The Virginia Reel : Instructions and Sheet Music

I have posted a little bit about the Virginia Reel before but it was such a widespread and popular dance, I think that more can be said about it. Many people today would like to learn it.

The Virginia Reel dates back to the 1700s and became very popular in the 1830s. The Virginia Reel was originally danced to a song which was known in England as Sir Roger De Coverley. In America, the song came to be known as The Virginia Reel just because of the popularity of dancing that particular dance to it. The dance could be danced to any reel or hornpipe but Sir Roger De Coverley was the most popular.A collection of other popular "Virginia Reel" songs, collected in 1850 can be read here in PDF.

In A Christmas Carol, one of my favorite stories, when Scrooge is shown Fezziwig's party by the Ghost of Christmas Past, it is mentioned that Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig danced to Sir Roger De Coverley played by a fiddle.

The dance is danced in two lines, one line of gentlemen and one line of ladies. There is a Head Couple (the couple closest to the orchestra) and a Foot Couple (the couple closest to the doors in a traditional dining hall.) There are many versions of the steps due to region.

Some different versions and explanations of the steps and other references:

Phantom Ranch: Basic text explanation, no photos.
 Youtube Virginia Reel: Slightly blurry, danced to The Irish Washerwoman and the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Youtube The Virginia Reel: The song The Virginia Reel played on tin whistle.

Remember, dances were learned at home as part of a "proper education" for both gentlemen and ladies. If one was not good at a certain dance, they would try to sit it out. Dances were taught in public dancing schools as well as in private homes. Of course most practice was probably done with members of the same sex at small gatherings. Dances were "called" by someone to guarantee everyone was in unison so you do not have to worry much as long as you know the individual steps being called. 


As many ladies are anxious to learn period dances and many gentleman are far to shy to help them, I must implore to the gentlemen that they take period advice from The Fashionable Dancer's Casket by Charles Durang who states "As ladies are not entitled to the privilege of asking gentlemen to dance, it is the duty of gentlemen to see that ladies shall not sit long waiting for partners, as it is one of the greatest breaches of good manners, that a gentle-man can be guilty of in the ball-room, to stand idling whilst ladies are waiting to be asked." No more Mr. Darcys guys, please, The girls are waiting to dance! Good luck!

I Didn't Die: A Day at the Beach and the Shippensburg Reenactment

What a crazy week! On Wednesday, Andy and I decided to go to the beach for the day. It was very hot but the water was freezing. The beach wasn't very crowded. After a bit of swimming in the ocean and collecting seashells on the beach, we fell asleep under our umbrella. We don't know how long we slept but we jumped awake to find the water hitting our toes! Good thing it didn't get our books wet!

The next day we were told that our friends could not make it to the reenactment at Shippensburg that we were planning to go to. We were upset but decided against going as we wouldn't know anyone there.

I watered my garden and Andy fixed a fiddle on the deck. It was hot and sunny. I tried to help him put the sound post back into the fiddle. Suddenly day turned to night. We both looked up at the sky, gathered our things and ran inside. We expected rain but we were not prepared for the storm that followed within seconds.

Winds up to 75 miles an hour and pounding rain went on for about an hour. We heard trees snapping like twigs and some neighborhoods got hail. Many trees were stripped of their leaves. Wires were down on every street and electricity was out for three days. The street lights and stores were hit just as hard. We could not get out of out driveway, electrical wires were draped behind our driveway and a tree had fallen across the top of our street and another at the bottom of our street. We went out to find some ice but couldn't find any anywhere. We ended up getting Chinese takeout for the family and ate it together in the dark with my grandma. We had a radio run on batteries and flashlights hung in her dining room chandelier. It was a cozy dinner all together.

