Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-09-04

And guides her air So graceful still,
| OJove, she's like thy Pallas.
Dear Bessy Bell and Mary Gray.
| Ye unco sair oppress us;
Our fancies jee between you twa.
Ye are sic bonny lasses;
Waes me! for bath Gamma get
To ane by law we're stinted;
Then I'll draw cuts. and take my fate,
And be with ane contented.
| The Lednoch tragedy was so widely
known over Scotland as to become To-
| calize in other districts, and particular
ly in the vale of Teviot, where among
| the lore of the cottage hearths, it timpres-
! in after years, clothed the tale with the
graces of poesy in his Scenes of Infancy.
| A kindred story is told in Stirling and
its neighborhood. In 1645, a small farm
called Shiphdagh, little way northeast
from the town, was tenanted by fami-
ly named Kay, whose descendants con-
tinued uninterruptedly in the same oc-
cupancy until at least twentyyear ago,
If not later. While the plague was in
Stirling, two young daughters of the
farmer, went one Sunday to attend
church in the town, as usual, and in
passing through field called the CosU-
park, one of them observing a velvet
necklet lying on the path, picked it up,
and admiring its beauty, put it round
her neck. Unhappily it had dropped
from some plague-stricken victim, and
speedily the one sister and then the 9TH
er were seized with the distemper, and
died. Their graves were made in what
was latterly the stackyard of the farm.
Let us add curious relation of two
young women in Dundee, who survived
the pestilence and famine, supporting
themselves by using as food the Arion
or LinaoE 0ter-the black snail.
Two young and blooming maidens
lived together at that dread time, like
Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, in a remote
cottage on the steep (indeed almost per-
cendicular) ascent efthe Bonnetmakers'
Hill. Deprived of friends or support by
the pestilence that walked at MONDAY,
they still retained their good looks and
healthful aspect, even when the famine
had succeeded to the plague. The jaun-
diced eyes of the famine-wasted wretches
around them were instantly turned to-
wards the poor girls, who appeared to
thrive so well whilst others were famish-
ing. They were unhesitatingly accused
of witchcraft, and had nearly fallen a
prey to that terrible charge; for betwixt
themselves they had sworn never to tell
in words by what means they were sup
ported, ashamed as they felt of the re.
source to which they had been driven;
and resolved, if possible, to escape the
anticipated derision of their neighbours
on its disclosure. 1t was only when
about to be dragged before their stern
inquisitors that one of the girls, drawing
aside the covering of a great barrel,
which stood in corner of their domicile,
discovered, without violating her oath,
that the youthful pair had been driven
to the desperate necessity of collecting
and preserving for food large quantities
of these Linadciny, which they ultimate
ly acknowledged to have proved to them
generous and even agreeable sustenance
The narrator adds that "to the credit
of the times" the young women's ex-
planation suff1ced, and they "were even
applauded for their prudence"
Authorities Statistical
account of Scotland, vol. ill.,, p. Cos, vol.
K, p. 621 Statistical Account of Perth
shire, p. 81; Chambers's Songs of Scot
land prior to Burns, p. 800; Rental of
the County of PERTH; Ramsay's Tea
Table Miscellany; Il Neau Description
of the IOeOn and Castle of Stirling, p. 1913;
Memorabilia of PERTH n 179. Cham