A _very_ quick trip to the archive revealed a recording of Little Sally Waters, with totally different verses - but the same chorus - as Mick Moloney recently recorded on McNally's Row Of Flats, his collection of the late Victorian songs of Harrigan and Braham.

(Can I call them "Victorian" when they were of course all about New York?)

Anyway, I wondered if Harrigan took a traditional song and wrote new verses, or Pearl took the Harrigan song and wrote new verses, or maybe - and possibly most likely - each one took an old song and wrote new verses.

So Dave, thanks for posting the link.