"Brian: I'm sorry but you appear to have caught that thing of not reading posts carefully before replying. I refer to your comments on the modes on a melodeon. You put: "If you were once a melodeon player it must have been a long time ago. It’s very easy to play a Dorian scale in either E or A without even crossing the row." Since my original post is still here, people on this thread will be able to see that at no point did I state that the Dorian was not possible to play. This was, of course, deliberate on my part."

I did actually read your post very carefully. Curiously, you don't seem to remember that you wrote: "Attempt [sic] to play in aeolian would founder on the lack of a major 6th (c in Em; G# in Bm)” - when in fact there is an easily accessible C natural on the instrument, as I pointed out to you. I was certainly curious as to why you hadn't mentioned the Dorian since, having presumably made an exhaustive study of Walter Pardon's song melodies, you must know that he had several that were in that mode, and it would have been these (and others with a flat 3rd but no 6th) that would have been ‘bellows open’ tunes.

"A couple of simple question - how was Walter "mediated"?
People got to know WP. Then they wrote about him. Then they showed what they had written to other people. Simple and quick enough for you?

Trying to be patronising is unwise when you’re on such shaky ground to start with. The difference between Walter Pardon and the singers contacted by Edwardian collectors is that WP’s entire repertoire, unsullied by an editor, is available for examination. There are also verbatim transcriptions of interviews with him. People have written about him as well – but the source material is the heart of the evidence. It is a fantasy to compare that process to the kind of mediation that Harker complained about. I suspect that you do it to annoy, but you're just making yourself look silly.