ScarboroughSCARBOROUGH WHIM. AKA and see "Steg Knetter'd at the Sneck Band." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The seaside spa town of Scarborough is located in North Riding of Yorkshire. It was a center for society gatherings in the 18th century and featured lavish assembly rooms for dancing, in addition to the two mineral springs frequented for their healthful properties. The town’s fame began in 1626 when Mrs. Tomyzin Farrer ‘discovered’ the medicinal properties of the town’s waters. Work quickly spread and Scarborough became established as the first seaside spa resort, attracting many by its scenic views and the relief of aches and pains by ‘taking the waters’. Scarborough catered to the elite’s pleasures, with fashionable amenities such as nightly dancing and gaming tables to afternoon theater and horseracing on the beach sands. The Victorians further developed it by introducing some of the finest formal gardens in Britain, the renowned Scarborough Spa and the Esplanade. It remains a resort town today. Several tunes in period dance collections indicate its importance: “Merry Girls of Scarborough (The)” (AKA “Romp (1) (The)”), “Trip to Scarborough,” “Highway to Scarborough,” “Long Room of Scarborough (The),” “New Long Room at Scarborough,” and so on.
The melody appears in Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (vol. 1, c. 1756), reprinted in David Rutherford’s Complete Collection of the Most Celebrated Country Dances both old and new (c. 1775, p. 89). However, the same melody had earlier been printed in Sylvanus Urban's periodical The Gentleman's Magazine (June, 1753) and the 1740's country dance compendiums of John Walsh and John Johnson under the curious title "Steg Knetter'd at the Sneck Band," which makes a little more sense in an anonymous manuscript in the British Library (BL MS Add'l 23971), where it is given as "Staggs knattered, or Snake band."
Additional notes
Printed sources : - Kidson (Old English Country Dances), 1890; p. 16.
