The words are the lyrics collected by Cecil Sharp from Mrs. Mary Clayton at Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire and published in English Folk-Carols (1911). The melody given here is not the one Sharp collected but is instead a French tune. It appears in Bramley and Stainer's Christmas Carols New and Old, Second Series (ca. 1871). The lyrics and tune as collected by Cecil Sharp are included in The New Oxford Book of Carols (#26).