Annotation:St. George's Fields
ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS. English, Jig (6/8 time). G Major (‘A’ part) & G Minor (‘B’ part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. The melody is unique to Charles and Samuel Thompson’s Compleat Collection, vol. 3 (London, 1773).
St George's Fields was an area of Southwark in south London, England, originally swampland but drained by the 17th century to produce meadowland. The Dog and Duck Tavern was on the outskirts of area, still sufficiently rural in the mid-18th century. St George's Fields was the scene of riots in 1768, agitating for the release from jail of radical Member of Parliament wikipedia:John_Wilkes[1] and still prominently in mind around the time the Thompsons were publishing the tune. St. George's Fields were also the where the Gordon Riots began in 1780, a reaction to the movement to repeal the act of parliament removing penalties for Catholics.
- ↑ Deaths ensued when the rioters, becoming increasingly more agitated as troops appeared on the scene in an attempt to suppress the mob. Stones were thrown at the soldiers who fired back; some over the heads of the crowd, but some into it. As many as eleven people were killed.