G'day again Jim,

Gawd ... doesn't time fly! Ron Edwards' first book of facsimiles of Colonial Australian-relevant broadsides actually came out 2½ decades back! This is what I noted from my copy - and mentions what suggested my first 'dating':

The broadside source for A Starry Night For A Ramble that was reproduced in The Convict Maid, Australian Folklore Occasional Paper No. 16, Ron Edwards, The Rams Skull Press, Kuranda, 1985 was a small broadside (250 x 190 mm) 'Printed at the Catnach Press by W. S. Fortey, 2 & 3 Monmouth Court, Seven Dials'.

Edwards found this copy in the Kidson Collection, vol. 1, page 43, Mitchell Library, Glasgow. The text includes, among fashionable London diversions, Croquet (OED: 1858 – "... was introduced into Northern Ireland some twelve years ago from a French convent.]", and velocipede (OED citations between 1818 & 1850), which are evidence that both terms would be popular by around 1850.

It was printed next to another song: I'll Have Your Number, which includes the term 'peeler' for a policeman, first cited by the OED in 1817 ... in Ireland ... and later for London.

Regards,

Bob