Malcolm:

... "to be a puzzling non sequitur"

My explanation text got lost in the cut and paste:

The verse form of some comic songs that used to have seperate tunes sometimes are now sung to 'My Bonnie' (i.e. the verses fit) ... These include a lot of bawdy ones such as 'The Sexual Life of The Camel' and so on.

It's on of those tunes that a lot of songs fit to!
The text I pasted is a song I found recently, as an example.

The tune seems closely related to 'Dick Derby" (you know the one ...)

My Name is Dick Derby I'm a cobbler
My time have served down in Kent
Some say I'm an old fornicator
But now I'm resolved to repent ...

but which tune came first I cannot say.

Hope this is less gnomic.

AP
(working late when the internet actually works quickly).