201
BESSY BELL AND MARY GRAY
BESSY BELL AND MARY GRAY
[_]
a. Sharpe's Ballad Book, 1823, p. 62. b. Lyle's Ancient
Ballads and Songs, 1827, p. 160, “collated
from the singing of two aged persons, one of them a
native of Perthshire.” c. Scott's Minstrelsy, 1833,
I, 45, two stanzas.
1
O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,
They war twa bonnie lasses;
They bigget a bower on yon burn-brae,
And theekit it oer wi rashes.
2
They theekit it oer wi rashes green,
They theekit it oer wi heather;
But the pest cam frae the burrows-town,
And slew them baith thegither.
3
They thought to lye in Methven kirk-yard,
Amang their noble kin;
But they maun lye in Stronach haugh,
To biek forenent the sin.
4
And Bessy Bell and Mary Gray,
They war twa bonnie lasses;
They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae,
And theekit it oer wi rashes.
