The man you don't meet is considered by many to be scots in origin. It probably isn't. In fact it derives from the music Hall. Sorry about that, along with other songs that we now consider to be folk i.e. Jim the Carter Lad, Out in the Greenfields, Buttercup Joe etc.. The song was originaly an urban composition and adopted by the rural singers late in the nineteenth century, when it was taken up by the broadside press. The earlier versions keep the comic/rural bumpkin image with the Irish connection quoted above (Don't think Ive come over to look for a job, it's only a visit to pay) I collected and published the song fifteen years ago when I visited my best informant 85 year old Bill House of Beaminster Dorset the son of George House who sang to the Hammond Brothers in 1907. Bills grandson Norman still sings his dads song in the Dorset clubs to this day. Interestingly enough in 1908 the Hammond brothers noted that the Dorset rural singers had a repertoire that seemed remakably similar to the lowland Scots singers (See the Folk song journal 1908 {I think}) No idea why! I gave the version I collected to Dave Burland, I've no idea if he's singing it. By the way Doc Rowe colllected a similar version up the road in Somerset. I hope this helps Nick Dow