Meg Merrilees
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
MEG MERRILEES (R8x24) 2C (4C set) RSCDS Book 11- 8 1M turns 2L RH, 2M turns 1L RH 1½ times ending in centre in line across with original partners
9-16 1s+2s dance down the middle, turn to right and dance back to top
17-24 1s+2s dance Poussette
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Meg Merrilees - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
Meg Merrilees is a Scottish Country Dance published by J. P. Boulogne in 1827 republished by the Lowes in c. 1831, and interpreted by the RSCDS in Book 1, published 1924.(Dance information copyright, reproduced here with the kind permission of George Williams)
Meg Merrilees, a wild-looking, strident Gypsy woman, is one of the principal characters in Guy Mannering or The Astrologer, a novel by Sir Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815 immediately after completing his last long narrative poem The Lord Of The Isles.
Guy Mannering is set in the 1760s to 1780s, mostly in the Galloway area of southwest Scotland. It tells the story of Henry "Harry" Bertram, the son of the Laird of Ellangowan, who is kidnapped at the age of five by smugglers after witnessing the murder of a customs officer. It follows the fortunes and adventures of Harry and his family in subsequent years, and the struggle over the inheritance of Ellangowan. The novel also depicts the lawlessness that existed at the time, when smugglers operated along the coast and thieves frequented the country roads.
Meg Merrilees is also the subject of the Meg Merrilees - Poem written by John Keats (1795-1821), one of the greatest English poets and a major figure in the Romantic movement.
Old Meg she was a Gipsy
And liv'd upon the Moors;
Her bed it was the brown heath turf,
And her house was out of doors.
Meg Merrilees Poem - Information Video
"Charlotte Saunders Cushman" (1816-1876) As Meg Merrilees, Mathew Brady (1822-1896), Blue Pencil, c. 1855-1865
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Guy Mannering article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright (cropped) Mathew Brady, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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