Thompson's Twenty Four Country Dances for the year 1778
Charles, Ann and Samuel Thompson published many books of dances, including a series of “Twenty Four Country Dances for the year xxxx”. The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House in London has several of these annual collections. If it hasn't been moved again, the 1778 collection is at efdss.org/vwml-digitised-
Twenty Four COUNTRY DANCES for the year 1778
With proper Tunes and Directions to each Dance, as they are Perform'd at Court, Bath, & all Publick Assemblys, Price 6d.--------London--------
Printed for Chas & Saml Thompson, No 75, St Pauls Church Yard.where may be had
s/d 600 Favourite Country Dances Bound in 3 Vols Each 3/6 300 Favourite Minuets for the Harpsichord Violin or German Flute Bound in 3 Vols Each 3/6 5 Books of Favourite Hornpipes Each 1/0 16 Cotillons or French Dances 1/6 Adams's Psalms & Anthems for Country Churches Bound 5/0 New Instructions for the Violin, Flute, German Flute, Fife, Guitar, Each 1/6 French Horn, Harpsichord, Hautboy, Bagpipe, Flagelet & Singing Do for Violoncello 2/0
The first thing to realise is that when publishers say “new dances” they actually mean “new tunes”. By 1778 I believe the dances were all triple minor (even those where the threes did nothing), and they were very standardised — none of the quirkiness of some of the early Playford dances. The same figures and groups of figures appear time and time again — sometimes you find identical dances in the same book. And the dance interpreter always has to decide not only what the original instructions mean (which is usually not too difficult once you know the standard figures) but also whether dancers of today would find it worth dancing, and whether it should be changed to make it more interesting for the twos and threes. What I'm giving here is the original wording, my thoughts on what this means, and my version of the dance — it's up to you whether you want to use my version or create your own. The musical notation is from the original book; the chords are mine. Again I don't find the tunes as interesting or varied as the early Playford ones, but this was a different world altogether.
If you're new to dance interpretation I recommend that you read these dances through in order — I'll be giving lots more information when talking about the first few and then referring back to it. You might also like to read the introduction to my page on Interpretations.
The Christmas Tale 
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
First Gent: turn his Partner with his Right hand then Leftlead down 2 Cu: up again & cast off
Allemand with your Partner
lead thro' the bottom And cast up lead thro' the top & cast off
So where do we start if we want to work out what this dance means? First we look at the music, which you will see if you click the “Original wording” link above. It helps if you can read music, but don't give up if you can't, provided you can count! Music is made up of bars (called measures in the States) and there's a vertical line between bars. Two vertical lines with two dots on the right mean “start of repeat” — in other words the following section of music is to be played twice. Two vertical lines with two dots on the left mean “end of repeat”. Two vertical lines with two dots on each side mean “end of repeat and start of the next repeat”, and that's what you see at the end of the second and fourth lines of this piece of music. I would have put a “start of repeat” indication at the very start of the tune, but a lot of reputable composers and publishers don't bother with this — if the musicians hit an “end of repeat” marker and there wasn't a start they know it means “back to the start of the tune”. So what we have is two lines of music, each repeated. Most people today refer to these as the A-music and the B-music: they would say there are “two A's and two B's”. And if you count up you'll find that each section is 8 bars, which is by far the commonest format. So we know (if the musical notation is correct) that we have an absolutely standard 32-bar tune. Admittedly the notation isn't always correct, but the Thompsons are pretty reliable so I'd take their word for it unless something else causes me to doubt it — it's certainly my working hypothesis. If you wish you can read more of my thoughts about Understanding music.
Next we look at the words and the symbols. The spelling may be strange and inconsistent, and so may the punctuation, but don't despair — it's certainly easier than trying to understand something in a foreign language! There are some abbreviations, such as “Cu” for “couple” which goes back to John Playford's first edition, not to be confused with “co.” which means “contrary”. And you must be aware that the instructions are normally directed to the first couple, and specifically to the first man. He was considered to be in charge, and there's no point in saying that's sexist — that's the way it was. Instead of First Gent: turn his Partner with his Right hand then Left
I would say “First couple right-hand turn then left-hand turn” but I'm from a different century.
And then we come to the symbols within the instructions. Again publishers vary: Johnson seems completely random in his use of these markers but the Thompsons are pretty good. One dot on top and one below means the first time through the A-music. Two dots on top and one below means the second time through the A-music. Two dots below refer to the B-music, and later on we'll be meeting 3 dots below for the C-music and even 4 dots below for the D-music. It's easy to understand.
The 6 above the 8 means it's a jig, so if you were walking (which you wouldn't have been in 1778) there are two walking steps per bar. Typically the A and B-music splits into two 4-bar phrases, and if you look at the first two lines of music and ignore the upbeat before the first bar-line you can see they're almost identical — this is quite common. A right-hand turn takes 8 walking steps to fit the first phrase, and a left-hand turn fits the second phrase, so even without knowing any more about music you can see that these moves will fit it.
A2 is lead down 2 Cu: up again & cast off
which I would have started with a capital letter, but no matter: it's a very standard move to get a progression. Sometimes it's not clear whether the ones lead up to home place and then cast as the twos move up, or whether the ones lead up directly to second place as the twos move up, but here there's no ambiguity — the dancers just need to be aware that if they lead down too far they won't have time to lead back and cast.
So now the ones are in second place, and that's something which usually happens fairly soon in triple minor dances. It means they can interact with the twos above them and the threes below them. But in this case they don't!
