Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Illustrated book of Scottish songs from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century

SONGS OF THE AFFECTIONS.
Bessie Bell I lo'ed yestreen,
And thocht I ne'er could alter :
But Mary Gray's twa pawky een
Gar'd a' my fancy falter.
Bessie's hair's like a lint-tap,
She smiles like a May mornin'.
When Phoebus starts from Thetis' lap.
The hills with rays adornin'.
White is her neck, saft is her hand,
Her waist and feet fu' genty ;
With ilka grace she can command, —
Her lips, oh, now, they're denty !
Mary's locks are like the craw,
Her een like diamonds' glances ;
She's aye sae clean, redd up, and braw.
She kills whene'er she dances.
Blythe as a kid, wi' wit at will.
She blooming, tight, and tall is.
And guides her airs sae gracefu' still, —
Jove ! she's like thy Pallas.
Young Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,
Ye unco sair oppress us ;
Our fancies jee between ye twa,
Ye are sic bonnie lasses.
Wae's me ! for baith I canna get.
To ane by law we're stentit ;
Then I'll draw cuts, and tak my fate.
And be wi' ane contentit.
The heroines of this -well-known ballad were the daughters of two Perthshire
gentlemen. Bessy Bell was the daughter of the Laird of Kinnaird, and Mary Gray
of the Laird of Lynedoch. A romantic attachment subsisted between them, and they
retired together to a secluded spot called the " Burn Braes," in the neighbourhood of
Lynedoch, to avoid the plague that then raged in Perth, Dundee, and other toAvns.
They caught the infection, however, and both died. Tradition asserts that a young
gentleman, in love with one of them, visited them in their solitude, and that it was
from him they caught the contagion. The late gallant liord Lynedoch, on whose
estate the heroines lie buried, erected a kind of bower over their graves. The fol-