The song was noted down by
Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909 from a Mrs Ellen Powell of Westhope near
Weobley,
Herefordshire; his transcription is available online from the
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. On that occasion it was sung to the tune "
Monk's Gate", better known as the tune of "
To be a pilgrim", the hymn by
John Bunyan. The same tune is sometimes used for the song "Our Captain Cried", which can be considered a version of the same song.
George Butterworth (a friend of Vaughan Williams and
Cecil Sharp) collected another version of the song with a similar tune from a Mrs. Verrall of
Horsham,
Sussex in 1909, and included a setting of the song in his 1912 collection Folk Songs from Sussex. Several traditional singers from the south of England have recorded versions of the song, such as the travellers Phoebe Smith (1969) and Caroline Hughes (1963/66), Harry Brazil of
Gloucestershire,
George "Pop" Maynard of
Sussex (1962), Tom Willett of
Surrey (1960), Charlie Scamp of
Kent (1954). The recordings of Tom Willet, Phoebe Smith, Caroline Hughes and George "Pop" Maynard can be heard via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website. ==Popular recordings==