Up a double, Siding, Arming
Country Dances, Ancient and Modern

Early Sources of RSCDS dances

None of the dances published by the RSCDS before book 13 were devised by the RSCDS, instead they were considered "traditional" dances. Many dances published in subsequent books fall into that category as well. I have tried to track down the sources of these dances and display here the earliest published versions of the dance's figure which I've been able to find.

Note: this is often different from the earliest dance with that name. The dance's name was often the name of the tune to which it was danced, and many tunes had multiple figures attached to them, so care must be taken.
Note also: there may very well be earlier sources than "the earliest published version ... which I've been able to find". Many early sources have been lost to the ravages of time, and others have simply escaped my notice. And in other cases the publication dates are uncertain, and which is earliest may be indeterminate.

In some cases the RSCDS mentions a source. Often I have found earlier examples of the dance. Sometimes I have been unable to find the RSCDS source and will present the earliest source I have found.

When I know the deviser, I mark the name in italics. In most cases for these old dances I only know the publisher.

When a dance source is marked with "†" it means I have been unable to verify the source of the dance, when it is marked with "‡" it means I have been unable to find any Scottish dance manual containing this dance (prior to 1924).

Hovering the mouse over a dance's devisor/publisher will (often) produce a popup containing the text of the original.

By default the list below shows only traditional dances interpreted by the (R)SCDS. I believe that Book 34 (1986) was the last book to contain any traditional dances. Before Book 13 all (R)SCDS dances were traditional, but Book 13 contains The Reel of the 51st Division, the first published modern dance. No further modern dances were published until Book 22 (1963), and after that some books contained modern and some traditional dances until Books 31&34, which contains both.

At the end I have several tables of statistics.

Order by:
Include:
(R)SCDS Book Range:
Containing figure:

(R)SCDS dances devised by J. Seaton

Miss Milligan's Miscellany 1, ~1977

The British Grenadiers
J. Seaton, Halifax, 1852
The Ball-Room Manual and Etiquette of Dancing

Miss Milligan's Miscellany 1 attributes this to Mozart Allan's Allan's Reference Guide to the Ball-Room of 1880, but the figure occurs earlier than that.

  1. Three ladies at the top advance and retire.
  2. Three gentlemen advance and retire.
  3. The top lady turns round to right, the other two following — same time the three gentlemen turn to left, meet partners at fourth couple, lead up the centre.
  4. Three couples galop round to places.
  5. Two couples pousette.
Courtesy of National Library of Scotland, licensed under:

The earliest example I've found is J. Seaton's The Ball-Room Manual and Etiquette of Dancing, Halifax, 1852. Seaton calls it "Lord Burghersh's Favorite, or, the British Grenadiers":

Three gentlemen advance to their partners, and retire; three ladies do the same; the first gentleman and second lady advance and turn all round by the right hand to places; the second gentleman and first lady do the same; the first couple lead down the centre of the dance and up agian, and take the second couple's place; the top couple balance and turn all round, giving both hands. When the first couple again arrive at the top, and the last couple at the bottom, each gentleman takes the lady's left hand, and finishes with a quck march round the room, lead by the first and all the other couples following until they return to places.

By 1862 it had migrated to the US and may be found in Elias Howe's American Dancing Master, Boston, 1862. Howe calls also it "Lord Burghersh's Favorite, or the British Grenadiers" and quotes Seaton verbatim.

The next example is from Kate Hughes's Dancing Book, Dundalk, 1867

  1. The three top gents advance and retire (4)
  2. The three top ladies the same (4)
  3. The three top couples promenade to places (8)
  4. The tow top couples swing four half round and turn partners (8)
  5. Pousette

Then Wallace The "Excelsior" Manual of Dancing, Glasgow, 1872

  1. Gentlemen No. 1, 2, and 3 join hands and advance and retire (4)
  2. Ladies, Nos. 1, 2, and 3 do likewise (4)
  3. The three couples promenade to places (8)
  4. Gentlemen No. 1 and 2, and ladies No. 1 and 2, give right hands across, back giving left (8)
  5. Pousette, (using Galop step, making a half turn with each, (8)

I do not have access to Allan's work to quote it.

Statistics

Number of dances published by city (or region)

Halifax1

Number of dances published by semi century

1850-18991

Number of dances by early publisher/devisor

J. Seaton1

References

J. SeatonThe Ball-Room Manual and Etiquette of Dancing, Halifax, 1852

Scans of old dance manuals are scattered about the internet. The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, International Music Score Library Project, Scott Pfitzinger's Playford site, Richard Powers' website, Library of Congress, and The Library of Dance all provide primary sources. A number of other sites provide indeces of these sources: The Regency Dance site, The Library of Dance again, and my own site have all proven useful for finding old sources. Finally there is Robert Keller's index which does not provide sources directly but lists thousands of dances, the publications containing them, dates and a brief coded description of the figures. This last has proven invaluable for tracking down dances for which I had no complete sources.

And, of course, both the Scottish Country Dance Database and the Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary provide online descriptions of all the RSCDS books and often hint at early sources.

This website is copyright © 2021-2026 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.