All of our food had to be thrown out. By Friday, the lack of air conditioning and food, plus the fact that it was very dangerous to drive, made us decide that we might as well have gone to the reenactment. So we did. We had to gather our gear from the completely dark basement using dim flashlights. The reenactment was a bit far from us and we had no mapquest directions because of the power outage. We checked to local libraries as well but both were closed. We did end up getting some old-fashioned "paragraph directions" from a Shippensburg establishment using my Kindle in the car on our way. (Yay! You know our generation, we haven't a map in the house.)

When we finally got to the event, the regiment we were supposed to meet up with wasn't there! We were offered to fall in with a Mississippi regiment and we had a great time. The event was definitely not as "period correct" as we are used to but it was still a very fun time! There were lots of ladies there and we went, in a horse-drawn carriage to a seminar on mourning customs. It was very fun to drive on the main roads of the town in such a period fashion.

The lectures were given by a lady named, Myra Reichart in a gorgeous, period bed and breakfast. She gave information on the Victorian Period which extends past the time period that I am used to but was very informative.

The battle took place right on the main street of the town and many locals came to watch.We even talked to one lady who came to the event with her husband from Alaska! I've never seen a whole town so interested in a reenactment.  Local establishments were very much into the reenactment and left out food for the reenactors to forage. One especially nice establishment was "Pizza 'n Stuff." The owner was very nice and gave the reenactors free beverages regardless if we bought anything or not. It was a very fun event with a lot to do for women and civilians-- I am not used to that! They had a waterice social and a ball. Next year is the 10th anniversary of the reenactment. We are planning to attend.

Look at all of this artillery damage! (Just kidding.):

What have you all been up to? I'm trying to catch up will all of the blog posts I missed reading. I hope you are all doing well and will think of going to the Shippensburg reenactment next year.

Civil War Era Hats, Bonnets and Hoods

This post is for Atlanta at The Story of a Seamstress' new site for beginning Civil War reenactors.

Head coverings were a must during the 1850s. Cloth caps were worn indoors in the morning and also to sleep in. Bonnets and hats were worn outside. Large sunbonnets were worn outdoors in the country. Wealthier women wore hats with veils. Pale skin was coveted during the period so even working women covered up to protect their skin. Some women did not cover their heads outside but it was the exception rather than the rule and an uncovered head was synonymous with a "fast lifestyle."

Prior to the war most women had between 4-12 bonnets per year, the average being closer to 4. During the blockade, many Southern women had to learn to do without and refashion their bonnets with anything they could. Bonnets were one of the first things women had to learn to do without. Makeshift bonnets and hats were made from palmetto leaves. Bonnets were worn in church and on short social calls, this heightened the demand. 

Even the rich could not get new bonnets in the South due to the blockade. Sarah Morgan, a Southern teenager when the war began, wrote in her diary that "Colonel Breaux paid my hair the most extravagant compliments. He said he could not say his prayers for looking at it in church, Sunday before last. Perhaps that is the reason St. Paul said a woman should not worship in church with her head uncovered! But as the Yankees stole my bonnet, I am reduced to wearing my black straw walking-hat with its curled brim, trimmed in black ribbon with golden sheaves of wheat. Two years ago this fall, father threw me a banknote at table, and I purchased this with it. Now it is my only headgear, except a sunbonnet." 

Period Examples of Head Coverings:
Caps

Sunbonnets
 

Evening/Dressy Coverings 

Head Coverings by Season:

Spring

Summer

Winter

 
Fall

Hopefully these pictures will help beginning reenactors see which styles are appropriate. Bonnets and hats were normally purchased and few made their bonnets at home. Make sure your bonnet is made in a period correct style and out of period correct fabrics. Fine silks, velvets, lace and ribbons were used for hats and bonnets, a beginner mistake is to use cotton. Cotton was not used for bonnets; if you wish to make a summer bonnet, leave the bonnet uncovered and add the trim right on top of the straw braid.

Kindle 2 : A Review for the Researcher

 I was so excited to get a Kindle for my birthday. When I first heard about the kindle, I didn't think that I would ever like to read virtual books instead of real ones. But once I realized that I could read public domain books away from my computer for free, I was enthusiastic.