B1 is Allemand with your Partner
Who is doing this? The first man, of course. The triple minor dances were all about the first or active couple; the twos and (particularly) the threes only moved when the ones needed them to. Allemand
(usually “Allemande”) can mean various things, but we can assume it doesn't just mean “turn” because they've already done that. Here's my preferred version. For a right allemande the couple link right elbows, extend their right hand across their partner's back, put their left hand behind their own back and take their partner's right hand with it, then turn while maintaining eye contact — it's supposed to be flirtatious rather than a spin turn! It's a great move, and it can provoke a lot of hilarity while people are trying to learn it! It takes (or should take) the same amount of time as a turn, so it must be right allemande and then left allemande to fit the 8 bars of music.
Finally B2 is lead thro' the bottom And cast up lead thro' the top & cast off
— I would have started with a capital letter and not capitalised “And” but you'll find the lack of initial capitals throughout the book. Another very standard sequence of moves which finishes with the ones again in second place, which is where they need to be to start the next round of this triple minor dance when their threes become their twos and the twos from the set below become their threes.
I didn't have any difficulty interpreting all that, and when I do I'll tell you and you can see whether you agree with whatever I've done to fix the problem.
So now we ask: Is it worth dancing, and do we need to change anything? Some interpreters add all sorts of extra moves, particularly for the twos and threes — I'm much more of a purist. The usual question is “What do the threes do?” and the usual answer is “Not very much”. In fact in this dance they do nothing at all; they just get a mention in the fact that the ones lead down past two couples! So I certainly wouldn't call this as a triple minor. We could convert it to a 3 couple dance by having the ones cast to the bottom at the end of the figure. Or (since the threes do nothing) we could convert it to duple minor without changing a thing. So the next question is: “What do the twos do?” — and the only thing they do is move up! At that point I decide the dance isn't worth keeping, so I'm not going to write out my interpretation using my own notation — there just isn't any point.
You probably now feel that I've been wasting your time, but that's not true. I've been writing these notes as I went through the dance myself, and it was only when I asked those two questions that I realised the dance wasn't worth doing. But I've explained a lot of things which should be useful as we go through the rest of the 24 dances and (maybe) find a few that are worth doing! The fact is, if you try interpreting dances of this period you'll find lots that aren't worth doing. In the introduction to the Apted Book (which I'll be referring to throughout this page) the editors say “It must be admitted that the great majority of these dances are extremely poor”, but of course they don't give examples — why would they? I'm probably the only person in the world who would take the trouble to show you the original page, write out the instructions, set the musical notation and add chords, and take you through the whole process of interpretation, only to decide that it is indeed “extremely poor”! But you need to be aware of this or you'll be discouraged. There may well be some gems hidden away in these old collections, but you'll have to search long and hard to find them. Anyway, let's move on.
A School for Scandal
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
First Gent: turn the 2d Lady 1st Lady turn the 2d Gent
Again we start with the music. This time there's a big letter C instead of the 6 over 8, but my working assumption is that unless the time signature starts “3”, “6” or “9” it's a reel with two walking steps per bar. Again the standard: two A's and two B's, each 8 bars. Again we find that the first four bars of both the A and B-music are very similar to the second four bars. When I listen to this tune I think “1-2-3-hop” or maybe “1-2-3-push forward”. On to the instructions.
A1: Notice that it's not so sexist. Being the first couple generally takes precedence over being a man, so it's the first lady turning the second gent rather than the other way round. I would simplify this by saying “First corners two-hand turn, second corners two-hand turn”. I believe that when the instructions say “turn” it means a two-hand turn; notice that in the previous dance it actually specified “right hand then left”.
A2: For the promenade I would use a cross-hand hold. I don't know whether they did in 1788 but I know that as soon as I say “promenade” that's the hold dancers in England will take, so why fight it? It means you're closer to your partner than with an inside hand hold so the man can help his partner round the corners — it's always the women who have the longer path!
Paul Cooper has an article where he suggests that the hands should be joined behind the dancers rather than in front, though Thomas Wilson writing c.1820 recommended the arms in front.
B1: cross over 1 Cu:
means “cross and cast, and the other couple move up”; I talk about that in my Interpretations page. But if they lead up and cast back they finish improper, and B2 isn't going to change that. The simplest change is to do a half figure eight up rather than lead up and cast; indeed that combination of figures had been a standard means of progression for many years.
B2: I would like to think that hands 6 quite round
meant all six circle left and right, but that's not supported by the evidence! Some of the later dances do have circle 6 half-way and back, but it seems that most of the time a circle 6 was one way only. If it's just to the left it needs some control: it's very easy to get there too soon. So here's my interpretation:
| A1: | First corners (1M 2L) two-hand turn. Second corners the same. |
| A2: | All face up, promenade round to the left and up to place. |
| B1: Ones cross, cast to second place; twos lead up. Ones half figure eight up through the twos. | |
| B2: Circle 6 left. | |
And that inevitably brings me to the Apted Book, because this is exactly the interpretation given there, except that they do take the easy way out and have the circle going left and then right. The Apted Book of Country Dances was edited by W. S. Porter, Marjorie Heffer and Arthur Heffer from Cambridge. A Mrs Apted gave the Heffers an old book of dances she had found in a cupboard she had bought, and in 1931 they published their selection of interpretations from it. They were assisted in this by William Porter, who was a Cambridge folkie, more into music than dance. Douglas and Helen Kennedy had recently produced the “Country Dance Book — New Series”, so extending Cecil Sharp's repertoire was not forbidden territory. You can read more about these people on my Maggot Pie page. The only difference with this dance is that they set it to the tune “The New Fandango” rather than the tune given here. They changed tunes a lot, and I don't know why. Maybe they thought a lively jig was more suitable that a notey reel — though we will see later that they could also make the opposite decision! Douglas Kennedy, who was director of EFDSS at the time, defended this in his foreword by saying,
The Editors have not hesitated to exchange tunes or to change details of figures, for they realise how conscious was the construction of the country dances of this period and how loose the association of a movement with a particular tune.
