Sorry, zozimus,
but there must be other sources you can go to by now.

I suggest you type in any sleeve notes you are interested in as a new thread using the song title and we'll do our best with them. If references are to versions in published books there's a good chance they were accurate, but we can always check, if the books aren't too obscure.

If this song is also known as 'Down in yon forest' I'm pretty certain there is plenty of info on this in the EFDSS journals which is probably where Bert got the info from.

The most likely thing that would need double checking is references to religious meaning. A lot of these old carols contain allegories and there are various interpretations.