Annotation:Miss Richards' Hornpipe
X:1 T:Miss Richards C:trad O:England Q:1/2=75 N:From Thomas Hardy mss R:Hornpipe M:4/4 L:1/8 K:D AG|"D"F2A2A2Bc|"Bm"d2d2 d2ef|"G"gfed cdec|"A"A2 AB AGFE| "D"F2A2A2Bc|"Bm"d2d2 d2ef|"G"gfed"A" cdec|"D"d2d2d2:| |:de|"D"fdAd fdaf|"A"g2e2e2fg|"Bm"fdAd fdgf|"A"e2A2A2de| "D"fdAd fdaf|"A"g2e2e2fg|"D"afed"A" cdec|"G"d2d2d2:|
MISS RICHARDS’ HORNPIPE. English, Hornpipe (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. From the early 19th century Hardy family manuscripts, Dorset, whose most famous member was novelist wikipedia:Thomas_Hardy (1840-1928). Barry Callaghan (2007) identifies Miss Richards as a “famous Sadlers Wells acrobat and dancer (who) performed in Dorchester in 1786.” She is recorded as having performed feats of "Ground and Lofty Tumbling" in a show called "Exhibitions of Sadlers Wells" presented by Andrews company at Coopers' Hall, Bristol, March, 1782. Elizabeth Rebecca Richards (1775–1854) married actor John Edwin in 1791 and continued a long and successful career as Mrs. Edwin (long surviving her husband, who died in Dublin in 1805). A sketch of her can be found in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 17, by John Joseph Knight [1].
The first strain of "Miss Richard's Hornpipe" is shared with the Irish polka "Thady Ragen," although the second strains differ.
