"The Lord of Carnarvon's Jig" is an English country dance tune in cut time and G Major. It appears in the first edition of John Playford's English Country Dancing Master (1651) and in all subsequent editions through the 17th (1721), then published by John Young. More than seventy years after Playford's original publication, John Walsh printed a set similar to Playford's in his Compleat Country Dancing-Master (1731). Samuel Bayard finds an earlier version of the melody in the Scottish Skene Manuscipt (c. 1615) as "Blew Ribbon Scottish Measure" and says a much later version is printed in Gow's Complete Repository (1802) under the title "Blue Ribbon Scottish Measure". Bayard thought the style of the air sounded Scottish. The title refers to Robert Dormer (1610-1643), 1st Earl of Carnarvon, who married into the wealthy and influential family of the Earl of Pembroke. A lover of "the looser exercises of pleasure" and of hunting, hawking and travel, Dormer proved an excellent soldier when he declared for King Charles, becoming an able and effective Royalist commander who won the respect of his contemporaries. He was with the King's forces at their success in the Battle of Newbury, where he acquitted himself admirably. However, after the battle, with the opposing forces disengaging and dissipating, Dormer had the misfortune to encounter a group of Parliamentary soldiers. He was recognized and dispatched with a sword. A likeness of Dormer was painted by Anthony van Dyck in his group portrait of the Pembroke family. It was printed in Barlow's Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master (1985) and Barnes's English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2 (2005).