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An unusual surviving artifact of the period of the quadrille’s early popularity in England is a pocket-sized book of quadrille figures published for the annual ball of the Berkeley Hunt, held in Cheltenham on February 7, 1817. While quadrille cards for dancers not confident in their memory were sold, surviving cards were for standard published sets, not apparently for any specific event. This paper will present the known details (both common and unique) of the 1817 ball as revealed in its press coverage in the context of the ongoing series of Berkeley Hunt Balls and discuss its particularly interesting features, location, and known organizers. Basic understanding of event thus established, the ‘cheat book’ will be examined in the context of social dance practices of the era and its significance in the oft-mentioned challenges of quadrille dancing and the conduct of balls considered. In conclusion, attention will be given to the specific dances and their potential musical, choreographic, and theatrical connections both in England and in France.

Susan de Guardiola received her Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and a Master's in Education from the University of New Haven. She is an independent scholar in social dance history and a teacher of historical social dance who focuses not only on the technical aspects of dance but also on experimentally recreating its social context and exploring the mindset of the period dancer. Susan has presented her scholarly work at conferences including the European Association for Dance History, the Historical Dance Society, the International Congress of Medieval Studies, and the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, and has conducted research at Harvard University as a New England Regional Fellow. She is primarily a nineteenth-century specialist, and her current research focuses on the transatlantic transmission of dance and dance music from the late eighteenth through the late nineteenth centuries.