Cookieless again!

Like Alan I'd also like some thoughts on origins. In my own index I only have the one version collected by Mike Yates from the Cantwell family, Oxon in 1964, and this version has quite a few minor differences from the one I used to sing in the folk clubs in the 60s. I haven't seen any broadside copies though I have a vague recollection of recording a fragment locally. I remember being surprised at finding it in Yorkshire in oral tradition when all the versions I had hitherto heard had a definite west-country feel to them. At the time that suggested a possible origin in a country bumpkin Music Hall song such as those being put out on 78s in the 20s with exaggerated accents.