Dance Meg Merrilees 4293
Reel · 24 bars · 2 couples · Longwise - 4 (Progression: 21)
- Devised by
- Unknown (1827)
- Intensity
- 44 88 88 = 83% (1 turn), 57% (whole dance)
- Formations
-
- Dance down and up - 4 people (DWNUP;4P;)
- Poussette - standard (POUSS;PV;)
- Steps
-
- Pas-de-Basque, Skip-Change
- Published in
- Recommended Music
- Extra Info
- A discussion of this dance can be found in The Thistle #32.
A discussion of this dance can be found in The Thistle #32.
Meg Merrilees
Meg Merrilees was an important character in Sir Walter Scott’s popular novel Guy Mannering or The Astrologer (1815).
“Her appearance made Mannering start. She was full six feet high, wore a man’s great-coat over the rest of her dress, had in her hand a goodly sloe-thorn cudgel, and in all points of equipment, except her petticoats, seemed rather masculine than feminine. Her dark elf-locks shot out like the snakes of a gorgon, between an old-fashioned bonnet called a bongrace, heightening the singular effect of her strong and weather-beaten features, which were partly shadowed, while her eye had a wild roll that indicated something like real or affected insanity.”
Meg, who put the gipsy curse on Godfrey Bertram, the Laird of Ellangowan, had a real basis in fact. Scott used as his model one Jean Gordon who was born about 1670 at Kirk-Yetholm in Roxburghshire, a town which for centuries was the court, the Little Egypt, of the Scottish gipsies. Jean married Patrick Faa who was transported to the American plantations for the crime of fire-raising. Three of her four sons were hanged for sheep-stealing and the fourth was murdered by another gipsy, Rob Johnstone. Jean herself was reduced to begging from door to door and in 1732 was indicted as a common vagabond. She was a staunch Jacobite and it was after the Rising of 1745 that Jean, very old by then, arrived in Carlisle. It was a fair day and the town was crowded. The old gipsy spied the heads of the Jacobite rebels on top of the Scotchgate and she is reputed to have begun to sing the following words to the Loyalist song:
To wanton me, to wanton me,
Ken ye what maist wad wanton me!
To see King George hung up at Rome,
To see King Jamie croon’d at Scone,
To see England taxed and Scotland free.
This is what maist wad wanton me.
But to daunton me, to daunton me,
This is what sair does daunton me,
To see an ill-faur’d German loon
Keep wrangfu’ haud o’ Scotland’s croon,
And a’ laid low that high should be.
This is what sair doth daunton me.
The Carlisle mob attacked. They threw Jean into the Eden River. Each time she surfaced she would shout another Jacobite slogan and she was left by the rabble to drown. With a final burst of strength the old woman crawled up onto the river bank where she finally died of exposure.
Scott’s novels and narrative poems, though long and immensely involved in plot, are studded with unforgettable characters. During the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, when the steamers of the Clyde were at their most popular, any number of vessels were named for Scott’s works and some of their characters. There were Waverley, Talisman, Redgauntlet, Marmion, Kenilworth, Ivanhoe, Lord of the Isles and Fair Maid as well as Madge Wildfire, Lucy Ashton, Lochinvar, Jeanie Deans, Lady Rowena, Dandie Dinmont, Diana Vernon and, of course, Meg Merrilees.
It is no wonder, thus, that tunes and dances also bore the name of Scott’s characters.
