Turpin Hero
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
On Hounslow Heath as I rode o'er
I spied a lawyer riding before.
"Kind sir," said I, "ain't you afraid,
Of Turpin, that mischievous blade?"
Chorus:
O rare Turpin hero
O rare Turpin O
Said Turpin, "He'd ne'er find me out
I've hid my money in my boot."
Says the lawyer, "There's none can find
Me gold for it's stitched in me cape behind."
Chorus
As they rode down by the powder mill
Turpin commands him to be still;
Says he, "Your cape I must cut off,
For my mare she wants a saddle cloth."
Chorus
As Turpin rode in search of prey
He met an excise man on the way
Then boldly he did bid him stand
Your gold he said I do demand
Chorus
Turpin then without remorse
Soon knocked him quite from off his horse
And left him on the ground to sprawl
So he rode off with his gold and all
Chorus
So he rode over Salisbury Plain
He met lord judge with all his train
Then hero-like he did approach
And robbed the judge as he sat in his coach
Chorus
For the shooting of a dung-hill cock
Poor Turpin now at last he's took
And carried straight into a jail
Where his ill luck he does bewail
Chorus
Now Turpin is condemned to die
To hang upon yon gallows high
His legacy is a strong rope
For stealing a poor dung-hill cock
Chorus
"Turpin Hero" is an English song about the notorious highwayman Richard Turpin.<br> Richard Turpin (bapt. September 21, 1705 – April 7, 1739) was an English highwayman whose<br> exploits were romanticized following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may<br> have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s,<br> he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief<br> and killer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London<br> to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist<br> William Harrison Ainsworth's Rookwood almost 100 years after Turpin's death. <br> Turpin seems to be regarded as a hero not because he stole from the rich and gave to the<br> poor, but simply because he stole from the rich, “robbed that judge as he sat in his<br> coach” and because he was portrayed as the classic dashing highwayman in a popular<br> fiction some forty-odd years after his death. In fact he not only stole from the rich<br> but from the poor too. By all accounts he was violent and inept, on one occasion<br> accidentally shooting dead his partner instead of the officer holding him. He finally<br> gave himself away while in quite profitable hiding in Yorkshire by shooting his landlord's<br> cockerel in the street in a fit of bad temper.<br> It was recorded by Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger's Chorus from the Gallows album,<br> John Roberts & Tony Barrand on Heartoutbursts: English Folksongs collected by Percy Grainger.<br> It is in Roud Folk Song Index as #621. It was printed in Williamson's English, Welsh,<br> Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes (1976). <br> I learned the tune from Williamson. The lyrics are from MacColl who sings a slightly<br> different melody. The lyrics fit Williamson's melody if you sing the chorus words twice.<br>
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