Historical SourcePublic Domain
The Ladies Compleat Pocket-Book, for the Year of our Lord, 1753; Containing Directions for Dancing Twenty-four new Country-Dances for the Year 1753 (John Newbery, London, MDCCLIII)
Publisher: John Newbery, Bookseller, St. Paul's Church-Yard, London / 1753. Source: 1753-Ladies_(Gale).txt (1,393 lines, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale CB0126528059). Ladies' pocket almanac for 1753 — the first-after-bissextile, 26th of George II, second year of New Style. Multi-purpose contents: (I) daily/weekly/monthly memoranda columns for received-paid-expended + appointments, engagements, visits made and received; (II) fixed and moveable feasts & fasts for 1753; (III) of rank and precedence, addressing in writing and discourse, rules of Bath / Tunbridge / the Long Room at Scarborough; (IV) laws of the game of Whist, bill of fare for every season, carving instructions and technical terms; (V) hackney coach / chair / waterman rates per Act of Parliament; (VI) DIRECTIONS FOR DANCING TWENTY-FOUR NEW COUNTRY-DANCES FOR THE YEAR 1753, plus casting-up tables for wages (day/week/month/year), marketing tables (1-100 lb), pence table (20-240d), and the Significancy of Colours, by a Lady of Quality. The 24 country dances — 'compofed by the beft Mafters for the prefent Year' — are: 1. Kissing Crust; 2. Trip up Stairs; 3. Taste, or the Connoisseur; 4. Le Billet Doux; 5. Gamesome Widow, or Humours of Enborne; 6. The Poppet; 7. Legs of Limerick; 8. Joe's Delight; 9. Trip to Drogheda; 10. Guess again; 11. French Peasant; 12. The Decoy; 13. The Play-Thing; 14. Shepherd's Holiday; 15. Lady Peterborough's Maggot (OCR-ambiguous — 'Lady Pct/fawazles Maggot' in source); 16. Creaking Bedhead; 17. Harlequin Sorcerer; 18. Lads of Alnwick (OCR-ambiguous — 'Lads of /Hick' in source); 19. Cross Purposes, or Tom and Mary; 20. Captain Bobadil; 21. Trip to New-Market; 22. Sham-buy, or the Irish Lilt; 23. La Bagatelle; 24. Cream of the Jest. Preface defends dancing as the most healthful Lady's recreation, invoking King David before the Ark (2 Samuel 6) and Homer Iliad XVIII.681 (Pope translation, Cretan maze-dance of Daedalean youths and maidens). Each figure description uses the standard English longways country-dance vocabulary: cast off / cast up, set / foot it, turn single, cross over, half figure, hands round (three / four / six), right and left, lead down the middle / up again, gallop down, back to back, hey, set contrary corners, hands across. Has_Step_Detail=No; figure-level prose only, no step-table format.Year: 1753Family: ladiesCatalog: local
Dance manual/reference by John Newbery, Bookseller, St. Paul's Church-Yard, London / 1753. Source: 1753-Ladies_(Gale).txt (1,393 lines, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale CB0126528059). Ladies' pocket almanac for 1753 — the first-after-bissextile, 26th of George II, second year of New Style. Multi-purpose contents: (I) daily/weekly/monthly memoranda columns for received-paid-expended + appointments, engagements, visits made and received; (II) fixed and moveable feasts & fasts for 1753; (III) of rank and precedence, addressing in writing and discourse, rules of Bath / Tunbridge / the Long Room at Scarborough; (IV) laws of the game of Whist, bill of fare for every season, carving instructions and technical terms; (V) hackney coach / chair / waterman rates per Act of Parliament; (VI) DIRECTIONS FOR DANCING TWENTY-FOUR NEW COUNTRY-DANCES FOR THE YEAR 1753, plus casting-up tables for wages (day/week/month/year), marketing tables (1-100 lb), pence table (20-240d), and the Significancy of Colours, by a Lady of Quality. The 24 country dances — 'compofed by the beft Mafters for the prefent Year' — are: 1. Kissing Crust; 2. Trip up Stairs; 3. Taste, or the Connoisseur; 4. Le Billet Doux; 5. Gamesome Widow, or Humours of Enborne; 6. The Poppet; 7. Legs of Limerick; 8. Joe's Delight; 9. Trip to Drogheda; 10. Guess again; 11. French Peasant; 12. The Decoy; 13. The Play-Thing; 14. Shepherd's Holiday; 15. Lady Peterborough's Maggot (OCR-ambiguous — 'Lady Pct/fawazles Maggot' in source); 16. Creaking Bedhead; 17. Harlequin Sorcerer; 18. Lads of Alnwick (OCR-ambiguous — 'Lads of /Hick' in source); 19. Cross Purposes, or Tom and Mary; 20. Captain Bobadil; 21. Trip to New-Market; 22. Sham-buy, or the Irish Lilt; 23. La Bagatelle; 24. Cream of the Jest. Preface defends dancing as the most healthful Lady's recreation, invoking King David before the Ark (2 Samuel 6) and Homer Iliad XVIII.681 (Pope translation, Cretan maze-dance of Daedalean youths and maidens). Each figure description uses the standard English longways country-dance vocabulary: cast off / cast up, set / foot it, turn single, cross over, half figure, hands round (three / four / six), right and left, lead down the middle / up again, gallop down, back to back, hey, set contrary corners, hands across. Has_Step_Detail=No; figure-level prose only, no step-table format. (1753). Imported from local collection.