My Husband's dadhas sung this song for years, and my husband discovered today the name of the author - a C. John Trythall. (he found a book in a custoners house where he was working to read in his lunch hour!) He reckons, reading the book that it was written farly early in the 1900's but after Sabine Baring gould had collected, as he never recorded it - and he would have! More bits of useless information for those who are interested! Regards, Lucy