And the fact that so many trad songs were of broadside origin suggests the still more anti-romantic notion that a good many were undoubtedly written by the same few authors !

The earliest collectors, inspired by romantic theories about an identifiable "essential genius of the nation" and the fact that some Child ballads do reflect traces of rarely recorded popular superstitions and practices, and little known historical events, were ready to believe that any old song collected from the "folk" was likely to contain some valuable fragment of forgotten lore just waiting to be teased out. Much of Lloyd's _Folk Song in England_ (1967) and many of his LP liner notes demonstrate a similar faith.

Scholars also used to hope that long circulation among the folk increased the number of great moments and poetic gems within the songs as the "genius of the nation" polished the lyrics to a high gloss. By about 1960 it was obvious that the opposite was more usual. The "folk process" was often just a fancy name for "forgetting," and except for some of the more impressionistic lyrical songs, long circulation tended to wear the lyrics down rather than to build up them up.

So, every song has a different history. But the way I see it, the best, most coherent texts of traditional songs are likely to owe a great deal to the sensibility of a single individual. Sometimes it's Scott or Burns or Lloyd. Other times it's Anonymous. But some mystical effect of the "folk" is pretty much out.