Fiddler's Companion: The melody was transformed by morris dance musicians in the village of Leafield (“Fieldtown”), Oxfordshire, into a common-time piece under the title “Old Molly Oxford” (a corruption or miss-hearing of the title “Moll in the Wad”).


“In June, 1826, I observed a company of these "bold peasantry, the country's pride," in Rosoman-street, Clerkenwell. They consisted of eight young men, six of whom were dancers; the seventh played the pipe and tabor; and the eighth, the head of them, collected the pence in his hat, and put the precious metal into the slit of a tin painted box, under lock and key, suspended before him. The tune the little rural-noted pipe played to the gentle pulsations of the tabor, is called

        “Moll in the wad and I fell out,
        And what d'ye think it was abou..”

This may be remembered as one of the once popular street songs of the late Charles Dibdin's composition.”
[The Every-day Book and Table-book, Vol.2, Hone, 1837]