ABSTRACT
In centers of high fashion, such as Almack's and the court, the older English country dances were gradually ousted by the waltz and quadrille from about 1815, to be joined later by the galop (1829) and polka (1844). For royal state balls no further innovations were permitted for the rest of the reign. Military bands were sometimes used at large balls, but the ordinary band was a medium-sized orchestra of woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion.
