Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The Yellow-Haired Laddie Quadrille

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

The Yellow-Haired Laddie Quadrille
64 Bar Medley (Minuet64+J64) For 4 Couples In a Square Set, Devised By Gerry Gray, Published in A Collection of SCDs, Nova Scotia, 2017.

Keith Rose's Crib Diagram


Dance Instruction Videos

The Yellow-Haired Laddie Quadrille - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information

This quadrille, The Yellow-Haired Laddie, was devised by Gerry Gray and published in "A Collection of SCDs" (Nova Scotia, 2017) and also in the book "Further Ado" (available from TACBooks).
This dance shares its title with the The Yellow-Haired Laddie - Song, an old Scottish song whose words were published by Allan Ramsay in The Tea-Table Miscellany in 1724.

The air is older and appears as The Yellow-Hair'd Laddie in Mrs Crockat's manuscript music book of 1709. Ramsay also wrote a new set of verses for the same tune, beginning "In April, when primroses paint the sweet plain".

The yellow hair'd laddie sat down on yon brae,
Cried, Milk the yowes, lassie, let nane o' them gae;
And aye as she milkit, she merrily sang,
The yellow hair'd laddie shall be my gudeman.
And aye as she milkit, she merrily sang,
The yellow hair'd laddie shall be my gudeman.

Many verses were written to accompany the air (first published in Mrs Crockat's Music Book, 1709), by many poets.

The Yellow-Haired Laddie Song - Information Video

The Yellow-Haired Laddie
The Yellow-Haired Laddie, From Songs Of Scotland Prior To Burns, Printed Music, c. 1890


Image from (cropped) National Library Of Scotland, licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0.

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