Wallingford House

Wallingford House is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1670 in The Dancing Master, 4th ed.. It was interpreted by Tom Cook in 1979 and published in Again Let's Be Merry. Originally proper this version is a 4 Couple Longways dance with the 3s, 4s improper. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 2413. The minor set lasts 56 bars. The tune is a jig. It is in the key: G Minor.

Playford writes:

The first man goes round his own wo. the second wo. follows him, then fall into their own places, the first wo. and second man as much The first man and second wo. cross over and turn single, then take all hands, go half round and turn all S. then the other cu. cross over and turn S. then take all hands and go round till you come to your own places, and then cast off to second place. Do this to the last
The first cu. lead up. the second cu. lead down, back again That again. The two men go between their own we. and go round them into their own places, then take all hands, go half round and turn all S. the we. do as much round the men, then take all hands and go half round, then the first cu. cast off. Do this to the last

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: turn single, gypsy, circle, cast, lead, siding, (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=WallingfordHouse

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1979 by Tom Cook. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2025 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.