Hi,

There is some conjecture (esp. Riley 1957) that the Scottish version of 1740 (Child A) is a rewrite of the English broadside, presumably by James Oswald who published the version along with Ramsay in 1740.

Riley writes p. 62: "that the "Scotch" text is probably a literary reworking of an English text, perhaps by James Oswald."

Riley compares the two texts and notes their similarities. I believe that both are similar because they are derived from the ur-ballad, the earliest prototype, which can be examined remotely by these two texts (Child A and B) as well as other early texts from North America.

The establishment of antiquity has been assigned first by Hudson (Brown Collection 1952) to the opening lines and this has further been examined by Hendren (1953), Riley (1957) and Cray (1966).

Richie