It is usually I once {or ainse} loved a LASS and we have several in the DT There is a family of songs around the False Bride or The Week Before Easter. Find them in the DT with file names of FALS* or FLSE* (you can search for those). There are two common tunes to the false bride - one is also used for Ladies Go Dancing at Whitsun and the other is used for I once loved a lass and a variety of other songs, such as Birmingham Sunday. One interesting quirk is that whenever this tune is used, the ships in the forest verse is used, even tho it is usually irrelevent.

None of this answers you question. A quick look at a dozen or so books on my shelves did not yield an answer, so I will dig offline and tell you if I find anything definitive.

Dick - Why didn't we put a DT number on this??