Annotation:Chester Jig

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CHESTER JIG. English, Jig (6/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The melody was originally published in Walsh's Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, 1735, reprinted in 1749). and in Daniel Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances both Old and New (published by John Johnson, London, 1740). The name Chester (Cheshire) is an Anglo-Saxon form (ceaster) of the roman word castra, or camp. A fortress was founded by the Romans at Chester, which they called Deva, home to the XXth Legion. It later was a Saxon stronghold and the last major town to fall to the Normans, in 1071. Charles I sought refuge in the city during the English Civil War, and from the city wall saw his troops defeated at the battle of Rowton.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Knowles (A Northern Lass), 1995; p. 2. Wright (Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances), 1740; p. 76.

Recorded sources:




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