Annotation:Tunbridge Rocks

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X:1 T:Tunbridge Rocks M:6/8 L:1/8 S:Walsh, John, The Compleat Country Dancing-Master, 2nd Book, S:London, 1740, p. 4 N:Each strain twice Z:François-Emmanuel de Wasseige K:F CFF FFF|FAA AAc|ccf faf|ecc c3| dBB BdB|cAA AcA|BGG GBG|ECC C3|| CEE EGG|GBB B3|Bee egb|acc c2_e| dBd B,2d|cBc A,2c|BGB AFc|AFF F3|]

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TUNBRIDGE ROCKS. English, Country Dance Tune and Jig (6/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. John Tillotson described the rocks at Tunbridge, Kent, in his book Beauties of English Scenery (1862):

Tunbridge Rocks, Kent & Landscape with Windmill, by Thomas Girtin

Very singular indeed are these Tunbridge rocks, covered with inscriptions and overgrown here and there with fern and furze. The rocks are of the Hastings formation, and similar masses occur throughout the Weald. Amongst the most picturesque are high rocks, described by a lady visitor as "Salvator like,"--and not to be observed without "a king of pleasing terror." Among the inscriptions is one written on a lap-dog, who was lost in a chasm, and whose name "Bow" lives registered on the rock in verse every way doggerel:--

1702

This scratch I make that you may know
On this rock lies ye beauteous Bow;
Reader, this rock is the Bow Bell,
Strike it with thy stick, and ring his knell.

Thus abjured the sympathizing visitor strikes , and the rock rings with a metallic sound that may be resembled to a bell.

A great many people visit the rocks now-a-days, but in Evelyn's time they were solitudes, and he has left on record his surprise at the "extravagant turnings, insinuations and growth of certain birch trees," some of which still remain and may be seen for sixpence.

The most remarkable amongst the group of rocks is that known as the Toad Rock, a singular logan-like cluster, commanding an extensive prospect.