My two entrants for 'most disturbing' are
Ratcliffe Highway - a road in the East End of London. This has a particularly dark history, going back to at least to the 18th Century, pyschogeographers would have us believe there was always a dark and dangerous miasma there. It's close to Cable Street and Wapping... certainly in the first half of the nineteenth century, Ratcliffe Highway, Stepney, was the toughest thoroughfare in the East End of London. It was a place of sailors' lodging houses, sailors' pubs, sailors' ladies and opium dens (viz: Conan Doyle is known to have visited and said visit re-appeared in a Holmes story)
In 1811 two separate attacks took place on two separate families - much outrage and reportage at the time, but also since for example In Alan Moore's graphic novel 'From Hell' where the implication is that this is somehow related to Freemasonry, and, in Lloyd Shephard's 'The English Monster'.
The song 'The Ratcliffe Highway' is included in the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, and was noted in 1905 by Ralph Vaughan Williams, communicated by R. Copper (of Copper Family fame) and from a broadside by Catnach.
The song isn't about the murders, but hopefully you'll agree that it portrays the disturbing atmosphere of the area:
Ronnie Drew's voice is well suited to the story
My second submission is Long Lankin.
I think this Alasdair Roberts version is an excellent one... (yes, JC - Steeleye Span did do a version)
There are many disturbing aspects to this song - the motive for the murder being one. This is a Child ballad [No 93], and apparently there are two divergent threads associated with the eveolution of the lyrics. The English thread loses the idea that this was a disgruntled freeman - the murder becomes motiveless, carried out by a creature that lives in the moss (gorse in some versions). A second disturbing aspect being that the murderer baths in the blood of the child ("We will pinch him, we will prick him
We will stab him with a pin And the nurse shall hold the basin For the blood all to run in").
And what of the 'false nurse'? Well, at least she and the Lankin (or Lamkin, or Lammikin) are burnt and hung respectively...
Ratcliffe Highway - a road in the East End of London. This has a particularly dark history, going back to at least to the 18th Century, pyschogeographers would have us believe there was always a dark and dangerous miasma there. It's close to Cable Street and Wapping... certainly in the first half of the nineteenth century, Ratcliffe Highway, Stepney, was the toughest thoroughfare in the East End of London. It was a place of sailors' lodging houses, sailors' pubs, sailors' ladies and opium dens (viz: Conan Doyle is known to have visited and said visit re-appeared in a Holmes story)
In 1811 two separate attacks took place on two separate families - much outrage and reportage at the time, but also since for example In Alan Moore's graphic novel 'From Hell' where the implication is that this is somehow related to Freemasonry, and, in Lloyd Shephard's 'The English Monster'.
The song 'The Ratcliffe Highway' is included in the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, and was noted in 1905 by Ralph Vaughan Williams, communicated by R. Copper (of Copper Family fame) and from a broadside by Catnach.
The song isn't about the murders, but hopefully you'll agree that it portrays the disturbing atmosphere of the area:
Ronnie Drew's voice is well suited to the story
As I was a-walking down London,
From Wapping to Ratcliffe Highway,
I chanced to pop into a gin-shop,
To spend a long night and a day.
A young doxy came rolling up to me,
And asked if I'd money to sport.
For a bottle of wine changed a guinea,
And she quickly replied: “That's the sort.”
When the bottle was put on the table,
There was glasses for everyone.
When I asked for the change of my guinea,
She tipped me the verse of her song.
This lady flew into a passion,
And she placed both her hands on her hip,
Saying: “Sailor, don't you know our fashion?
Do you think you're on board of your ship?”
“If this is your fashion to rob me,
Such a fashion I'll never abide.
So launch out the change of my guinea,
Or else I'll give you a broadside.”
A gold watch hung over the mantel,
So the change of my guinea I take,
And it's down the old stairs I run nimbly,
Saying: “Darn my old boots, I'm well paid.”
The night being dark in my favour,
To the river I quickly did creep,
And I jumped in a boat bound for Deptford,
And I got safe on board of my ship.
So come all of you bold young sailors,
That ramble down Ratcliffe Highway,
If you chance to pop into a gin-shop,
Beware, lads, how long you do stay.
For the songs and the liquors invite you,
And your heart will be all in a rage;
If you give them a guinea for a bottle,
You can go to the devil for change.
From Wapping to Ratcliffe Highway,
I chanced to pop into a gin-shop,
To spend a long night and a day.
A young doxy came rolling up to me,
And asked if I'd money to sport.
For a bottle of wine changed a guinea,
And she quickly replied: “That's the sort.”
When the bottle was put on the table,
There was glasses for everyone.
When I asked for the change of my guinea,
She tipped me the verse of her song.
This lady flew into a passion,
And she placed both her hands on her hip,
Saying: “Sailor, don't you know our fashion?
Do you think you're on board of your ship?”
“If this is your fashion to rob me,
Such a fashion I'll never abide.
So launch out the change of my guinea,
Or else I'll give you a broadside.”
A gold watch hung over the mantel,
So the change of my guinea I take,
And it's down the old stairs I run nimbly,
Saying: “Darn my old boots, I'm well paid.”
The night being dark in my favour,
To the river I quickly did creep,
And I jumped in a boat bound for Deptford,
And I got safe on board of my ship.
So come all of you bold young sailors,
That ramble down Ratcliffe Highway,
If you chance to pop into a gin-shop,
Beware, lads, how long you do stay.
For the songs and the liquors invite you,
And your heart will be all in a rage;
If you give them a guinea for a bottle,
You can go to the devil for change.
My second submission is Long Lankin.
I think this Alasdair Roberts version is an excellent one... (yes, JC - Steeleye Span did do a version)
There are many disturbing aspects to this song - the motive for the murder being one. This is a Child ballad [No 93], and apparently there are two divergent threads associated with the eveolution of the lyrics. The English thread loses the idea that this was a disgruntled freeman - the murder becomes motiveless, carried out by a creature that lives in the moss (gorse in some versions). A second disturbing aspect being that the murderer baths in the blood of the child ("We will pinch him, we will prick him
We will stab him with a pin And the nurse shall hold the basin For the blood all to run in").
And what of the 'false nurse'? Well, at least she and the Lankin (or Lamkin, or Lammikin) are burnt and hung respectively...
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