The Gentle Shepherd
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
THE GENTLE SHEPHERD (J4x32) 4C set RSCDS Book 171- 8 1s cross down, set to 3s, 1M+3L lead up behind 2L and into centre as 1L+3M lead down behind 4M into centre
9-16 1M+3L also 3M+1L advance 2 steps down/up and Men lead own partner to original places (by facing out turning round to left), 1s+2s+3s turn LH ready for...
17-24 1s+2s+3s Promenade
25-32 1s cast 2 places, lead up the middle to top and cast to bottom
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Dance Notes
On bars 11-12, 3rd man may find it easier to lead partner with the left hand.(Dance notes from RSCDS publication "Scottish Country Dances Books 13-18")
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
The Gentle Shepherd - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
The Gentle Shepherd - Song is a pastoral comedy by Allan Ramsay. It was first published in 1725 and dedicated to Susanna Montgomery, Lady Eglinton, to whom Ramsay gifted the original manuscript.The play has some happy descriptive scenes and is a pleasant delineation of rustic manners in the countryside of the Scottish Lowlands in the 18th century.
The backdrop is believed to have been inspired by the Penicuik area some eight miles south west of Edinburgh where Ramsay was frequently the guest of his patron Sir John Clerk of Penicuik at Penicuik House.
My Peggy is a young thing,
Juist entered in her teens,
Fair as the day an sweet as Mey,
Fair as the day an always gay.
My Peggy is a young thing,
An I'm nae very auld,
Yet weel I like to meet her at
The waukin o the fauld.
The Opening Scene Of Allan Ramsay's 'The Gentle Shepherd' By David Allan (1744-1796)
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original The Gentle Shepherd article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright (cropped) David Allan (1744-1796), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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