True enough, but if they wanted to set these figures to a different tune they should have called the dance “The New Fandango” rather than “A School for Scandal”. This tune certainly doesn't suggest “1-2-3-hop”, so for the circle left I would use 16 restrained slip-steps. And if your dancers can't cope with all that time for the circle left (with whichever tune) you can follow the Apted Book and use circle left followed by circle right. I asked Paul Cooper whether it could mean that, and he said,
Honestly, no I don't have any real evidence in favour of the circle returning (at least nothing beyond the practical experiencing of dancing).
The Free Mason
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 3d Gent: lead round the 3d Ladythen sides
ballance 3 cu: & turn half round
ballance again & turn proper
More to get our teeth into this time — a 4-part tune, and a quick count establishes that as before each line is 8 bars.
The 3d Gent: lead round the 3d Lady
must mean that he leads the other two men and they go all the way round all three ladies back to place, which will certainly fit into 8 bars. I take “lead” to mean “with hands”, but he could just be saying “follow me” as he sets off. It's unusual for the third couple to initiate a move, and it causes great confusion because the third man was the second man at the end of the previous turn of the dance and usually doesn't realise he's now the leader! No doubt they had fun with this in 1778 too.
As in “The Christmas Tale” the ones now lead down, lead back, cast to middle place and allemande right and left, which takes us to the end of B2. But then we have Set 3 & 3 Bottom and Top
so the ones need to end the previous move between the end couples, and since the preceding move is a left allemande it's easy to turn this a quarter more so that the man finishes between the third couple in a line facing up, the lady between the second couple in a line facing down. In my experience setting in lines was always done with the man at the bottom and the lady at the top.
I would suggest that the setting in lines needs to be done twice, to fit 4 bars of music. And then turn your partner
— who is this addressed to? The first man, of course, otherwise it would have said “All three men turn your partners”. The point is that the ones don't need the twos and threes to do anything here, and indeed there's a danger that the other couples would be in their way. So the ones do a two-hand turn, and the terse then sides
means we repeat these moves, so the first two-hand turn needs to be 1¼ so that the ones finish in middle place on their own side — a good place to be, as I mentioned earlier.
And then at the start of the D-music we have ballance 3 cu: & turn half round
. Presumably a balance is different from a set, perhaps the same as “foot it” which means any fancy step you like. I've mentioned Alan Winston's suggestion for a fancy step elsewhere, so I'll go with that. And surely turn half round
means circle half round, otherwise there would have been no point in the twos and threes joining in the balancing — though admittedly you could say the same about the setting in the C-music. 4 bars for the fancy stepping and 4 bars for a circle half-way seems perfectly good, and if the circle travels more or less than half-way it doesn't matter because we then circle back again.
| A1: | Bottom man lead the other two men round the ladies. |
| A2: | Bottom lady lead the other two ladies round the men. |
| B1: | Ones lead down. Dance back, cast to middle place. |
| B2: | Ones right allemande. Left allemande 1¼ to lines across, man at bottom, lady at top. |
| C1: | Lines set right and left twice. Ones two-hand turn 1¼ to middle place proper. |
| C2: | Lines set right and left twice. Ones two-hand turn once around. |
| D1: | Lines fancy step: Four hops on the left foot while the right foot (without touching the ground) goes behind, out to the right, in front, out to the right and step on it; four hops on the right foot while the left foot moves behind, out to the left, in front, out to the left. Circle 6 left half-way. |
| D2: | Lines fancy step. Circle right half-way. |
When we look at the Apted Book we find a number of differences. First of all they've set it to the tune of “The Milesian” which appears later in this collection. It's a 2-part reel rather than a 4-part jig, so you need to play the tune twice through for once through the dance, and I much prefer the original tune (which has an interesting switch into the minor key for the second half), so why did they change it?
They say, NOTE.—The movement in B2 is described as “Allemande right hand and then left,” but the meaning is doubtful.
But they give a turn of ¾ rather than 1¼ which I suspect is wrong — as I said, I think the man should finish at the bottom. Then instead of setting twice they have set and honour, first to the right and then to the left.
— perhaps a reasonable interpretation. But instead of having just the ones turn partner (again ¾ rather than 1¼) they have the others turning their same sex neighbour, to give them something to do. I don't think this works well — the twos and threes have to scurry round in their turns and the ones have to look behind them to make sure they don't step on someone as then finish their turn. And after the second set and honour they have everyone turning their partners.
Then in place of the fancy step they have All fall back a double and come forward.
— “ballance” can mean several things, but surely not that, and they don't say that you join hands in lines, though modern dancers would probably do so without being told. But they agree with me that it should be circles rather than turns.
So that's my opinion of what the original instructions mean, but ultimately it's up to each caller to decide how much of that you want to take on board. Maybe you would leave out the neighbours two-hand turn in C1 but give everyone the partner turn in C2. And if you want to convert it from triple minor to a 3 couple set dance, the ones could move to the bottom during their two-hand turn in C2 to give a standard progression. Or you could replace the final circle by all two-hand turn partner half-way or 1½, or gipsy right 1½, to give a reverse progression.
