The melody is very similar to that of the "Lost Lady Found" movement of Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, and to "Cutty Wren".
The heroine of the play made repeated reference to the song and sang a few verses, with the result that the sheet music was published soon after.
[3] One of, if not the, earliest recordings is a 1907 performance by Joseph Taylor, collected on wax cylinder by the musicologist Percy Grainger in 1907.
[5] As I was a walking one morning in Spring, For to hear the birds whistle and the nightingales sing, I saw a young damsel, so sweetly sang she: Down by the Green Bushes he thinks to meet me.
For my true Love is coming down yonder I see, Down by the Green Bushes, where he thinks to meet me.