Annotation:Shrewsbury Cakes
X: 1 T:Shrewsbury Cakes. JJo3.182 B:J.Johnson Choice Collection Vol 3 1744 Z:vmp.Anne Wride 2014 www.village-music-project.org.uk M:C| L:1/4 Q:1/2=80 K:A A2cB/A/ | c/d/ee2 | aAcB/A/ | G/A/BB2 | A2cB/A/ | f/g/aa2 | bgfe/^d/ | e2E2 :| |:e2 gf/e/ | g/a/bb2 | B2dc/B/ | d/e/ff2 | aAcB/A/ | c/d/eea | cB/A/BG | A2A,2 :| W:First Man clap hands twich & cast off & turn the 3d. Wo. W:His Partner do the same & turn the 3d. Man W:First Cu. lead to the wall and foot it with the 2d. Cu & turn Partners quite round proper W:First Cu. lead down, 2d. Cu. at the same time lead up W:First Cu. clap hands and turn it out.
SHREWSBURY CAKES. English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune was printed in London by John Johnson in Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (1744, p. 91) and by John Walsh in his The Compleat Country Dancing-Master. Volume the Fifth (c. 1754, p. 118).
A Shrewsbury cake or Shrewsbury biscuit (in the U.S. we could call them a cookie) is a classic English dessert, named after Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire. They are made from dough that contains sugar, flour, egg, butter and lemon zest; dried fruit is also often added. The playwright William Congreve mentioned Shrewsbury cakes in his play The Way of the World (1700) as a simile:
Witwoud - Why, brother Wilfull of Salop, you may be as short as a Shrewsbury cake, if you please. But I tell you 'tis not modish to know relations in town.