Annotation:Belsize
X: 1 T:Belsize. PFD3.075 W:Longways for as many as will. L:1/4 B:Playford, Dancing Master Vol 3, 2nd Ed, c1726 Z:village music project Mike Hicken 2015 N: * These notes are shown as minims in the original. Q:3/4=40 M:3/4 K:G G2A|Bcd|dcB|A2B|c e/c/ A/c/|B d/B/ G/B/|c e/c/ A/c/|B d/B/ G/B/|AGF|"*" G3|| dgf|gab|agf|e2f|g b/g/e/g/|f a/f/d/f/|g b/g/e/g/|f a/f/d/f/| ed^c|d3|dg2|c e/c/A/c/|B d/B/G/B/|AD2|G2A|B/A/ B/c/ d|G2A|B/A/ B/c/ d|eA2 "*"G3 |] W: W: Note: Each Strain twice. W: W: The first Man lead his Partner by the Right-hand [Minuet Step.] into the 2d. Cu. place, then turn W: Partners .| Then first Wo. casting off, leads her Partner round, in the 3d. Cu. place and turns W: him :| The first Cu. cast up again one Cu. then Ballance and turn Partners; then cast up to the top W: and Ballance and turn Partners .| Then cross over one Cu. and Ballance, and lead thro' the bottom, W: and cast up into the 2d. Cu. place; then Ballance again and turn single, and lead thro' the first Cu. W: and cast down, into their places, and turn Partners :|
Belsize, now Belsize Park, is an affluent residential area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden (the inner north-west of London), England. However, in the early 18th century when the tune was published it was the rural location of a 17th-century manor house and parkland. The gardens of Belsize House briefly attracted a higher class of society, with the Prince and Princess of Wales perhaps their most famous guests. Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, came upon it in the early 1720s and described it in his Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain. The manor was was sublet by 1721, and the parklands opened as pleasure gardens for those looking to escape the dirt and grime of the City of London, with concerts, singing, dancing and country sports such as fishing and racing, although (as with many such venues) the more innocent diversions were wont to degenerate into mud-wrestling, illegal gambling and a wide-reaching spectrum of sexual deviance. In 1722 magistrates were instructed to act to stop riotous behavior, although the parkland remained open until 1745. Belsize House was rebuilt in 1746, after which additional large country houses had been built on the surrounding farmlands for wealthy lawyers and merchants.
