Oops!

I believe this is what I was really what I was thinking about when I put up "The Happy Wanderer" earlier today. The Gypsy Rover.

The song is listed as Child 200 in the catalog of ballads, from Scotland or the Borders. Not (ahem) quite the same in all versions.  Sometimes the woman is abducted, sometimes she goes willingly. The entirety of the American folk scene seems to have covered it fifty years ago. 

It depends on what one calls "authentic," doesn't it? They covered the Scots-Irish Appalachian version from Almeda Riddle, which I believe is the only version that came to America early.  Steeleye Span did it as Black Jack Davy in 1975, and it has a different feel. It is more like the 1700s version.

The idea of high-born women taking up with men of lower class seems to have bothered - or excited - the balladeers. They are all over the Child Ballads. The bloody "Lady Diamond" was a favorite in our family.  Not safe for the little ones.