845)  DESERTER  As you suggested some time ago, the "Penguin" tune, already at the Midi Pages, is the one for this. The DT text is not a traditional set, but is certainly a partly garbled mis-remembering by someone of the Penguin text of  The Deserter from Kent, containing such felicities as to the Augustine for up to harvesting, Maystone for Maidstone, etc.) It looks to have been learned by ear from a record, or from someone who had got it from the book and enunciated poorly! As such, it's of no use as a resource and is an ideal candidate for deletion when the Penguin set, which has been harvested, is added to the database.

3759)  THE WIFE OF USHERS WELL  The DT file credits neither source singer nor collector; the text was presumably transcribed from a record by John Roberts and Tony Barrand, who themselves conscientiously acknowledged their source, though they appear to have altered it without saying so. The song was recorded, as There Lived a Lady in Merry Scotland, by Ralph Vaughan Williams from Mrs. Loveridge at the Homme, Dilwyn, Herefordshire, in 1908, and was published in The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, Ella Leather, 1912.  Midi made from notation in that book for verse 1; Mrs. Loveridge introduced variations into the tune in subsequent verses; these appear in Ella Leather's book and are quoted in Bronson, vol.2, 79:3, p.246: There Was a Lady in Merry Scotland.

The DT file differs in some respects from the original. In verse 1, line 2, dee' is a mistake for deeds. Other differences are presumably the result of editing by Roberts and Barrand:

Verse 3, lines 1 and 2: I will not believe in God, she said / Nor Christ in eternity
was originally I will not believe in a man, she said , / Nor in Christ in eternity

Verse 4 appears to have been introduced from another, unnamed source; unless the Leather book omitted it for some reason. The original had this verse in its place (not in the DT file):

And God put life all in their bodies,
Their bodies all in their chest,
And sent them back to their own dear mother,
For in heaven they could take no rest.

Verse 6: originally

The cloth was spread, the meat put on;
No meat, Lord, can we take,
Since it's so long and many a day,
Since we have been here before.

Verse 7: originally

The bed was made, the sheets put on
No bed, Lord, can we take,
It's been so long and many a day
Since we have been here before.

Verse 8: originally

Then Christ did call for the roasted cock,
That was feathered with His only (holy?) hands;
He crowed three times all in the dish,
In the place where he did stand.

Verse 9 does not appear in the original.

Verse 10: originally

Then farewell stick and farewell stone,
Farewell to the maidens all.
Farewell to the nurse that gave us our suck;
And down the tears did fall.