Hello, Virginia. It's interesting to hear about Lavenham and its blue cloth. I can see how the phrase 'Lavenham blue' could be folk-processed to 'lavender's blue.' However, a chorus with a plant in it seems more natural to the rural setting of the song than does a chorus with a fabric in it.

Falkenna, I have seen many thread on parodies here in the Mudcat. A song doesn't have to have anything wrong with it for somebody to make up a parody. Mostly what a parodist requires is lyrics that easily seque from one word to a similar-sounding word, preferably an undignified one. I think beer has a lot to do with it.

I've read the versions posted above, and I think they are such a dog's breakfast that it's hard to know what the publishers were trying to accomplish. Parody? Political analogy?

No, wait. Their main goal would have been to fill up the page. Customers would have looked at a concise, elegant song and cried, "Hoy, what's this empty space here? I want my penny's worth!"