Over the twelve years I've been writing Kickery, I've twice discussed versions of Sir Roger de Coverley, the English "finishing dance" that was the direct ancestor of America's Virginia Reel: a Regency-era version from Thomas Wilson and a Victorian-era version probably originated by Mrs. Nicholas Henderson. The latter version of the dance, which shortened the figures and added an introductory figure for all the dancers, appeared in several English sources from around 1850 to 1870. But it was not the only version in mid-nineteenth century England; at least two variations of a full version more like the Regency one continued to appear in dance manuals, and a fourth version, shortened even further, turned up occasionally as well.
The dance being strongly associated with Christmas due to its appearance at Mr. Fezziwig's ball in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol, Christmas Eve seems an appropriate time to discuss this extremely short version.
The formation, as with the other versions of Roger de Coverley, is a longways set: a column of couples, facing partners, gentlemen with their left shoulders toward the top of the set. The figures have been trimmed dramatically, with only a single "diagonals" figure, a promenade down and up, and a cast off. The dance thus goes very quickly. The figures:
1. The top lady and bottom gentlemen advance diagonally to each other in the center of the set, bow/curtsy, and retire to places. The top gentleman and bottom lady do the same.
2. The top couple promenades either down the center of the set or down the outside (I prefer the outside) and then promenade up the center, all the couples from the bottom following them up the set. They then cast off, gentlemen to the left and ladies to the right, the top couple going to the bottom and staying there. This leaves all the other couples one place higher in the set (the former second couple now at the top) and the original top couple now at the bottom.
The dance begins again from there, repeating at least enough times for all couples to return to original places.
Sources
There are at least five sources for this version of Sir Roger de Coverley:
Selection of Favorite Country Dances (Musical Bouquet #224). (C. Sheard, London, 1849). Reprinted into the 1860s.
The Victoria Miniature Ball Room Guide. (Kent & Co., London, c1850).
J. Seaton, The Ball-Room Manual and Etiquette of Dancing, by Mr. J. Seaton, of Her Majesty's Theatre. (Milner and Sowerby, Halifax (Yorkshire), 1852)
J. Seaton / Professor Bland, The Ball-Room Manual and Etiquette of Dancing, by Mr. J. Seaton, of Her Majesty's Theatre, and Continued to the Present Year, by Professor Bland. (John Heywood, Manchester, c1854).
Professor Bland, The Art of Dancing, by Professor Bland and Others. (Milner and Sowerby, London, c1870).
There are a few oddities in this publishing history. The long-running Musical Bouquet series of sheet music often featured dance instructions by Mrs. Nicholas Henderson, but that doesn't appear to be the case here, since the longer Sir Roger with new introductory figures is the one that appears in her books. The links between the Seaton and Bland works are obvious, but they came from two different publishing companies; did Bland and Heywood pirate the Milner book? A different Bland work, The Ball-Room Companion (London, c1868) gave the Henderson version instead of this one, and another one, published after 1883 by Milner & Co., Limited, (a firm descended from Milner and Sowerby) and titled Etiquette of the Ball-Room on the cover and title page but The Art of Dancing on the page headers, gave one of the more old-fashioned versions.
The three Seaton and Bland sources all have precisely the same wording and introduced the dance as follows:
This is said to be an ancient national dance of England, and has been, lately, the never-failing finale at the balls of the nobility.
The Victoria Miniature uses the same wording for the instructions but does not include the introductory sentence. The Musical Bouquet instructions likewise do not have that introductory sentence and have very minor differences in wording. Here's how the music and figures actually appeared (click to enlarge) in my copy of Musical Bouquet #224, which is a later printing from the 1860s:
Music
As noted in my earlier post, at least three recordings of "Sir Roger de Coverley" at danceable lengths are available on the following albums: The Regency Ballroom, by Spare Parts; The Victorian Dance, by the Brassworks Band, and Sir Roger de Coverley, by Bangers & Mash. The sheet music from the Musical Bouquet appears above. For some background on the tune, please see my post on the Regency version.
A very merry Christmas Eve to all who are celebrating!
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