"Just fit to Be Quality at Lyme"

Writing to her sister Cassandra from Lyme on Friday 14th September 1804, Jane Austen recounts her experiences at a ball at the Assembly Rooms, which were at the end of Broads Street and had a sea view.

"The Ball last night was very pleasant, but not full for Thursday. My Father staid very contentedly till half past nine - we went a little after eight - & then walked home with James and a Lanthorn, tho' I believe the Lanthorn was not lit, as the Moon was up. But this Lanthorne may sometimes be a great convenience to him. My mother & I staid about an hour later.  Nobody asked me the two first dances - the two next I danced with Mr Crawford Mrs Granville's son - whom my dear friend Miss Armstrong offered to introduce me - or with a new, odd looking Man who had been eying me for some time, & at last without any introduction asked me if I meant to dance again. - I think he must be Irish by his ease, & because I imagine belong to the Honble Barnwalls, who are the son & son's wife of an Irish Viscount - bold, queer-looking people, just fit to be quality at Lyme."

Lyme Assembly Rooms 1815

Two Dances from the 1730s

Taken from "Twenty-Four Dances for the year 1738 with proper tunes Figures or Directions for each Dance." published by Benjamin Cooke in 1738.

Benjamin Cooke (? - 1743) was an organist, music publisher and music seller based at the Golden Harp in New Street, Covent Garden, from 1726 to 1743. Cooke had, in 1723, married the widow of John Jones, who had operated as an instrument maker and music publisher at the Golden Harp until 1720.

His second wife, Elizabeth Wayet, was the sister-in-law of Lancelot (Capability) Brown, the legendary garden designer, who gave birth to the composer Benjamin Cooke(1734 - 1793).

As well as collections of dance music, Cooke's production included a seminal edition of the collected works of Arcangelo Corelli in study scores comprising all five books of sonatas and the twelve concerti grossi. Indeed,  Cooke was in many ways a pioneering music publisher with his insistence on sourcing music from composers or their agents rather than other publisher's material.

Dance and Satire

The Spectator was a daily publication founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England, and published from 1711 to 1712.

In May of 1711, they claimed to have received the following letter from someone they described as a "substantial tradesman".

'Sir,

I am a Man in Years, and by an honest Industry in the World have acquired enough to give my Children a liberal Education, tho' I was an utter Stranger to it my self. My eldest Daughter, a Girl of Sixteen, has for some time been under the Tuition of Monsieur Rigadoon, a Dancing-Master in the City; and I was prevailed upon by her and her Mother to go last Night to one of his Balls. I must own to you, Sir, that having never been at any such Place before, I was very much pleased and surprized with that Part of his Entertainment which he called French Dancing. There were several young Men and Women, whose Limbs seemed to have no other Motion, but purely what the Musick gave them. After this Part was over, they began a Diversion which they call Country Dancing, and wherein there were also some things not disagreeable, and divers Emblematical Figures, Compos'd, as I guess, by Wise Men, for the Instruction of Youth.

Among the rest, I observed one, which, I think, they call Hunt the Squirrel, in which while the Woman flies the Man pursues her; but as soon as she turns, he runs away, and she is obliged to follow.

The Moral of this Dance does, I think, very aptly recommend Modesty and Discretion to the Female Sex.

But as the best Institutions are liable to Corruptions, so, Sir, I must acquaint you, that very great Abuses are crept into this Entertainment. I was amazed to see my Girl handed by, and handing young Fellows with so much Familiarity; and I could not have thought it had been in the Child. They very often made use of a most impudent and lascivious Step called Setting, which I know not how to describe to you, but by telling you that it is the very reverse of Back to Back. At last an impudent young Dog bid the Fidlers play a Dance called Mol Patley, and after having made two or three Capers, ran to his Partner, locked his Arms in hers, and whisked her round cleverly above Ground in such manner, that I, who sat upon one of the lowest Benches, saw further above her Shoe than I can think fit to acquaint you with. I could no longer endure these Enormities; wherefore just as my Girl was going to be made a Whirligig, I ran in, seized on the Child, and carried her home.

Sir, I am not yet old enough to be a Fool. I suppose this Diversion might be at first invented to keep up a good Understanding between young Men and Women, and so far I am not against it; but I shall never allow of these things. I know not what you will say to this Case at present, but am sure that had you been with me you would have seen matter of great Speculation.

I am

Yours, &c.'

Note: the dances mentioned are taken from editions of Playford's The Dancing Master

Feet Positions in Beauchamp Feuillet Notation

The notation was commissioned by Louis XIV (who had founded the Academy Royale de Danse in 1661) and devised in the 1680s by Pierre Beauchamp. The notation system was first described in detail in 1700 by Raoul-Augur Feuillet in Chorégraphie. Feuillet also then began a programme of publishing complete notated dances. It was used to record dances for the stage and domestic use throughout the eighteenth century, being modified by Pierre Rameau in 1725, and surviving into at least the 1780s in various modified forms.

First Position

Second Position

Third Position

Fourth Position

Fifth Position