The Corporation
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 John Rutherford

(R)SCDS Book 12, 1938

The Machine without Horses
John Rutherford, London, 1772
Twelve Selected Country Dances for the Year 1772
Rutherford writes:
The 1st. Cu. cast off one Cu. right hands across with the 3d. Cu cast up and left hands across with the 2d. Cu. lead down between the 3d. Cu. the 2d. Cu. follows cast up into your own places cross over one Cu. right & left

(R)SCDS Book 14, 1947

Keep the Country, Bonnie Lassie ~ RSCDS
John Rutherford, London, 1775‡
Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the most Celebrated Country Dances, both Old and New

RSCDS Book 16, 1951

Struan Robertson's Reel
John Rutherford, London, 1775‡
Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the most Celebrated Country Dances, both Old and New, Vol. 3

The dance was originally published in 1771, presumably in a "Twenty four country dances for the Year 1771", a work now lost.

RSCDS Book 24, 1968

Balquidder Strathspey
John Rutherford, London, ~1775‡
Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the most Celebrated Country Dances, both Old and New, Vol. 3

RSCDS Book 30, 1981

Short and Sweet
John Rutherford, London, 1775‡
Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the most celebrated Country Dances, both old and new, Vol. 3

Thomas Bray published a dance with this name in 1699, but its figure is very different.

Walsh published a different figure in 1745.

John Rutherford published a figure which seems to match the RSCDS version in 1775.

Statistics

Number of dances published by city (or region)

London5

Number of dances published by semi century

1750-17995

Number of dances by early publisher/devisor

John Rutherford5

References

John RutherfordTwelve Selected Country Dances for the Year 1772, London, 1772
"Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the most Celebrated Country Dances, both Old and New, London, 1775. I don't know where to find it.
"Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the most Celebrated Country Dances, both Old and New, Vol. 3, London, 1775. May be found in Bibliothèque nationale de France, or Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart
"Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the most celebrated Country Dances, both old and new, Vol. 3, London, 1775. I don't know where to find it.

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.