Thanks for such a quick and detailed response. I think The Houghton Weavers have changed the words around a bit but that first line threw me, I didn’t realise they were using the archaic dialect ‘han’ ’ for ‘have’. Most of the rest of the song makes sense now but do they mean ‘beat’ when they sing ‘byit’ (I byit that calf till it could hardly see) and ‘tugs’ when they say ‘whistlers’ (I gid that calf three whistlers on its tail)?