A full text of this post in the published book.
Hilaire Belloc’s novel The Four Men was conceived in 1902 and published in 1912. Several poems – songs – accompany their walk across Sussex.
The ‘first Drinking Song’ can be interpreted as Belloc intended 120 years ago, here from the South Downs Folk Singers archive:
The poem has also been set to the Irish rebel tune The West’s Awake by Martyn Wyndham-Read, and is here rendered – with accompaniment – by Youtube’s Holecene81.
Across Sussex with Belloc – In the Footsteps of The Four Men, Bob Copper (1994) Alan Sutton Publishing
Great Dynasties of the World – The Copper Family; The Guardian article here
http://southdownsfolksingers.blogspot.co.uk/p/lyrics-and-recordings.html
Please make contact if you would like a pdf chord sheet.
Slindon Sculpture 
I’ve long wondered what the tune was like (being a non-music reader). The words, of course, are very familiar.
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Thanks. Play it with yousometime
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