Annotation:Miss Bentick's Fancy
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MISS BENTICK'S FANCY. English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The melody appears in Preston's Selection of the Most Favorite Country-Dances, Reels, &c. (1798), and in London dancing master and musician Thomas Wilson's 1816 Companion to the Ball Room. It also appears in the c. 1797 music manuscript collection of Romford, England, musician William Brown. A printed fan with bone sticks dating c. 1791 was recently sold at auction with a stipple engraved portrait of the Duchess of York. The leaf was etched with music and steps of thirteen dances, including "Miss Bentick's Fancy", and poems.
Wheatstone's Elegant and Fashionable Dances, vol. 1 (London, 1807) has a melody called "Lady Charlotte Bentick’s Reel" which title may refer to the same person. "Lady Charlotte Bentick's Fancy" is contained in Branagan's collection of the most favorite country dances for the present year (Dublin, c. 1810). There also was a waltz and a reel composed for Lady Charlotte Bentinck (note correct surname spelling), daughter of the 3rd Duke of Portland. There was also a contemporary Lady Anne Bentinck as well. Some tunes were clearly composed and named for members of a titled family; whether they have any connection with "Miss Bentick's Fancy" is unknown.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Wilson (Companion to the Ball Room), 1816; p. 120.
Recorded sources:
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