"the pub played a lesser part in the carrying of the tradition than is sometimes believed."
Undoubtedly.

Let's not forget too, that just as folk music now means 100 different things to different people, it was the same in the past. We talk of "a" (or "the") tradition, but really there are lots of tiny tradition-ettes all over the country, all different. Sheffield Carols (in pubs, as it happens), The Copper Family with their song book and definitely singing at home, street musicians, bothy ballads, sea shanties, East Anglian "sing,say or play" sessions, dozens of regional varieties of step, clog, sword and morris dance, people everywhere singing at work because they didn't have the radio... well, that's enough but the list goes on for ever.

There isn't one tradition and it didn't conform to any one set of rules or generalisations. Sometimes you spot coincidental similarities but it doesn't mean much. For example: the Coppers and the Sheffield carollers both singing in harmony: maybe there's a common influence from the English choral church music tradition but that doesn't set rules about how you judge everything else.

Er, now where were we?

Anahata