Bloomsbury Market

 BLOOMSBURY MARKET. English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune was first published by Henry Playford in The Dancing Master, 12 Edition (London, 1703), and continued to be published in the series (taken over by John Young) through the last edition, in 1728. Later editions of The Dancing Master give an alternate title of "Queensborough" for the melody. It was also published by John Walsh (and later his son) in three editions of his Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, 1718, 1731 & 1754). Bloomsbury is located in central London, in the Borough of Camden, and was developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into a fashionable residential area. Bloomsbury Market was established in 1662, although first called Southampton Market. It was "a long place with two Market houses, the one for flesh, the other for fish, but of small account, by reason the Market is of so little use and so ill served with provisions; insomuch that the inhabitants are served elsewhere" (Strype, quoted in Wheatley & Cunnintham's London Past and Present, 1891). It is possible Playford knew it as the residence of Robert White, the engraver, who lived in Bloomsbury Market from about 1683 until his death in 1704. Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; p. 133, No. 504. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 12.

X:1 T:Bloomsbury Market M:C| L:1/8 S:Playford - Dancing Master, 12th Edition (1703) K:G d|dBAG G2D2|DEDB, D3D|DGGF E2G2|c>dcB A3B|cege dBd2| GBdB AG E2|e3d e/f/gGA|cBAG G3::d|g2 ga/b/ g3e|gedB A3G| EGGA B2 AG|EGGA B2 AG|d3e dedB|ABcd e3d|e3d efgB|cBAG G3:||

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