John and Masato: many thanks for that info. The version I have came from Cumbrian sources and seems to be a quite different tune(also Dorian mode. Just how different I shall shortly dicover, I am trying to decipher the abc notation but I'm finding it a bit laborious!). The Fiddler's Companion entry glosses "dear" as meaning "expensive" which of course it can, but judging by the way tobacco was written and sung about in songs from the same era as the tune, I would feel the sense of "dear friend" would be more likely. Just because tobacco takes a lot of stick nowadays shouldn't blind us to the fact that a lot of people were(and still are) very fond of it!