Simplest thing in the world to take a ballad from a book and change a few details. It's been done many a time. Think of fakers who sent Scott stuff and then the people who took the stuff from Scott and added their own bits. And whereas oral tradition occasionally comes in to play there's a lot of literary/editorial interference going on. Yes most of Bell's version is straight copy from Mrs. Brown.

All of this of course is pure conjecture on both our parts and no doubt both of us have studied all of the versions of every ballad.

I've just sent you all of the Greig-Duncan versions, Richie.