Pretty much all that has to be said about the Kindle 2 has already been said in other reviews. I know that the Kindle 2 is aimed at the normal book reader and that Amazon tried to push it on the student market but I was wondering if it would enhance the reading quality for me--a researcher.

I spend my time perusing a lot of old books, some in book form and some in ebook format online. With antique books, the kindle helps tremendously. I am afraid to take antique books out of the house but still like to read and share them with other people outside my home. In ebook format, I can share them without worrying about damaging them. I also like the new-found freedom I have to "take" a google book or other internet based ebook away from the computer and read it elsewhere. (I don't like the idea of having to print out public domain ebooks--it just wastes too much paper.) I spend so much time at the computer reading, I am more than happy to be able to take my work with me outside.

The Kindle has a few good tools for the researcher. The first is free public domain books. Yes we can read these for free on the internet, but it is great to be able to take them where you need them. The second is that you can make notes and highlight on the "pages" in the books. You can also take a screenshot of the page you are reading and import it onto your computer. I especially like these features because you can keep your notes with the book and not damage the book. Another great feature is the fact that the Kindle will remember what page you were last on in all of your books and there is a search function so you can search through books with keywords. that makes it really easy to cross reference books.

Another good thing about it is the privacy. Every once in a while I get a book that I feel funny reading in public--mostly the 3rd grade reading level historical fiction books I like to read to make sure I can make the information I teach kids at living history events relevant to things the kids already know. This also helps in stopping misconceptions that are taught through some of the more inaccurate historical fiction books out there. I am glad that if I'm reading Horatio Hornblower or the Sign of the Beaver at college on the Kindle, I don't have to worry about strange looks or odd questions. This also helps with Civil War book covers that some people may find offensive.    

I cannot emphasis how helpful the Kindle is; however, I do have some issues with it. My first concern is that there are no page numbers! Research-wise, how do you tell someone where a certain quote or fact comes from if the closest you can get is a chapter number?

I also think some of the PDFs displayed a tiny bit to small, if there was a zoom function that let you zoom from 100% to 125%, PDFs would display perfectly. If you flip the Kindle on its side, PDFs are readable but then you can only see half the page at a time. An upside is that PDF files still contain their original page numbers.

That's all I have to say about it. It was a really great present. I can't wait to start reading all of those classics I have been meaning to! I am currently reading The Last of the Mohicans, which I started as a paperback, and am finishing the last 1/4 on the Kindle.

The English Hornpipe; The College Hornpipe Sheet Music

Hornpipes were a type of dance that were traditionally danced by English sailors in the late 1700s, as a means of exercise aboard ships. The Sailor's Hornpipe (also known as The College Hornpipe, and Jack's the Lad,) is a popular tune that was originally published in 1798. (It is the tune that the Popeye the Sailor Man theme song is based on.) It is said that each move of the dance mimicked a chore sailors would have to perform on ship. It was normally danced on a ship without a partner, barefooted.

In the 1800s songs written in the same style became collectively known as "hornpipes." Hornpipes also became a "country dance" and new routines were created for group dances.  

By the 1890s, dancing the hornpipe became stereotypical of sailors, although publications at the time were more than willing to admit that they never met a sailor who actually could dance a hornpipe. (They also wrote of how vile sailors really were.) 

The dance moves are complicated. Can you imagine teaching this to a bunch of hardy seamen? "Double shuffle, heel, toe. Whirligig!"








Unfortunately I am trying to learn it myself! The traditional dance routines have been said to be lost. But I am going to try and research the individual dance moves listed in the instructions above and see if I can't put at least a little of it back together. I think it will be fun to try and get exercise like one of Nelson's crew. Dancing a hornpipe reminds me of the scene in the Horatio Hornblower series where the tyrannical Mr. Midshipman Simpson orders Horatio to dance just to demonstrate his power aboard the ship.

P.S. Blogger has changed a bit so I can't figure out how to get the formatting just right. Please bear with me. It's driving me nuts!