As I said before - I sense some defensive postings here. If you look at my opening post, there is no preference expressed at all - it was an honest question and I'm still not clear as to when the guitar became widely accepted in the British folk scene. Elton Hayes doesn't exactly 'do it' for me. Nor do I see Moore's poetry set to music as 'folk music'.

It may be useful to say that this is my first posting on this forum and I have no knowledge of any funny stuff which may have happened before. Any suggestion of 'trolling' is very wide of the mark. I think it is true to say that the guitar was not a popular instrument in the 19th century either for classical or traditional genres. My understanding is that the ukulele was brought to Britain by whalers and other mariners - I wonder whether some forebitters might have seen a guitar accompaniment. Tricky keeping gut strings in tune in a marine environment though...