Description

Bess King’s Hornpipe

One of my favourite publications from the first half of the eighteenth century is known as ‘Walsh’s Third Book’. Dave Shaw had a copy which he kindly lent to me for an extended period of time. The title page declares it to be a collection “fitted to the genious and use of Publick Performers [sic].” The settings of the material suggest that these performers were equally at home in the concert hall, the long rooms of the country houses and the village green.