Peggy's Love ~ RSCDS is a Scottish Country Dance. It was devised by Thomas Wilson in 1816 and published in A Companion to the Ball Room. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1932 and published in RSCDS Book 8. It is S8×32 3C/4C, a proper Triple Minor dance. St32.
RSCDS Book 8 says this was "collected in Moray."
Wilson, on page 54, writes:
SINGLE FIGURE 1st strain repeated 2d. played straight thro' & D.C.
Swing with right hands round 2d. Cu: then with left lead down the middle up again & right & left with top Cu:
OR THUS Set & hands across with 2d. Cu: set & back again lead down the middle up again & set to the top Cu:
DOUBLE FIGURE (Tune played played twice thro as marked)
The 1st. Cu: cast off at the same the 3d. Cu: set & lead up then the 3d. Cu: cast off & the 1st. Cu: set & lead up to places cross over 1 Cu: half figure round the 3d. Cu: set contrary corners lead thro the bottom hal poue.
Wilson usually gives multiple figures for each tune, the RSCDS appears to be following the DOUBLE FIGURE.
Wilson defines most of his figures in his An Analysis of Country Dancing.
Except that the first figure is not explicitly defined.
Cross over 1 Cu: is not defined either, but Cross over 2 Cu: may be found on page 22 and means "cross go below 2s, cross again, go below 3s". (so presumably crossing 1 Cu: means stopping below 2s.)
half figure may be found on page 54 and means "the active lady loops around the man below ending in her partner's place, as the active man loops the woman below ending in his partner's place. set contrary corners may be found on pages 55-57 and means "move to 1st corner and set, pass partner right moving to 2nd corner, set, return to places the easiest way". Wilson does not show the corners setting back.
lead thro the bottom is half of through bottom and top on page 23 and means "the active couple take hands, lead down below the bottom, drop hands, and cast up to their own places.
half poussette not defined. A full poussette is defined on page 53 going once and a half around the neighbor couple. But half of once and a half doesn't make sense here. Dancers have already progressed so going a full circle is probably what he wants to happen.
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: set, cast, lead, allemande round, diamond poussette (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=PeggysLove-RSCDS
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1932 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.