The Mighty Pretty Valley

The Mighty Pretty Valley or Reel of Tulloch - Menzies is an old Scottish Country Dance. It was published by Castle Menzies in 1749 in The Register of Dances at Castle Menzies. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2025. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Quoted from The Register of Dances at Castle Menzies (as transcribed by Jim Healy):

1^st man foots it half round the 1^st woman then half round the 2^d woman, then half round the 3^d woman while 1^st woman does the same on the men's side; then sets to each other; then reels on each side & falls into their own places between 2^d and 3^d pair, then they dance round as in The Ranting Highlandman.

Nota: there's only 3 parts of this tune play'd, the two first parts twice over: the 3^d part four times.

The final comment suggests a tune consisting of 3 four bar strains. As far as I know the "Reel of Tulloch" has 2 four bar strains, and I can't find music called "The Mighty Pretty Valley".

I'm going to assume that "foots it half round" is something equivalent to a half shoulder round (gypsy), presumably by the right and with fancy footwork. In other words, the first couple crosses to the other side, then crosses with the 2s, then with the 3s (so order is now 2 3 1ˣ) and then sets to each other.

They then reel on the opposite side and cross up to 2nd place proper. Well, that's what it says. It would be easier if they just faced their 1st corners.

That takes up 16 bars (the two first parts twice over), leaving 16 more bars (the 3^d part four times).

Now, what's The Ranting Highlandman? Well, Jamaica, which pops up in The Infare (the previous dance in the Register) comes from Playford's Dancing Master of 1670, so lets look through old English dances. John Walsh published The Ranting Highland Man in his The Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master, of about 1740 (and also in his Caledonian Country Dances of about 1750 with the same wording).

The 1st Man foots it and casts off, and turns the 3 Wo. and stands in the 2d Man's Place The 1st Wo. does the same with the 3d Man Foot it corners and turn Foot it other Corners and turn

So I'm going to assume that the last 16 bars of the dance are set to 1st corners (4 bars), two hand turn 1st corners (4 bars), set to 2nd corners (4 bars), two hand turn 2nd corners (4 bars).

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.

The dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.

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.

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A1	1-2	1s cross by right shoulder with a setting step
	3-4	1s cross with 2s below by left shoulder with a setting stop
A2	1-2	1s cross with 3s below by right shoulder with a setting stop
	3-4	1s set
B1+2	1-8	1s pass the 3s by the right for 7 changes of reels of three on the sides, 1s finish by facing 1st corners
C1	1-4	1s+1st corners set twice
C2	1-4	1s+1st corners two hand turn, end facing 2nd corners
C3	1-4	1s+2nd corners set twice
C4	1-4	1s+2nd corners two hand turn, end 2nd place proper