Many thanks, '#', for posting that link. It's amazing the kind of stuff that turns up on YouTube these days, mainly it seems through the efforts of the mysterious 'Reynard the Fox'.

I would take issue with this comment from the liner notes quoted above from the 'Virginia Traditions' recording:

"All of Child's fourteen versions were collected in Scotland, including two broadside texts slightly different from the oral ones..."

The two broadside texts that Child includes as an appendix to 209 (both of which are substantially earlier than the oldest collected version from Scotland) were printed in England, and are considerably different from the 'Gight's Lady' text that was the predominant Scottish form of the ballad. I'd go so far as to say that they are really two different ballads.

There are three textually different 19th century broadside copies at the Bodleian site:

http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/05000/02691.gif
http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/10000/09494.gif
http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/05000/03196.gif

There are a number of differences in those three texts, but all of them look as though they're related to Child's second appendixed broadside copy, 'The Life and Death of George of Oxford', from the late 17th century. All of the orally collected versions from England, and all the ones I've seen from North America, follow that strain of the ballad, beginning 'As I went over London Bridge' (or similar) and following on with 'saddle me my milk-white steed', 'he stole sixteen of the king's royal steeds [or deer]' and so on. Georgie always gets hanged, in contrast to most of the Scots versions.

Is Steve Gardham reading this? I'd be interested to know whether you've ever looked at 209, Steve - the history looks quite tangled.