Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

My Tocher's The Jewel

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

MY TOCHER'S THE JEWEL (J8x32) 3C (4C set) Hugh Foss Dances To Song Tunes

1- 8 1M+2L set advancing, turn RH to places. 1L+2M set advancing, ¼ turn RH, 1L casts up round 1M, 2M casts down round 2L
9-16 1L + 2M continue to dance clockwise followed by partners (turn R about to follow), all finish on opposite sides, 1s+2s turn RH 1½ to own sides
17-24 2s+3s set advancing, turn RH back to places. 1s set advancing, turn RH to 1M facing up/1L facing down
25-32 1M dances up, casts round 2M, 1L dances down, casts up round 3L. 1s turn LH to 2nd place own sides while 2M+3M also 2L+3L turn RH. 213

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


Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams


Dance Information

The title of this dance, My Tocher's The Jewel, comes from My Tocher's The Jewel - Poem written by Robert Burns in 1791.

O Meikle thinks my luve o' my beauty,
And meikle thinks my luve o' my kin;
But little thinks my luve I ken brawlie,
My tocher's the jewel has charms for him...

"Tocher" is Scots for "a marriage portion", a bride's dowry, to endow with a marriage settlement or portion.

My Tocher's The Jewel Song - Information Video

Scots Musical Museum
Frontispage Of Burns, The Scots Musical Museum c. 1787


Image copyright Robert Burns (File:The Scots Musical Museum, Volume I.pdf), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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