Annotation:Leap Over the Garter

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LEAP OVER THE GARTER. English?, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). C Major (Harding): D Major (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Leap Over the Garter" was first published in John Watlen's Celebrated Circus Tunes (Edinburgh, 1791), a volume that references Edinburgh's Royal Circus, an extension of Phillip Astley's London-based Royal Circus. Watlen notes that it was "perform'd by Mr. Rickets." The title may have to do with an equestrian circus trick, where a rider standing on a horse leaps over a string or garter, while the horse passes under it, to then land back atop standing atop of the horse. Since the horse and the performer are moving at the same speed, the performer only has to jump up, rather than up and forward, to clear the obstacle. George Smith was a dancer, acrobat and equestrian rider who flourished at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the next. He was billed in a 1795 advertisement for the Royal Circus as "The First Equestrian Performer in the World". The advertisement further proclaimed:

He will Jump over Three Garters going once round the Ring, and take a surprising Leap through a Balloon, suspended in the air, Ten Feet high, and alight on the Saddle, on a Single horse, which is allowed to be the greatest Feat of Horsemanship ever attempted, and never performed by an other person.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 102, p. 40. Hardings All-Round Collection, 1905; No. 194; p. 61. Watlen (The Celebrated Circus Tunes), 1791; p. 16.

Recorded sources:

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