The Graces
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st 2d 3d Cu: Balle Pas Rigadn and hands 6 half round
Again a 4-part tune, though this time the C-music is only 4 bars long. It's quite an unusual tune — I've set it for trumpet as I think that suits its nature, with dramatic contrasts between p (soft) and f (loud) in the A and B sections. And there's a very unusual start to the figure: Balancé and Rigadoon which I describe on my Regency Dance page. I knew that was used in cotillions — dances in a square formation for four couples — but I didn't realise it was also used in country dances, and perhaps this is a rarity. I've also noticed it in An Adventure at Margate published by Skillern three years later, and indeed in “La Boutonniere” in Thompson's 1779 collection.
The start is straightforward. This time after the ones lead down and back they don't cast to second place; instead they “foot it”. As I said in The Free Mason, this is an indication for the dancer or dancers to use whatever fancy steps they like, but it's usually 4 bars and here it seems to be just 2 bars so I would be tempted to change it to a set. That takes us to the end of B1, and then B2 is a promenade round and back — the specified order suggests that the ones are indeed still in top place.
But then to go with the C-music we have 4 bars for the 3d Cu: change side
and 4 bars for back again
. I know we had the threes leading the others round in The Free Mason, but it's so unlikely the threes would do a solo that I immediately want to find another interpretation. And my suggestion is that instead of “the 3d Cu:” it should read “the 3 Cu:” — in other words all three couples having done the promenade cross over with their partners and then cross back again. This is (exceptionally) a dance where the twos and threes join in most of the moves.
We will come across Change Sides
or in this case Change Side
a number of times in this collection, and it's a figure that I've changed my mind about. My original understanding was that you set before crossing over with your partner, but I don't know where I got that from and when I asked two experts I didn't get any definite answers. There are certainly dances (from a little later) which actually say Sett & change sides same back again
so I'm now assuming no setting.
My other doubt was that I expected the ones to be in middle place when they lead through the bottom couple and then top couple — that's a very standard pair of moves — but looking ahead I see the same thing in other dances so I can't reasonably object to it. The final right and left
is probably the most common finish in country dances of this period, and is performed by the ones and the twos who are above them — saying goodbye to this couple since they are moving out of the ones' minor set, whereas the threes will become their twos for the next round of the dance.
| A1: | All three couples Balancé and Rigadoon. Circle left half-way. |
| A2: | Balancé and Rigadoon. Circle right half-way. |
| B1: | Ones lead down to the bottom and turn in. Lead up to the top and set to partner at the end of the phrase. |
| B2: | All three couples take a cross-hand hold, promenade round to the left down to the bottom of the set and up the middle again. |
| C1: | (4 bars): All three couples cross right with partner, move well out, loop to the right to finish in partner's place. |
| C2: | Same again, finishing home. |
| D1: | Ones lead down below the threes; cast up around them. Lead up through the twos; cast around them as the twos lead up. |
| D2: | Twos and ones, four changes with hands. |
You could certainly leave this as a triple minor. If you wanted to convert it to a 3 couple set dance you could add an extra change by the right hand for the ones and threes. Just be ready to start again with the Balancé and Rigadoon!
I hate it when callers call an extra change and say “Don't phrase the five changes”. What they mean is, “The dance has been hacked about so it no longer fits the music and you just have to ignore the music”. That's not good enough, and there's a simple solution. Phrase the first three changes with four walking steps (or two skip-change steps) as usual and then do the final two changes with two walking steps each. The final two are straight down the line for the ones, so there's no difficulty doing this.
Le Fete da Village
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Right hands across left hands back again
The tune is a nice 32-bar reel with an unexpected chord in the third bar of the B-music — I don't mean the chord is an unusual one, but it's there in the melody which is otherwise just a single line of notes. Jenna Simpson has a dance called “Champagne” to a later version of this tune — her village fetes must be more up-market than those I've attended! No difficulties of interpretation here, and by now I hope you're realising how similar and standardised these dances are. So who does the “Change Sides”? Is it just the ones? Or the ones and twos? Or even (less likely) the ones, twos and threes? I don't know, so I'll make a guess that because the twos have joined the ones for the stars they may also join in the Change Sides. The threes do nothing for the whole dance, so I'd certainly convert this to duple minor. Is it too easy? That depends who you're aiming it at: if it's people with little or no dance experience at a Jane Austen evening I think it would go down well. Maybe you'd want both couples to perform the allemande, though it should really be the ones doing it (and having plenty of room) while the inactives admire them and wait for their turn. And see my notes on Change Sides above.
Format: Longways duple minor.
| A1: | Right-hand star. Left-hand star. |
| A2: | Cross over with partner, go well out, then loop right into partner's place. The same back again. |
| B1: | Ones lead down the middle, turn in. Dance back and cast around the twos who lead up. |
| B2: | Ones allemande right. Allemande left. |
The Rosetta
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Turn Right hands then left
The tune is a 32-bar jig. The dance is so much about the ones that I can't imagine ever calling it: the twos get to move up and the twos and threes join in with the circle left and right, but surely there must be more interesting dances than this!
The Salloon
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Right hands across
The tune is a banal jig — click the music symbol next to the title and you can play it — with A- and B-music only 4 bars rather than 8, so it's half the length of a standard figure. cross over one Cu:
means the ones cross and cast, so surely lead thro' the top and cast off
must mean the ones half figure eight up, otherwise they would start alternate turns of the dance improper. Or maybe that was the most interesting aspect of the dance!
I have to wonder why many of the tunes are so bad, but I'm not the first. Thomas Wilson in his “A Companion to the Ball Room…” of 1816 gives a real diatribe on the subject!
The only reason to be assigned why Collections of Country Dances, particularly annual ones, have been so deficient both in Merit and Originality, is, that good Composers have considered that it would not pay them for composing Dances, as the Publishers cannot afford any thing like, what may be termed a Price, since they have got into the Method of selling twenty-four NEW DANCES (at least they are termed so) for a shilling; therefore the Trifle that can be afforded to Composers for these annual Collections will not make it worth the Trouble or Consideration of persons of talent.
and he continues in this vein at some length.
