It was the most folk-based of the albums recorded by the band, with all the tracks being versions of traditional songs.

John Renbourn sings the lead vocal and plays both acoustic and electric guitar.

Allmusic gave the album resounding approval in their retrospective review, applauding its "dense, layered sound that is woven within the fabric of each song like a tapestry" and praising Jacqui McShee's vocal work in particular.

While they criticized the track "Jack Orion", commenting "one has difficulty imagining what possessed Pentangle to record a folk song that took up an entire side of an album", they concluded that the album as a whole "shows Pentangle at their artistic height".

[1] All songs are public domain and arranged by Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Terry Cox, except where noted.