The Frost Is All Over

Samuel Bayard thought this jig descends from "The Masque," later called "Hey to the Camp," which John Young printed in The Dancing Master in 1707 and which may go back to the 1600s. Whether it began in England is not settled. In Ireland it turns up in 19th century collections by Petrie, from County Armagh, and Joyce, and in Leitrim piper Stephen Grier's manuscript around 1883.

Several sets of words go with it, and they also attach to other jigs. Cork singer Elizabeth Cronin sang a version for Seamus Ennis in 1947, which Johnny Moynihan of De Dannan later made popular.