The Rose
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Right hands across half round
Another unremarkable 16-bar jig with unremarkable figures — the threes do nothing and the twos just do stars and move up.
The Merry Meeting
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Right hands across half round left hands back again
The first half is identical to the entire previous dance — maybe that was just a practice run! I believe (with no supporting evidence) that if the star is specified as half round, you take inside hand with your neighbour and set to partner before the star. If I'd written the dance I would have had the ones leading through the couple they'd just circled with, which would flow more naturally, and having led through the threes and cast up they'd be moving towards the twos ready to circle with them. But I'm not going to rewrite it; I'll just suggest that it could easily be converted to duple minor by replacing “the threes” by “the next twos” and doing a two-hand turn at the bottom of the set where the ones have no “next twos”. It could equally be converted to a 3 couple set by having the ones do a turn single up rather than cast up at the end of the figure.
The dance appears in The Apted Book though once again the tune has been replaced, this time by “The Handsome Couple” which appears in Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances Volume IV. Many (perhaps all) of the dances from the annual collections of 24 dances appeared later in the much larger books. The Apted version has the stars going all the way round, which I agree is more satisfying; otherwise my interpretation agrees with theirs. But here I'll go for a 3 couple version.
| A1: | Ones and twos take inside hand with neighbour: set to partner; star right half-way. Set as before; star left half-way. |
| A2: | Ones lead down the middle, turn in. Dance back, cast to second place (twos lead up). |
| B1: | At the bottom, circle left. Ones turn in, lead up through the twos and cast off. |
| B2: | At the top, circle left. Ones turn in, lead down through the threes (who move up); ones turn single up. |
| Originally triple minor, ending with ones casting up. | |
He Stole my Tender Heart Away
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st Gent: turn the 2d Lady
I would describe the tune as a polka — play it and see what you think. The A-music is a standard 8 bars, repeated; the B-music is a massive 24 bars, also repeated, giving a total of 64 bars as we had in “The Free Mason”.
The A part looks straightforward until we realise there's twice as much music as we would expect.
In B1 for once we don't have “lead down, lead up and cast”. Instead, after the lead up to home place we have cross over
which always means “cross and cast”. That gives the progression, but it means the ones are now improper with no visible means of getting proper again, so I suggest that what's missing is a half figure eight up — a very standard follow-up to “cross and cast”. And then circle left and right will fit 24 bars.
B2 is lead out Sides
for 24 bars. As it happens I've discussed this figure in my page about the Ashover Book — but it's a 16-bar figure. I think there are enough unanswered questions here for me to leave this one for the moment!
Trip to Oatelands
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Turn Right hands round Left hands back again
The tune is a 32-bar jig. A1 is straightforward. A2 seems straightforward: 8 steps to lead down below the threes and then 8 steps to do a wide cast up and the threes move down on the last 4 steps. But then B1 is set 3 & 3 top and bottom then sideways
and I believe the man should be at the bottom and the woman at the top. In fact Lord Harrington's Volunteers published by Skillern in 1780 spells this out:
The 1st. Lady setts to the 2d. Gent: turn to the 3d. Gent: & retreat back to her place
I'm sure the first “turn to” should just be “turn” as it is the second time, so this is clear enough and was published only three years after Thompson's book. And indeed in Thompson's next annual collection there's a dance called “The Runaway” with very similar wording:
The 1st. Lady turn the 3d. Gent: & retreat back to her place
But after setting in lines across the ones need to get to middle place on their own side. I know that the traditional English Dance The Bonny Breastknot gets round this by balancing to the left first so that the ones can leap to their left into middle place, but although in John Playford's day and earlier the set would be left and right, by 1778 it was definitely right and left. You may also quote me “Miss Sayers' Allemande” in Fallibroome 1 but the original, published by Thomas Budd Junior in 1781, says:
Cast off 2 Cu: cast up one and foot it, the Lady fall in at top, the Gent: at bottom, set 3 and 3 top and bottom, set 3 and 3 sideways, Hands 6 quite round, Allemande with the Right and Left Hands.
No doubt Bernard Bentley knew the Maud Karpeles version of Devon Bonny Breastknot and decided to emulate that, but now I'm wondering whether she really saw the kick-balance to the left first.
So I did some more Googling and found two pages from “The complete system of English Country Dancing” (Thomas Wilson, c.1820) here and here which explain in both diagrams and words. Here are the words [with my interpolations]:
Set three across. The Lady moves from B to A [i.e. from second place on her own side to stand between the twos at the top], at the same time the Gentleman moves from D to C [i.e. from second place on his own side to stand between the threes at the bottom], they then set to each other face to face, as do likewise the top and bottom Ladies and Gentlemen, three and three across, as shewn by the diagram.
Note--- “Set three in your places,” always follows this Figure, otherwise the centre couple would be left not only out of their places, but in an improper situation.
Set three in your places. * The Lady moves from G to her place at B [i.e. back where she came from, though confusingly the lettering is not the same as in the previous diagram], at the same time the Gentleman moves from H to his place at E [i.e. back where he came from], then the Ladies at A B C, and the gentlemen at D E F, set to each other.
* “Set three in your places” may be performed before “set three across,” although it is very unusual.
N. B. In the performance of this and the above Figure, great attention must be paid to the application of suitable steps, as the moving into different situations by the centre couple, will take part of the time of the music, while the top and bottom couples will have the time unbroken.
