Somerset House ~ #1, Pat Shaw

Somerset House ~ #2, Herman Somerset House ~ #1, Pat Shaw Somerset House ~ #2, Pat Shaw

Somerset House ~ #1, Pat Shaw is an English Country Dance. It was published by Walsh in 1718, London. It was interpreted by Pat Shaw (website) in about 1965 and published in Another Look at Playford. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.

Walsh writes:

Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

The 1st Man Back to Back with the 2d Wo The 1st Wo. Back to Back with the 2d Man The two Men Back to Back, and the 2 We. Back to Back at the same Time Then the 1st Cu. go the half Figure and cross over


Or thus: The two 1st Men change with their Partners, then the 1st Man with the 2d. Wo The Men change Places with their Partners, then the 2d Man change Places with the 1st Wo. (now all proper The Men and We. Back to Back and right and left with your Partners Then cross over two Cu. and cast up into the 2d. Place, then turn Hands

Walsh provided two figures for this dance. This is Pat Shaw's interpretation of the first.

Pat seems to have changed the music from a jig to triple time.

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: lead, figure eight, cross go below, back to back (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=SomersetHouse1-PShaw

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~1965 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.