Why is it necessary that NW "grew out of" CW which itself "grew out of" courtly? It's like saying that man is descended from monkeys: he isn't, but both have common ancestors. So, possibly with the different Morris traditions. And why does no-one ever mention the Litchfield tradition?

I'm going from memory here, but doesn't Douglas Kennedy, in English Folk Dancing discount the Moorish origins but not the Moorish etymology? (That is, doesn't he believe that because the dancers blacked their faces for disguise they were likened to Moors, hence their dances were labelled Moorish?)

And doesn't the same writer/book comment on the similarity of English sword-dances' movements with Basque handkerchief dances'?

But it's 30 years since I read it, so I could well be wrong. But that's stopped no-one else on this thread, has it?