trad
Mainly Norfolk quotes Kenneth Goldstein in relation to the Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger recording in 1957 saying “Early forms of the ballad, dating from the last half of the 17th century, have an elfin knight pose the impossible tasks”. I prefer the tune Martin Carthy sings on the 2018 album “Anchor”.
Martin Carthy: Scarborough Fair – Norma Waterson & Eliza Carthy with the Gift Band
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkZVKUNp8uI
Are you going to Scarborough Fair Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme Remember me to a lass who lives there For once she was a true love of mine Tell her to make me a cambric shirt / Without any seam and no needlework Tell him to find me an acre of land / Between the sea and the salt sea strand Tell him to plow it with a lamb’s horn / And to sow it all over with one peppercorn Tell him to reap it with sickle of leather / And to thrash it all out with a peacock’s feather When you have done and you’ve finished your work / You can come to me for your cambric shirt