It's interesting to note that in the first two English version a "brook is mentioned in association with the place of briars.
1838 version sung by a labourer:
"Near Tunbridge waters a brook there runneth; With thorns and briers it is overgrown, And, all for to hide their cruel murder, In that brook he was killed and thrown."
1904 Overd version:
6. She rose early the very next morning, Unto the garden brook she went; There she found her own dear jewel Covered all over in a gore of bled.
Whereas in other versions it's a "dry place" or a "creek with no water":
It was near the creek where there was no water, Nothing but bushes and briars grew. All for to hide their cruel slaughter Into the bushes his body threw. [A Famous Farmer; Digweed 1906]
9 But in the ditch there was no water, Where only bush and briars grew, They could not hide the blood of slaughter So in the ditch his body threw.[Lord Burling's Sister- Joiner (Herts) 1914]