Ten Pound Lass ~ Bolton
Ten Pound Lass ~ Bolton is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1670 in The Dancing Master, 4th ed.. It was interpreted by Charles Bolton (website) in 1986 and published in Retreads Vol.2. Originally with 3s, 4s improper. this version is a 4 Couple Longways dance with the 1s, 2s improper. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 72 bars.
This dance appears in the Lovelace Manuscript, but the instructions there are incomplete.
Playford writes:
Back all a D. meet again Lead up forward and back Go all to the left and cross the Room, then change all places with your own All that again, to your places
Sides all That again First and last cu. meet, take hands and go round while the other go back, the 2. cu. slip up and the 3. down, set and turn S All this again, to your places
Arms all That again Meet all and change places, then hands all on each side, hands and go half round All that again
Playford shows the 3s and 4s improper rather than 1s and 2s. Doesn't matter much.
Personally I find the half circles in III.B* to be slow. I'd add a turn single left after each if I were calling (even though Playford doesn't mention that).
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.
The dances of Charles Bolton (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license by the CDSS Online Library.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
| I.A1 | 1-4 | Fall back a double and come forward |
| I.A2 | 1-4 | Lead up a double and fall back |
| I.B1 | 1-2 | Face the man's wall, forward a double |
| 3-4 | Partner cross, turn to face woman's wall | |
| 5-6 | Set | |
| 7-8 | Forward a double | |
| I.B2 | 1-2 | Forward a double (toward woman's wall) |
| 3-4 | Partner cross, turn to face men's wall | |
| 5-6 | Set | |
| 7-8 | Forward a double, face in | |
| II.A1 | 1-4 | Right Siding |
| II.A2 | 1-4 | Left Siding |
| II.B1 | 1-4 | End couples lead in and set to opposite, as middles fall back and slip away |
| 5-8 | New middles circle as others set forward and turn single | |
| II.B2 | 1-4 | End couples lead in and set to opposite, as middles fall back and slip away |
| 5-8 | New middles circle as others set forward and turn single | |
| III.A1 | 1-4 | Right Arming |
| III.A2 | 1-4 | Left Arming |
| III.B1 | 1-4 | Hole in the wall cross with partner, form lines of four, middles fall back, ends move in |
| 5-8 | Circle left half and open into lines across | |
| III.B2 | 1-4 | Hole in the wall cross with opposite, form lines of four, middles fall back, ends move in |
| 5-8 | Circle left half and open into lines up and down |
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=TenPoundLass-Bolton
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1986 by Charles Bolton. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
This website is copyright © 2021-2025 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.