England: history of the pipe and tabor
Victorian dancing (1830 - 1900)
Many references to a folk memory of the past include mention of the pipe and tabor. People of all classes still danced to the instruments and referred to them in general conversation.
It is difficult to find images of a tabourer playing for dancing in Victorian times. There are written references, particularly with reference to 'the olden times' and also images with maypole dancing (here).
1830's dance macabre | |||||||||||
1830 story ‘FITZ OF FITZ-FORD: A LEGEND OF DEVON’ by Mrs. BRAY |
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1832Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser - Wednesday 11 July 1832 |
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1832 ‘A Grand Fete at Knypersley Hall, Congleton, Cheshire’ Morning Post - Monday 23 July 1832 |
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1834 POETRY- ‘EARTH’S WEARY ONES’. BY MRS. LOCKE. The Jesuit or Catholic Sentinel 1834-09-20: Vol 5 Iss 38 |
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1836Morning Post - Monday 12 September 1836 | |||||||||||
1836 story - Greenwich Fair “…The grandest and most numerously-frequented booth Charles Dickens, 'Sketches by Boz', 1836 |
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1850 Greenwich Fair musicians |
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1837 Morning Post - Wednesday 04 October 1837 | |||||||||||
1838
essay
“…how much more rational would it be, for example, for evening amusements to commence in the evening, 'London as it is : being a series of observations on the health, habits, and amusements of the people' by Royal College of Physicians of London |
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1838 satire 'A Charity Ball' (pandean pipes and drum in the band) |
1838 description of a painting: “In the foreground is a double terminal figure of: Sylvanus and Pan, round which young men and women are dancing to the music of a rural pipe and tabor. Behind them are oxen with a load of corn, and other characteristic marks of the season of the year….” The Penny Magazine 1838-03-10: Vol 7 Iss 381 |
1838 book illustration; playing for man with bells |
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1840s piano music cover "‘The old English country dances: as performed at the court & nobilities balls’ London | |||||||||||
1840 at Bishop Burton a fete champetre at the Upper Hall – to celebrate the birth of an heiress to the young QueenYork Herald - Saturday 12 December 1840 | |||||||||||
1840 Letter to the Editor:Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 25 January 1840 | |||||||||||
1841 poem ‘A Copy of Satirical Verses’Bucks Gazette - Saturday 29 May 1841 | |||||||||||
1841 New Court Gazette - Saturday 27 February 1841 | |||||||||||
1841 poem 'The Indispensibles' Morning Advertiser - Saturday 11 September 1841 | |||||||||||
1842 a ball: Cheltenham Looker-On - Saturday 29 October 1842 | |||||||||||
1843 Annual Christmas Ball at the Court House given by Mrs DeanWarwick and Warwickshire Advertiser - Saturday 23 December 1843 | |||||||||||
1844 Mainham FairNottingham and Newark Mercury - Friday 20 September 1844 | |||||||||||
1845 description of a new quadrille at The Princess’s Concert Rooms called ‘At Home’:Morning Advertiser - Tuesday 27 May 1845 | |||||||||||
1845 ‘Rodenhurst or the Church and the Manor’Morning Chronicle - Monday 06 January 1845 | |||||||||||
1846 description of a painting showing the rural idyll - ‘The Village Green' by H M Anthony: Birmingham Journal - Saturday 08 August 1846 [ed. I have not been able to locate this painting] |
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1847 story ‘Nights of the round table: or, Stories of aunt Jane’ by Christian Isobel Johnstone page 42 | |||||||||||
1849 Spalding Statute FairStamford Mercury - Friday 11 May 1849 | |||||||||||
1849 Letter to the Editor - Sabbath DesecrationWestern Times - Saturday 15 December 1849 | |||||||||||
1849-50 about street dancers: “The street dances are always performed on a small piece of board (about three feet long and two feet wide), ‘The Morning Chronicle : Labour and Poor’ Henry Mayhew who observed, documented and described the state of working people |
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1850 another street dancer Illustrated London News - Saturday 30 March 1850 | |||||||||||
1859 at nine o'clock in the evening: ‘Twice Round the Clock, or The Hours of the Day and Night in London’, by George Augustus Sala |
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1850 from the olden days - Queen Elizabeth's Visit to Arthur Lord Grey de Wilton at Whaddon, Bucks: Lady's Newspaper and Pictorial Times - Saturday 15 June 1850 |
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1850 poem “…An interval from toil and hard distress, 'The happy man's shirt, and the magic cap, imitated from the Italian.' by Collier, John Payne. |
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1851 Christmas rules for servants in town and country from 70 years ago: Worcester Journal - Thursday 25 December 1851 | |||||||||||
1852 report on amateur theatricals at Bath Theatre - ‘A Wonderful Woman’: Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 15 January 1852 | |||||||||||
1852 Bowood Fete, Wiltshire Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette - Thursday 26 August 1852 | |||||||||||
1852 poem ‘Lines’ by Isabel C.Chester Chronicle - Saturday 20 March 1852 | |||||||||||
1852 story 'The Bells of Saint Bruno' by Jonathon Freke SlingsbyPortsmouth Times and Naval Gazette - Saturday 03 January 1852 | |||||||||||
1853 essay
“…In the evening, if ye have any gentility, ye will provide card tables and give a dance; two fiddlers will be much 'HOW TO KEEP CHRISTMAS' by A LOVER OF FUN. ‘The cruet stand, select pieces of prose and poetry’ by C. Gough |
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1853 letter to the newspaper with rules on how to conduct oneself at a dance: Isle of Wight Observer - Saturday 03 December 1853 |
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1854 article concerning the Church of England and payments: 'The Proposed New Church Rate'Liverpool Albion - Monday 24 April 1854 | |||||||||||
