THE THREE BUTCHERS.
It was Ips, Gips, and Johnson, as I’ve heard many say,
They had five hundred guineas, all on a market day:
As they rode over Northumberland, as hard as they could ride,
Oh, hark, Oh, hark, says Johnson, I hear a woman cry.
Then Johnson, being a valiant man, a man of courage bold,
He ranged the woods all over, till this woman he did behold,
How came you here? says Johnson, how came you here I pray,
I am come here to relieve you, if you will not me betray.
There have been ten swaggering blades, have hand and foot me bound,
And stripped me stark naked, with my hair pinn’d on the ground;
Then Johnson, being a valiant man, a man of courage bold,
He took his coat from off his back, to keep her from the cold.
As they rode over Northumberland, as hard as they could ride,
She put her fingers in her ears, and dismally she cried,
Then up start ten swaggering blades, with weapons in their hand,
And, riding up to Johnson, they bid him for to stand.
It’s I’ll not stand, said Ipson, then no indeed, not I,
Nor, I’ll not stand, said Gipson, I’d sooner live than die.
Then I will stand, said Johnson, I’ll stand the while I can,
I never yet was daunted, nor afraid of any man.
Then Johnson drew his glittering sword, with all his might and main,
So well he laid upon them, that eight of them were slain:
As he was fighting the other two, this woman he did not mind,
She took the knife all from his side, and ripped him up behind.
Now I must fall, says Johnson, I must fall unto the ground,
For relieving this wicked woman, she gave me my death wound;
Oh base woman, Oh base woman, whatever hast thou done,
Thou hast killed the finest butcher that ever the sun shone on.
This happened on a Market Day, as people were riding by,
To see this dreadful murder, they gave the hue and cry,
It’s now this woman’s taken, and bound in irons strong,
For killing the finest butcher that ever the sun shone on.
THE END.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.
WORKS BY JOHN ASHTON.
Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d. each.
A HISTORY OF THE CHAP-BOOKS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. With nearly 400 Illustrations, engraved in facsimile of the originals.
SOCIAL LIFE IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. From Original Sources. With nearly 100 Illustrations.
HUMOUR, WIT, AND SATIRE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. With nearly 100 Illustrations.
ENGLISH CARICATURE AND SATIRE ON NAPOLEON THE FIRST. With 115 Illustrations.
MODERN STREET BALLADS. With 56 Illustrations.
LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] One of whose colophons I use as a tailpiece.
[2] As applied to tailors, “cabbage” means the remnants of cloth stolen in making up garments. The goose is the large iron used for pressing the seams, etc.
[3] Written in 1815.
[4] Referring to the famous O.P. (Old Prices) riots.
[5] Sir Robert Peel started the present income tax, which became law, June 22, 1842, at sevenpence in the pound.
[6] Her Majesty pays Income Tax on her private property, like any of her subjects.
[7] Cant name for gin.
[8] It falls to the lot of the drummers in the army to flog, whenever corporal punishment is decreed.
[9] By this is probably meant the Act 1 & 2 Will. IV. cap. 22.
[10] A parody on Jetty Treffz’ famous song, “Trab, Trab, Trab,” at Jullien’s Promenade Concerts in 1850. This parody is exceedingly humorous, being the story of how an exceedingly fat man hired a cab and drove all over London.
[11] Unconsumed carbon, the deposit of very gaseous coal, which wraps round the bars, until it finally parts and is blown away. Its sign was, in my young days, that a stranger would visit the house ere the day was over.
[12] This is a cant term for a quartern of gin served in three glasses, which, between them, exactly hold the quantity.
[13] This word seems simply to be used in order to make up a rhyme. Of course, there are wattles of turkeys and wattles (hurdles), but neither are applicable.
[14] The Reverend Theobald Mathew, the famous advocate and apostle of Temperance, was born at Thomastown, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, October 10, 1790. He was ordained in 1814, and was appointed to a chapel in Cork. Here he interested himself much in the condition of the poor, and in 1838, his attention having been called by a Quaker to the evils of drunkenness, he began his famous total abstinence campaign, enrolling in the course of five months one hundred and fifty thousand converts. On one visit to Galway he administered the pledge to one hundred thousand persons in one day. His influence over the working classes, especially of the Irish, was enormous, and the amount of good he did is incalculable. He did not confine his exertions in the cause of temperance to Ireland, but visited England and America. He died December 8, 1856.
[15] Credit.
[16] There is a line short in the original.
[17] Hence the names of “Bobby” and “Peeler” as applied to the Police.
[18] These four lines form the chorus.
[19] dance somewhat similar to a Redowa, and in vogue about the time when the Polka was the rage.
[20] See “Jullien’s Grand Polka.”
[21] This verse is used as chorus.
[22] There is a somewhat similar story in Dr. Andrew Boorde’s “Wise Man of Gotham,” printed in Henry the Eighth’s time, but the dénouement is not so pleasant, as the lady dismissed her lover with some very strong language.
[23] A parody on the very popular lied, “Trab, Trab, Trab,” sung by Fraulien Jetty Treffz at Jullien’s Promenade Concerts, 1850, etc.
[24] This song is old, for it was introduced by Bannister in “Peeping Tom,” and it was set to music by Dr. Arnold.
[25] Richard Martin exerted himself especially in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
[26] This notice still survives in some parts of the suburbs; and the barber’s pole, striped with its bandages, indicative of bleeding, is fast becoming obsolete.
[27] A form of marriage practised among the gipsies.
[28] This song was in vogue, as far as I can learn, about 1854 or 1855.
[29] Elegy.
