Moll Peatley
was a popular and vigorous dance, dating, at least, from 1622.
In his scheme of a College and School, published in 1661, as
a Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy,
among the ideas for training boys in the school is this, that
'in foul weather it would not be amiss for them to learn to Dance, that is, to learn just so much (for all beyond is superfluous, if not worse) as may give them a graceful comportment of their bodies.'