1854 the old fashioned country dance: Leamington Spa Courier - Saturday 20 May 1854 | |||||||||||
1855 The Epilogue spoken at the meeting of the Philo Thespian Society ended with these words:Saunders's News-Letter - Saturday 07 July 1855 | |||||||||||
1857.... How the peasant maidens would come tripping on the scenes and lure the men Wakefield and West Riding Herald - Friday 30 October 1857 |
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1858 dancing to tabor and pipe in the past: Northampton Mercury - Saturday 07 August 1858 |
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1858 part of a speech made at a harvest home: Grantham Journal - Saturday 28 August 1858 | |||||||||||
1858 a Christmas message in Exeter: Western Times - Saturday 25 December 1858 | |||||||||||
1860 "Frightful Infant Mortality - The world with pipe, tabor and dance move on unmindful of calamities Wiltshire Independent - Thursday 18 October 1860 |
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“He had got onto the flat roof of the wash-house ... for the purpose of listening to the wild music Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser - Saturday 09 March 1861 |
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1863 ‘The Foresters’ Fete’ in Holland Park, London |
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1863 they danced at Frant Harvest Home Surrey Gazette - Tuesday 22 September 1863 | |||||||||||
1863 to celebrate the wedding of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and Princess Alexandra of Denmark (later Queen Alexandra) at Bearley, Warwickshire:Birmingham Daily Gazette - Monday 16 March 1863 |
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1863 comment regarding the same wedding celebrations in Dorset: Dorset County Chronicle - Thursday 19 March 1863 |
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1864 poem Western Times - Friday 15 January 1864 |
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1865 poem 'Harvest Song' by J J Lane: West Middlesex Herald - Saturday 09 September 1865 |
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1867 a story that gives a romantic picture of the olden days: “...At the fair ... and the lads and lasses footing it to the fife and tabor, and the people chattering in groups...” 'Griffith Gaunt; or, Jealousy' by Charles Reade |
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1867 ‘Original Lines upon Old Fashioned Times’Chichester Express and West Sussex Journal - Tuesday 31 December 1867 | |||||||||||
1869 ‘A Case of Conscience’Ulster Gazette - Friday 09 April 1869 | |||||||||||
1869 King George's Middy by William Gilbert page 293 | |||||||||||
1870 New Year ball Daily Telegraph & Courier (London) - Monday 03 January 1870 | |||||||||||
1873 definition - the rural idyll Daily Telegraph & Courier (London) - Tuesday 15 July 1873 | |||||||||||
1873 (Dizzy is Disraeli)Western Times - Monday 17 March 1873 |
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1876 story ‘The Covenanter’s Marriage Day’Longford Journal - Saturday 09 September 1876 | |||||||||||
1879 Evenley Gala, NorthamptonshireBicester Advertiser - Friday 30 May 1879 | |||||||||||
1881 story Wakefield and West Riding Herald - Saturday 20 August 1881 | |||||||||||
1882 Royal Academy Exhibition, description of a painting 'in the olden times' Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Saturday 29 April 1882 | |||||||||||
1883 Comment on a painting exhibition in LondonDublin Daily Express - Tuesday 08 May 1883 | |||||||||||
1883 play:' Blue Beard, Or, The Hazard of the Dye: A Burlesque in Three Acts' by Francis Cowley Burnand, page 10 | |||||||||||
1884 story: at the harvest home 'Hartland Forest and Roseteague' by Bray, Mrs. (Anna Eliza) | |||||||||||
1886 poem Ben Brierley's Journal - Saturday 04 September 1886 | |||||||||||
1887 poem ‘Christmas time is coming’ ‘Pictures in the fire and other thoughts : in rhyme and verse’ |
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1887 'The Winter's Tale' at Theatre Royal NottinghamPall Mall Gazette - Monday 25 April 1887 | |||||||||||
1888 'On Receiving a Copy of Mr. Austin Dobson's " Old World Idylls " by James Russell Lowell Page 27 “…Down vistas long of clipt charmille |
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1888 Ball in Devon as part of the ‘annual exhibition of the Devon County Agricultural Association’North Devon Journal - Thursday 14 June 1888 | |||||||||||
1888 Christmas masquerade ball The Referee - Sunday 30 December 1888 | |||||||||||
1889 Albert Hall Floral Fete St James's Gazette - Wednesday 29 May 1889 | |||||||||||
1889 in a poetry competition Weekly Dispatch (London) - Sunday 05 May 1889 | |||||||||||
1889 Rose Festival song at Whitelands College annual event Chelsea News and General Advertiser - Saturday 29 June 1889 |
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1890 story ‘Armorel of Lyonnesse’ by Walter Besant in Harper's Bazaar 1890-02-08: Vol 23 Iss 6 | |||||||||||
1891 three taborers playing for the farandole |
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1892 ‘The Haymakers song’ said to be 16th century in origin.Newcastle Chronicle - Saturday 02 July 1892 | |||||||||||
1894 comment on a painting at the The Royal National Exhibition:Northern Whig - Tuesday 08 May 1894 [ed. The painting is here but I cannot see a tabourer in it] |
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1894 Poem: 'Pipe and Tabor' “A PURITAN, severe and staid, in ‘Songs sung and unsung’ by Boulton, Harold, Sir, |
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1897 lecture by Sir Walter BesantHampstead & Highgate Express - Saturday 27 February 1897 |
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1897 talk ‘May and its Associations’Bristol Times and Mirror - Monday 03 May 1897 | |||||||||||
1898 Christmas Entertainments at the Garrick Theatre - CinderellaThe People - Sunday 02 January 1898 | |||||||||||
1898 Lambeth District Teacher’s Association meeting at Peckham Public Hall. The Barry Orchestra played ‘Rustic Suite’ and the newspaper commented: South London Mail - Saturday 21 May 1898 |
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