Jim,
IMHO stands for 'In my humble opinion'. If I include this after every other word it's going to make what I write even more difficult to understand.
I'm glad to see you agreeing that the Buchan contoversy is still running. Most academics believe it is over and that PB has been completely exhonerated.
'if Buchan was 'improving' his texts (a totally unproven accusation) he was doing nothing different than any of the other 19th century ballad anthologists.' Not quite. It is possible to go to extremes when copying the practices of others.(IMHO)

Brian,
I bow to your superior knowledge on variants of 'Demon Lover'. I just am very wary when dealing with these variants. We simply don't know to what extent they tampered with their versions. They collated and added: Surely this is uncontestable. I'm convinced that PB was wholesale remaking and indeed creating and the fact that Motherwell included PB's pieces without apparently questioning I find suspicious to say the least. I've also read recently that Kinloch was not wholly reliable, but I haven't got the source to hand.
I'd be interested to know your thoughts on PB's version of 'John of Hazelgreen'.