Annotation:Sheriff's Ride (The)
X:1 T:Sheriff's Ride, The M:4/4 L:1/8 N:The Sheriff's Ride is a Morris handkerchief dance from Lichfield, N:west midlands, England, with the tune N:being a version of "Wraggle Taggle Gypsies" B:Alex Helm, Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (1956) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Cmin GF|E2E2F2 DE|FE D2 C2 G2|c2c2c2 dd |B2G2G3G| B2B2 cB BA|BA GF F2C2|E2F2 BA GF|GC C2 C2|| c2c2c2 dc|B2G2G3G|c2c2c2 dc|B2G2G3G| B2B2 cB BA|BA GF F2C2|E2F2 BA GF|GC C2 C2||
SHERIFF'S RIDE, THE. AKA - "Wraggle Taggle Gypsies." English, Morris Dance Tune (4/4 time). E Minor (Mallinson): C Minor (Bacon, Raven). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (x4), AAB. The dance The Sheriff's Ride" was collected from the mss. of Philip Meacham, of the village of Lichfield, Staffordshire, in England's Cotswolds. The dance takes its name from the old custom of ‘riding the boundaries’, in which once a year officials rode the circumference of a township or landholding to protect the boundaries from encroachment. In Lichfield the event which took place on the Saturday nearest to the 8th September (the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin), when the Sheriff and dignitaries of Lichfield set out to ride the boundaries of the town (a sixteen-mile circuit). The event dates to the 16th century when the town was given a charter with the right to appoint its own Sheriff.
The tune employed as the vehicle for Sheriff's Ride is the air of the song "Wraggle Taggle Gypsies."
The tune is also employed as the vehicle for the song "Wraggle Taggle Gypsies."
