Kempshott Hunt
Speed the Plough track 9
From the tune book MSS of John Clare, learned from George Deacon's book John Clare and the Folk Tradition. This always sounded to me like a Scottish tune - and indeed it turns out that it was published in notable Scotiish collections such as Aird and Gow - although Kempshot is actually in Hampshire, quite near Basingstoke.
Kempshot and hunting
The Prince Regent took Kempshot House as a hunting lodge in 1788:
The Prince of Wales resided at Kempshot during the hunting season, and kept a pack of staghounds there from 1788 to 1793
Hunting in the Olden Days by William Scarth Dixon, p159 http://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=1417959150
The Hampshire Hunt, always known as the H.H., dates from about 1745. In 1788 the Prince of Wales, while residing at Kempshott, kept staghounds which, in 1793, were turned into foxhounds. They hunted most of the northern portion of what is now the H.H. country. In 1795 the Prince left Kempshott and gave up his hounds, and the old Kilmston Hunt, or original H.H. Club, was dissolved.
On 25th April 1795 a meeting was held in Winchester, and the Club reformed. The country as now constituted has existed since that date, and extends some 17 miles north to south, by about 25 miles east to west.
The H.H. are very proud of the fact that they are allowed to wear the Prince of Wales' feathers on their Hunt buttons. This privilege was granted to the Hunt in 1795, by the then Prince of Wales, on the formation of the present Hunt Club.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/hunting/inquiry/evidence/hunts/hampshirehunt.htm
The tune in print
No doubt Prince George held fashionable dances at Kempshot, and it would be natural for a dance (and possibly) tune to be composed with this title. Although it was after the Prince Regent's time at the house, it is known that Jane Austen attended a ball at Kempshot in January 1799.
The tune appears in various published dance and tune collections from the 1790s onwards.
Kempshott Hunt from Gow – 3rd Collection of Niel Gow’s Reels, 3rd ed.,pg. 26 (orig. 1792)
from http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/KEA_KEM.htm
Kempshot Hunt from Aird, Vol 4, 1796(?)
Oscar and Malvina, or Kempshot Hunt, from Preston, 24 country dances for the year 1793
Compare this with the version in John Clare's MSS - of all of these published versions, it would appear that Preston was most likely to have been Clare's source.
Kempshott Hunt, John Clare MSS, transcription from the Village Music Project
Oscar and Malvina
You'll have noticed that in Preston the tune is titled Oscar and Malvina, or Kempshot Hunt. Oscar and Malvina (or 'The Hall of Fingal') was a 'ballet-pantomime' which was
first staged at Covent Garden in 1791. The music was credited to William Reeve, although he didn't compose all the
melodies himself. "William Shield had originally been commissioned to
provide the music but abandoned the project; whether any of his work was
used I don't know, but some, I gather, derives from Salieri and
doubtless other sources".
The music
was performed on instruments including harp and union pipes - the latter played by O'Farrell, author of the
'Pocket Companion'.
The score for the Overture can be seen at the Lester Levy Sheet Music
Collection (http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/ ) and the Rondo (union
pipes and harp) bears a strong resemblance to 'Kempshot Hunt'.