Focus on a dance - The Lass of Richmond Hill

The well-known teacher, Fiona Turnbull, devised The Lass of Richmond Hill, published in Graded Book 2, to the famous song tune. In this article she gives us the background to her dance which she hopes will help you enjoy it even more.

There are at least 119 towns named Richmond across the world. However, Richmond Branch are proud that their town in North Yorkshire is the original Richmond and will in 2021 celebrate 950 years since the building of its Norman castle. Richmond is derived from the Norman French ‘riche monte’, which means strong hill. This means that calling a town Richmond Hill is a tautology! The poem, The Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill, was written by Leonard McNally as he tried to woo Miss Frances I’Anson, an attractive young lady, whose parents lived in Hill House, Richmond. In 1767 she eloped with McNally, although her father disapproved of the relationship. The song expresses love for the ‘lass’ of the title. It contains two verses of eight lines each and a chorus of four lines. The first verse begins with the famous lines:

On Richmond Hill there lives a lass, More bright than May-day morn, Whose charms all other maids’ surpass, A rose without a thorn. This lass so neat, with smiles so sweet Has won my right good will I’d crowns resign to call thee mine Sweet lass of Richmond Hill. And the chorus is: Sweet lass of Richmond Hill, Sweet lass of Richmond Hill, I’d crowns resign to call thee mine, Sweet lass of Richmond Hill.

Because of the words ‘I’d crowns resign to call her mine’, it was rumoured that the Prince of Wales, later King George IV, had written it for his mistress Mrs Fitzherbert, who had a house in a different Richmond Hill – near London. My dance came about following a Branch event in 1990. During the evening, dancers were taken by surprise when the band included James Hook’s tune The Lass of Richmond Hillin a set of tunes for General Stuart’s Reel. Rob Gordon, the Scottish band leader, had adapted it during his long drive down that evening. Rob then challenged the Branch to devise a suitable dance to fit the music and kindly gave us his original arrangement. Seven dances were subsequently presented anonymously and tested by Branch members, whose vote was overwhelmingly for my dance. This dance was then published in 1992 in a book of dances to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Richmond Branch. The figures of the dance were inspired by the music. The first eight bars of the tune convey an urgency which translated into ‘lead down the middle and up’. At the end of these 8 bars there is a tiny pause in the music as the first couple arrive back at the top of the set before they cast off into a weaving progression movement. There is frequent repetition of the words ‘Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill’, especially in the chorus which forms the second half of the dance where the phrase occurs three times within 16 bars. I wanted to highlight this repetition and chose the seldom danced formation of Corners Chain. The turns fit with the repeated lines in both poem and music. The dance has proved very popular as a good one to start an evening with, and also with teachers at day schools. Very few of the dances published by the RSCDS contain only skip change, and thus teachers find it useful in a class situation. As the first Convenor of the Youth Committee and responsible for initiating the Medal Tests Scheme, I came to realise that the Society had a limited number of interesting and challenging dances suitable for beginners and children. Mentioning this during a weekend training session, I was asked to research and collect suitable dances for a Second Book of Graded Scottish Country Dances. Among the numerous suggestions collected from all over the world I offered my own dance and was delighted when it was included in the final selection for the publication in 2010. Maureen Rutherford arranged the music. Given that many teachers use YouTube to assist with their class preparation I was disappointed in the quality and accuracy of videos on offer for my dance. One evening at class I asked if we could record our ‘Branch’ dance the following week. A member of the class filmed it there and then on her mobile phone. So, with no rehearsal we danced the version you can now watch on YouTube with music from the Graded Book CD played by Andrew Lyon. I hope you will enjoy my dance more now that you know the background. Do learn the simple words of the poem and sing along as you dance. written by Fiona Turnbull, Richmond Branch