The Rambling Pitchfork (Mitchell)
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
The Rambling Pitchfork A forty-eight bar Jig for three couples in a longwise set. Devised by John W Mitchell, Published in Whetherly Book 11.1- 8 First lady crosses below second man and casts off behind third man, she then crosses above third lady, casts up to the top and dances in to face second man. At the same time first man crosses below second lady, casts up to the top, crosses below second man, casts off behind third man and dances in to face second man and collect his partner in a promenade hold. Second couple step up on bars 1 & 2.
9-12 First couple pass second man by the right to dance a promenade half reel of three with their first corners.
13-16 First couple pass third man by the right to dance a half reel of three with their second corners.
17-24 First couple lead out to the ladies' side between second and third men, first lady casts up and first man casts down; they meet and lead out to the men's side, first man casts up and first lady casts down, and they dance in to face second man again in a promenade hold. At the same time second and third couples dance rights and lefts.
25-32 Repeat bars 9-16, to get corners back to own side.
33-36 First lady dances up and casts behind second man into second place whilst first man dances down and casts up behind third lady.
37-40 First couple turn one and a half times with the right hand to own side.
41-48 Six hands round to the left in a circle and back to the right.
Repeat from second place. Recommended tune: The Rambling Pitchfork
(Dance crib reproduced from The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Published in The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 11, by John W Mitchell, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell; instructions reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-ND 4.0).