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Talk:The Farmer's Boy

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"Plow" or "plough"?

[edit]

The lyrics reproduced are quoted verbatim from Bell, Robert (1857). Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. London: John W Parker and Son. pp. 148–149. which uses the "plow" spelling. A Google search, supported by the collective brains of the Wikipedia Language reference desk suggests that "plough" was the dominant spelling in Britain by that time; a plausible suggestion is that the author deliberately used the archaic spelling to support his contention that it is "a very ancient song". Anyhow, I think it best to retain the spelling used in the source and have today undone User:BobGun's edit which changed "plow" to "plough" in each verse. Alansplodge (talk) 19:52, 27 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]