Mount Hills

Longways proper
Dancing Master 1721
Bently 1965
Recording: mount_hills-063_bn6atb-05.mp3.zip
mount_hills-cgei01.mp3.zip

   A1   6  First couple cross and go below (skip-change).   
        8  First couple half figure-eight up; second couple lead up.        
   A2  16  Second couple the same.
   
   B1   4  First corners change places by right.   
        4  Second corners change places by right.
        8  Hands-four left half-way; turn single left.        
   B2   8  Back to back with partner   
        8  Three changes of circular hey (begin with partner).

Mount Hills

Al 1-8 Is cross and go below (2s moving up), 
       then 1s half figure eight up through the standing 2s (skipping).
A2 1-8 2s cross and go below (1s moving up), 
       then 2s half figure eight up through the standing 1s (skipping).
       All home
B1 1-4 1st corners change places, then 2nd corners change places.  
   5-8 All four circle left halfway, then turn single right.
B2 1-4 Partners back-to-back right shoulder. 
   5-8 Three changes of a circular hey, starting with partner (skip or skip-change step).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7xRdAWffdY

There are several locations by this name in the British Isles, but it is likely that the title refers the fashionable spa of Tunbridge Wells, “consists of four little villages, named Mount Ephraim, Mount Pleasant, Mount Sion, and The Wells, which all together form a considerable town, but the last is the centre of business and pleasure, for there, besides the wells themselves, the market, the assembly rooms, the public parades, the chapel, &c. are situated”. (Dugdale 260)

“Mount hills” that surrounded and supported this very popular resort. Tunbridge Wells is affectionately recalled in numerous dances— “Tunbridge Beauties,” “Tunbridge Minuet,” “Tunbridge Walks,” and of course, “A Trip to Tunbridge” (q.v. The Playford Ball 105); there is even a dance by the name of “Mount Sion.”

Seven springs of chalybeate water had been discovered near Tunbridge (then Tonbridge) during the reign of James I. Queen Henrietta Maria visited them for her health in 1629, and her physician, Lewis Rowzee, wrote a treatise praising their good effects. Charles II's Queen, Catherine of Braganza, took the waters in 1664, by which time the market stalls and pedestrian walks