I'd love to see lyrics to this song. Here's what I have found about it in the Ballad-Index:

Banks of the Mossen, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I was a walking down by some shady grove... Young lambs were a-playing on the banks of sweet Mossen... The lark in the morning... brings me joyful tidings of Nancy my dear." The singer asks for pen and ink to write to Nancy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle)
KEYWORDS: love separation animal river
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 242-243, "The Banks of the Mossen" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 81B, "The Lark in the Morn" (2 texts)
Roud #1646
RECORDINGS:
Jim Swain, "The Banks of Sweet Mossing" (on Voice10)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Banks of the Mossom
The Banks of Sweet Mossom
NOTES [44 words]: I'd bet a lot that this is one of those Johnny-the-sailor-separated-from-his-love type songs that's been collected about three hundred times -- but from the short text given in Copper (three short verses and a fairly generic chorus), I can't tell which one. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: CoSB242

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Wolfgang