-----"O' 'twasna this the tither day, doon in yon tavern drinkin'--ye bade the healths gang roond an' roond, while Barbara Allen slichtin". Sir John Graeme o' the West countrie was the fella on the deathbed. Samuel Pepys, the English diarist, mentions having heard the song in Scotland.The origins of the song are nevertheless obscure--certainly some where on the British islands----even if the reasons for the lassie's "refusal" aren't! [One of the best renditions I have heard was by Nic Jones, 'way back in the sixties.]