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Dance The Earl of Home 1883

Strathspey · 32 bars · 4 couples · Longwise - 4   (Progression: 2134)

Devised by
Nathaniel Gow
Intensity
8888 8000 8220 8880 = 59% (1 turn), 59% (whole dance)
Formations
Steps
  • Strathspey setting, Strathspey travel
Published in
Recommended Music
Extra Info
This dance has the progression of a 3-couple dance in a 4-couple set, and is danced eight times through. However, …

This dance has the progression of a 3-couple dance in a 4-couple set, and is danced eight times through. However, as all four couples dance bars 1–8 it is technically a 4-couple dance.

According to strathspey list thread https://www.strathspey.org/lists/strathspey@strathspey.org/t/63976/ the name is pronounced ‘Hume’ (Hyoom). See also https://www.clan-home.org/history-of-the-homes/.

The Earl of Home

For a Border family “the Haughty Homes” lived in comparative peace with their Lowland neighbors and, when it was entrusted to them, they maintained without successful challenge, their wardenship of the Scottish East March.

The founder, through marriage, of the Berwickshire Homes is said to have been the 13th century Patrick, son of Cospatrick, Earl of Dunbar, whose ancestors had been the Earls of Northumberland. From that time on the Home family divided and subdivided like a powerful cell. The first major division occurred with the sons of Sir Thomas Home when the elder, Alexander, continued the main line while the second son, David Home of Wedderburn, established the branch that was later to hold the Earldom of Marchmont. Sir Alexander fought against the invading English army of Henry IV at Homildon Hill in 1402 and he died in 1424 in the battle of Verneuil on the Continent when, through the invocation of the Auld Alliance (See “The Auld Alliance”), Scotland joined France in her continuing war with England. Upon the death of Sir Alexander, the main line of the Humes re-divided: the youngest son founding the Homes of Spott, the second the Homes of Tynnington and Ninewells, and the eldest, Alexander, created Baron Home in 1473 by James III, succeeding his father. This Alexander’s son, another Alexander, Master of Home, died within his father’s lifetime, but he left two sons, Alexander, 2nd Lord Home, and the younger, John Home of Whiterigs and Ersilton. The second Lord Home was made Warden of the East March and Great Chamberlain of Scotland for life. Alexander, 3rd Lord Home, was a commander at Flodden in 1513 and, with Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly, defeated the right wing of the English forces under Admiral Lord Thomas Howard. Lord Home survived the tragic battle, but he was later hotly accused of showing a want of chivalry by obeying orders and holding his strategic position, which he felt to be his duty as a commander, instead of going to the aid of James IV who was subsequently killed in the battle. After Flodden, John, Duke of Albany and heir to the throne after his young cousin, was brought from France by that faction of nobles who were enemies of the Dowager Queen Margaret to act as regent to the infant James V. Lord Home and his brother, William, both of whom remained loyal to the queen in her bid for regency over her own son, were executed for high treason by Albany in 1516.

The confiscated estates were eventually restored, but Home Castle suffered greatly during the invasion of Scotland by the armies of Henry VIII. In 1545 the fourth Lord Home was granted £300 for the defence of his castle against the English who laid waste to the Home lands both in Berwickshire and Roxburghshire. In 1547 the castle was captured by a savage foray into Scotland by the English under Lord Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and was recaptured two years later by Lord Home. In 1569 the English, under Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, took the castle again and Alexander, 5th Lord Home, a man whose loyalty to Queen Mary had never been too stable, fled to join the nobles gathered at Edinburgh Castle. There he was eventually taken prisoner and he died in captivity in 1575.

Alexander, 6th Lord Home (1566–1619), accompanied James VI (I) to London in 1603 and in 1605 was created Earl of Home. His son, James, 2nd Earl of Home, died childless in 1633 and the title passed to sir James Home of Coldingknowes, a descendent of John Home of Whiterigs and Ersilton, brother of the second Lord Home. The third earl fought at the battle of Preston in 1648 against the Cromwellian army. Home Castle was besieged in 1651 by Cromwell’s men and in spite of a spirited defiance …

I Willie Wastle,
  Stand firm in my castle,
And a’ the dogs o’ your toon
  Will no pull Willie Wastle doon.

… the castle was demolished.

The families of the Earls of Home then took up residence at The Hirsel, originally a small sheep croft on the Tweed, near Coldstream, which was greatly enlarged.

William, 8th Earl of Home, who died in 1761, fought on the Hanoverian side at Prestonpans in 1745. A fine portrait of the earl in uniform, painted by Allan Ramsay (1713–1784), still exists. The earl was listed as a subscriber to William Thomson’s Orpheus Caledonius of 1733. Upon his death he was succeeded by his brother, Alexander. The tenth earl, yet another Alexander, married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch and 5th Duke of Queensberry. He was responsible for the Regency additions to The Hirsel. Cospatrick Alexander, 11th Earl of Home and a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Douglas, married Lucy Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Montagu and granddaughter of Alexander Stewart, Baron Douglas of Douglas. (See “The Duke of Hamilton’s Reel”) Since the sons of Lord Douglas left no male heirs the estates passed to the Earls of Home in 1857.

Charles Alexander, 12th Earl of Home (1834–1918) added the Douglas name to that of Home. The thirteenth earl, one of the architects of the League of Nations, was the father of Sir Alec Douglas-Home who, until he became Prime Minister in 1963, was the fourteenth Earl of Home.

The Earl of Home 4/4L · S32
1–
All set and cross Rsh ; repeat (all four cpls dance at each repetition)
9–
1c lead down the middle (2c up) and up to 2pl in middle
17–
1c (alone) allemande inside the set, to face 1cnr (2c up) ; set to 1cnr | set to 2cnr
25–
Reels3{6} on the sides Rsh to 2cnr | 1c cross to 2pl. (2,1,3,4)

Repeat from 2pl, finish (2,3,4,1)

The Earl of Home 4/4L · S32
1-8
All 4 couples set, cross (no hands), set & cross back
9-16
1s lead down the middle & back to top
17-24
1s Allemande (4 bars) to end facing 1st corners (2s step up), set to 1st corners & set to 2nd corners
25-32
1s dance reels of 3 on opposite sides giving RSh to 2nd corners & cross RH to own sides

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IdSubjectDateSubmitterAssigned toPriorityDisposition
2729 Earl of Home and Lady Home Feb. 17, 2022, 4:28 p.m. Sandra McLevy Murrough Landon Normal Fixed