Foul Weather Call reel

From the manuscript book of the Welch family of Bosham, West Sussex, circa 1800. Published in The Sussex Tunebook, EFDSS, 1982.

This is not really a polka as it pre-dates the emergence of polkas in the European dance scene by around half a century. It’s not a hornpipe and it’s not a reel so the best category would be ‘country dance’, which doesn’t exist on the system.

Bit of useless info:
When a storm was imminent, the foul weather call went out for the farm workers to batten down/cover up haystacks etc. for protection.

We had a similar call at home whenever thunder was heard - us kids had to run round collecting any scythes, rakes, hoes, shovels etc. that had been left outside so the ligntening didn’t strike them. I thought it was an old-wives tale until I saw it happen - the man scything in the thunderstorm was there one minute and gone the next.

Very similar to the Scotch Greys march. Found here and in Joshua Jackson manuscript

http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=tunearch.org/wiki/Scotch_Grey%27s_March_(1).no-ext/0001