Annotation:Long Odds
LONG ODDS. AKA - "Miss Laton's Hornpipe." English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'. The melody was first published (with dance instructions) in Thomas Preston and Son's Twenty-Four Country Dances for the Year 1791 (London), "As they are performed at Court, Bath, and all Public Assemblys." There was a song called "Long Odds," from Charles Dibdin's (1745-1814) The Long Odds : A Serenata, in Two Acts (1783), commencing: "And did you hear what sad disaster," however, the words do not scan well the tune printed by the Preston's. Graham Christian points out the phrase "Long Odds" was already in common use in horse-racing in the late 18th century, denoting a slim chance of gambling success.
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