Cecil Sharp's Note 27 (1916)

No. 27. False Lamkin

Under the heading “Lamkin,” Child deals very fully with this ballad. There is a tradition in Northumberland that Lamkin and his tower were part of that county, and Miss Broadwood says that she has seen what is said to be the original tower close to the little village of Ovingham-on-Tyne, “now a mere shell overgrown with underwood.”

For other versions with tunes, see Christie’s Traditional Ballad Airs of Scotland and the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume i, p. 212; volume ii, p. 111; volume v, pp. 81–84). The ballad given here was collected in Cambridgeshire, in which county it is still very generally known to folksingers.