With A Rose In My Hand

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

1-2 1st couple advance for one bar, touch right hands and retire.
3-8 1st couple cross over giving left hands, cast off one place as 2nd couple step up, then turn three quarters with the left hand to end on the centre line, 1st woman above 1st man.
9-16 1st woman with 2nd couple, also 1st man with 3rd couple, each dance right hands across. 1st couple pass right shoulder and dance left hands across with the other couple. All end on their own sides in the order 2,1,3.
17-18 All join nearer hands and advance for one bar, raising hands. Then 2nd and 3rd couples touch nearer hands facing up and down respectively and cast away to the sides facing out while 1st couple touch both hands and retire facing in.
19-24 All dance 6 bar reels of three on their own side. 1st couple start by giving right shoulder to their 4th corner. The corners end with extra loops and curve smoothly into the next figure.
25-32 Hand-in-hand two couple Rose Progression:
 25-26 2nd woman and 3rd man, in the 2nd corner positions, cross giving right hands.
 Meanwhile 2nd and 1st man, also 1st and 3rd woman, each join hands and set to the other pair, advancing slightly into the centre on the left setting step.
 27-28 2nd woman and 3rd man cast to 1st and 3rd places respectively on the opposite side.
 Meanwhile 2nd man, 1st couple and 3rd woman circle four hands round about a quarter to the left, drop hands and each pull their right shoulders back to face out to 2nd place on the opposite side, joining nearer hands again.
 29-30 2nd woman and 3rd man half turn giving both hands and face each other in the centre.
 Meanwhile 1st and 2nd men, also 3rd and 1st women, starting slightly to their left (as for a petronella turn) each dance out to the opposite side, drop hands on bar 30 and curve, pulling their right shoulder back to end facing in.
 The two men are now in the bottom two places and the two women are in the top two places, both on the opposite side. Each pair join nearer hands again.
 31-32 2nd woman and 3rd man each pull back their right shoulder and cast away to end on their own side in 3rd and 1st place respectively.
 Meanwhile 1st and 2nd men, also 3rd and 1st women, again starting to their left, each dance across in a clockwise curve to their own side, dropping hands on bar 32 to loop individually into place, covering with 3rd man and 2nd woman.
 The final order is 3,1,2.

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA July 2026)

Keith Rose's Crib Diagram

With A Rose In My Hand - Full Size And Key To Symbols

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Dance Information

Although this adds an extra couple, it should still be categorised as a two couple Rose since the pair on the 1st diagonal are acting as a single unit in a similar way to hand-in-hand or promenade reels.

This is analogous to the figure from Linnea's Strathspey which the deviser called a Promenade (or Chaperoned) Chain Progressions - though I disagree with the RSCDS calling it a "Chain Progression for Three Couples" as it is still a two couple pattern. For a truly three couple Rose (or Chain) Progression three pairs of dancers should be doing the essential elements of the figure independently.

This dance was first performed as a summer school ceilidh item with each dancer holding a real rose in their left hand. When crossing or turning left hands, and for the left hands across, the hands with the roses just touched. Whenever taking nearer or both hands we used the "egalitarian hands" convention where, irrespective of which side they are dancing on, each dancer always offers their right hand up and their left hand down (or in this case closed around the rose).

Music: Original tune: A Pair of Roses (Ewan Galloway).
Alternative recording: Tom's Friends (Muriel Johnstone's SDB: Haste Ye Back).

(Dance information by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA July 2026)

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