> The tune from the Cranstones is simpler as far as notes & chords go, but it has the problem that it has a huge range - an octave plus a fifth. (I suspect it started out life as a dance tune, not a vocal tune.) No wonder it took two people, one male and one female, to provide it. <

It does indeed have a large range, leeneia, although I think I could just about manage it, and the fact that it was collected from a married couple doesn't necessarily mean they took it in turns to sing phrases. That would usually happen only with dialogue / response songs. More likely they both knew the song and contributed different verses - ten verses is a really full version.

My experience with dance tunes is that more of them started life as songs than the other way round. But we don't know in this case. Certainly a wide range seems to be typical of the different variants.

> The other old version, from a Mr. Cornford, is intriguing, but somehow it just doesn't seem to come together. It starts in A, moves to D, then lurches back to A. I think something's missing from it. <

Works fine for me as a mixolydian tune in A! In fact I think it's more interesting than the other one...