Annotation:To the hundreds of Drury I write
X: 1 T:NTLRYST1- To the hundreds of Drury I write Q:1/4=60 L:1/4 M:9/4 K:G dorian G/A/|BGBAG^FG3/2 A/B|(Ac)AF3/2 G/AcAc/ c/|BGBAG^FG2D| DGGG3/2 B/AB/G3/2||B|B3/2 c/Bd3/2 c/Bf2A|ABccAB c/ A3/2c| BGBA^FAG2D|DGGA3/2 B/AB/ G3/2||[M:3/4]"Chorus"B/(G/A/)^F/ G/A/4B/4| c/4B/4A/4G/4 F/B/ A/4B/4c/4A/4|B/G/A/^F/ G|D/G/ G/B/ A/4B/4c/4A/4|B3/4f/4 (e3/4d/8e/8) f| c/4B/4A/4G/4 F/B/ A/4B/4c/4A/4|G/g/ (f3/4d/8e/8) f|(3 d/e/f/ (3 g/d/c/ B/4A3/4|B/G/4B/4 A/^F/4A/4 .G|]
TO THE HUNDREDS OF DRURY I WRITE. AKA - "Bowman Prigg's Farewell (The)," English, Air (9/4 time). G Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC. "To the hundreds of Drury I write" is the first line of an English broadside entitled "The Bowman Prigg's Farewell"[1], issued around the year 1730. The line refers to the streets and alleys around Drury Lane Theater where the thieves, prostitutes and con men plied their trades. The melody was used subsequently for other songs, including the Irish song “Night before Larry was Stretched (The).” It also appears as the vehicle for Air 4 in Charles Coffey's ballad opera 'The Devil of a Duke; or, Trapolin's Vagaries (1732):
Young Damsels were formerly won
By a Pimp's Application to Mother,
But the Quality saving are grown,
One does the good Office for t'other.
At Ombre, Ballet, or Quadrille,
They care not what Money they squander,
Yet though they disgorge the old Pill,
They grumble at paying the Pander.
"Moll Spriggins; or, The Hundreds of Drury" is a similarly-themed slang cant song, set to the air "O, 'tis love", and printed in The Merry Medley: or Universal Chronicle of Wit and Humour (1765, p. 35). "It makes no attempt whatsoever to moralise the situation of the speaker about to be hanged, and is quite uncompromising in its use of cant, making no concessions to explaining what would not be understood in terms of reference, linguistic and otherwise, by an audience of the respectable[2]. It begins:
To the hundreds of Drury I write,
And the rest of my flash companions;
To the buttocks that pad it all night.
To pimps, whores, bawds, and their stallions;
To those who are down in the whit,
Rattling their darbies with pleasure,
Who laugh at the rum culls they've bit,
And now they are snacking the treasure.
This time I expect ot be nabb'd,
My duds they grow wond'rous seedy,
I pray you now send me some dub,
A bottle or two for the needy.
I beg you won't bring it yourself,
The barman is at the Old-Bailey;
I'd rather you'd send it behalf,
For, if they twig you, they'll nail you.
