Annotation:Helder Point

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HELDER POINT. English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Helder Point was the name of a British victory in the Wars with France at the end of the 18th century. Ralph Abercromby was the British commander. This from The Scottish Nation, "Abercrombie or Abercromby":

In the autumn of 1799 he was selected to take the chief command of the expedition sent out to Holland, for the purpose of restoring the prince of Orange to the stadtholdership, from which he had been driven by the French. In this expedition the British were at the outset successful. On the 27th of August the British troops disembarked near the Helder point, but were almost immediately attacked by General Daendells; after a contest, which lasted from day – dawn till about five in the afternoon, the Dutch were defeated, and retired, leaving the British in possession of a ridge of sand hills which stretched along the coast from south to north. Sir Ralph Abercromby resolved to attack the Helder next morning, but the enemy withdrew during the night, in consequence of which thirteen ships of war and three Indiamen, together with the arsenal and naval magazine, fell into the possession of the British. Admiral Mitchell, who commanded the British fleet, immediately offered battle to the fleet of the Batavian republic lying in the Texel, but the Dutch sailors refusing to fight against those who were combating for the rights of the prince of Orange, the whole fleet, consisting of twelve. sail of the line, surrendered to the British admiral.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Preston (Preston's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1800), 1800.

Recorded sources:

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