P.S. Throughout the Matrimonial Service I observe M. attached to the
man's name, but N. to the woman's.
* * * * *
_Dancing Trenchmore_ (Vol. iii., p. 89.).--Your correspondent S. G. asks
the meaning of this phrase? _Trenchmore_ was a very popular dance in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The earliest mention I find of it
occurs in 1564, and the latest in 1728. The figure and the musical notes
may be seen in the fifth and later editions of _The Dancing Master_. See
also Chappell's _National English Airs_, vol. ii. p. 181., where some
amusing quotations concerning its popularity are given. _Trenchmore_
(the meaning of which we have to seek) was, however, more particularly
the name of the _dance_ than the tune. The _dance_, in fact, was
performed to _various_ tunes. In proof of this I give the following
quotation from Taylor the water-poet's _Navy of Land Ships_, 1627:
"Nimble-heel'd mariners (like so many dancers) capring in the pompes
and vanities of this sinful world, sometimes a Morisco, or
_Trenchmore_ of forty miles long, to the tune of _Dusty my deare_,
_Dirty come thou to me_, _Dun out of the mire_, or _I waile in woe and
plunge in paine_: all these dances have no other musicke."