He doesn't really answer my question though! What suitable steps
do the ones do when they move from place to place while the others continue setting? Surely the suitable steps are setting steps. I suggest that they set right-left-right while moving in to face each other and rotating a quarter, then left-right-left as they fall back into their new place. He also doesn't say whether people take hands in lines to set, though that's what English and Scottish dancers would do now.
Again we have to decide whether to keep it as a triple minor or modify it to produce a set dance. I suggest the Scottish approach of doing it in a 4 couple set — in effect a very short triple minor. The ones lead the figure once with the two couples below them, finishing in second place. They then lead the dance again with the two couples now below them while the original twos stand neutral at the top. At the start of the third turn, while the new ones are doing their two turns, the previous ones cast to the bottom and the bottom couple move up. In this dance because the twos do nothing for the first 8 bars, you could actually do it in a 3 couple set, but I think (never having tried it) that I prefer a 4 couple set, so the dance will go 8 times through.
| A1: | Ones right-hand turn. Left-hand turn. |
| A2: | Ones lead down below the threes; twos lead up. Ones cast up to middle place; set right-left-right while moving diagonally right (facing each other), set left-right-left while falling back to finish in two lines across, man between the bottom couple, woman between the top couple. |
| B1: | Set right and left in lines; while the others set again, ones set right-left-right while moving diagonally left, set left-right-left while falling back to middle place on your own side. Set twice in these lines. |
| B2: | Circle 6 left once around. |
| At the end of the second turn the ones cast to the bottom while the new ones are doing their right-hand turn. | |
The Bird Catchers
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st and 2d Cu: foot it and change sides
The tune is a 32 bar reel or march. “Foot it” normally takes 4 bars, followed by4 bars to change sides: see my notes on Change Sides. I was doubtful about this at first, but then I realised you get the same timing in traditional dances like “Bridge of Athlone” where it's 8 steps for lines forward and back followed by 8 steps to cross over — and most people cross over in 4 and then wait for the music to catch up! In fact the traditional American dance “Arkansas Traveler” has exactly the same move: Balance twice in lines, cross over, the same back again. You can borrow the Ralph Page Book of Contras from archive.org/details/
This is the way we danced “Arkansas Traveler” for years in New Hampshire and Vermont. The old dance books gave another version. Occasionally a “city” caller would call the dance “according to the book”. Once through the dance and the floor was a complete shambles. Some of the dancers tried to be polite and danced it the way the caller was saying it; the others insisted on dancing it the “right” way! You couldn't win!
cross over one Cu:
leaves the ones progressed but improper, so surely they must then do a half figure eight up (or possibly turn half-way or 1½). No mention of the threes, so this can certainly be danced as duple minor.
Format: Longways duple minor.
| A1: | All foot it to partner (see Fancy step). Cross over right shoulder, dance out towards the walls, loop right and come back in to finish in partner's place. |
| A2: | All that again, home. |
| B1: | Ones cross and cast; twos lead up. Ones half figure eight up. |
| B2: | Four changes with hands. |
Trip to the Oakes
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Cast off two Cu:
The tune is a not very interesting 32-bar reel and the figures are absolutely standard. Didn't people get bored doing these sequences again and again? But then, how many modern contras start with balance and swing neighbour, circle left ¾, swing partner? Again I'm assuming that Cast off two Cu:
is two separate moves, and I would convert it to duple minor so that the ones are working with their own twos and the next twos, imagining these at the bottom of the set. You could also convert it to a 3 couple set by using the wording in (brackets).
Format: Longways duple minor or 3 couples longways.
| A1: | Ones cast to second place; twos lead up. Ones cast to third place; twos (threes) lead up. |
| A2: | Ones lead slowly up to the top. Ones wide cast to second place as twos (threes) lead down again. |
| B1: | Ones and new twos (threes) circle left. Circle right. |
| B2: | Ones and original twos, four changes with hands (and one Extra Change to get the ones to the bottom). |
The Green Park
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Half Right and Left
A more interesting 32-bar reel than the last one, but nothing much in the figure. I'm assuming that you set twice before each of the Half Right and Left
and that the cross and cast is followed by a half figure eight up, but I can't bring myself to write the instructions out!
Ye Social Pow'rs
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Cast off 2d. Cu: & set, cast off 3d. Cu: & set
The tune is a good lively 48-bar jig — an 8-bar A-music and a 16-bar B-music, both repeated, though the second half of the B-music is the same as the A-music so you could think of it as AABABA. The tune is used in the Apted book for the dance “Once a Night”, converted to the 40-bar sequence AABBA.
For once the instructions spell out that casting off two couples is two separate moves — this time interrupted by setting. B starts with cross over two Cu: lead up to the top, cast off
which takes 16 bars — but according to the underlined dots we also have to fit in hands 4 round at the bottom
which seems unlikely with such a standard move. Admittedly this is the first time it appears in this collection, but you can see it in dances from the Ashover Book (1764): Bonny Cate, Loudon, Rockingham Hall, plus The Shepherd and Shepherdess (Johnson 1758) which has exactly the same figures as “The Hop-Pickers' Feast” (Thompson's “Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1786”), and many more. I thought it was always a 16-bar move. But there are two later dances in this collection which also have an extra move added- He's aye a Kissing me and Who's afraid so I'm forced to believe that the Thompsons knew what they were talking about — I said at the start that their section markings were usually reliable. And for set contrary Corners
Paul Cooper pointed me to Thomas Wilson's pages from “The Complete System of English Country Dancing” here and here. The diagrams show what I'm giving as B2 here.
At least I'm confident that Right and Left at top
is the usual 8 bars!
