Can any of your numerous valuable correspondents give me the correct date, or any clue to it, of the above dance. There is little doubt of its great antiquity. The dance is begun by a single person (either a woman or man), who {518} dances about the room with a cushion in his hand, and at the end of the tune stops and sings: "This dance it will no further go!" [_The Musician answers._] "I pray you, good sir, why say you so?" [_Man._] "Because Joan Sanderson will not come to!" [_Music._] "She must come to, and she shall come to, And she must come whither she will or no." He now lays down the cushion before a woman, on which she kneels, and he kisses her, singing: "Welcome, Joan Sanderson, welcome, welcome." She rises with the cushion, and both dance about, singing: "Prinkum-prankum is a fine dance, And shall we go dance it once again, And once again, And shall we go dance it once again?" Then making a stop, the woman sings, as before: "This dance it will no further go!" [_Music._] "I pray you, madam, why say you so?" [_Woman._] "Because John Sanderson will not come to." [_Music._] "He must come to," &c. And so she lays down the cushion before a man, who, kneeling, upon it, salutes her, she singing: "Welcome, John Sanderson," &c. Then, he taking up the cushion, they take hands, and dance round, singing as before: and this they do till the whole company is taken into the ring. Then the cushion is laid down before the first man, the woman singing, "This dance," &c. (as before), only instead of "Come to," they sing "Go fro," and instead of "Welcome, John Sanderson," &c., they sing, "Farewell, John Sanderson, farewell," &c.: and so they go out, one by one, as they came in. This dance was at one time highly popular, both at court and in the cottage, in the latter of which, in some remote country villages, it is still danced. Selden, in his _Table Talk_, thus refers to it: "The court of England is much altered. At a solemn dancing, first you have the grave measures, then the _Corvantoes_ and the _Galliards_, and this is kept up with ceremony, at length to Trenchmore and the Cushion dance; and then all the company dance, lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, no distinction. (Would our fair Belgravians of 1850 condescend to dance with their kitchen-maids?) So in our court in Queen Elizabeth's time, gravity and state were kept up. In King James's time, things were pretty well. But in King Charles's time there has been nothing but Trenchmore and the Cushion dance," &c.