Annotation:Southwark Grenedier's March

---

X:1 T:Southwark Grenadier’s March M:C| L:1/8 R:March B:Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3 (1788, No. 598, p. 228) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D A2|d4e4|f2d2d2ag|f2d2d2A2|d2A2F2ED| d4 e4|f2d2d2ag|fgab a2^g2|a6:| |:ef|e4f4|e2c2c2A2|dede Te3 (d/e/)|f6 ag| f2a2e2a2|d2A2 dede|f2 gf Te3d|d6:||

---

Clements Hill and Southwark Grenadiers, London, 1749. The Clements Inn and Southwark Grenadiers returning from their attack on Cripplegate and Bunhill Fields to the Hog-in-Armour, Saffron Hill.

SOUTHWARK’S GRENADIERS MARCH. AKA - "Southwark Grenadiers Trumpet Tune." English, March (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody appears in St. Martini, Handel and Others, Warlike Music, Being a Choice Collection of Marches and Trumpet Tunes for a German Flute, Violin or Harpsichord, Book I (1760, p. 1), printed in London, and, later, in James Aird's Selection, vol. 3 (1788).

The Southwark Grenadiers were a Hanoverian unit unaffiliated with the regular army, and one of a number of quasi-military organizations that were more social clubs than actual military units, whose chief purpose seemed to be parading. They elected their own officers, and, at one point, nearly all their membership were officers of some kind. Read's Weekly Journal of Sept. 11, 1731, slyly recorded:

On Tuesday at the Cripplegate, Whitechapel, St. Clements, and Southwark Grenadiers, rendesvous'd in Bridgewater Gardens, from whence they marched through the city, and afterwards attacked Cripplegate (both posterns) and Great Moorgate with 'their usual bravery'; and thence proceeded to attack a dunghill near Bunhill Fields, which gloriously completed their exercise of arms.

A caricature of 1749 represents the troops in the guise of different animals, led by the self-important and ponderous elephant, with the hog for a standard-bearer, their device being the good old roast beef and plum-pudding of Old England. They are assembled at the sign of the "Hog-in-Armour" and one of the troop carries a bill with this proclamation--

Come taylers and weavers,
And sly penny shavers;
All haste, and repair
To the Hog in Rag Fair,
To list in the pay
Of great Captain Day,
And you shall have cheer,--
Beef, pudding, and beer.

0.00

(0 votes)