The tunes Leather Britches (Breeches), Britches Full of Stitches, and Lord MacDonald are thought to be variations of each other. Lord Macdonald’s Reel was published in Neil Gow’s 3rd Collection of Strathspey Reels (1792) and may be the source tune. ¹ Many believe Sir Alexander MacDonald (1744–1795) wrote the tune himself, but he may have had nothing to do with the composition and his name became associated with it because he played and popularized it.²

Leather Britches most likely emerged in America shortly thereafter and is found in print in Music for the Piano Dulcimer by Robert J. Rudisill (New York and Kentucky, 1859).³ Perhaps more interestingly ⁴ is that it appears on page 227-228 in A Tour Through Indiana in 1840: The Diary of John Parsons of Petersburg, Virginia (New York, 1920):

When we returned to the first cabin we found the young people already dancing, having induced the old fiddler to take his station in one corner, where he played in a most lugubrious fashion the old tune of “Leather Breeches.”^{5 6}

The tune’s title may refer to leather britches, green snap beans that are strung together with a needle and thread to dehydrate as a means of food preservation.⁷ Or Britches Full of Stitches could refer to actual leather pants stitched together as in the lyrics:

Leather breeches, full of stitches,
Mammy sewed the buttons on.⁸

As a child I remember thinking that Britches Full of Stitches was a warning that if you didn’t stop whatever you were doing, you would receive corporal punishment resulting in a sore behind.

—Kitty Steetle

Vivian Williams playing Leather Britches:

Dick Barrett playing Leather Britches:

John Hartford playing Leather Britches:

Patrick McAvinue & Russell Carson playing Leather Britches:

The Chieftains playing Oh! The Breeches Full of Stitches:

Martin Hayes playing The Britches:

Frankie Gavin playing Britches Full of Stitches:

Le Rêve du Diable playing Lord MacDonald:

Michael Coleman playing Lord McDonald:

La Bottine Souriante playing Le petit bûcheux (a Quebecois variant of Lord MacDonald):

Isidore Soucy playing Gigue à Ti zoune (a Quebecois variant of Lord MacDonald):