Frederick Hill’s Book of Quadrilles & Country Dances Etc.Etc.’

edited by the Hill Manuscript Group: MacFadyen, Mackenzie and Macpherson

The Hill Manuscript, originally published in 2009 Alastair MacFadyen ,Alan Macpherson and Anita Mackenzie, has just been reprinted in October 2021. The new edition, is  a hardback landscape format made from a blue cloth with gold lettering.

The Hill MS is possibly one of the most important surviving manuscripts about Scottish Traditional Dance. It dates from 1841 and was compiled by Frederick Hill of Alford. We know very little about Frederick Hill other than that he was born in Hammersmith in London, was a Tailor and Clothier by trade and that he settled in Clatt in Aberdeenshire when aged about 25, subsequently moving to Alford not far from Clatt. The original notebook is possibly his aide-memoire recording the instructions for the dances he had been taught (probably by itinerant dancing masters). It is interesting in that it includes Quadrilles, Country Dances and High or Step Dances, and is the source of several dances published by the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society.

The book comprises of 40 pages of scanned images of the original notebook.

Profits from the sale of this book will go towards the development of The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society’s Archive.