England by the authorities but dancing could not be repressed
in an age in which the range of conversation was necessarily narrow
and the appetite for physical activity and excitement almost
insatiable."

Dancing was forbidden in Massachusetts taverns and at weddings, but it
was encouraged at Connecticut ordinations. In a letter written by John
Cotton, that good man specifies that his condemnation is not of dancing
"even mixt" as a whole, but of "lascivious dancing to wanton ditties
with amorous gestures and wanton dalliances;" an objection in which I
hope he is not singular, an we be not Puritan ministers; and an
objection which makes us suspect, an he were a Puritan minister, that he
had been in some very singular company.

In 1713 a ball was given by the governor in Boston, at which
light-heeled and light-minded Bostonians of the governor's set danced
till three in the morning. As balls and routs began at six in the
afternoon, this gave long dancing-hours. On the other hand, we find
sober folk reading "An Arrow against Profane and Promiscuous Dancing
Drawn out of the Quiver of the Scriptures By the Ministers of Christ at
Boston." And though one dancing-master was forbidden room to set up his
school, we find that "Abigaill Hutchinson was entered to lern to dance"
somewhere in Boston in 1717, probably at the school of Mr. George
Brownell. By Revolutionary times old and young danced with zest at
balls, at "turtle-frolicks," at weddings. President Washington and Mrs.
General Greene "danced upwards of three hours without once sitting
down," and General Greene called this diversion of the august Father of
his Country "a pretty little frisk." By 1791 we find Rev. John Bennett,
in his "Letters to a Young Lady," recommending dancing as a proper and
healthful exercise. Queer names did early contra-dances bear: Old Father
George, Cape Breton, High Betty Martin, Rolling Hornpipe, Constancy,
Orange Tree, Springfield, Assembly, The President, Miss Foster's
Delight, Pettycoatee, Priest's House, The Lady's Choice, and Leather the
Strap. By Federal times came Federal dances.

Such care was paid by New Englanders to the raising and improving of
horses that I presume horse-races did not seem so wicked as card-playing
or dancing, for I find hint of a horse-race in the _Boston News Letter_
of August 29, 1715, for Jonathan Turner therein challenged the whole
country to match his black gelding in a race for a hundred pound