The Egg Hornpipe is the second tune in this medley - played on long-necked mandolin. Anne Lederman and Ian Bell. The other tunes are Reel 17, Ash Air, Mrs. Griffith's Hornpipe, and Lady Montgomery's reel. From the Muddy York lp "Scatter The Ashes", 1984.
Full disclosure: This is one of the first tunes I learned out of the Ash collection when I first got a photocopy
of it in 1982. I've been playing it ever since. As I'm going through my now-battered copy of the manuscript in
2016, I find I've lost the page that this tune was on. So here it is from my own playing. I'm sure Allen Ash
would recognize it. I play it as a clog-hornpipe in a dotted rhythm throughout.
This tune is more often found under the name "Ricker's" "Richer's" or "The Rackett". It is in "Ryan's
Mammoth Collection", "Cole's 1000 Fiddle Tunes" and in other 19th century manuscripts.
"The Egg Hornpipe" is a generic name for a dance performed by stage performers who placed eggs and lit
candles on the floor and blindfolded, danced around them, sometimes gathering the eggs onto a handkerchief
with movements of their feet. and then picking them up as the grand finale. I have seen references to this
dance being done in 19th century Canada. There are European painting of versions of the dance going back to the 1500s.
An American political cartoon based on the Egg Dance.