He can be cold and wet, but he simply stops at the next inn and sits with the landlord, drinking.
And sing, &c. The distribution of the song appears to be confined to Southern England, though an early broadsheet version comes from Dublin.
Robert Bell claimed The song dated back to at least the 1750s, and observed that it was especially popular in South West England.
He suggested that it related to "the days of transition, when the waggon displaced the packhorse.
"[2] Ralph Vaughan Williams collected it from Edward Rose, landlord of the Bridge public house at Acle, Norfolk on Tuesday 14 April 1908.