Clearly a version of “Old MacDonald had a Farm”, and presumably as the song is so well known, collectors have not bothered to note it in oral tradition. And yet many diverse versions have been found in the British Isles, across he Atlantic and in Australia, rejoicing in such names as “The Sweets Fields of Violo”, “In the Merry Green Fields of Ireland”, “Father’s Wood I-Oh” etc. The proliferation of versions suggests that the song has been around for a long time, and such cumulative songs tend to be very old, but no version earlier than the 19th century has been discovered.
Notes by Gwilym Davies April 2016