Woodstock Park
Source: Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year:1711
Dedicated to. Henry Ld. Newport, by Nathaniell Kynaston.
London. J. Walsh, P. Randall, J. Hare, 1710
Form: Longways, duple minor (original: triple minor)
Recording: woodstock_park--039.mp3.zip
woodstock_park-persons_of_quality.mp3.zip
A1 1-4 Ptns. set R. & L. then 1st cpl. cast down into 2nd place, 2nd cpl. Leading up. Next movement we call HOOK in the OECDC 5-8 1st cpl. half figure 8: 1st man down through the cpl. below, 1st wo. up through the cpl. above, passing R. with other figuring dancer (sk. ch. s.) A2 1-4 Ptns. set R. & L. then 2nd cpl. cast down to place, 1st cpl. Lead up. 5-8 2nd cpl. half figure 8: 2nd man down through the cpl. below. 2nd woman up through the cpl. above. passing R. with other figuring dancer (sk. ch. s.) All improper. Next movement we call ORBIT in the OECDC. This movement is like Mad Robin, but going forward all the time. B 1-4 2nd cpl. standing still, 1st cpl. go R. shoulder round nbr.: WRONG!!! 1st man down the outside and back up the middle! 1st woman down the middle and back up the outside. into 5-8 Hands 4. circle L. half round and open up the set. 9-16 Ptns. facing. R. & L. 4 changes. with hands.
Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGnTAZVI2oY
In 1705, Queen Anne granted the lands around
Old Woodstock Castle, a former royal residence, to Sir John Churchill,
the 1st Duke of Marlborough, the dazzling victor in so many campaigns
in the War of the Spanish Succession: Ramillies, Blenheim, Lille,
Oudenaarde, Malplaquet (many of these, like much of the conduct of
the war and much of Marlborough’s career, commemorated in dances)
in expression of the thanks of a grateful nation.
This stupefyingly grand
building was to be built at public expense, but delays and cost overruns
and unseemly personal and political squabbles at Court stopped
all Crown monies and work at Blenheim in 1712, at which point the
Marlboroughs went into self-imposed exile. Marlborough’s star shone
again with the accession of George I, but he had little time to enjoy
the house: Marlborough died in 1719, leaving his Duchess to fund and
supervise the completion of the work in the mid-1730s.