The Scotch Measure

The Scotch Measure is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Thomas Bray in 1699 and published in Country Dances: Being a Composition Entirely New, London. It was interpreted by Pat Shaw (website) in 1959 and published in Another Look at Playford. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Bray writes:

The 1st Man and Wo. cross over, and meet below the 2d. cu. and lead up all on a Row, 1st Man turn the 2d. Wo. round by the right Hand, his Wo. doing the same with the 2d. Man, then turn your own with your left Hand into your own places as at first The 2d. cu. do the same only lead down all on a Row as the 1st cu. lead up All four Hands half round to the left Hand, 1st. Man and 2d. Wo. cross over with each other; then Hands half round to the left Hand again; 1st Wo and 2d Man cross over with each other The 1st. Man and 2d. Wo. Sett and foll back, then Men and We. Sett to each other and fall back, 1st cu. cross over up the middle, 2d. cu. cast off at the same time, then 1st cu. cast off and 2d. cu. cross over up the middle And so to the end.

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 dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, circle, cast, figure eight, double figure eight, cross go below (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=TheScotchMeasure

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1959 by Pat Shaw. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 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.