Lovely as Jeannie Robertson's version is, it isn't included on my copy of the "Portraits" CD, but instead it appears on the Rounder CD Classic Ballads of Britain and Ireland: Volume Two Rounder 1161-1776-2.

Jeannie says that she learned the ballad from the recitation of old people in Blairgowrie, and so she recites three verses before singing the rest. I'm not clear from this where her sung version then comes from, though it feels silly to even ask this when the result is so breathtakingly wonderful.

Mike Yates has recently written about some "problematic" variants he has come across on the Musical Traditions website Some Problematic Ballad Texts.

PS Jim if you are in the Royal again next Sunday maybe I could give you a copy of Jeannie's version.

Matthew