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HORN DANCING
EXCERPT FROM TRUE BRITS ©JR DAESCHNER

Every Monday after the first Sunday following September the 4th, Tony Fowell and a dozen family and friends perform the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, reputedly one of the oldest traditions in Britain-and Europe.

In many parts of the world, wearing horns used to be the sign of a cuckold. But in Abbots Bromley, it's a great honour.

Dressed in flat caps and short trousers, the men hoist ancient antlers over their heads and traipse through the village and surrounding Staffordshire countryside, dancing, drinking and collecting money along the way.

Before you dismiss it as merely morris dancing with horns, you should know that most of the Abbots Bromley men are quick to distance themselves from the jingle-jangle ankle-slapping of their country counterparts. ("Morris dancers are kind of nancy boys," one tells me.)

Admittedly, though, the hard men of horn dancing do have traits in common with their more effete counterparts.

Both traditions feature faux-archaic costumes designed to conjure up a romantic notion of Olde England. They also have several stock characters in common, like the Jester, the Hobbyhorse and a gender-bending Maid Marian.

However-and I can't stress how important this is-in the Horn Dance, there is no waving of hankies, jingling of bells or festooning of nipples (which, come to think of it, makes morris dancing sound more exciting than it is).

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