English, Country Dance Tune (3/4 time). D Major. Standard. AABB (Chappell, Raven): AABBCCDD (Plain Brown). This melody appears in Playford's Dancing Master (2nd and subsequent editions), Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing Master (vol. i), and Gay's Polly and other ballad operas. The Cheshire Rounds was also a once‑popular dance, and Chappell (1859) found several references to its performance:

***

In Bartholomew Fiar, at the Coach‑house on the pav'd

stones at Hosier‑Lane end, you will see a Black that dances

the Cheshire Rounds to the admiration of all spectators."

(Play‑bill by Dogget, 1691. In fact, the only known portrait

of Dogget shows him dancing the Cheshire Round.)

***

John Sleepe now keeps the Whelp and Bacon in Smithfield

Rounds, where are to be seen a young lad that dances a

Cheshire Round to the admiration of all people." (Playbill)

***

It is one of the tunes called for by "the hobnailed fellows"

in A Second Tale of a Tub (8vo, 1715).

***

The name Cheshire is an ancient contraction of Chestershire. See also the melody “Our Cat Has Kitted” from the Joseph Kershaw manuscript for a 19^th century version from North West England. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), Vol. 2, 1859; pg. 167. Plain Brown Tune Book, 1997; pg. 5 (Chappell’s setting, preceded by two other parts). Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 15.

X:1

T:Cheshire Rounds [1]

M:3/4

L:1/8

S:Chappell – Popular Music of the Olden Time  (1859)

Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion

K:D

fe/f/ g/f/e/d/ f/g/a|b e2 d cA|fe/f/ g/f/e/d/ f/g/a|A d2 A FD:|

|:BA/B/ =c/B/A/G/ F2|E e2 d ^cB/A/|BA/B/ =c/B/A/G/ F>E|D d2 A FD:|

 

English, Country Dance Tune (3/2 time). C Major. Standard. AABBCC. A different tune than “Cheshire Rounds [1]." The melody was published in Walsh’s third collection of Lancashire tunes (Lancashire Jiggs, Hornpipes, Joaks, etc.) around the year 1730. Source for notated version: Edward Jones’ 1798 publication Popular Cheshire Melodies. Knowles (A Northern Lass), 1995; pg. 8.

X:1

T:Cheshire Round [2]

B:Walsh

M:3/2

L:1/8

K:C

c4 B4 A4| A2 d4 A2 BcdB| c4 B4 A4| G2 c4 A2 BcdB::e2 g4 B2 A4| A2 a4 A2 BcdB|\

d2 g2 B2 g2 A4| G2 c4 A2 BcdB::cdec BcdB ABcA| A2 d4 A2 BcdB| c2 g4 B2 ABcA|\ G2 c4 A2 BcdB:|

 

AKA and see "Duke William’s Hornpipe," "Jack's the Lad [1]," “Lancashire Hornpipe [1],” “Sailor’s Hornpipe [1].”  English, Scottish, Irish, Canadian, American; Hornpipe. D Major (Ashman, Colclough, Huntington): G Major (Johnson, Perlman): C Major (Harding, Howe, Raven): B Flat Major (Athole, Burchenal, Cole, Cranford, Emmerson, Honeyman, Howe, Hunter, Kerr, McGlashan, Skinner, Vickers). Standard. AABB (most versions): AA’BB’ (Cranford). A country dance and tune which was extremely popular both in England and in America. In the latter country it appears, for example, on page 28 of a dance MS of the Pepperell, Massachusetts, maid Nancy Shepley, c. 1766, and in the music manuscript copybook of Henry Livingston, Jr. (as “Colledge Hornpipe,” set for the German flute). Livingston purchased the estate of Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1771 at the age of 23. In 1775 he was a Major in the 3^rd New York Regiment, which participated in Montgomery’s invasion of Canada in a failed attempt to wrest Montreal from British control. An important land-owner in the Hudson Valley, and a member of the powerful Livingston family, Henry was also a surveyor and real estate speculator, an illustrator and map-maker, and a Justice of the Peace for Dutchess County. He was also a poet and musician, and presumably a dancer, as he was elected a Manager for the New York Assembly’s dancing season of 1774-1775, along with his 3^rd cousin, John Jay, later U.S. Chief Justice of Governor of New York. Carr published in America the tune in Evening Amusement (pg. 15) about August, 1796, and, some one hundred and fifty years later, the tune was still popular for New England dances. Burchenal (1918) printed another contra dance of the same name to the tune, as Howe (c. 1867) did earlier. A variant is familiar to most modern people as the theme to the mid-20th century cartoon “Popeye the Sailor Man.”

In England, Chappell's editor concludes that it cannot date from earlier than the second half of the 18th century, and Chappell himself believes that the tune was an old sailor's song called "Jack’s the Lad." The melody has become associated with the nautical hornpipe type of dance which became popular solo step‑dance on the stage at the end of the 18th century, and, in fact, it is popularly known as "The Sailor's Hornpipe" today. One of the earliest printings of the tune appears in a volume entitled Compleat Tutor for the German Flute, published by Jonathan Fentum, London, c. 1766, the same year as Nancy Shepley's American dance MS. Another early British printing appears (as “Colledge Hornpipe”) in Thompson's Compleat Collection of 120 Favourite Hornpipes (London, Charles and Samuel Thompson c. 1764‑80.) and the title was entered at Stationers' Hall in 1798 by J. Dale, London, as "The College Hornpipe." William Vickers printed the tune in his Great Northern Tune Book under the title “Old Lancashire Hornpipe,” and the tune is contained in the 19^th century Joseph Kershaw Manuscript (appears twice, as “Duke William’s Hornpipe” and “Collidge Hornpipe”). Kershaw was a fiddle player who lived in the remote area of Slackcote, Saddleworth, North West England, who compiled his manuscript from 1820 onwards, according to Jamie Knowles. Ken Perlman (1996) dates the tune to the 17th century or earlier and states that it was used by Henry Purcell (c. 1658-1695) in his opera Dido and Aeneas. Perlman does not cite any substantiating data, nor where he obtained this information, and at present his assumption seems unlikely.

 

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