Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The Compleat Gardener

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

THE COMPLEAT GARDENER (J8x32) 3C (4C set) Irene Paterson RSCDS Graded Book 3

1- 8 1s+2s Dance set and rotate:
 Set, rotate singly and dance on 1 place clockwise, change places RH on sides and dance on 1 place to own sides (1s in 2nd place)
9-16 1s cross RH and cast right, cross LH up/down and cast left to end facing 1st corners
17-24 1s dance pass and turn with 1st corners and pass RSh to face 2nd corners, dance pass and turn with 2nd corners and pass RSh to 2nd place own sides
25-32 2s+1s+3s circle 6H round and back

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)


The Compleat Gardener
Irene Paterson RSCDS Third Book of Graded Scottish Country Dances
Jig 8 x 32 bars 3 Couple Repeat 4 Couple Set Longwise Set

  1-8   1s2s set and rotate:

  1-1   Taking hands on the sides, 1s2s set (right foot step), finishing by releasing hold;

  2-2   1M 1L 2M 2L set (left foot step) turning clockwise on the spot to finish facing clockwise;

  3-4   1L1M2M2L chase clockwise one place, finishing facing partner on the side;

  5-6   2s 1s cross by the right on the sides;

  7-8   1L2L2M1M chase clockwise one place, finishing 2s1s on own sides;

  9-16 1s cross by the right, cast clockwise around first corner, cross up and down by the left and cast anticlockwise to finish in 2nd place on own sides;

17-20 1s pass and turn with first corners, passing by the right to finish facing second corner;

21-24 1s pass and turn with second corners, passing by the right to finish in 2nd place on own sides;

25-32 2s1s3s 6 hands round and back.

(MAXICRIB. Scottish country dancing instructions compiled by Reuben Freemantle)

Dance Notes

    -1     Release hands at the end of the right foot step.


Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams


Dance Instruction Videos

The Compleat Gardener - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information

This jig, The Compleat Gardener, was devised to celebrate David Vandegrift's retirement from a long and successful teaching career.

In 1664 Stephen Blake's The Compleat Gardener's Practice was published. The book contains 30 plates depicting 'a variety of knots for the beautifying of the garden', and addresses the methods and plants proposed for the 'garden of pleasure, the physical garden and the kitchin garden'. (The book's full title was The Compleat Gardeners Practice, Directing The Exact Way of Gardening. In Three Parts. The Garden of Pleasure, The Physical Garden, The Kitchin Garden. How they are to be ordered for their best Situation and Improvement, with variety of Artificial Knots for the Beautifying of a Garden (all engraven in Copper) the choicest way for the Raising, Governing and Maintaining of all Plants cultivated in Gardens now in England. Being a plain Discourse how Herbs, Flowers and Trees, according to Art and Nature may be propagated by Sowing, Setting, Planting, Replanting, Pruning; also Experience of Alteration of Sent, Colour and Taste, clearly reconciling as it treateth of each Herb and Flower in particular).

Stephen Blake was the gardener to William Ouglander, a Member of Parliament, but posterity knows very little else about him.

Rosemary Verey (the internationally known English garden designer, lecturer and writer) recreated Stephen Blake's The True Lovers' Knot for her own knot-garden at Barnsley House, near Cirencester. Blake added an inscription to the design of his knot: 'Here I have made the true Lovers Knott, To Try it in Mariage was never my Lott'.

Friendship
Watering Can And Gardening Fork


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