The Ribble

A hornpipe in G major, printed as number 22 in Jean White’s 100 Popular Hornpipes, Reels, Jigs and Country Dances for the Violin (Boston, 1880) with no composer named; it does not appear in other printed collections or on commercial recordings. The title most likely points to the River Ribble in Lancashire, which would fit the company it keeps: the hornpipe section of White’s book is largely northern English, with Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle among its neighbors. Neither the namesake nor the regional origin is stated in the book, so both are inference rather than fact.

Notes: The Traditional Tune Archive cross-references this to Cald Garden Hornpipe in the Isaac Homan manuscript on a shared theme code, but the two settings have only their opening two bars in common.