Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1875-05-21

THE STORY OF BETsEY BELL AND
MARY GRAY.-It is not likely that the
history of how Cain and Abel, OF George
| Washington, or Napoleon, OF Betsey Bell,
and Mary Gray got their names could be
written without somebody contradicting it,;
indeed. SO uncertain are reports about dead
persons that we have frequently seen let
tiers from persons themselves denying that
they were dead. With such state of I'M
certainty, it did not surprise lis to receive
the following note from an "old fogey,"
who, though he daily walks our streets,
hundred years old, about two hundred of
which, to our personal knowledge. he has
spent in hunting up just such things as he
makes a point of in this note-to Stay the
free singers Of historic pencils with:
You must write another piece to give
the true story Of Bessie Bell and Mary
Gray, as the account you publish in the
VINDIcAToR of the 14th IS almost entirely
fictitious.
You say that two Scotch gentlemen.
named Bell and Gray. who were tout IN
ASP and were Slain at Cullodep, left a
daughter each: that each of the girls had
lover who was engaged in the Rebellion,
but escaped to Ireland and afterwards
came to this Valley; that the young men
in course of time sent for their sweethearts
to come out, but they had died Of the
plague; and that the poet Burns was a
sutton of one of the girls, and wrote the
ballad, &C., &c. This is an outline of your
story. There is hardly word of truth in
it. Pardon me for contradicting you so
fatty. am indignant. I have been Ia:
boring for years to set this matter right,
and keep it right, but every now and then
somebody pops up with an utterly false &C.
count of the names Betsy Bell and Mary
Gray as applied to our Staunton hills, &C..
&c.
You have missed the time when B. B.
and NJ. G. lived by just one hundred years;
and even if they had lived in 1745, Burns
could not have been lover of either of
them, for he was not born till 1859. and he
did not write the ballad.
Chambers domestic Annals of Scot
land, vol. 2, page 166, tells what l believe
to be the true story, for upon all Scotch
traditions and legends, Chambers author-
ty Is undisputed. According to tradition,
as reported by Chambers, Mary Gray's
father was Laird OF Lednoch, and Betsy
Bells, Laird Of Kinraid. While Bessie
was on visit to Mary, in 1915, the
plague broke out in the neighborhood. To !
escape the disease, they built a house near
Lednoch House, and lived there for some |
time. By the way, from Defoe's ''History
of the Plague" we learn that it was not |
unusual for persons to isolate themselves
during the prevalence Of the pestilence.
The plague raging with great fury, the
girls caught it from young man who
was in love with both Of them(D, and who
had brought them their food. They died
in their bower, and were buried near the
river Almond, half a mile from the present
house of Lednoch, or Lyndach, which is
seven miles northwest Of Perth. Their
sad fate became the subject Of a ballad,
which commenced thus:
Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,
They were tws bonnie lassles,
They blight bower on yon burn hrae,
And theekt it oper wi rashes
The rest of the original ballad has been
ost, except the concluding stanza:
They wadna lie in Methren Kirk yard,
Amang their gentle kin; f.
But they wad lie in Dronach Haugh,
To eek torment shtss s.f .s-a
The lines you published are by some mod =,
I'm hand, +,
In 1871, a new proprietor took possession
It LednSch, and a heap of stones almost I
covered with thorns and briars was shown {
0 him as the burial place Of Betsy Bell i
nd Mary Gray, He removed the rubbish, c
tainted shrubs around the grave and en- I
losed it by avail il which he fixed stone, /
Inscribed with the names Of the two girls, t
nd the graves may no doubt be seen there
{ this day, Hetsy Bell and Mary Gray
erir1 yxy1,a dad Of | !