I've been playing this with a group of musos/friends for 20 years but was never too certain, prior to now, as to how close our rendition was to the 'original'. As it turns out it was damn near identical. Because we've never had another benchmark I developed the arrangement with what I referred to above as a ragtime feel Because (1) it's written in Bb and (2) requires a more 'classical' approach to properly articulate the accidentals, I'd assumed that it was the same sort of parentage as Scottish strathspeys. I had also wrongly assumed that the 'acrobat' part of the name referred to the fingering required to play it. But not so, originally known as The Nightingale, P.T. Barnum used it to accompany his acrobat's performances.

The Acrobat('s) Reel is written in A, has a very different feel but is also a great tune. I'll post it later. Regards, John