Name | Artist | Album | Media | Trk | Type | Time | Pace | Clip |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Meg Merrilees | Ian Holmes and his Scottish Dance Band with Ian Powrie | Highlander Music Scottish Dances Vol 4 | CD | 14 | R24 8 | 3:28 | 34.7 | |
Meg Merrilees | Bobby Crowe and his Scottish Dance Band | Book 1. Music for Twelve Traditional Dances | CD+ | 5 | R24 8 | 0:00 | 0.0 | |
Meg Merrilees | The Scotsmen | Two More Couples Please | LP | 2 | R24 8 | 0:00 | 0.0 | |
Meg Merrilees Reel | Andrew Rankine and his Band | Scottish Dance Band Greats Vol 1 | CD | 20 | R24 6 | 2:30 | 33.3 |
Meg Merrilees 2/4L · R24
- 1–
- 1M+2W turn RH ; 2M+1W turn RH 1½ and finish between the first pair in line across, 2c on W side
- 9–
- NHJ in line dance down (turn R about) ; and up, finish in the middle BHJ with P (1,2)
- 17–
- 1c+2c Poussette (2,1)
Meg Merrilees 2/4L · R24
- 1-8
- 1M turns 2L RH, 2M turns 1L RH 1.1/2 times ending in centre in line across with original partners
- 9-16
- 1s+2s dance down the middle, turn to right & dance back to top
- 17-24
- 1s+2s dance Poussette
Name | Date | Owner | Last changed |
---|---|---|---|
New List | Graeme Ferguson | Jan. 20, 2012, 2:06 p.m. | |
BritishFlair2013 | Daniela Schröder | Aug. 11, 2013, 12:17 p.m. | |
GB Class 11/16/23 | 2023-11-16 | Ted Randolph | Nov. 16, 2023, 9:16 p.m. |
15 10 19 Mervyn Monday | 2015-10-19 | Chris & Lee Pratt | Sept. 20, 2015, 12:52 p.m. |
Fleet 2015-11-28 Autumn Apprentices' Dance | 2015-11-28 | David McQuillan | Nov. 4, 2015, 11:52 p.m. |
Chiswick - 1 December 2019 (orig) | 2019-12-01 | James Wilson | Dec. 2, 2019, 8:32 a.m. |
Chiswick - 1 December 2019 | 2019-12-01 | James Wilson | Dec. 2, 2019, 8:33 a.m. |
22 10 17 Harrogate Monday | 2022-10-17 | Chris & Lee Pratt | Sept. 17, 2022, 3:32 p.m. |
Chiswick - 8 December 2019 Christmas Dance | 2019-12-08 | James Wilson | Nov. 4, 2019, 12:11 p.m. |
191208 Chiswick xmas party | 2019-12-08 | Evelyn Wilson | Nov. 2, 2019, 8:44 a.m. |
St Columba's Dancers 200302 | 2020-03-02 | Murrough Landon | Jan. 15, 2020, 12:31 a.m. |
Chiswick - 17 November 2019 (orig) | 2019-11-17 | James Wilson | Nov. 18, 2019, 9:34 a.m. |
Chiswick - 12 January 2020 | 2020-01-12 | James Wilson | Jan. 13, 2020, 4:42 p.m. |
Chiswick - 12 January 2020 (orig) | 2020-01-12 | James Wilson | Jan. 13, 2020, 4:40 p.m. |
Chiswick class and social 24.10.2021 | 2021-10-24 | Iris Ronayne | Oct. 23, 2021, 12:41 p.m. |
Surbiton Caledonian 16 February 2023 | 2023-02-16 | Cathy Daldy | Feb. 10, 2023, 12:58 p.m. |
RSCDS Book 1 | Ward Fleri | Nov. 13, 2020, 9:06 p.m. | |
RSCDS Book 01 | Martina Mueller-Franz | June 8, 2016, 2:21 p.m. | |
Westchester 24 April 2019 (Copy) | 2019-04-17 | Peter Price | April 23, 2019, 3:15 p.m. |
New Haven Summer Dance 28.08.18 | 2018-08-28 | Peter Price | Aug. 25, 2018, 5:18 p.m. |