Format: Longways triple minor or 3 couples longways.
| A1: | Ones cast, twos lead up; ones set. Ones cast, threes lead up; ones set. |
| A2: | Ones cast up, threes lead down; ones set. Ones cast up, twos lead down; ones set. [All home] |
| B1: | (16 bars): Ones cross and cast; twos lead up. Ones cross and cast; threes lead up. |
| Ones lead rapidly up to the top (threes lead down); quick cast to second place. Ones and threes circle left. | |
| B2: | Ones move diagonally right, setting to first corners who set to them; ones pass partner right shoulder. Ones move diagonally left, setting to second corners who set to them; ones return to middle place own side. |
| Twos and ones four changes with hands. [To convert to a 3 couple set dance, ones do an Extra Change with the threes.] |
He's aye a Kissing me
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st. Gent: Allemand to the right with the 2d. Lady and to the left with his Partner
The tune is a reel — more of a march in fact — with an 8-bar A and a 16-bar B, each repeated, giving a 48-bar figure. There's a pause on bar 8 of the B-music — probably not quite as dramatic as you will hear if you play my version, but still the first pause we've come across in this book. You might think there would be some significant move at that point — perhaps the “Kissing” of the title — but it seems not.
We've already seen “allemand” in several dances. I assume “to the right” means “by the right”, and there's no problem fitting the moves to the two A's. I believe the first lady would allemande left with the second man (since their left sides are closer to each other) and then right with partner, so it's a mirror image rather than “the same”. Again, after I'd thought “cross over two couples, lead to the top” was a standard 16-bar move, this time it has & turn
slapped into the middle of it! What I come up with is quite similar to the previous dance, though because of the section markers I believe hands 4 round at bottom
means circle left and right whereas in “Ye Social Pow'rs” there's only time for a circle left.
Format: Longways triple minor or 3 couples longways.
| A1: | First man allemande right with second lady. Allemande left with partner. |
| A2: | First lady allemande left with second man. Allemande right with partner. |
| B1: | (16 bars): Ones cross and cast; twos lead up. Ones cross and cast; threes lead up. |
| Ones lead rapidly up to the top (threes lead down); quick cast to second place. Ones two-hand turn. | |
| B2: | Ones and threes circle left and right. |
| Twos and ones four changes with hands. [To convert to a 3 couple set dance, ones do an Extra Change with the threes.] |
Ticonderoga
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st. Lady turn the 3d. Gent:
Ticonderoga was a Fort in New York State which was captured by the British in 1777 during the American Revolution (or War of Independence as they call it over there) and I expect the dance and tune were published the next year to celebrate the event. There is however no military significance in either. The music is an elegant 32-bar notey reel which I imagine being played on a harpsichord.
The two-hand turns seem straightforward, but we need to get from these to lines across with the ones in the middle, and in my experience the man is always at the bottom and the woman is at the top. I had this same problem earlier in Trip to Oatelands, and I offer the same solution, again for three couples in a four couple set.
| A1: | First woman cast to second place (second woman move up); two-hand turn third man (8 steps, across the music); cast back to place (second woman move down). |
| A2: | First man cast to second place (second man move up); two-hand turn third woman about 1¼ to finish between the third couple in a line of three, and on the last four beats the first woman draws the second woman up and the second man moves up so that they finish in a line of three facing down. |
| B1: | Set right and left in lines; while the others set again, ones set right-left-right while moving diagonally left, set left-right-left while falling back to middle place on your own side. Set twice in these lines. |
| B2: | Circle 6 left once around. |
| At the end of the second turn the ones do a quick cast to the bottom and the fours move up while the new first woman is casting. | |
The dance is similar to “Hamilton House” which the Scots claim, from Campbell's 4th Collection of newest & most favorite Country Dances and Cotillions, c. 1789. William Campbell was a London-based composer and publisher of dance publications, probably of Scottish descent. You can download a PDF of the book from bib.hda.org.ru/books/campbell_
The 1st. Lady set to the 2d. Gent: and turn the 3d. The 1st. Gent: do the same set 3 and 3 Top and bottom turn your partner set 3 & 3 sides and turn Hands 6 round and back again.
To me the crucial difference is that after the setting 3 and 3 we have turn your partner
— abbreviated to turn
the second time. You can read the Scottish instructions at scottish-country-
Who's afraid
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st. & 2d. Cu: set and change sides
The music is a 24-bar jig: two 4-bar A's and two 8-bar B's. Once again we have cross over two Cu:
with something else tacked on the end, in this case lead up one
so clearly the Thompsons don't see this as an 8-bar figure complete in itself. The threes don't do anything except the final circle, but I wouldn't want to convert it to duple minor because it would be very difficult to stretch out a circle left for two couples to 8 bars. Once again I'll use the Scottish approach of a 4 couple set with each couple leading the figure twice. And see my notes on Change Sides.
| A1: | (4 bars): Ones and twos set; cross over with partner, go well out, then loop right to finish in partner's place. |
| A2: | All that again. |
| B1: | Ones cross and cast; twos lead up, ones cross and cast to the bottom (threes stand still) then lead up to second place. |
| B2: | Circle 6 once around to the left. |
| At the end of the second turn the ones cast to the bottom while the new ones and twos are setting and crossing. | |
The Hive Bonnet
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Cast off two Cu:
Again the music is a 24-bar jig: two 4-bar A's and two 8-bar B's, though this time the second half of B is a repeat of A so it sounds quite repetitive. Very little for the twos and threes to do, so I'm not going to bother writing out the instructions as I would call them.
