This dance occasionally appears into the eceilidh repertoire in John Kirkpatrick's rewritten and robustified form.
It was originally a longways dance⬀, where you sorted yourselves into circles of six⬀ going down the room.
Cut this longways up into 3 couple sets, as per John Kirkpatrick, you get a more straightforward dance where more people are dancing more of the time.
You don't start dancing with your partner, you start with someone diagonally opposite you...
Look at your partner, then look to the right of them to the next person. You'll be looking diagonally across the sets at someone and you'll be dancing with them. If you are at the end of the set and there's no-one to look at, wait as the other people will be dancing first and you'll join in the with the next bit of music.
Could be a Set and Turn Single⬀ but the music is going to be more energetic...
Repeat the move, only turn left to look for someone on the other diagonal. The people waiting out will now join in, the middle couple will turn and dance with someone else, if you find you don't have anyone facing you, wait and watch...
The top couple cross and weave their way to the bottom of the set....
They make a pattern a little like a pair of shoelaces
The music's a likely to be thumpy and your feet will probably be doing a step hop so step hop swing⬀ would work best.
The top couple are now at the bottom and the music is about to start again with a new pair of couples dancing on the diagonal
This dance has had many lives, a Triple Minor in Playford, simplified elsewhere as a Duple Minor (your normal 'Longways for as many as will; hands four from the top') and John Kirkpatrick's 3 couple set version above.
The original description for the Playford version:
There's a lot that this description doesn't say or assumes you know, there's a 'Longways for as many as will' but you don't get the hint that you are not dancing in little circles of four until a 'third Couple' creeps in the last sentence. And, assuming the 'whole Figure' means the the top couple has to dance a complete figure of eight⬀ through that third couple (who don't seem to do anything else) together with a 'turn your partner', then they have to fly...
This version from 'A Frolick', a collection by Audrey Town, 1979, simplifies the fall back and the same at the same time into a balance and cross over and replaces the 'whole figure with the third couple' with a half figure of eight with the second and a two handed turn to get back to place.