Roger de Coverley

Roger de (or of) Coverley (also Sir Roger de Coverley or ...Coverly) is the name of an English country dance and a Scottish country dance (also known as The Haymakers). An early version was published in The Dancing Master, 9th edition (1695)[1]. The Virginia Reel is probably related to it. The name refers to a fox, and the dance's steps are reminiscent of a hunted fox going in and out of cover.

It is mentioned in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) when the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a party from his apprenticeship with Mr. Fezziwig. "...the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler ... struck up 'Sir Roger de Coverley'. Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig." In the 1951 film Scrooge, based on Dickens's story and starring Alastair Sim in the title role, the fiddler is shown playing the tune at an energetic tempo during the party scene. It also figures in William Makepeace Thackeray's short story "The Bedford-Row Conspiracy" as the musical center piece of a political feast pitting the Whigs against the Torys and in Arnold Bennett's novel "Leonora" as music considered more suitable for a ball by the older gents to the likes of the Blue Danube Waltz.

It is mentioned also in the book Silas Marner by George Eliot, when the fiddler at the Cass New Year's Eve party plays it to signal the beginning of the evening dancing; it is furthermore mentioned in the children's book The Rescuers by Margery Sharp.

Also Harry Thompson, in his first novel This Thing of Darkness, mentioned this dance. "... and so it was that, five minutes later, he found himself bowing to her, and she curtsying in reply, as they lined up facing one another for the commencement of the Sir Roger de Coverley".

...
Wikipedia