A Trip to Pancridge ~ Duple

A Trip to Pancridge ~ Duple A Trip to Pancridge

A Trip to Pancridge ~ Duple is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1726 in The Dancing Master, The Third Volume, 2nd ed., London. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2022. Originally a Quadruple Minor this version is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 64 bars. It is in the key: G Major.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain is to be Play'd twice, and the Tune twice through.

The first Man Sett to the 2d Woman and turn Single, then turn her The first Woman do the same Then all Four Hands half round, and Right and Left half round Then cross over and half Figure at top, and turn
Then lead thro' the top and cast off Two Couple, then lead thro' the 4th Couple and cast up Two Couple and turn at top, then fall back sides, and all Four turn Single, then turn your Partner and Right and Left quite round into the 2d Couples Place.

Playford has the 1s doing the setting and turning single, but in a modern dance I think the 2s should join in...

The major difficulty I have in interpretting this is that it appears to have enough movement for only 58 bars of music, instead of the 64 it has. I have taken the liberty of inserting a neighbor two hand turn after the partner two hand turn, and the further liberty of turning the circle left half into a circle half, balance in and fall back. This makes the timing right.

Then there is the phrase "turn at top". From context this is directed to the 1s. But the 1s aren't at the top, they are in second place. Does Playford really mean the 2s? or does he just mean that the 1s should turn when they get to the top of their cast? Or does he want the 1s to cast up 3 couples rather than the 2 he calls for (and symmetry suggests). I'm going to assume he means the 1s should turn in second place. What kind of turn? they turn again in a few bars and it would be dull of all the turns were two hand turns.

then fall back sides, and all Four turn Single I assume that means, fall back, and come forward turning single. But Playford says "all Four". I think he just means the 1s+2s. I don't see why the 3s+4s can't join in.

then turn your Partner Does this refer to just the 1st couple? or just the top two? Usually directions are to the 1s, but the 2s have also been active in the previous phrase, so it might mean them two. I'm going to extend it even further to the 3s+4s.

For that matter, why shouldn't the 3s+4s do their own rights and lefts, or even do all of the first part of the dance... and that, basically turns the dance into a duple minor which seems a much better idea.


I'm not sure where Pancridge is. There's a Penkridge north of Birmingham that might be what is intended.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.

A11-41st corners set forward and turn single back to place
5-81st corners two hand turn
A21-42nd corners set forward and turn single back to place
5-82nd corners two hand turn
B11-4Circle left half, balance in and fall back
5-8Two changes of rights and lefts
B21-41s cross, go below, as 2s lead up
5-81s half figure eight through 2s
A31-41s lead through top, and cast down to next 2s who move up
5-81s lead through yet another couple, and cast up to 2nd place (2s moving down)
A41-41s two hand turn
5-8Take hands on the sides and fall back, then come forward turning single
B31-4Partner right hand turn
5-8Neighbor left hand turn
B41-8Face partner four changes of rights and lefts

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=ATripToPancridge-Duple

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2022 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.