Devonshire House ~ Hume

Devonshire House ~ Pat Shaw Devonshire House ~ Hume

Devonshire House ~ Hume is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1698 in The Dancing Master, 10th ed., London. It was interpreted by Colin Hume (website) in 2018 and published in Colin Hume's Website. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 96 bars. Someone thought this dance was Intermediate.

Playford writes:

First cu. cast off, the 2 cu. leading up, change places at the same time; 2. cu. cast down, 1. cu. lead up, changing places as before, men being on the wo. side, hands half round, break hands all abreast lead up; 1. man cross over with the 2. wo. 2. an and 1. wo. do the like, turn single, all four cross over, all four turn single, right and left into the 2. cu. place.

The Second Part.

First cu. lead down between the 2. and cast up into their own place; the 2. cu. lead between the 1. and cast down into their own places; 1. man cross over with the 2. wo. cross all four, turn you own, the 1. man being in the 2. man's place, and the 2. man being in the 2. wo. place; cross over with the 1. wo. then cross over all four, and turn your own.


Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

This dance has two figures, dance the first figure several times, then the second. Playford would have had everyone dance each figure all the way down and up the line. I just have two repetitions.

I'm not sure why Colin Hume has the 1s crossing down in I.A1, when Playford clearly says they should cast. Pat Shaw's interpretation has them casting.

The tune was published with the dance, and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software.

The animation plays at 116 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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), turn single, circle, cast, lead, figure eight, double figure eight, rights and lefts, lead and cast (and probably others).

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=DevonshireHouse

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2018 by Colin Hume. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 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.