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Taught/practised on:
THE FLOWER O’ THE QUERN (S4x32) 3s+4s on opposite sides
John Drewry 1977
1-4
1s+2s & 3s+4s, circle 4 hands to L, finish 1s facing 2s and 3s facing 4s
5-8
All set, 1s cast off and 4s cast up (2s & 3s lead to end place), 1s+4s
change places LH on the sides
9-16
4s+1s ½Fig8 round couple at new end, and change places LH on the
sides; ½Fig8 round other end couple, and change places LH on the
sides
17-24
Reels of 4 on the sides 2(4)1(3), finish with middle couples facing
end couples
25-32
All set to facing couple, 4s & 1s turn end couple so they dance out
between the ends, then 4s+1s ½Fig8 round that end couple to
2 4(1)(3)
Quern-stones are stone tools for hand grinding and used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern,
whilst the upper, mobile, stone is called a handstone. As well as grain, evidence shows that a wide range of
foodstuffs and inorganic materials were processed using stone querns, including nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables,
herbs, spices, meat, bark, pigments, temper and clay. Also querns were used in the preparation of medicines,
cosmetics, dyes, and for grinding metals ores after mining extraction where the aim was to liberate fine ore
particles which could then be separated by washing for example, prior to smelting. They were thus widely used
in gold mining in antiquity.
In the Shetlands tobacco wasn't smoked at first, but ground up into snuff, and inhaled up the nose. Snuff-querns
consisted of an upper and lower stone, fixed together by a central iron pivot.
The earliest quern so far discovered dates to c9500–9000 BC and was found at Abu Hureyra, Syria and querns
appear to have arrived in maritime Scotland from about 200BC.
There was a legal requirement in Scotland for tenants to pay for use of the baron's mill. Early leases of mills gave
to the miller the legal right to break quern-stones which were being used in defiance of thirlage agreements.
The obligations of thirlage eventually ceased to apply, but thirlage in Scotland was only formally and totally
abolished on 28 November (Martinmas) 2004 by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000.
Why is this dance called The Flower, rather than The Flour, o’ the Quern? Or is it even more cryptic and is it
Flower as in flowing?