This is one of very few written records of sword dancing in the region. The tradition of rapper dancing at Christmas has been well documented for over a century. The 'Monthly chronicles of lore and legend' give an account of the specific dances and plays performed at Christmas in the late 19th century. According to John Stokoe, in the Chronicles for 1887, Christmas performances in Northumberland and Durham were undertaken by groups of around a dozen pitmen who, each with a sword by his side and clad in white shirts decorated in ribbons, travelled to the towns to perform a traditional play to song and music. The captain of the group, who traditionally wore a cocked hat and peacock's feathers, was attended by a 'clown or bessy', who acted as treasurer and collected the money. The captain then formed a circle, round which he walked; the Bessy opened the proceedings by singing the first verse, the captain followed by introducing the various characters in succeeding verses. The dance then followed. The ceremony concluded with a general dance to the tune of 'Kitty Bo-Bo'. This tune forms part of Robert Topliff's 'A Selection of the most popular Melodies of the Tyne and the Wear', at present a very little known collection, but many of the items it contains are very well known indeed as it was one of the principal sources used by the editors of the Northumbrian Minstrelsy who, regrettably, did not acknowledge this in their publication. Although the songs in this collection are largely fairly common and have been printed in other collections, often at greater length, it is the timing of their publication which is of significance, as many are first printings. Little is known about Topliff apart from what can be gleaned from the collection itself and the brief comments in Frank Rutherford's 'The Collecting and Publishing of Northumbrian Folk-Song' (Archaelogia Aeliana, 4th series, vol. xlii, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, printed as a separate leaflet in 1964). Rutherford writes 'Topliff was himself a singer, a blind man who gave entertainments of popular melodies in the principal towns of Northumberland and Durham in the 1840s.' There is no indication in the book of a date of publication, but we know that John Bell had it to hand when compiling his song manuscript as Topliff's tune for Dol Li A features there as 'Another Set from Topliff'. That Topliff was blind perhaps has some bearing on the tune settings - they would have been taken down and played back to him from his own singing or playing, and thus represent what he had learnt himself by ear rather than from any written source. The same can be said of the lyrics which appear at the end of the book, which include a unique and traditional sounding verse to The Keel Row. Much of the book consists of concert piano arrangements of limited interest to traditional players and singers today, but we can take it that the basic tunes on which these arrangements are based are authentic traditional versions. Though much of the rest of the book is already familiar, a few good tunes were not plundered for the Northumbrian Minstrelsy, and it is a pleasant task now to give due credit to Topliff's part in preserving those that were. |
