The British Grenadiers

It appears in John Playford's 1728 collection of dance tunes as "The New Bath", while Victorian musicologist William Chappell also suggested links to a 1622 work called "Sir Edward Nowell's Delight".

Henry Grattan Flood suggested as another candidate the 1672 Dutch march "Wilhelmus van Nassouwe", which in turn was a reworking of a French version from 1568.

It allegedly commemorates an assault in August 1695 by 700 British grenadiers on the French-held fortress of Namur during the Nine Years War.

[5] Francis Grose in his 1786 work Military Antiquities quoted two lines of the lyrics ("Come let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those,/Who wear the caps and pouches, and eke the looped clothes") as part of a "grenadier song" he already considered to be "old".

[citation needed] Owing to its popularity, the tune has been frequently set to different texts, including church hymns.

Those heroes of antiquity ne'er saw a cannon ball, Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal.

Before the American Revolution, Joseph Warren wrote a parody song called "Free America" to the same tune.