Hi Charlie, I'm still here. Pretty cute about Barquing up a tall tree & that's there because of a flee.

Thanks to all who've posted back. Thanks nutty, I did go to the Bodleian collection a few times. I found some versions of American Stranger, Some Tyrant Has Stolen My True love, Phoenix & Female, White Cockade all versions & variants that seem related. The floating verse seems to appear in these but not elsewhere that I've found & none that I have found seem to differ much from one another. The songs go back to, the earliest I've found 1680's but the verse is, again the earliest I've found, from around the turn of the last century. The odd thing I've come across, although this is a floater verse once it's crossed the ocean I can only find it in 1 song Old Paint, collected from Jesse Morris 1942, Dalhart, Texas by Lomax who believes this to be the oldest version. So how did this floater verse get from here to there & only end up in one version of one song (that I know of) in America? Thanks Malcolm Douglas I not only followed your link but I also follow you through a number of interesting threads on this subject & and from those treads ended up with a lot of info from both you & others. Still digging.
Barry