Hi,

Maybe someone can clarify this for me. On this site, http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/cherry_tree_carol-notes.htm


is the following:

And in approximately 1884, The Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, while teaching carols to a party of mill-girls, began to relate the carol by Dr. H. J. Gauntlett, "Saint Joseph was a-walking," [As Joseph Was A Walking] when they interrupted him, saying "'Nay ! we know one a deal better nor yond;' and, lifting up their voices, they sang, to a curious old strain,—

"Sant Joseph was an old man,
And an old man was he ;
He married sweet Mary,
And a Virgin was she.

"And as they were walking
In the garden so green,
She spied some ripe cherries
Hanging over you treen.

Yet the same information is given in Carols for use in church during Christmas and Epiphany - Page xix by Richard Robert Chope - 1876.

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&tbo=1&q=%22Sant+Joseph+was+an+old+man%22&btnG=

I was teaching carols to a party of mill-girls in the West Riding of Yorkshire, some ten years ago, and amongst them that by Dr. Gauntlett—

"Saint Joseph was a walking "—

when they burst out with "Nay! we know one a deal better nor yond;" and, lifting up their voices, they sang, to a curious old strain,—

"Sant Joseph was an old man,
And an old man was he;
He married sweet Mary,
And a Virgin was she.

Was it Baring-Gould? Chope?

Richie