Further to the question of the early collectors not paying their informants: I seem to recall Harry Cox saying that Moeran and Vaughan Williams were 'proper gentlemen' because when they sold songs 'up in London' for 'every quid they got from them, they gave me ten bob' (that, for younger readers is 30p for every Euro).
Contrast the story that Bob Pegg used to tell about the night Harry was at a folk club, I guess in the late sixties, and people were practically shoving recorder mikes up his nose, without any request for permission to Harry himself. When Bob protested, the MC replied, 'Oh it's only old Harry. He doesn't know what's going on.'