The Milk-maid's Bob

Spelled variously: "The Milke-Mayds Bobb", "The Milk Maids Bob", "The Milk-Maid's Bob" and "The Milk-maid's Bob".

Lead up all a D. forwards and back That again	First four the S. Hey, while the last four do the like
Sides all, that again	First cu. slip between the 2. while the 3. do the like with the last, change places with your own That again
Arms all That again	First man change places with the 2. wo. taking by the right hand, change places with the 2. man, the 3. man doing the like, then the other four as much That again

In the first part First four the S. Hey, what is meant by "S. Hey"? Playford's index of abbreviations says that "S." means "Single" but that doesn't seem meaningful in this context. In other places S. Hey is usually converted into a straight hey. Scott Pfitzinger suggests that it means a "circular hey", but I think Playford would call that "rights and lefts" instead, as far as I know Sharp invented the term "circular hey" to describe "rights and lefts", I don't think Playford would consider that a hey. So I think it probably means a linear hey for four people.

Now who starts it and how is it oriented? Playford provides no help.

I'm going to suggest that the hey be on the second corner diagonal and that 1st corners start it by passing left shoulders. Merely because I like the idea.

The second part is pretty straight forward.

The third part is progressive, but it's not well described. The first corners change, then M1+M2 change. Then the other four as much. OK, I'd expect that to be W1+M2 change on the 2nd diagonal. But M2 isn't on the that diagonal, M1 is. We can't change W1+M1, then the progression fails. So I guess W1+M2 change on the side? Then we'd expect W1 to change with M1, except their already proper while the 2s are improper. So here's what I think:

• 1st corners change
• M1+M2 change
• W1+M2 change
• 2s change

It would be cleaner to say:

• 1st corners change
• 2nd corners change
• 1s change
• 2s change

But that's not what Playford said.

Playford says this dance is Longways for eight, but this progression isn't a good progression for 4 couples. If you do it again you get hack where you started. For 4 couples you want a progression that takes 4 interations to get back where you started.

On the other hand the dance looks like a duple minor dance, and the progression is a duple minor progression. Playford, never uses the term "duple minor", that was another of Sharp's inventions, and it is different from duple minors of Playford's day in that both minorsets start at once, while Playford would only have the top minorset active.

I'm going to treat this as a duple minor dance for four couples. Nothing in Playford's description contradicts that.

Another approach might be to alter the progression so that it works as a standard 4 couple progression...

• M1/W2, M3/W4 change
• M1/W4 change
• W1/M2, W3/M4 change
• W1/M4, 2s, 3s change

Which works... but the last instruction looks too confusing to me.

I'm not sure what the word bob means in the title. Perhaps it is related to the "bob" in changeringing where the permutation is altered slightly to ring all the changes.

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