Hoorah Dennis and Tootler - a part of the thread and a conversation I can actually understand without having to read certain passages five or six times before finally conceding to myself that I still don't understand what the heck is being said and fought about. And this despite a good education, being well read, and having self educated myself on the subject of folk song and related items for many years since I first took a childhood interest! May I add (if I hadn't already somewhere in this now lengthy thread) that I think the book is great.

PS Could we please dispose of the repeated statement that the book doesn't contain any Victorian tear jerkers or music hall type songs ? "The Mistletoe Bough",a parlour ballad written by Thomas Haynes Bayley and Sir Henry Bishop is certainly a Victorian tear jerker in my estimation, and features as number 126 in the book (albeit collected from a more recent singer).