A hugely popular song in the southern counties of England but very rarely further afield. It is particularly popular with the gypsy community from whom many versions have been collected, even versions in Romany speech. The earliest known version is from 1907 and so far as it known it was never printed as a broadside. Wiggy Smith’s impressive version, with its subtle melodic and time changes, is probably the only folksong to mention an air gun!

Notes by Gwilym Davies