According to the Traditional Tune Archive,

"'A piper on the meadows straying' was a duet in the three-act musical play Zorinski (1795), for which music was selected and composed by Dr. Samuel Arnold (1740-1802) (sung in the original production in the Little Theatre in the Haymarket by Mrs. Bland and Mr. Fawcett), although whether he composed this air or simply adapted an existing melody for the vehicle of his song in not known. "

The lyrics appear in Thomas Morton's "Songs, duets, chorusses, in Zorinski: a play in three acts. Performed at the Theatre Royal, Hay-Market" (London: Cadell and Davies, 1795).