Yes Anglo, just one more word could change the whole provenance of the song/poem as we "know" it : "written down by" as opposed to "written by" - LOL!! Wonder if Tim Laycock did any further research than Gail Huntington's text? Anyone know him well enough to ask??!! The now earliest known source, the "Arabella Stuart" trilogy, would probably have had limited reading by the general populace over the last (say) 70 or so years, it seems to me. (Although, George Payne Rainsford's (1799-1860) novel is now available from Amazon of course.) Still, it's a good example of The Folk Process at work, I guess, and a cracker of a song! Cheers! R-J Down Under
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