You Must Stir It And Stump It
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
You Must Stir It And Stump It (J8x32) 3C (4C set) Lewis N Derrick 19751-2 The 1st couple cast off one place on own sides; 2nd couple step up
3-6 The 1st couple dance a half figure of eight around the 2nd couple to end in second place on opposite sides
7-8 The 1st couple turn by the right hand to end facing first corners
9-16 The 1st couple set to first corners, set to each other across the dance, set to second corners and then set advancing to one another to end back to back in second place facing own sides
17-24 The 2nd, 1st and 3rd couples dance double triangles, on bars 23-24 instead of returning to his own side the 1st man rotates by the right on the spot while the 1st woman completes the figure as usual to end facing out between the 2nd and 3rd women with right hands joined
25-32 While the 2nd and 3rd couples dance rights and lefts, the 1st couple cross out, woman in front, between the 2nd and 3rd women's positions, the 1st man casts up one as the 1st woman casts down one, then the 1st couple dance in and join right hands again facing out between the positions of the 2nd and 3rd men, the 1st couple cross out again, the 1st man casts down one as the 1st woman casts up one. 1st couple dance in to their own sides in second place
Repeat having passed a couple.
(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Lewis N Derrick 2020)
Dance Notes
On bars 29-30 of the second repetition, 1st man crosses his partner in front of him and retaining right hands leads her down behind the men's line to fourth place on bars 31-32.(Dance notes by the deviser, Lewis N Derrick)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Information
This jig, You Must Stir It And Stump It, was originally devised to please myself under the title 'Lewis Derrick's Hornpipe' (these were figures that I liked dancing in the 1970s).When it came to publication in the 1980s I was firmly told by my friends that it was exceedingly conceited to write a dance for yourself, so to silence the critics I changed the tempo and the title using W. S. Gilbert's words from the opera, Ruddigore My Boy, You May Take It From Me - Song (chorus) relating to the excessively self-effacing Robin Oakapple:
Your merits you're bound to enhance,
You must stir it and stump it,
And blow your own trumpet,
Or, trust me, you haven't a chance.
Hah!
Also see True Diffidence - Poem
Suggested tune: The Ton.
Devised March 1975 and revised (bars 1-6) December 1986; first published 1987; republished electronically 2020.
Copyright 1975, 1986, 1987, 2020 Lewis N. Derrick.
(Dance information reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick)
My Boy, You May Take It From Me Song - Information Video
George Grossmith As Robin Oakapple In Ruddigore, 1887
Published in The McGhie Scottish Country Dance Books, Volume 1, The McGhie's Fancy and Other Scottish Country Dances, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick.
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Songs Of A Savoyard, True Diffidence article on Wikisource.
Text from this original Ruddigore article on Wikisource.
Image copyright (cropped) Unknown Author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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