A book I'm reading quotes a dancing master's ad (notice, please, Sir!) in the Nottingham Journal of 22nd Feb 1783, offering classes in "plain minuet, Pargrave minuet, De La Cour minuet, Devonshire minuet, English rigadoon, allemande, quadrille, cotillions and country dances."

The last lot I suppose are the social staple of Jane Austen, George Eliot (as in Silas Marner), and the like. But has anyone a clue how the variants differed from the basic minuet- and preferably explain accessibly to a non- dancer?