Thanks to the mud-elves for changing the subject line!

Deb, thanks, I've got one for you.

Richard and Ed, thanks for your good words.

Brian, I wonder as well. Here are the notes for the two versions I put on the CD:

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Legendary New York State frontier hero Nicholas Stoner was said to have played this tune on his fife at the Battle of Plattsburgh (1814) during an armistice taken to bury the dead on both sides, and it is from this legend that the two separate versions here are derived.

The first thing I play is (more or less) the standard sheet music version of Roslyn Castle, and probably close to the melody Stoner actually played in 1814. What I tagged onto the end is the oral tradition version of the song as passed down for 150+ years to Lawrence Older through generations of New York State fiddlers. In other words, the second version is the way the NY fiddlers told each other the song was played at the Battle of Plattsburgh. Think of "the telephone game", where I whisper a short sentence to you, you whisper it to the next person, and so on. By the time it reaches the last person in line, it's a completely different sentence. Fascinating!

There's a separate and equally interesting story connecting this old British death march to New York State. I learned from Stan Ransom, who is known for doing his homework, that the British army was known for playing the song on sad occasions. When they were heard playing the tune as they marched out of the Long Island NY village of Hempstead Harbor towards the end of the American Revolution, the locals rejoiced! The British were leaving! In 1844, in remembrance of that event, the name of that village was changed to Roslyn.>>