Mrs. Hill's Delight
Mrs. Hill's Delight is a Scottish Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1710, London. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1977 and published in RSCDS Book 28. It is R8×32 3C/4C, a proper Triple Minor dance. R32.
The RSCDS gives no source to this dance, but it appears to be derived from Mrs. Hill's Dance in the Second Volume of the Dancing Master.
John Young writes:
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.
The first Cu. slip down the middle, and Sett a-cross to the third Cu. then first Man turn the third Wo. and the first Wo. turn the third Man Then Sett a-cross to the 2d Cu. then first Man turn the 2d Man half round, and the first Wo. turn the 2d Wo. at the same Time Then Right-hand and Left round, then turn Partners Proper Then the Man slips between the 2d Cu. and cast off, the first W. at the same Time go between the third Cu. and cast up, then both turn in the 2d Couple's Place
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.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, rights and lefts, back to back (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=MrsHillsDelight
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1977 by RSCDS. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2024 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
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.