Annotation:Goodmans Fields Hornpipe
X:6 T:Goodmans Fields Hornpipe A:England;London M:3/2 L:1/8 Q:1/2=100 C:Ravenscroft? S:J.Walsh,Third Book of the most celebrated jiggs,etc 1731 Z:Pete Stewart, 2004 <www.hornpipemusic.co.uk> with vmp revisions K:Bm B,4DEFE DCB,^A,|B,2GF EDCB,^A,4|f2bg afge fdec|d2gf edcB^A2F2| B,4DEFE DCB,^A,|B,2GF EDCB,^A,4|gede fdcd ecBc|dcdBf2^A2B4|| D4FABc dcdA |Bcdc BAGF E4|E4GBcd edec|dfgf edcB^A4| b2ag fedc Bdfb|a2gf edcB Acea|g2fe dcB^AB2fe|dcBd F2^A2B4|]
GOODMANS FIELDS HORNPIPE. English, "Old" or Triple Hornpipe (3/2 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). The melody appears in Walsh's third volume of Lancashire tunes, Lancashire Jigs, Hornpipes, Joaks etc., published around the year 1731. Goodsmans Fields is an area of London that takes its name from a farm that was once adjacent to a convent. John Stow, in his Survey of London (1598), recorded:
Near adjoining to this abbey, on the south side thereof, was sometime a farm belonging to the said nunnery; at the which farm I myself in my youth have fetched many a halfpenny worth of milk, and never had less than three ale pints for a halfpenny in the summer, nor less than one ale quart for a halfpenny in the winter, always hot from the kine, as the same was milked and strained. One Trolop, and afterwards Goodman, were farmers there, and had thirty or forty kine to the pail. Goodman’s son being heir to his father’s purchase, let out the ground first for the grazing of horses, and then for garden-plots, and lived like a gentleman thereby.
By the beginning of the 18th century the area had begun to be built up, and gained a reputation for fringe behavior. Soon after Walsh's volume was published there was a shoot-out involving the celebrated highwayman, Dick Turpin, who had hidden a coveted stolen horse, Brown Bess, in stables at the Red Lion inn in Whitechapel. A trap was set for Turpin, who, when he came to collect the steed, was set upon by the authorities. He escaped, but in the confusion shot dead one of his gang.
However, Walsh's tune probably refers to the theater called Goodsmans Fields, which first opened in 1727. It was followed by other theaters in the area, which, at the same time was being known as a Jewish quarter of London (c.f. John Strype, Survey of London, 1720).
