Been in my set for thirty five years now.

For a long time I thought Bill Lowndes was a distant relative, as my mum used to say she had a second cousin called Bill who wrote songs for the music hall. When I found he came from Cornwall, I realised I had been claiming it as a family song for twenty five years!

My version, as Bill's original, is in normal English rather than cod dialect. The words don't need to be "ethnicised" in order to be a beautiful if tragic song.