The more we find out about the history of popular song, the fewer "folk" songs remain which may actually have arisen among "the folk". That doesn't really matter; it's what happened to the songs after they escaped captivity and began, so to speak, to breed in the wild that is particularly interesting. Whatever people think of Cecil Sharp as a person, this forum -for example- wouldn't be here if it weren't for his work, and the folk music revival simply wouldn't have happened.

Malcolm,
was ever more wisdom expressed! And thanks Q for so much but...........

.......But, where do we go from here?