01/20/2026
As Scottish culture goes we apsolutly approve:
Jan 20 - the Dr Windley's Stilton Strathspey for Cheese Day! 💙 💛 💙 🧀 🧀 🧀 🕺 💃
"Stilton, thou shouldst be living at this hour
And so thou art. Nor losest grace thereby;
England has need of thee, and so have I —
She is a Fen. Far as the eye can scour,
League after grassy league from Lincoln tower
To Stilton in the fields, she is a Fen.
Yet this high cheese, by choice of fenland men,
Like a tall green volcano rose in power.
Plain living and long drinking are no more,
And pure religion reading "Household Words",
And sturdy manhood sitting still all day
Shrink, like this cheese that crumbles to its core;
While my digestion, like the House of Lords,
The heaviest burdens on herself doth lay."
~ Sonnet To A Stilton Cheese, G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
There are only so many dances in the SCD canon devoted to cheese (or cheese poetry for that matter), but this 3 couple strathspey is dedicated to true cheese royalty: the Stilton, the creamy blue cheese with 18th-century origins and a special cheese status. Originally associated with markets in the village of Stilton, this special occasion cheese may only be called a “Stilton” if it meets strict Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) rules—no freelancing blues or impostors allowed! This dance, in particular, marks the development of a particular Stilton created by the grandfather of the dance’s deviser: the celebrated Colston Bassett Stilton!
Described as "complex fudgy, silky, salty, and sweet all at once, with notes of green banana or graham cracker near the rind", it is no wonder that the devisor felt it merited a silky, salty, and sweet strathspey of its own.
The cheese-infused dance description includes the following historical background information from devisor Reggie Thomson.
My great-uncle Dr William Windley was a general practitioner in the village of Colston Bassett. In 1913 he invented the Colston Bassett Stilton, and this dance commemorates it:
Bars 1-8: The doctor on his rounds in Colston Bassett in 1913, having the idea of how to make a Stilton Cheese
Bars 9-16: Raising £1000 from the local farmers, aristocrats, and his patients, to start the Colston Bassett Dairy
Bars 17-24: Making the cheese – pushing in the stainless steel needles to make those delicious blue nodules
Bars 25-32: Eating the Colston Bassett Stilton cheese
An al fresco cheese tasting might be just the thing for your next dance gathering. Bring the crackers and perhaps a favourite cheese offering from your own neck of the woods! 💙 💛 💙 🧀 🧀 🧀 🕺 💃
For more related facts and folklore along with dancing details, visit the website at: https://www.scottishcountrydanceoftheday.com/daysoftheyear/dr-windley's-stilton-strathspey
