Marchioness of Blandford's Reel ~ RSCDS

Marchioness of Blandford's Reel ~ Williams Marchioness of Blandford's Reel ~ RSCDS

Marchioness of Blandford's Reel ~ RSCDS is a Scottish Country Dance. It was published by William Campbell in about 1795 in Campbell's 10th Book of New and Favorite Country Dances & Strathspey Reels, London. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1961 and published in RSCDS Book 21. Originally a Triple Minor this version is J8×48 2C/4C, a proper Duple Minor dance. J48.

Campbell writes:

1st. Cu set & change sides Back again — Lead down the middle up again to the top then 1st. & 2d. Cu hands across half round back again — Poussette quite round with the 2d. Cu hands 6 round Allemande.

Where does Campbell mean the progression to happen?

set & change sides Back again is not progressive.

What about Lead down the middle up again to the top? The "up again to top" does sound as if it returns the 1s to their original places. Yet if you look at Campbell's The new German Waltze (also in book 10) you will see him use those same words where that is the only move which could be progressive.

So I conclude that neither Poussette quite round nor Allemande is progressive.

Campbell's hands 6 round suggests a 3 couple dance, but all the other figures are either for the 1s+2s or the 1s alone, Changing the circle six to circle four easily makes for a 2 couple dance.

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, circle, lead, hands across, allemande round, down the middle and 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=TheMarchionessOfBlandfordsReel-RSCDS

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1961 by RSCDS. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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.