Annotation:Draper's Gardens (1)

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DRAPER'S GARDENS [1]. AKA and see "Margravine's Waltz (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Draper's Garden was the park adjacent to Draper's Hall, London (at Throgmorton Ave. and Copthall Avenue). The Hall itself was the headquarters of one of the most historically powerful trade companies in the city, although in modern times it has only ceremonial and charitable duties. The Gardens have disappeared as well, having been developed for an office block. Daniel Defoe mentions Draper's Gardens, London, in his Journal of the Plague Year, where he talks of the panic the plague produced in the population:

Among these, several Dutch merchants were particularly remarkable, who kept their houses like little garrisons besieged suffering none to go in or out or come near them, particularly one in a court in Throgmorton Street whose house looked into Draper's Garden.

"Draper's Gardens" appears to be the name of the dance associated with a later tune called "[[Margravine's Waltz (The)" (there were no waltzes in Playford's day, although there were 3/4 time tunes). See Annotation:Margravine's Waltz (The) for more specifics. A Margravine is the wife or widow of a Margrave, a title associated with the lord or military governor of a German border province, especially in Medieval times. The title had some longevity as a hereditary title for some princes in the Holy Roman Empire. Barnes dates the tune to 1721. The dance and an another, unrelated, tune (for which see "Draper's Gardens (2)") appears under the title "Draper's Garden" in the 13th edition of Playford's English Dancing Master (1706), and subsequently in London publisher John Walsh's Compleat Dancing Master, vol. 1 (1718), reprinted by Walsh in his third edition (1731).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986.

Recorded sources:

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