> Martin Carthy > Songs > Ratcliffe Highway

Ratcliffe Highway

[ Roud 598 ; Ballad Index Doe114 ; trad.]

Roy Harris sang Ratcliffe Highway accompanied by John Bowden, concertina; Jez Lowe, cittern; and Martin Carthy, guitar, on the Fellside anthology A Selection from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. The record's sleeve notes said:

From Mrs Howard, Kings' Lynn, Norfolk; noted in 1905 by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Mrs Howard's text is supplemented from an unpublished version collected in Sussex in 1954 (communicated by R. Copper) and from a broadside by Catnach.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, Ratcliffe Highway, Stepney, was the toughest thoroughfare in the East End of London. It was a place of sailors' lodging houses, sailors' pubs, sailors' ladies. This song may have been made for performances in ships fo'c'sles or it may have been made to impress the patrons of the Eastern Music Hall. In any case it now has some of the ring of tradition.

Lyrics

As I was a-walking down London,
From Wapping to Ratcliffe Highway,
I chanced to pop into a gin-shop,
To spend a long night and a day.

A young doxy came rolling up to me,
And asked if I'd money to sport.
For a bottle of wine changed a guinea,
And she quickly replied: “That's the sort.”

When the bottle was put on the table,
There was glasses for everyone.
When I asked for the change of my guinea,
She tipped me the verse of her song.

This lady flew into a passion,
And she placed both her hands on her hip,
Saying: “Sailor, don't you know our fashion?
Do you think you're on board of your ship?”

“If this is your fashion to rob me,
Such a fashion I'll never abide.
So launch out the change of my guinea,
Or else I'll give you a broadside.”

A gold watch hung over the mantel,
So the change of my guinea I take,
And it's down the old stairs I run nimbly,
Saying: “Darn my old boots, I'm well paid.”

The night being dark in my favour,
To the river I quickly did creep,
And I jumped in a boat bound for Deptford,
And I got safe on board of my ship.

So come all of you bold young sailors,
That ramble down Ratcliffe Highway,
If you chance to pop into a gin-shop,
Beware, lads, how long you do stay.

For the songs and the liquors invite you,
And your heart will be all in a rage;
If you give them a guinea for a bottle,
You can go to the devil for change.

Acknowledgements

The words are from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, eds Ralph Vaughan Williams & A.L. Lloyd, Penguin, 1959. Roy Harris' variations transcribed by Reinhard Zierke. Thanks to Garry Gillard.