Just a note of (I hope) interest:

In his collection: "Ballads of the North Countrie" Graham R. Tomson says (in the Introductory Note) "In making this Book of Ballads the Editor has chiefly relied on the admirable collection of Professor Child (Boston, U.S.). Professor Child has had access to Motherwell's and other MSS, and his Notes and Variants are of the utmost value. His earlier work, English and Scottish Ballads (London, 1861, 8 vols.) has also been consulted." He goes on to list other sources from Motrherwell, Aytoun, Pinkerton, Jamieson, Chambers and Messrs. Hale and Furnival's reprint of the Percy folio. This was in the late 1880's. Scholarship accrues to scholarship. Child is one of many but perhaps the better known due to the depth of his work and at a time when ALL scholarship was lonely chores fueled by devotion alone.