From Roy Palmer's Book of British Ballads [1980]: "Judging from the frequency of reprints, the ballad was immensely popular in the latter part of the 17th century. It has continued to be held in affection ever since, though one doubts the informant who told Child in the 1880s that it 'may be heard any day at a country cricket-match'. It has been confidently asserted that the Islington in question is the village in Norfolk, rather than the one formerly near London and now part of it." (p. 190)