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 Book 3, 1926

Blue Bonnets ~ RSCDS
Goulding & D'Almaine, London, 1827
Goulding & D'Almaine's Twenty-four Country Dances for the Year 1827

The RSCDS attributes this to Mozart Allan's Allan's Reference Guide to the Ball-Room, Glasgow, ~1895, and a dance with this name and figure is in that work, but it occurred elsewhere earlier.

Published by Goulding & D'Almaine in 1827 as Blue Bonnets are over the Border. I do not have access to the original text. but Robert Keller gives the figures as:
Change sides
Change sides (again)
Lead down and back
Poussette

Smyth, in 1830, page 31, calls it Blue Bonnets Over the Border and writes:

First Lady and second Genlemen advance and retire, and pass back to back, the first Gentleman and second Lady the same Down the middle and up again, and poussette.

So where is the progression in this dance? Either in the poussette or in "down the middle and up again". If you look at Mrs McLeod (page 33) you will see that, for Smyth, "down the middle and up again" is progressive.

Smyth (an Edinburgh dancing teacher) classifies this as a "Scotch Country Dance".

1-8L1+M2 advance and retire, do-si-do
9-16M1+L2 advance and retire, do-si-do
17-241s lead down the middle and back
25-321s+2s poussette

(R)SCDS Book 5, 1929

Cold and Raw ~ RSCDS
Henry Playford, London, 1689‡
A new Addition to the Dancing Master

The RSCDS attributes this to the 9th edition to the Dancing Master.

This dance has a rather confusing history in the Dancing Master. In 1651 (the first edition) Playford called essentially the same tune "Stingo, or The Oyl of Barly". This dance had a completely different figure though.

Then in 1689 addition to the 7th edition he published two dances with different figures but the same tune: "Juice of Barley" and "Cold and Raw". In the 9th edition (1695) the dance originally titled "Juice of Barley" became "Cold and Raw". The original "Cold and Raw" disappeared from the 9th through the 16th editions, and then reappeared as "Cold and Raw" in the 17th edition (1721) while the "Juice of Barley" figure then vanished.

The RSCDS version appears to be based on the "Juice of Barley" figure.

Playford writes:

The 1. cu. go back to back with their Partners, and the 2. cu. do the same at the same time.
The 1. cu. take hands with his Partner and turn her round, the 2. cu. doing the same at the same time.
The two we. stand still whilst the 1. man goes round about the 2. wo. into the 2. man's place, and the 2. man goes round about the 1. wo. into the 1. man's place, then all clap hands, then all four take hands and go quite round, the we. doing the like.

Although Playford explicitly specifies a two hand turn, the RSCDS has chosen to do a right hand turn.

1-4All, partner do-si-do
5-8Partner right hand turn
9-12M1, passing in front of M2, goes right shoulder round W2 into M2's place, as M2 goes right around W1 into M1's place
13-16Clap and circle left four
17-20W1, passing in front of W2, goes right shoulder round M1 into W2's place, as W2 goes right around M2 into W1's place
21-24Clap and circle left four

RSCDS Book 39, 1996

Le Moulin Rouge
Liliane Chamoin, [Unknown City], ~1996
RSCDS Book 39
The New Virginia Reel
Anna Holden, [Unknown City], ~1996
RSCDS Book 39

RSCDS Book 50, 2016

The Doonhamer Delight
Rachel Shakland, [Unknown City], 2014
RSCDS Book 50

RSCDS Book 51, 2017

And For the Young Ones
Anne Dejean, [Unknown City], 2016
RSCDS Book 51
Come What May
Romaine Butterfield, [Unknown City], 2010
RSCDS Book 51

RSCDS Book 52, 2018

The Ullapool Ferry
Pat Houghton, [Unknown City], 2015
RSCDS Book 52

Miss Milligan's Miscellany 2, ~1977

Kelso Races
Anonymous, date unknown†

Statistics

Number of dances published by city (or region)

[Unknown]7
London2

Number of dances published by semi century

Unknown1
1650-16991
1800-18491
1950-19992
2000-20494

Number of dances by early publisher/devisor

Anna Holden1
Anne Dejean1
Anonymous1
Goulding & D'Almaine1
Henry Playford1
Liliane Chamoin1
Pat Houghton1
Rachel Shakland1
Romaine Butterfield1

References

Goulding & D'AlmaineGoulding & D'Almaine's Twenty-four Country Dances for the Year 1827, London, 1827. May be found in the British Library
Henry PlayfordA new Addition to the Dancing Master, London, 1689

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.