Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The Gentle Shepherd

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

THE GENTLE SHEPHERD (J4x32) 4C set RSCDS Book 17

1- 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 Video

Dance 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 Gentle Shepherd
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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