Is it as depressing as it sounds? Well, I've taught and sung this (from the Carthy version) with groups and if you get a bit of bitterness and sarcasm into it it's a hell of a lot more uplifting than droning out yet another version of While Shepherds Watched which is what Otford, along with 30,000 other tunes, is a setting of. (Not that Shepherds can't be done right, mind you.)