Annotation:Parson of Eltham (The)

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PARSON OF ELTHAM, THE. AKA - "Parson of Feltham." English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABA. Dance instructions were printed along with the melody in the London publications of John Johnson A Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (1744, p. 90), John Walsh Caledonian Country Dances vol. 4 (c. 1744, p. 67) and The Fourth Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master (c. 1747, p. 132), R. Bride's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1766, and in David Rutherford's Choice Collection of Sixty of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (1750, p. 34) and Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances, vol. 2 (c. 1760, p. 46). The melody also appears in the 1799 music manuscript collection of Leeds, Yorkshire, musician James Biggins.

Eltham [1] began as a strategically located market village on the road from London to Maidstone, some eight miles southwest of the city. The Plantagenets had a palace at Eltham, and nearby was the Tudor Well Hall. Eltham has long been absorbed in the the boundaries of the City of London.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Knowles (A Northern Lass), 1995; p. 18.

Recorded sources:




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