X:620230
T:GB/6b/23 The Wreck of the Royal George
T:(Chorus in marching time)
C:Sung by W. Wickham, Blackham, Sussex, May, 1907.
F:http://archives.vwml.org/record/GB/6b/23
Z:Transcribed by Simon Furey and Lewis Jones
L:1/4
M:4/4
Q:"(Editorial suggestion)" 1/4=110
K:Bb
!>!B !>!B !>!B !>!B | d (3c/c/B/ A3/4G/4 F | f f g f/d/ |B d c3/2 F/ | 
w: Four-teen hun-dred men, wo-men and chil-der-en, On-ly four of them reached the shore (And)
B3/4c/4 d3/4c/4 B F |[M:5/4] A B (c/>d/) He f/d/ |[M:4/4] e (3(d/c/)B/ c f | B2 z2 |]
w: all the Roy-al George and all its glo-*ries They went down and_ was seen no more.
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%%text Editorial notes: This song, or song fragment, was not collected by Butterworth, but by Anne Gilchrist, 
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%%text who wrote a letter that was attached to GB/6b/20. Her letter, which was was subsequently annotated 
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%%text by Lucy Broadwood, is given here for reasons of space, rather than with GB/6b/20. 
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%%text To Mr Keel: I do not think this is properly a folk-song - at any rate as regards the tune. I obtained  
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%%text what appears to be the chorus from a young labourer in Sussex in 1907. He had learnt it "from other
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%%text men" - very likely in camp, as he had been a volunteer and had learnt other songs in a similar way.  
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%%text I doubt whether the tune is even as old as the time of the loss of the Royal George (1782).   
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%%text The phrase "little did we think of our sad misfortune" certainly has quite a modern ring. I can't  
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%%text account for the "fourteen hundred men, women and children" - some other wreck seems to have got 
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%%text mixed up with the Royal George! -A.G.G.
%%text Lucy Broadwood added the following comment: 
%%text I don't think we should print this. It does not seem to me to be anything other than
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%%text a reminiscence of a quite late 18th Century composed story. -LEB
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%%text It seems that Anne Gilchrist regarded this piece, GB/6b/23, as being essentially a chorus
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%%text belonging to some version of the song given in GB/6b/20. -Ed.