Thanks for adding the line breaks Joe. I read Roger's mail on how to do it properly and the next tune I post will feature same. May also experiment with HTML.

Finding the Mudcat cafe has been a real revelation and the knowledge the subscribers can pass on is a never ending fascination. I have been motivated to learn how to write music and I am taking some lessons from an excellent music teacher who is also a good friend of mine I'm pleased to say. So I hope I can help with a few tunes and lyrics I know of that don't appear in the Digitrad Database.

Bruce - you are absolutely right the tune in the Hammond and Gardiner MSS is different. This tune I collected is from a version of this song I have on an cassette called the Tale of Ale - a random collection of songs, prose and poetry about BEER! a subject close to my heart. I don't know whether it is still available I got it from a stall at the Sweeps festival in Sevenoaks Kent. It was produced by Free Reed, The Old Chapel, Belper, Derby, Derbyshire, England DE56 1AZ

The words are more or less exactly the same as the version in H and G but the notes to the version I have heard say it was collected from the singing of Sam Willett the "singing baker of Cuckfield (Sussex)" who gave it to Lucy Broadwood

Best regards and Merry Xmas

Ian