If it helps, what Bert did was part of a long-lasting tradition indulged in by many highly-respected and great men, some of whom, but by no means all, came clean and regretted their forgery. Almost all of them were poets or were well endowed with creative genius. None of them ended up in prison!

Allan Ramsey, Thomas Percy, Robert Jamieson, Walter Scott, William Motherwell, Peter Buchan, Sabine Baring Gould, to name but a few.

As a singer I greatly admire their forgery/creative genius, indeed the mischief maker in me admires their daring.

However, as a researcher, it saddens me that some of them didn't see fit to eventually come clean or leave behind better clues to the extent of their creativity.

All of this sums up my feelings towards Bert.

BTW a project I'm involved in involves the recording of a version of The Weary Whaling Ground. Can anyone please give me the date of Bert's whaling season out of Hull? The recording is for Hull Maritime Museum and we will be crediting Bert with the song. We won't be including Bert's version of Heave away my Johnny, but not because he wrote it, because it's crap!