To me the tune is clearly related to the second part of 'Dives' / 'County Down', in a similar way to 'Maria Martin'. It's made more interesting by several added sequences of notes, especially that climb to the 7th in bar 5, which is what really makes it special. The sharp 6th in bar 2 is tasty as well, though I believe that Taylor sang it ambiguously on at least some of the various recordings. Delius renders it as a sharp.

John Taylor his son had one extra (floating) verse. Recorded by Peter Kennedy I think.

I've not been able to find that in the Kennedy collection at the BL, but Grainger did note another version from Mr Deene, to the same tune and including the same two stanzas (with a few detail differences, e.g. 'fine and fair' for 'hot and fair'). No recording in the BL.

In his field notes Grainger states that 'Mr Taylor believed that the words went on to tell of the couple walking along the Wrawby Road'.