Annotation:Mona's Delight
X:1 T:Mona's Delight D:Swarbrick, Lift the Lid and Listen Z:Nigel Gatherer M:2/4 L:1/16 K:A E2 | A2AB c2BA | B2Bc d2cB | A2Ac e2cA | GBE2 GBE2 | A2AB c2BA | BABc d2cB | cecA BdBG | A2A2 A2 :| cd | e2ed cde2 | d2dc Bcd2 | c2cB ABcA | BAGF EFGE | c2cB ABc2 | d2dc BcdB | cBAc BAGB | A2A2 A2 :|]
MONA'S DELIGHT (Eunysagh Vona/Eunyssagh Vona). AKA and see "Miss Lacey's Hornpipe." English, Reel. England, Isle of Mann. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This eight-hand reel tune, from the Isle of Mann, has an associated dance which features an unusual step approximately R-L-R, then clunking the inside of one foot against another. Since the dance was sometimes performed in clogs, this could be quite audible. The tune was collected by Mona Douglas (1898-1987), a well-known Manx dance teacher, who says she collected it "from Manx fisherman and country-folk." It is published in her Five Manx Folk Dances (1936). However, the melody was not titled for her (the name 'Mona' only being a coincidence), as it appears as "Mona's Delight" set as a hornpipe in the Dr. John Clague manuscripts (1890's), which predate Douglas's collecting on the Isle of Man.
The tune is derived from an older one in English dance repertoire, John Playford's "Goddesses", published in the 1st edition of the English Country Dancing Master (1651). An Irish version can be found under the title "Miss Lacey's Hornpipe."