As we shall see, one hundred and fifty years later, authorities were still adding this title to their confusion. So can we say whether Balcarres is right in this case, or is Sinkler’s tune really Gillie Callum? The answer, we might guess, all hangs on that final cadence.
What can we learn about the early days of a tune called ‘Cutty Spoon’, apart from the Balcarres version? At one point it looked as if the answer would be very little if anything; no earlier setting appeared to exist, until Matt Seattle recalled seeing the title in a remarkable little book called A Collection of original Scotch Tunes for the Violin. The Whole Pleasant and comical being full of Highland Humour, a copy of which is in the NLS. It was published in London in 1720 by John Young, instrument maker. It contains a number of intriguing tunes, some not found elsewhere, among which is one titled ‘Cutty spoon and Treen Ladle’.2 (Fig. 7)
The relationship between John Young’s setting and that in Sinkler and Balcarres is so close as to satisfy us that Sinkler’s tune is indeed ‘Cutty Spoon’. David Young’s 1740 setting has the simple title ‘Cuttie Spoon’ and follows pretty much the same pattern, with  enhancements typical of Young’s work. (Fig. 8) By the time of Gow’s Repository it has undergone some modifications, and these persists in all subsequent settings (Fig. 9). The first is in the title. Gow’s comment below the first line reads ‘This is the tune mentioned in the old poem Christ Kirk on the Green Canto 2nd.Line 96’. This poem was indeed old, having been written by James I, but ‘Canto 2nd’ was added in 1715 by Allan Ramsay, and published in his Poems in 1721. Gow’s setting seems to be the first appearance of the tune since David Young’s over 60 years before, so it is hardly surprising that it has undergone some changes. In fact, it has more or less migrated to the ground of Tail Toddle, though based on the A tonic, rather than the D, and a transposition has occurred, shifting the melodic position from the tonic to the 5th. However, immediately following Cuttymun in the book is Blair Drummond (Fig. 10):
This is an almost identical tune, except that here the first strain is back in position on the tonic, making it even more recognizably related to Tail Toddle, with the second strain transposed to the tonic,  from the Tail Toddle’s G. No wonder that by this time both collectors and commentators became confused.
To see just how tangled the matter became, witness the bewildered Stenhouse in 1853, writing his note to the tune ‘Little Wat Ye Wha’s Coming’ that appears in Volume 6 of The Scots Musical Museum, published in 1803. (Fig. 11)
“The old tune, to which the words are adapted, was formerly called "Fiddle Strings are dear, Laddie," from the first line of an ancient, though now almost forgotten song. It began— .
Fiddle strings are dear, laddie,
Fiddle strings are dear, laddie,
An' ye break your fiddle strings,
Ye'se get nae mair the year, laddie.“The same tune, in Gow's and other recent collections, is called Tail Toddle, but from what cause the Editor has been unable to discover. The old tune, called "Cuttyman and Treeladle" … has a considerable resemblance to " Fiddle Strings are dear, Laddie.'" Both airs seem to have been composed about one period, if not by the same minstrel.”
We might conjecture that the words Stenhouse quotes belonged with that species of the tune we have seen published in 1740 in London by John Walsh as ‘Fiddle Faddle’ (see Fig, 4).  
Although the first strain of this ‘old tune’ is closely related to the early Tail Toddles, its second is again based on A, rather than the G of the early settings. Stenhouse wanted this song to date from 1715; however, the first appearance of the title seems to be in Vickers’ 1770 fiddle manuscript,  a setting which is much the same as Gairdyn’s Tail Toddle. In Bewick’s collection, as in some other settings from Northumberland, the ‘Little wat ye’ title was used for the Tail Toddle tune set  in B minor, to accommodate the characteristics of the Northumbrian smallpipes.
As a final example of the confusion here is another setting of Tail Toddle published by Neil Gow, this one in 1798 in his first volume of A Collection of Strathspey Reels: Note that the tune is said to be ‘composed for the Harpsichord and German Flute by Mr Nisbet. We can presumably credit Mr Nisbet with the variations, and probably the G#s, as well as the bass in triplets. Altogether a bravura setting - of Gillie Callum. (Fig. 12)
No words of Cuttymun (or Cuttie spoon) are known to survive, but the evidence of the early settings of the tune strongly suggest, by their final cadence, that the last line of each verse would rhythmically mirror that of Tail Toddle, rather than that of Gille Callum, and if this is the case we can safely conclude that Sinkler’s tune is indeed a setting of Cutty spoon and treeladle. One consequence of accepting this identification is that we can, with reasonable confidence, assign the title Gillie Callum to all those variants where the final cadence is of the form of that in David Young’s Giliecallum.
The further significance of this cadence is that it enables us to confidently identify a tune that appears without a title in the Rowallan lute manuscript as Gillie Callum, or at least the final two strains can be identified as such, the earlier strains being as yet unidentified. This manuscript was compiled between 1612 and 1628, which pushes the first appearance of the tune back at least 100 years before David Young’s setting. (Fig. 13)

Fig. 13 The final two strains of an untitled tune in the Rowallan lute MS, c. 1615

We have seen how easy it is for recognised authorities to struggle with the question of what separates one tune from another. Today we would probably agree, despite the persistence of the confusion among Internet commentaries, that there are two distinct tunes here - Tail Toddle and Gillie Callum, though whether they have a common origin will depend on what you consider makes a unique tune. Between Gille Callum and Cutty Spoon, however, there seems so little difference that a common origin is much more likely.
We might wonder, at this stage, is it a valid question, to ask ‘are these two tunes the same?’ What do we gain by attempting to answer it? There seem to be several results which justify it. Firstly, any successful attempt will be based on an understanding of how tunes are put together, which will hopefully lead to a better understanding of how to play them, and put them in the context of a tradition. This understanding will also help in the creation of new tunes that can take a place in this tradition.
Secondly, seeking an answer has revealed some hitherto unrecognised material, material which casts light on matters that without the original question would have remained obscure or prey to mythologizing.  A discussion of these matters, however, will have to wait, since they concern the hallowed ground of Highland Dance…

Notes ____________________________

1. In fact Gairdyn has two Tail Toddle tunes one of which, though much simpler, introduces the full title ‘lasses gar your tails toddle’ and is a forerunner of the version in Wm Dixon’s manuscript. Another version, in George Skene’s 1717 manuscript gives us more or less the full verse as its title ‘Lasses gar your tails toddle, spread your houghs, lat in the doddle, that’ll gar your tail toddle’; unfortunately Skene’s setting is written in a confusing way with bars omitted and added elsewhere on the page. This has led to the presence on the internet of garbled versions; Skene does add two more strains, headed ‘Or this when danced’; these are much the same as Gairdyn’s fuller setting, the one discussed here.

2. The  Dictionary of the Scots Language gives: Treyn(e: Made or consisting of wood, wooden. 3. The appendix on the various discussions of the meaning of these words is too long to include here. Suffice it to say that cutty/spoon/mun is a reference to the short-handled horn spoon familiar across Scotland in the 17th and 18th centuries.