The Frog & Mouse
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st. Gent: set to the 2d. Lady and not turn
This time the music is a reel with an 8-bar A and a 16-bar B, each repeated, which seems far too much music for the dance, but in my opinion the music is wrongly laid out: it should be in 2/2 time rather than 2/4 time and each pair of bars should be written as a single bar, so effectively it's a 4-bar A and an 8-bar B. That still seems too much A-music, though I don't understand the instruction to “not turn”. Chris Page suggests it means that the first gent sets to the 2nd lady, and doesn't turn her as expected, but turns someone else, like his partner, but he admits this is ust a random guess at a very cryptic instruction. Two bars to set and two bars to not turn? On the other hand B2 seems too busy: 4 bars to lead up and cast back, then 4 bars to do four changes? All the four changes so far have taken 8 bars. So I'm leaving this one. And as in “Ye Social Pow'rs” and “The Hive Bonnet” the second half of B is a repeat of A so it sounds quite repetitive.
The Ton
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st. Gent: lead the 2d. round the 1st. & 2d. Ladies then turn both hands with their Partners
The tune is a jaunty reel — perhaps more of a Schottische — with 16-bar A and B both repeated, giving a double length (64-bar) tune.
No real difficulties of interpretation, but a couple of questions. Which of the ladies leads in A2? The assumption is that the first lady is in charge, but if so their anti-clockwise movement suggests a reverse turn with partners — which for some reason we find really awkward! It's possible the second lady would lead — after all in “The Free Mason” we had the third man leading the other two men round the ladies and then the third lady leading the other two ladies round the men — and it would flow better, though flow is a concept much more prevalent in the 21st century (particularly in the States) than in the 18th. There's always a danger that flow can become overflow, with too much clockwise movement — the ladies would then go from a clockwise turn to a clockwise lead to a clockwise turn to a clockwise star — but the lead around isn't as tight as the other moves so it might be acceptable.
I mentioned earlier that it seems unusual for the ones to lead down through the threes from first place, but here it is again so I'm obviously wrong.
The threes do nothing except act as posts for the ones to lead through, so I would convert this to duple minor. I'm suggesting that the twos move up as soon as the ones start to lead down, since there's a longer distance for the ones to travel than if they were leading through their own threes. And I would suggest a gentle 1-2-3-hop throughout.
Format: Longways duple minor.
| A1: | First man lead second man all the way round their partners. All two-hand turn. |
| A2: | Second lady lead first lady all the way round their partners. All two-hand turn. |
| B1: | Right-hand star. Left-hand star. |
| B2: | Ones lead down through your twos and the next twos (twos move up immediately); cast up into second place. Lead up through your own twos; cast down to second place. |
After producing this version I checked the two places I usually look for dances:
Hugh Stewart's Dance Finder: cambridgefolk.
Antony Heywood's database: barndances.org.uk/Antony
From these I learn that there is an interpretation of the dance in “From Two Barns, Volume 2” by Ken Sheffield. I don't have this book, but all of his books are now available on the CDSS website, at cdss.org/publications/
Newport Assembly
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st. and 2d. Cu: foot it and change sides
The tune is a notey reel in three 8 bar sections, each repeated to give a 48-bar figure. This presents problems when fitting the figures to the music: we would expect stars and allemandes to be 4 bars each, but here they seem to be 8 bars. We certainly couldn't play the tune at double speed. And there's no progression! So this is another one I'm throwing open to suggestions.
The Milesian
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
Hey contrary sides
The tune is a nice 32-bar reel with a little syncopation in the A-music. Thanks to Jeanette Watts for pointing out that the same instructions are used for “Lady Worsleys Fancy” and “The Tarter”, both in Thompson's 1779 collection. As I said at the start, “new dances” actually means “new tunes”. The only difference in the wording is that the former has hands 6 round
and the latter has hands Six quite round
which forces me to believe that these terms are synonymous. I would much rather circle 6 left and right, but it seems they usually didn't do that, though they did when it was circle 4 (which they couldn't stretch out to 8 bars of music).
Again the lead through the threes starts from top place. We could keep this as a triple minor, since the twos and threes are active for three-quarters of the dance, but I would rather convert it to a 3 couple dance by having the ones cast all the way to the bottom as their final move.
Format: 3 couples longways
| A1: | Hey contrary sides. |
| A2: | Hey own side. |
| B1: | All six circle left once around. |
| B2: | Ones dance down to the bottom, cast up around threes, lead to the top, cast to the bottom as the others lead up on the last four beats. |
The Bishop
Source: Twenty four Country Dances for the Year 1778: Thompson.Format: Longways triple minor.
The 1st. Gent: cast off and turn the 3d. Lady
Well of course we all know The Bishop. But do we? What we know is the modern version from the Apted Book, which is different enough to be another dance altogether. The original tune is a 32-bar jig rather than a reel, there are no gates (which is a 20th century invention) and so on.
| A1: | First man wide cast to second place (8 steps); second man move up. Two-hand turn third lady. |
| A2: | First lady wide cast to second place (8 steps); second lady move up. Two-hand turn third man. |
| B1: | Ones lead up through the top couple and cast bask to second place — difficult to take a full 8 bars for this. Maybe it should have been the usual “lead down and cast up, lead up and cast down”. |
| B2: | Circle 6 left all the way. |
See what Susan de Guardiola says at kickery.
So that's Thompson's 24 dances for the year 1778. All I can do is echo the Apted book: It must be admitted that the great majority of these dances are extremely poor
. But that's from a 20th or 21st century perspective where dancers want much more variety and action — it really wasn't like that in Thompson's day, and the Thompson family published many books of such dances so obviously they sold well. I still think it was worth my time and effort to go through all these dances and explain my reasoning on interpreting them. Now it's up to you to see what you can find.
