1830 story

“...apology for her declining to join the coranto, or to figure in a galliard, when the merry sound of
pipe and tabor set every light foot a dancing in the hall….The merry-making at Fitz-ford was not
confined alone to the banqueting-hall of its master. The kitchen was filled with the guests of the
servants…[Those that were not] young enough to dance to tabor and pipe with those who had
set-to in the full enjoyment of that exercise in the kitchen…”

‘FITZ OF FITZ-FORD: A LEGEND OF DEVON’ by Mrs. BRAY

1832 ‘A Grand Fete at Knypersley Hall, Congleton, Cheshire’
“...at six o’clock there was dancing on the green to the pipe and tabor”

Morning Post - Monday 23 July 1832

1834 POETRY- ‘EARTH’S WEARY ONES’.  BY MRS. LOCKE.
“…Ye may trace them in the hall of song,
By the lamp’s high flaming light,
Where pipe and tabour their notes prolong,
And jewels are sparkling bright.
In the show of beauty, mirth and pride,
As down the mazy dance they glide ;…”

The Jesuit or Catholic Sentinel 1834-09-20: Vol 5 Iss 38

1836 story - Greenwich Fair “…The grandest and most numerously-frequented booth
in the whole fair, however, is 'The Crown and Anchor' - a temporary ball-room …
There is a raised orchestra, and the place is boarded all the way down, in patches,
just wide enough for a country dance. There is no master of the ceremonies in this
artificial Eden - all is primitive, unreserved, and unstudied. The dust is blinding, the
heat insupportable, the company somewhat noisy…The noise of these various instruments,
the orchestra, the shouting, the 'scratchers,' and the dancing, is perfectly bewildering.
The dancing, itself, beggars description - every figure lasts about an hour, and the ladies
bounce up and down the middle, with a degree of spirit which is quite indescribable.
As to the gentlemen, they stamp their feet against the ground, every time 'hands four round'
begins, go down the middle and up again...and whirl their partners round, nothing loth,
scrambling and falling, and embracing, and knocking up against the other couples, until
they are fairly tired out, and can move no longer. The same scene is repeated again and
again (slightly varied by an occasional 'row') until a late hour at night…” 

Charles Dickens, 'Sketches by Boz', 1836

“…how much more rational would it be, for example, for evening amusements to commence in the evening,
and terminate at midnight, instead of large assemblages of people meeting in the dead of night, and revelling
to the sound of the pipe and tabour till morning; but fashion is all powerful…”

'London as it is : being a series of observations on the health, habits, and amusements of the people' by Royal College of Physicians of London

1838 description of a painting:

“In the foreground is a double terminal figure of: Sylvanus and Pan, round which young men and women are dancing to the music of a rural pipe and tabor. Behind them are oxen with a load of corn, and other characteristic marks of the season of the year….”

The Penny Magazine 1838-03-10: Vol 7 Iss 381

1849-50 about street dancers:

“The street dances are always performed on a small piece of board (about three feet long and two feet wide),
placed in the middle of the road. The most popular dances are the Sailor's Hornpipe - in and out of fetters -
the Lancashire Clog dance, the Highland Ring, and a comic medley dance.  ..... Included in the twelve London
street-dancers are six children; these are girls from five to fifteen years of age. The fathers of these girls play the
drum and pipes...There is no female above 20 dancing in the streets of London. "

‘The Morning Chronicle : Labour and Poor’ Henry Mayhew who observed, documented and described the state of working people
in London for a series of articles in a newspaper, the Morning Chronicle, that were later compiled into book form.

1859 at  nine o'clock in the evening:
“a fife and tabour announce the advent of a little dancing boy and girl, with a careworn mother,
in the street below. I look from my window, and see the little painted people capering in their
spangles and fleshings and short calico drawers.”

