Contributed by Anne G. Gilchrist to the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Dec., 1946), p32.
From Notes and Queries, Series 3 Volume 3, No 53 (January 3rd 1863), p6
As I sat on a sunny bank
Mrs Alice Harding i.e. Alice Harden
Collected by Cecil Sharp, Ham Street, 11th October 1911
Cecil Sharp MSS, Folk Tunes CJS2/10/2705
This was presumably one of the songs which the Beale family would sing when they went out carolling.