Hedge Lane is found, like the Opera, in the book “A New Academy of Compliments Or, The Lover’s Secretary”, printed in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1795. That appears to be the only published version of the dance printed in the early United States. There are a few different sets of dance steps to the tune Hedge Lane found in earlier published dancing manuals in English published in London – both in John Playford’s Dancing Master, as far back as 1679 (version 1) and as late as 1721 and 1728 (version 2) and a very similar version (much like version 1 from Playford) in various John Walsh manuals of The Compleat Country Dancing Master, from 1718 to 1760. Continue reading →