Christopher Anstey first published his enormously successful New Bath Guide in 1766 and it remained in print until the early nineteenth-century going through over 20 editions. It caricatures a family stay in Bath in full season in a series of fifteen humorous letters. Dance is referred to in most letters and is the principal event in several. The family’s arrival, a public breakfast, a private ball and an assembly room ball are all satirised at some length, and involve dancing. This paper compares the dance events in the Anstey’s Book with what can be established from newspaper reports of the time and diary accounts as the reality. It seems that most events where there were musicians could become opportunities for social dancing if desired by the company.
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Matthew Spring studied lute with Diana Poulton and Jacob Lindberg at the RCM and has published both on lute music and British provincial music. He has degrees from Keele University and Goldsmith’s College London University, and a PhD from Magdalen College Oxford. He was a Lecturer and then Reader in Music at Bath Spa University from 1996 and is now Visiting Fellow. His recent recording of Scottish lute music from the Balcarres Lute Book is the culmination of a long study of the book and the production of a scholarly edition for the Music of Scotland series. Matthew’s solo authored books include: The Balcarres Manuscript (2010 AHRC grant), and The Lute in Britain (2001). Books of recently contributed chapters include: Music and Instruments of the Elizabethan Age; The Eglantine Table (Bodell Brewer 2021; The Musicians of Bath and Beyond (Ashgate, 2016); The Lute in the Netherland (Cambridge, 2015).