[2] When Cecil Sharp visited the Ritchie family of Viper, Kentucky in 1917 on his journey to collect traditional songs, he was excited to hear their version of the ballad (which they called "The Little Devils"), because it included a whistled refrain that Sharp had read about having once existed in Britain.
Jean Ritchie recalled the tale of her sisters Una and Sabrina learning the lyrics of the song from their uncle Jason in order to sing it to Cecil Sharp,[3] whose transcription of their performance can be viewed via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.
The Appalachian musicians Nimrod Workman,[6] Horton Barker,[7] Texas Gladden[8] and Aunt Molly Jackson[9] all recorded their own traditional versions of the song around the middle of the twentieth century.
[12] A recording made by James Madison Carpenter of a male singer in Bampton, Oxfordshire in the 1930s can be heard on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.
[16] English versions such as that of George "Pop" Maynard which can be heard on the British Library Sound Archive website,[17] include the whistling refrain that Cecil Sharp thought had been lost in Britain, albeit a different tune to the Ritchie version.
The renowned piper, Seamus Ennis, recorded an acclaimed version in his 1957 album The Bonny Bunch of Roses.
Another acclaimed version of the song is by Thomas Moran[18] The following lyrics were recorded in James Henry Dixon's Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England (1857): 1 There was an old farmer in Sussex did dwell, (chorus of whistlers) There was an old farmer in Sussex did dwell, And he had a bad wife, as many knew well.