Turpin’s Rant

A New Song.

On Hounslow Heath as I rid o’er
I spy’d a Lawyer just before,
I asked him if he was not afraid
Of TURPIN, that mischievous Blade.
     Sing, O rare Turpin, O rare Turpin, O.

Says Turpin, I have been most cute,1
For my Money is hid within my Boot,
Says the Lawyer, there is none can find
For mine lies in my Cape behind.

They rid till they came to the powder Mill,2
When Turpin bid the Lawyer to stand still,
Stand, Sir, your Cape it must come off,
For my Horse does want a Saddle Cloth.
     Sing, &c.

He rob’d the Lawyer of all his Store,
But he knows how to Lie for more,3
But if you my Case should Plead,
Or ever I should stand in Need,
A word or two you may put in,
My Name is saucy DICK TURPIN.4
     Sing, &c.

At Epping they said they would kill
Turpin that had never done them Ill,
But he, more nimbler than they,
Shot his Carbine, and Dead was he.5
     Sing, &c.

And now they say that they will hang
Turpin, as they have done his Gang,
But an Hundred Pounds whene’er I Die
I’ll leave Jack Ketch for a Legacy.6
     Sing, O rare Turpin, O rare Turpin, O.

Textual Note

Punctuation regularised.

Notes

• cute: acute, sharp.  [return]
• powder Mill: the gunpowder mills on Hounslow Heath were a well-known landmark.  [return]
• he knows how to Lie for more: he knows how to Lie for more: compare the end of ‘Ratsey and the Lawyer’. That tale is plainly the lineal ancestor of the present one.  [return]
• saucy: disdainful.  [return]
• At Epping, &c: this stanza alludes to an incident in 1737, when Turpin was lying low in Epping Forest. He shot and killed a man named Thomas Morris who attempted his arrest.  [return]
• Jack Ketch: the hangman. This final stanza dates the original issue of this ballad to the time between Turpin’s conviction on 22 March 1739 and his execution on 7 April.  [return]