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Simon Furey writes: One final point: separating the English-language balladry of England from that of Wales, Scotland and Ireland is almost impossible. While some songs are clearly from one country or another (you have to remember that a huge number of the Child ballads are Scottish... I agree with Simon, but I'd just like to point out one remarkable set of ballads considered to be of exclusive English heritage--the thirty or so ballads on Robin Hood. Perhaps the 3 or 4 rare Arthurian ballads in Child's collection can also be regarded as "Made in England"? As for a British equivalent for F.J.Child, I don't think Percy will qualify-- no one will. Of course the credit for spearheading the ballad movement goes to Percy. Only collecting ballads, since Percy has been accused of collating as well as collecting. But you only have to visit a library and haul down all the volumes(be warned of the weight of the hefty volumes!)of Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, to get an idea of the enormity of the task undertaken by that great man. He not only collected as many versions as possible, but verified the authenticity of the collected ballads in as scientific a manner as possible. He delved into the very psyche of these ballads by conducting a thorough and extensive research. No wonder today we bow before his incredible scholarship.But I think the most important point is that he absolutely LOVED the ballads.Period. The above "lecture" was for Mr Speranza's benefit since he seems hooked on Child. Mind you, my words are not really adequate to describe Child's greatness, but it's the best I can do.J.L.S can discover the rest for himself. And sorry, J.K...I mean J.L SperanZa for having mis-spelt your name--unpardonable on my part,I know! As for which part of India I'm from, I hail from a tiny state on the southernmost tip of India called Kerala, which our tourism dept. prides on calling "God's Own Country". Talking of Leslie Nelson's great site on Child, I too wish to express my sentiments on this site -- I'll just say I had the good fortune to actually listen to a British ballad tune for the first(and only) time on this site a couple of months ago. I'd regarded British ballads as just texts earlier.Since listening to the haunting melody of Barbara Allen, don't I know differently! Best wishes to all. Beena Thomas __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%