From the Slav Khorovod through to Ring a Ring o’ Roses, the round dance has been part of countless cultures since – it would seem – the famous dawn of civilisation (sorry about my clichés!). For terpsichorially inclined Elizabethans one of the more popular numbers in this line seems to have been called Sellenger’s Round (who or what was Sellenger? no-one appears to know):

William Byrd obviously took a serious liking to the tune because he wrote a fine series of variations on it that found its way into both the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and My Ladye Nevells Booke.

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And its story doesn’t end there…

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