Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-29
PERTHSHIRE HERoNIEs.
Sentimental Power Of the Ballad
Bessie Bell and Mary Gray"

rroh the Iuhuee AuvertlSef.
The ballads Of Perthshire do not bear
comparison with those of the south of Scot
land either in number. lyrical identity, vivid
color or atmosphere. We may in general
admit this to be true, but there is one
ballad which Perthshire people dwell on,
and even those from other parts of Scot
land confess it's haunting power 1t Is the
ballad of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray" The
writer has the impression that this thren-
ody has been ably edited by Charles
Kirkpatrick Sharpe and its melody in
creased by the skill of that brilliant man,
who had an ear for music and an eye for
the pathetic or grotesque in life. Sharpe's
drawings of Queen Elizabeth dancing is an
inimtable commentary on the absurdites
of "a forty-year-auld lass" and no won
der that 1t is preserved at Abbotsford to
this day: but still with his strong powers
OF satire Sharpe had warm heart There
are various transcriptions of the opening
verses of the ballad. and here is one:
BESSIE Bell and Mary Gray
They were twa strappn' lassles
They blight a bower yon burn brae
And theekit 1t DER WI rashes
They thocht to lie in Methven Kirk
Amang a their gentle kin.
But they were laid in DrOnach Haugh
To beik Torment the
The last line may startle the cockney. or
even the Scotsman who has lost his hold
of the vernacular. To beik means here to
hask 1T seems grim jesting this" re-
marked an English critic. "about the bodies
OF those once lovely girls baking in the
clay under the fierce heat of a summer
sum- but it is thoroughly Caledonian. The
people who find in "a coffining.' funeral,
an occasion for consuming at least a gill
of blstering whisky EACH dwell with sancti-
fled relish and a smack of the lips on the
modes and special processes of decomposi-
ton"
No genuine Scotsman will aoree u,;tb tb;s
ignorant and acrid criticism. and we ad-
wise all who approve Of 1t to beware when
they come to Perth lest their sleep be
broken as st. Johns big bell tolls midnight
by the phantoms Of portly Bailie Luke and
the venerable Sheriff Substitute Barclay
appearing at their bedfoot in blaze of
magenta colored light and at once gripping
them with white hot pincerS. In an excel
lent article by an expert in the Scottish
Review. 1t Is pointed out that the late DR..
Livingstone found comfort in the thought
that the mortal remains of his noble wife
rest on Shapanga brae and 'beik torment
the SUM-" The story on which the ballad
is founded is that Bessie Bell and Mary
Gray were the daughters of two Perthshire
proprietors. and to escape the decimating
plague of 1866 they built hut or bower in
Lynedoch Wood. Mary Gray had a sweet
heart who followed them. and unconscious
ly carried the plague infection, so that
both Mary and Elizabeth died from the
malady and were laid in the Dronach
Haugh quite near-to 'beik torment the
SUM- A Maj. Barry. to his infinite credit.
inclosed their graves with wall in 17GO.
and the inscription ran thus:
They lived they loved they died.
When the estate of Lynedoch was pur-
chased by Thomas Graham-afterward
Lord Lynedoch-no particular attention was
paid for years to the cemetery of those
Classics o. high degree" The hero of
Barossa had his own share of affection.
and tried to forget them amid the cannon
thunder and the clash of steel The Mary
Gray and Bessie Bell story Is no picturesque
legend, but founded on fact The ballad is
alike pathetic and suggestive. 1t illustrates
the proverb, There is love in remem-
brance"