Dainty Davie
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
DAINTY DAVIE (S8x16) 3C (4C set) Walsh (17C) RSCDS book 111- 8 1s clap and cross passing RSh, cast 1 place and cross RH to own sides (2s step up 2-3), 2s repeat back to places (1s step up 6-7)
9-16 1s dance Figs of 8 on opposite sides round 2s+3s and 1s cross down RH to 2nd place own sides
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
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Dainty Davie - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
Dainty Davie is a Scottish Country Dance published by Playford in 1701 and interpreted in RSCDS Book 11 in 1936.The online websites and minicribs attribute this to Walsh in 1731, but Playford published the same figure earlier. Walsh and Playford spell the title "Dainty Davy".
(Dance information copyright, reproduced here with the kind permission of George Williams)
This dance shares its title with the Dainty Davie - Poem written by Robert Burns in 1793, although the dance itself is much older and was published as "Dainty Davy" by Henry Playford in 1701. The name and tune therefore predate Burns's words.
Earlier songs bearing the name Dainty Davie were already in circulation, and the title became connected with the Reverend David Williamson, a seventeenth-century Edinburgh minister, although the precise origin of the name is uncertain.
Chorus
Meet me on the warlock knowe,
Dainty Davie, Dainty Davie;
There I'll spend the day wi' you,
My ain dear Dainty Davie.
This poem was based on a story published in a 1692 anti-Presbyterian propaganda pamphlet, The Scots Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed, and focusing on a preacher, David Williamson, seven times married minister of St. Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh (died August 1706).
Dainty Davie Song - Information Video
The Grave Of Dainty Davie (David Williamson), St Cuthberts, Edinburgh, Scotland
Image copyright Stephencdickson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Additional search terms: Davey, Davy.
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