‘Twice Round the Clock, or The Hours of the Day and Night in London’, by George Augustus Sala   

1850 from the olden days - Queen Elizabeth's Visit to Arthur Lord Grey de Wilton at Whaddon, Bucks:

Lady's Newspaper and Pictorial Times - Saturday 15 June 1850

1850 poem

“…An interval from toil and hard distress,
To which the poor are doom’d by just decree.
Though now they dance to merry pipe and tabor,
To-morrow they return to grief and labour….”

'The happy man's shirt, and the magic cap, imitated from the Italian.' by Collier, John Payne.

“…In the evening, if ye have any gentility, ye will provide card tables and give a dance; two fiddlers will be much
better than one, and a pipe and tabour ye will have, of course. Ye can charge the musicians to house expences,
under any article you think proper ; or at the worst, set them down as sondries….”

'HOW TO KEEP CHRISTMAS' by A LOVER OF FUN. ‘The cruet stand, select pieces of prose and poetry’ by  C. Gough

1857.... How the peasant maidens would come tripping on the scenes and lure the men
tenderly to the dance!  Where are the Pipe and tabour that I have seen in many pictures;’

Wakefield and West Riding Herald - Friday 30 October 1857

1858 dancing to tabor and pipe in the past: Northampton Mercury - Saturday 07 August 1858

1860 "Frightful Infant Mortality - The world with pipe, tabor and dance move on unmindful of calamities
which if simutaneously thrust upon it would make society stand appalled..."

Wiltshire Independent - Thursday 18 October 1860

1861

“He had got onto the flat roof of the wash-house ... for the purpose of listening to the wild music
made by the merry pipe, tabor and mouth-organ as the night-dancers near pursued their orgies
with more than usual noise...”

Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser - Saturday 09 March 1861

1863 ‘The Foresters’ Fete’ in Holland Park, London
West London Observer - Saturday 04 July 1863

1863 comment regarding the same wedding celebrations in Dorset:
“ pipe and tabor would have matched the dark rafters better
[than the fiddle and tambourine that were actually there] .....”

Dorset County Chronicle - Thursday 19 March 1863

1864 poem Western Times - Friday 15 January 1864

1865 poem 'Harvest Song' by J J Lane: West Middlesex Herald - Saturday 09 September 1865

1867 a story that gives a romantic picture of the olden days:

“...At the fair ... and the lads and lasses footing it to the fife and tabor, and the people chattering in groups...”

'Griffith Gaunt; or, Jealousy' by Charles Reade

1873 (Dizzy is Disraeli)Western Times - Monday 17 March 1873

1887 poem ‘Christmas time is coming’

“Come lads and lassies let us sing,
Christmas time is coming,
Mistletoe and laurel bring,
Watch the mummers mumming;
Let us dance a merry round,
To the pipe and tabor's sound,
Joy shall in each heart be found.
For Christmas time is coming…”

‘Pictures in the fire and other thoughts : in rhyme and verse’
by Dalziel, George, 1815-1902; Kohler Collection of British Poetry

1888 'On Receiving a Copy of Mr. Austin Dobson's " Old World Idylls " by James Russell Lowell Page 27

“…Down vistas long of clipt charmille
Watteau as Pierrot leads the reel;
Tabor and pipe the dancers guide
As I read on….”

1891 three taborers playing for the farandole

1894 comment on a painting at the The Royal National Exhibition:Northern Whig - Tuesday 08 May 1894

[ed. The painting is here but I cannot see a tabourer in it]

1894 Poem: 'Pipe and Tabor'

“A PURITAN, severe and staid,
To meeting-house would go,
Fell in with a merry dancing maid,
Nimble of heel and toe.
She was lively as a butterfly,
She was lovely as a flower ;
But Brother Smite-em-hip-and-thigh
Passed on with visage sour.
" Avaunt ! Avoid ! Alack-a-day !
Beshrew me, worthy neighbour,
They dally down a red -hot way.
That dance to pipe and tabor…."

in ‘Songs sung and unsung’ by Boulton, Harold, Sir,