"Incidently, do you share my difficulty in squaring Steve Roud, the clear, challenging and original thinker that emerges in the pages of this book with Steve Roud, the genial, gentle humourist and good listener that we meet in Sussex Traditions management meetings?"

...said Vic Smith...and yes I most certainly do!

What a debate! What foxes me are the classical references, the 'Goddess Diana's' and the 'Bright Phoebe's' and how they entered the unlettered lexicon and imagery of the classes to whom we are constantly referring. Or do they only apply to the 'few' songs written/printed by professionals' and picked up and changed through the oral tradition?It is interesting that Jim should have chosen to reproduce a song of such length and factual accuracy to demonstrate the ability within the labouring class to compose material - Bob Copper collected one such from Frank (Mush) Bond in Hampshire, 'The Dummer Sheeners Song'. Amongst the many singers Bob recorded, Frank was extraordinarily well read. He wrote extensively and quoted freely from his prodigious memory and as Bob says he would draw from this store rather than plagiarise when composing erudite works hardly-ever-to-be-read. You can read about him in Bob's 'Songs and Southern Breezes'. But he was the exception rather than the rule.