Hi,

I have some info supplied by Steve Gardham. The two stanzas of Campbell's poem (above) are from tradition. The rest was recreated by Campbell and has become the Irish song "The Spanish Lady." The two traditional stanzas are:

As I walked down thro' Dublin City
At the hour of twelve in the night,
Who should I see but a Spanish lady
Washing her feet by candlelight.

First she washed them, and then she dried them
Over a fire of amber coal:
Never in all my life did I see
A maid so neat about the sole!

An intermediate arrangement such as the one Campbell collected was also used in the Scottish versions of the Spanish Lady (see Grieg's version in last post).

An antecedent of the two stanzas collected by Campbell is found in the erotic folksong collection of the late 18th century, "The Frisky Songster." The 1776 edition is found online in the Jack Horntip Collection. It was first printed circa 1770 in London, or Dublin. Reprint copies include (1776) Bodleian, Harding Collection; (1802), Kinsey-ISR Library. Here are the first stanzas which compare to Campbell's version and to the Scottish versions:

SONG LXXXIII.

AS I went through London city,
Twas at twelve o'clock at night,
There I saw a damsel pretty,
Washing her joke by candle-light.

When she wash'd it then she dr'd it,
The hair was black as coal upon it
In all my lif I never saw,
A girl who had so fine a c--t.

The remainder of the bawdy song is not applicable to the evolution of the stanzas which become The Spanish Lady. The song was reprinted in "The Merry Muses: A Choice Collection of Favourite Songs Gathered by Robert Burns" in 1827 as "The Ride in London" with the same text: https://books.google.com/books?id=XZVkAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA115&dq=%22AS+I+went+through+London+city%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3u-K_1MzV

Richie