Temple-Barr ~ Bolton
Temple-Barr ~ Bolton is an English Country Dance. It was published by Walsh in 1714 in Twenty Four New Country Dances For the Year 1714. It was interpreted by Charles Bolton (website) in 1989 and published in Retreads Vol.4. Originally proper this version is an indecent duple minor longways dance. The minor set lasts 22 bars.
Bolton says he took the dance from The Dancing Maſter, Vol. the Second, 3rd ed. but it actually was devised by Walsh and published in 1714.
Note: The first Strain twice, and the last but once.
First four Hands half round and Foot it, then the other half round and Foot it, then lead to the Wall and back again, then all four turn single, then lead up and back again, then the first Couple slipping down into the second Couples Place, turn Hands round.
Or thus: The first Cu. turns single, then lead down thro' the 2d Cu. and cast up again The 2d Cu. do the same Then the three first Cu. go the Hey The first Cu. cast off and turn Hands
Originally published by Walsh in 1714 as Masquorade Royal, republished in 1718 by John Young as Masquerade Royal, the plate was duplicated in 1726 under the name Temple Barr.
Walsh writes:
Note. This Tune has but one Strain.All four hands half round foot it, then the other half round and foot it, lead to the wall back again, all four turn Single, lead up back again, the first cu. Slip down into the 2d. cu. place, turn hands round.
Playford rarely gives choices but he does here - providing both a duple and triple minor choreography. Originally both were proper. Bolton appears to have taken the original B music and turned the last 8 bars of it into a second A strain; this may be in the 3rd Volume, but I don't have a copy to check.
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 dances of Charles Bolton (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license by the CDSS Online Library.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
| A1 | 1-2 | Circle left half |
| 3-4 | Set to partner | |
| 5-6 | Circle left half | |
| 7-8 | Set to neighbor | |
| B | 1-4 | Lead neighbor out, turn, lead back |
| 5-6 | Turn single away from neighbor to face previous neighbor (1s up, 2s down) | |
| A2 | 1-2 | 1s lead up, 2s down, acknowledge previous, turn in to face back |
| 3-4 | 1s lead through 2s, who separate and move up, to progressed places | |
| 5-8 | All partner two hand turn |
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=TempleBarr
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1989 by Charles Bolton. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
This website is copyright © 2021-2025 by George W. Williams V
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.