Diseases > Four excellent old songs

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BESSY BELL & MARY GRAY.
, Hijto-y of the Ballad.
Therk ig a pUce ceiled Lcdaoch ah four cnjn-
putcd rr_,efi f;x!in Per* ; here it wa? where the ee!e-
hnu<\ Beffy Beil and Mary Gray lived. The father
f '"t L^rd of Kinvaid. in theneighbour-
bood ot Lednoch ; a^d that of the latter, waa Laird
h nd^ '•V° •r°t,ng hd^8 *rere ^remel?
handsome, and maintained the stritfe-t friendahio
*nd mtimacj with rvit-anotber When VMsBeil
^ ^ » G^jr, the plague br he out.
in 1666, to avoid which, they built themfelvea a bower
aocut a mile west from LeJnoch house, in a very
rctrred and romantic situati. n. In this retreat tfcev
lived for fomc time, and were often visited by a yotme
gentleman who, being r asmoured with both of them
composed the following celebrated ballad in their
ranph'r ,kU'- ,he mutu;), IoTcr, at last having '
caught the infedfion, communicated it to the two
».Wj-0 k uebjPPF Viftims to its Tirulence.—
Their bodies were afterwards conveyed to another
and rK "V 8 Prc,und> ca:,eJ. Dornoch-haugh,
and there buried. On the top of t little hill, about
a mile and a half north of the house of Lednoch
stood a Lrosfi of g fa( antiquity; at »fce foot of this
Cro s are three Wells, commonlv called, the
lVJlls' W11,!il) a distance of each other- where
the Bishops of St. Atfrew’s, DucfcekI, and Dum!
Wane were woo ‘ to assemble, aad drink to or‘e
another, while each of them stood at the vyeil withia
his own Diocess.
O BtEy Bell and Mary Gray,
they were twa bonny lifletj;
T he big^.ed a bo - ’r ch yep ’■'urrt.brae,
and thack’d it o’er wV rafh;s.