" It is a country dance, but its peculiarity lies in
the fact that instead of the couples standing motionless opposite
to one another, they are expected to "set to each other," and to
keep on doing steps without intermission; all this being, I
imagine, typical of the intense eagerness every one was supposed
to express to reach the scene of the wedding festivities as
quickly as possible. Twenty minutes of "Haste to the Wedding" are
warranted to exhaust the stoutest leg-muscles. My mother always
led off with the farm-bailiff as partner, my father at the other
end dancing with the bailiff's wife. Both my father, and my
brother after him, were very careful always to wear their Garter
as well as their other Orders on these occasions, in order to show
respect to their guests. Scotch reels and Irish jigs alternated
with "The Triumph," "Flowers of Edinburgh," and other country
dances, until feet and legs refused their office; and still the
fiddles scraped, and feet, light or heavy, belaboured the floor
till 6 a.m. The supper would hardly have come up to London
standards, for instead of light airy nothings, huge joints of
roast and boiled were aligned down the tables.
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