John

Since the boy in the story was listening to them ride by I presume it was the tune he recognised. It was used for other songs but at least he recognised it by the Chevy Chase title.


I had a quick look for a current list of Child Ballads found in America without success (though you'd imagine someone had made one; perhaps someone on the ballad list is keeping track). You could start with Coffin - he goes through them and (as far as I remember) lists the ones not found at the time (1950). You could start from there and try and see if any of the missing ones had been found since. (eg Child Ballads in Max Hunter. These were collected between 56 and 76 so could have found some missing in Coffin).

(You can find a copy of Coffin at archive.org: The British Traditional Ballad in North America).


Mick