The High Mettled Racer

Songsheet printed with the words of the popular song 'The High Mettled Racer' composed by Charles Dibdin. The four verse song is printed in two columns below a hand coloured engraving of a jockey on a galloping horse. The ballad was sold by C.Sheppard in Lambeth Hill and published by John Pitts. Charles Dibden (1745-1814) was one of London's most popular and prolific singer songwriters in the late 18th century. His comic operas were regularly performed in London theatres including Salder's Wells, Covent Garden, Drury Lane and the Haymarket. From the 1790s Dibdin performed musical evenings at his own place of entertainment named Sans Souci, originally located in the Strand and then in Leicester Place.

The street selling of broadsides printed with popular songs was widespread throughout London in the late 18th century. The heart of the ballad and songsheet industry was the Seven Dials area of London where small back street printers such as John Pitts and Jemmy Catnach would use old type and woodcut blocks to quickly print songs popularised in London's theatres and then widely sung in homes and the street. Many of these sheets were sold to those attending theatres so they could sing along with the performers. They were then often kept as souvenirs, framed and hung as decoration on the walls of homes and taverns.