15 04 18 Tunbridge Wells | 2015-04-18 | Chris & Lee Pratt | Feb. 27, 2015, 9:06 p.m. |
St Columba's Dancers 190114 | 2019-01-14 | Sarah B. | Dec. 21, 2018, 9 p.m. |
SURBITON 2024 February 22nd | 2024-02-22 | Jenny Kendrick | Feb. 13, 2024, 5:19 p.m. |
Surbiton 2019 February 28th | 2019-02-28 | Jenny Kendrick | Feb. 22, 2019, 12:56 a.m. |
Kilts and Ghillies 27 April 2019 | 2018-09-12 | Peter Price | May 25, 2023, 8:05 p.m. |
Surbiton 6 Oct | 2022-10-06 | Libby Curzon | Oct. 1, 2022, 9:55 a.m. |
Chiswick - 26 January 2020 (orig) | 2020-01-26 | James Wilson | Jan. 27, 2020, 7:06 a.m. |
St Columba's Dancers 190128 Burns Night | 2019-01-28 | Sarah B. | Dec. 21, 2018, 9:09 p.m. |
RSCDS BHS 2013-10-12 Autumn Social | 2013-10-12 | David McQuillan | Oct. 7, 2013, 11:01 p.m. |
Pinewoods Scottish Session II 2012 - Wednesday Night Program | 2012-07-11 | Andy Peterson | March 19, 2018, 5:44 a.m. |
Delaware Valley Branch Social 3-9-24 | 2024-03-09 | Cecily Selling | Feb. 18, 2024, 2:09 a.m. |
OSCDG Burns Supper | 2019-01-26 | Lynetta Taylor Hansen | Jan. 1, 2019, 4:31 p.m. |
190426 Chiswick easier dances | 2019-04-26 | Evelyn Wilson | April 26, 2019, 9:52 a.m. |
RSCDS Summer School 2017 Week 4 - Thursday Programme | 2017-08-10 | Andrew Locke | July 21, 2017, 12:05 a.m. |
170810 w4 Thursday – St A. – Younger Hall | 2017-08-10 | Martina Mueller-Franz | May 12, 2017, 12:08 p.m. |
Burns Night 2019 - Oslo SCDG | 2019-01-26 | Kristian Vestli | Nov. 11, 2018, 1:04 p.m. |
New Haven Summer Dancing - 14.8.18 | 2018-08-14 | Peter Price | Aug. 11, 2018, 11:46 p.m. |
End of Season dance 2016 | Sarah B. | May 14, 2016, 6:05 p.m. | |
St Columba's Dancers 200127 Burns Night | 2020-01-27 | Murrough Landon | Nov. 6, 2023, 11:38 a.m. |
Chiswick - 2 February 2020 Burns Night Dance | 2020-02-02 | James Wilson | Jan. 6, 2020, 5:26 p.m. |
2018-05-25 Meaudre | antoine rousseau | March 10, 2018, 11:44 a.m. | |
Surbiton 2023 October 12th | 2023-10-12 | Jenny Kendrick | Oct. 2, 2023, 11 p.m. |
SURBITON 2024 March 7th | 2024-03-07 | Jenny Kendrick | Feb. 27, 2024, 9:35 p.m. |
SURBITON 2023 November 30th St Andrew's Evening | 2023-11-30 | Jenny Kendrick | Nov. 21, 2023, 12:38 a.m. |
Surbiton 7 Mar | 2024-03-07 | Libby Curzon | March 2, 2024, 1 p.m. |
Suggestions 2020 | Judith Kowalczik | Jan. 5, 2020, 11:55 a.m. | |
Westchester 3 April 2019 | 2019-04-03 | Peter Price | April 1, 2019, 4:04 a.m. |
Scotia Dancers 180924 | 2018-09-24 | Sue Ronald | Sept. 21, 2018, 9:13 p.m. |
Delaware Valley RSCDS Spring Ball 1989 | 1989-03-04 | Andy Peterson | Jan. 8, 2018, 3:15 a.m. |
RSCDS London Technique Class Jan - Feb 2019 | 2019-01-16 | Jenny Kendrick | Feb. 6, 2019, 5:22 p.m. |
Delaware Valley RSCDS Hogmanay - 1987-1988 | 1987-12-31 | Andy Peterson | March 8, 2024, 4:21 p.m. |