"Sailing over England" is an American reel in cut time and D Major. The parts are played AA'BB' or BB'AA'. The tune, played by source Lee Triplett (1897-1981, Clay County, W.Va.) is an uptempo reel, perhaps derived from a ballad air. The Digital Library of Appalachia notes that Triplett was "a mainstay at the West Virginia State Folk Festival in Glenville, WV, where he kept up a friendly rivalry with fiddler French Carpenter." The banjo tablature is by John Letscher who says that it was "mostly learned from John Lamancusa and at the Gettysburg jam". It was printed in Clare Milliner & Walt Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes (2011) and Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021).