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Dance Duke of Roxburgh's Reel 1793

Reel · 24 bars · 3 couples · Longwise - 4   (Progression: 213)

Devised by
Unknown
Intensity
800 888 866 = 72% (1 turn), 54% (whole dance)
Formations
Steps
  • Pas-de-Basque, Skip-Change
Published in
Recommended Music
Extra Info
The Duke Of Roxburgh's Reel

For well over three centuries, beginning after the untimely and only probably accidental death of the good Alexander III (1241–1286) and continuing for some time after James VI (I) assumed royal command of the situation with the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the Scottish Borders were the scene of violent warfare. A great deal of the burning, pillage and killing was directed back and forth across the actual national border, the Scots attempting to keep Scotland free and the English determined that it should not be so. The remainder of the atrocities were committed by Scots against Scots in a struggle for power and the control of the land lying along the Border. If the Lowlanders looked north to the Highlands in condemnation of brutal clan warfare, they only had to look south to see far worse. It was chiefly, but not entirely, along the lands of the frontier, in the Scottish West, Middle and East Marches that violence flamed and crackled. Not only were the great Border families, with their smaller allies, engaged in pushing back the invading floods of English, but they were also in a constant state of feud with rival families ambitious to become a major power, if not the major power, in their devastated land. Grahams, Humes, Johnstones, Maxwells, Scotts, Elliots, Armstrongs, Burnses and Kerrs, to name a few, were the chief antagonists in the domestic hostilities. From the Kerrs who carried on a deadly feud for twenty-six years with the Scotts (See “Dalkeith’s Strathspey”) came the Earls and Dukes of Roxburgh.

The “cappit Kerrs”, the quarrelsome Kerrs, stemmed from the 14th century John Kerr of the Forest of Selkirk. Down through succeeding generations the Kerrs themselves became divided into two factions, those of Cessford and those of Ferniehurst, who contested for family supremacy and for the powerful position of Warden of the Middle March. In the time of Queen Mary the Ferniehurst Kerrs supported the queen while the Cessford Kerrs aligned themselves with Lord James Stewart, half-brother of the queen and Regent of Scotland during the childhood of James VI. When the internecine struggles shuddered to a halt the Cessford branch became the eventual Barons, Earls and Dukes of Roxburgh while Ferniehurst was elevated to the Barony of Jedburgh and the Earldom and Marquessate of Lothian.

The first Earl of Roxburgh, created in 1616, was Robert Kerr (c.1570–1650), the eldest son of William Kerr of Cessford. It was “Habbie” Kerr who brought the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth to James VI in 1603 and, having been Privy Councillor, he accompanied James to London. From 1637 to 1649 the 1st Earl of Roxburgh was Lord Privy Seal for Scotland. Called wise, valiant, haughty and resolute, the earl supported the doomed Charles I in Parliament, but when civil war exploded he took no part in it. So wise was “Habbie” Kerr that since his heir, Robert, had predeceasd him he had made a prior arrangement that, by a special grant to the female line, the titles and estates would pass on William, son of his daughter, Jean, and John Drummond, 2nd Earl of Perth. William Drummond took the name of Kerr and cemented the inheritance by marrying his first cousin, Jean, daughter of the first earl’s son, Lord Robert Kerr.

The fifth earl was John Kerr (1680–1741) who is said to have been perhaps the best accompished young man of quality in Europe. Well-travelled and highly cultured, the earl was a foresighted and progressive Whig. Roxburgh was a Scottish representative peer in four parliaments and, in 1704, Secretary of State for Scotland. For his services to the Crown in promoting the Union of the Parliaments he was created Duke of Roxburgh and Earl of Kelso by Queen Anne in 1707. Under George I he was named Privy Councillor and Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland. In the Rebellion of 1715 the duke remained loyal to the Hanoverians and at Sheriffmuir he fought wiht distinction in a dubious battle alongside the 2nd Duke of Argyll against the Jacobite forces. (See “Argyll’s Fancy”) From 1716 to 1725 he was again Secretary of State.

The third duke, John (1740–1804) was, like his grandfather, a man of culture. The Roxburghe (sic) Literary Club, the first book club of its kind, was founded in 1812, after the death of the duke, and his great private collection of rare books, some printed by Caxton, broadsheets and folios had been sold for well over £23,000. The duke also served at Court as Lord of the Bedchamber, Groom of the Stole and Privy Councillor to George III. He never married although he was supposed to have been a suitor of a daughter of Charles Louis of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. it was said that her youngest sister, Queen Charlotte, strongly disapproved of the marriage on the grounds that an elder sister would, thus, be the subject of a younger, a reason for blighting romance that seems to stretch court etiquette to the breaking point.

The title next passed to a cousin, William, 7th Lord Bellenden of Broughton (1728–1805) who died a year later, childless. For seven years the title lay dormant.

In 1812 after a long lawsuit, the House of Lords decided that Sir James Innes of Innes (1736–1823), whose great-grandmother was an heiress in the female line to the first earl, became the fifth duke, with the name Innes-Kerr. Already an old man when the “Roxburghe Cause” was settled, he provided Society with tea table conversation by producing his only son and heir in 1816 at the age of eighty-one. It was reported that at the celebration of the birth of the future sixth duke, the robust octogenarian took a spirited part in the dancing in the best Highland tradition. It is understandable that he had cause for jubiliation.

Floors Castle, the family seat, was built by the first Duke of Roxburgh from a design by Sir John Vanbrugh between 1718 and 1721. Situated in a vast parkland above the River Tweed on the outskirts of Kelso, the wall that surrounds the mansion was built by prisoners from the Napoleonic War. In the park grows a holly tree reputed to mark the spot where James II was killed when a cannon burst during the siege of ruined Roxburgh Castle in 1460. Floors, which was once massive Georgian in character, was enlarged and outwardly redecorated for the sixth duke by William Playfair, the architect of many of the buildings in Edinburgh’s New Town.

Duke of Roxburgh's Reel 3/4L · R24
1–
1c set | cast off 2 (2c +3c up) ; set and face out | cast up (3c down), 1c curve R into facing lines across (1W between 2c, 1M between 3c)
9–
All set | 2c & 3c set as 1c petronella to 2plx ; all set to P twice
17–
Reels3{6} on the sides, Rsh to 2cnr | 1c cross RH to 2pl.
Duke of Roxburgh's Reel 3/4L · R24
1-8
1s set, cast 2 places (2s+3s step up 3-4)); 1s set, cast up 1 place to 1L between 2s facing down, 1M between 3s facing up (3s step down 7-8)
9-16
2s+1s+3s set, 2s+3s set again while 1s Petronella turn to sides, 1L between 2M+3M, 1M between 2L+3L; 2s+1s+3s set twice
17-24
1s dance 6 bar reels of 3 on sides giving RSh to 2nd corner, 1s cross RH to 2nd place own sides

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Danced on location. On bars 7-8 1st couple …

Added on: 2020-06-20 (Murrough Landon)
Quality: Reasonable

NameDateOwnerLast changed
22 10 20 Harrogate Thursday 2022-10-20 Chris & Lee Pratt Sept. 17, 2022, 3:54 p.m.
FSCDC 28 November 2017 2017-11-28 Anselm Lingnau Nov. 29, 2017, 1:37 a.m.
Rhein-Main-Mini-Social, 5. Dezember 2017 (F) 2017-12-05 Anselm Lingnau Nov. 26, 2017, 10:05 p.m.

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IdSubjectDateSubmitterAssigned toPriorityDisposition
2886 Duke of Roxburgh's Reel Oct. 21, 2022, 11:31 p.m. Chris & Lee Pratt Roland Telle Normal Being handled