The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #48219   Message #893877
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
19-Feb-03 - 07:12 PM
Thread Name: DTStudy Donnybrook Fair / Widdecombe Fair
Subject: RE: DTStudy Donnybrook Fair
That's a version of the well-known Widdecombe Fair, and not really related to the subject of this thread; though the choruses are in both cases cumulative. As I mentioned earlier, most examples of the "Beggars" song are localised to all sorts of different places, and one strand has picked up "Widdlicombe", quite likely from the other song. Probably one song-group has borrowed from the other -and vice-versa- at various points; but I wouldn't (at the moment) go as far as the Traditional Ballad Index does in implying a significant relationship.