Hi,

According to Edmunds the other versions are Scottish. In 1954 Hamish Henderson collected a stanza of this previously "lost" ballad from a "Scottish tinker" and the next year collected a version from Duncan MacPhee in the berryfields of Blairgowrie, Perthshire in the summer of 1955.

This uses the Old Scottish melody called “The Old Lea Rigg” or “The Rose Tree” that dates back to at least 1774. Henderson's 1962 version from William Whyte of Aberdeenshire also had the melody.

One of the better traditional versions that clearly has the Rose Tree melody is sung by Norman Kennedy of Aberdeenshire in 1968: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW0U1WEoEks Anyone know his source?

Child B from Motherwell has a melody which resembles "Rose Tree" but it's not close enough to identify as that melody. McMath's melody, taken from his aunt who learned it c. 1830s is closer to "Rose Tree" (first strain) and may be a variant. Listen also to the Steeleye Span version on Youtube.

There are also a number of versions at the Scottish Studies site: Bella Higgins sings the first strain only as her melody: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/11389/3 which dates back to circa 1900.

Richie