Yes, L.A. Smith was really ahead of her time. She was the daughter of the Russian vice-consul at Newcastle-On-Tyne, and was a real cosmopolitan. She gathered her information first hand in ports all over the world, while most folklorists (or popular antiquarians) of the late 19th century were still firmly entrenched in their armchairs. Of course her book contains some outdated cultural stereotypes, but her argument for the ancient and global nature of chanteying is hard to refute.