Cecil Sharp's Note 85 (1916)
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No. 85. Poor Old Horse
For other versions with tunes, see the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume i, pp. 75 and 260; volume ii, p. 263); Miss Mason's Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs (p. 49); Songs of the West (No. 77, 2d ed.); and Songs of Northern England (p. 60).
The song was evidently one that was sung during the ceremony of the hobby horse, for example, the Hooden Horse in Kent (see The Hooden Horse, by Percy Maylam). A kindred ceremony, also associated with a song, "The Dead Horse," is still celebrated by sailors after they have been a month at sea (English Folk Chanteys, p. 73).
The tune is partly Mixolydian.