"The Durham Rangers" also known as "An Comhra Donn", "Duran Ranger", "Sherwood Rangers", "Lord Middleton's Hornpipe", "Merry Sherwood Rangers" or "Ranger's Hornpipe" is a Scottish and English Schottische, Reel or Hornpipe in D Major. 'The Durham Rangers' was a nickname for the Durham Fencible Cavalry, raised in 1794 and composed of volunteers under regular officers. As fencibles--for home defense--they could not be sent out of the country, but they could be sent to Ireland, where they were posted in June, 1798 (after having served some years in Scotland). This was just in time for the Irish rebellion of that year, and the 250 man strong Durham fencible unit (which had changed its name to Princess of Wales's Fencible Cavalry) operated against the Irish rebels on the River Boyne. It was disbanded at Clonmel in September, 1800. The melody is in the "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine" tune family. The structure is :(AA):|:(BA):. The A phrase is almost exactly "Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine" at double speed and the B phrase is very similar to "Bonaparte's Retreat" . The melody is played in County Donegal, Ireland, where some versions are rendered in the form of a 'German' (i.e. schottische), while other Irish versions are to be found in the "An Comhra Donn ('The Brown Chest')" family of tunes. The name "Durham Ranger" is shared with a salmon fishing fly, also called a 'duran ranger' (a corruption of 'durham'). The first appearance of the tune in print appears to be in Kerr's Merry Melodies, vol. 1 (c. 1880) albeit under the title "The Sherwood Rangers". It was printed in Dixon's Remember Me (1995), Kennedy's Fiddlers Tune Book (1951), Köhlers’ Violin Repository (1881-1885), Lerwick's Kilted Fiddler (1985) and Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984).