[scots-l] Amazing Grace

[Teanga]

Amazing Grace 's entry in The Fiddler's Companion on the Ceolas site states
that in Beyond the Hebrides, edited by Donald Fergusson, there is the
following:  

"Since the melody is that of a bag-pipe tune and is a gapped-scale melody
with a distinctly modal, plain-song character, it is very probably [sic] that
Newton's composition was to an old Scottish melody.  If not, early settlers
may have adapted the lyrics to an old Scottish melody they brought with them."

The Fiddler's Companion entry continues:  "The tune is attributed to J.
Carrell and D. Clayton in the American shape-note publication Virginia
Harmony, c. 1831.  It has also been suggested the original title for the tune
was 'New Britain'".