The Cornish Quickstep or Number One Quickstep was a popular at Tea Treats during the nineteenth century and early the twentieth century Cornwall. As well as traditional Cornish fare such as saffron buns and splits with jam and cream there were games and dances, but the key feature was the music played throughout by the local band. The Cornish musical scholar and historian, Dr Ralph Dunstan, was a bandsman playing for just such events in his youth in the mid nineteenth century. He included an arrangement of Number One Quickstep in his collection “Lyver Canow Kernewek – The Cornish Song book” published in 1929. This publication was part of a wider Celtic revival in Cornwall and served to keep these tunes within Cornish instrumental tradition.

The Number One Quickstep as recalled and arranged by Ralph Dunstan:

Cornish Quickstep arranged for 32 bars as part of a set with Allen’s Quickstep, Lamorna and Jan Knuckey as played for ceili dances.-North Cornwall Ceili Band.

Dunstan, Ralph, ed. The Cornish Song Book, Lyver Canow Kernewek. (London: Reid Bros Ltd 1929) p137