"Here's one for you - tell us how appallingly bad poets could have made such timeless gems (without the excuses this time)"(JC)

That's one of the points I was going to address before you dismissed my suggestion out of hand.

You seem only able to deal with extremes. I repeat, your beliefs are remarkably similar to the worshipping of gods. Nobody in their right minds could dismiss Child's monumental work which has not been surpassed in 130 years. That doesn't mean he got everything right. I can give you lots of examples. Have you actually read all of his headnotes, every version of every ballad, everything that he wrote and was written about him? I have nigh on. Perhaps you'd like to comment on the headnotes to Child 20, or why he chose to give 2 completely different ballads the same number, or why he included so many broadside ballads, some as his A versions, why very few of the Robin Hood ballads have any evidence of oral tradition, I could go on. His work still stands as an enormous monument to his endeavour, but he isn't a god!