Jim said
> Pat once had an uncharacteristic blazing row with one rising lady star when she was told that collecting was an "intrusion into people's privacy"
> She said she preferred to jot down overheard conversations in a notebook - I am not making this up)
> She has since risen to the top of the folk milk jug as a new-age academic.

Whoever that lady was I have some sympathy with her statement. People sang the songs that we're discussing in various situations, but mostly either in private or among their fellows. Singing for an outsider who is visiting partly or solely for the specific purpose of collecting is significantly different. The extent to which it is an intrusion depends on the personality, skill and attitude of the collector. Jim and Pat clearly made friends with the people they were collecting from. Some other collectors have established a rapport, right back to Baring Gould in an age when the class system was much more rigid than it is nowadays. But it has not been universal. Harker's view of the collecting process was an exaggeration but not entirely without foundation.