[30] The Penny Magazine was first published on March 31, 1832, and its success was such, that the Chap books vanished as if by magic, and a new and purer popular literature sprung up.
[31] This was the supposed site of a bloody battle between the ancient Britons and the Romans.
[32] This was a small mountain of refuse, dust, and ashes, which, although unsightly, was as profitable as were the heaps of Mr. Boffin in Charles Dickens’s “Our Mutual Friend.” This mound, so it is said, once had a curious clearance. It was bought, in its entirety, and sent over to Russia, to help make bricks to rebuild Moscow; and the ground on which it stood was sold to a company for £15,000.
[33] Breeze is the technical term for the sifted ashes mixed with the clay to make inferior bricks, which are “clamp” burnt, i.e. in large stacks.
[34] In George IV.’s reign a statue was erected to him at Battle Bridge, and the neighbourhood renamed King’s Cross. It surmounted a Camera obscura, and this was atop of a building, which in its turn, was alternately a police station and a public-house. It was a miserable affair, only made of brick and cement, and, after cumbering the ground for a few years, it was pulled down.
[35] Gully was a prize-fighter—was made one of the Royal pages at the coronation of George IV., took to the turf and kept racehorses, and was M.P. for Pontefract.
[36] A false shirt-front.
[37] Leaving a house, or apartments, without paying rent.
[38] A Workhouse, so called because of the loss of personal liberty when once in “the House.” The House of Correction, Coldbath Fields, now done away with, was called “the Bastille,” and to its dying day was known to the criminal classes as “the Steel.”
[39] A strike is four pecks or one bushel, strike measure, which would make wheat eight guineas per quarter.
[40] The writer of this makes no mention of the advantages the labourer had in those days, low rent, meal, skim milk, etc., and constant work, wet or fine. Money then had more purchasing power, and eight shillings was worth at least fifteen of the present currency. Now, thanks to Mr. Joseph Arch and other agitators, the agricultural labourer has, presumably, higher wages, but he has higher rent to pay, his privileges are curtailed or annulled, and he has lost the sympathy of his employer. Paid by the hour, he is discharged as soon as it comes on to rain hard, instead of, as in the old days, being paid for a whole day, even if he only worked part of it.
[41] Story.
[42] October 20, 1827.
[43] This is supposed to refer to some frolic of William IV.’s when he was Duke of Clarence, and properly belongs to last century.
[44] This story is supposed to be told of William IV.
[45] The date of this ballad is evidently 1837, soon after the Queen’s accession.
[46] This, in all probability, was the Peace of 1814.
[47] There is a well-authenticated instance (see Times, November 4, 1799) of a Miss Talbot, who followed her lover as a seaman, and, afterwards quarrelling with him, she enlisted in the army; but her love of the sea was unconquerable, and she joined the Navy, being present on board Earl St. Vincent’s ship on February 14, and again was under fire at Camperdown.
[48] I have heard this verse sung thus:
Now the losing of the Prentice boys
It grieved the Captain sore,
But the losing of the great big whale,
It grieved him very much more.
[49] Her Majesty’s accession to the throne took place on June 20, 1837.
[50] The Queen was married on February 10, 1840.
[51] Jupiter appeared to Danaë as a shower of gold.
[52] This event took place November 9, 1841.
[53] 1849.
[54] Scotland, September, 1844; Ireland, August, 1849.
[55] August 18, 1855.
[56] Prince Albert was at one time very unpopular in England. His advising the Queen, and consequent intimate and personal knowledge of all that was going on during the Russian war, coupled with the fact that he was a foreigner, led the unthinking to believe that he was secretly helping Russia—a report of which he seems to have been well aware (vide Sir T. Martin’s “Life of the Prince Consort,” vol. iii. p. 219, March, 1855). I recollect very well the rumour that he had been imprisoned in the Tower, and a comic paper had an engraving of two cabmen meeting, and one saying to the other, “Have yer ’eard the noose? Vhy, Prince Halbert along with two other Commander-in-Chiefs have been sent to the Tower; which Lewis Napoleon diwulged ’em a sending of five pound notes to the Emperor of Rooshia, and so he blowed the gaff” (told of them).
[57] 1815.
[58] He died from the effects of a fall from his horse.
[59] Died September 14, 1852; lay in state at Chelsea Hospital from November 10 to 17; buried at St. Paul’s, November 18.
[60] When this ballad was written, the Lords might vote by proxy, and a minister, or his opponent, might, and did, produce enough (either to gain or lose a measure) of votes from Peers who were too lazy to attend.
[61] The counties of York and Lancaster were very early in the field in espousing the cause of the Anti-Corn-Law League.
[62] The “National Anti-Corn-Law League Free Trade Bazaar,” held at Covent Garden Theatre, May 8, 9, 10, 12, 1845.
[63] Repeat as chorus last two lines of each verse.
[64] A song relating to the celebration (in London) of the Peace of 1815.
[65] This song was sung by W. H. Williams, in his entertainment of “Wine and Walnuts,” and by C. Taylor at Vauxhall.
[66] Gold was discovered in Australia in 1851.
[67] A hog is cant for a shilling.
[68] A quartern “tin” loaf.
[69] Executed June 14, 1856.
[70] A high-class gambling house in St. James’s Street.
[71] A dandy of the first water in the time of the Regency. His vanity was superlative. He essayed to play Romeo, creating nothing but roars of laughter in the house. In the scene where Romeo dies, the audience applauded him ironically; but he took it in earnest, and, getting up, bowed, and died again, first of all carefully dusting the stage.
[72] Cant term for leaving lodgings without paying.
[73] Red herrings.
[74] Gin.