Double Lead Through

Oxford Ramble track 16

Country dance tune from the playing of William Kimber of Headington Quarry. The title no doubt referred to a figure in the dance which it accompanied. The tune sounds like it might be a version of The Triumph, but Paul Burgess's entry on the tune on Folkopedia states:

Originally a French tune, written by Charles Lecoq and included in his three act opéra-comique 'La fille de Madame Angot' which was first produced in Brussels at the Théâtre des Fantaisies-Parisiennes on the 4 December 1872. The piece caused a sensation in Britain where it ran for a consecutive five-hundred nights and then appeared in London in various forms as well as being extensively toured... It is still a great favourite with the French, and is still, apparently, played almost continuously in the Asterix theme park, south of Paris.

- this last piece of information having been provided from personal experience by the dance caller Hugh Rippon!