A Fanny Waters question

[Meg]

As often discussed before on the forum, if you went to Eglinton or Winton schools and are of a certain age, you would have been taught by Miss Waters. As Penny Tray has also said before, the songs she taught often spring into your thoughts at the strangest times. Today, sparked by something I read, the song Barbara Allen came to mind. I remember the first verse as

In Scarlet Town where I was born
There was a fair maid dwelling
Made every youth cry well-a-day
For love of Barbara Allen.

Well, just googled it and it’s revealed a horrible story of a cold hearted young woman who walked away from a dying man, then died herself a few days later. The words don’t seem to be familiar but I can’t think that even Miss Waters would subject her pupils to such a horrible dark story. Anyone else remember it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Allen_(song)

Meg

[down south]

I can't speak for Fanny Waters, not having attended Eglinton or Winton, but we definitely sang some version of that song at Ardrossan Academy, at least in secondary years, because it was much to the embarrassment of the girl called Barbara Allan in our class ( and you may well wonder what her parents were thinking of, but conceivably they didn't know the song ) .Perhaps that's where you encountered it, Meg. Like you, I don't recognise the words, apart from the opening verse, so possibly it was a less distressing variant that we used.

Susan