Annotation:Muzzle Hill

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MUZZLE HILL. English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune appears unique to London publisher Charles and Samuel Thompson's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1757 and their 1765 compendium collection. 774 foot Muzzle Hill, or Muswell Hill as it is also called, is near present-day Buckinghamshire, northwest of London. A pun of wit, writer and Anglican cleric, Rev. Sydney Smith (1771-1845), is as follows:

On Matthews saying on some occasion of Tom Hill, "Will nobody stop that fellow's mouth?"
"Not me," said Smith, "I know the way to Highgate but not to muzzle Hill" (Muswell Hill).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thomson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2), 1765; No. 31.

Recorded sources:

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