Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Lyrics

Child 201
Bessy Bell and Mary Gray
Version A

  1. Sharpe's Ballad Book, 1823, p. 62.
  2. Lyle's Ancient Ballads and Songs, 1827, p. 160, "collated from the singing of two aged persons, one of them a native of Perthshire."
  3. Scott's Minstrelsy, 1833, I, 45, two stanzas.

Narrative

1   O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,
They war twa bonnie lasses;
They bigget a bower on yon burn-brae,
And theekit it oer wi rashes.
2   They theekit it oer wi rashes green,
They theekit it oer wi heather;
But the pest cam frae the burrows-town,
And slew them baith thegither.
3   They thought to lye in Methven kirk-yard,
Amang their noble kin;
But they maun lye in Stronach haugh,
To biek forenent the sin.
4   And Bessy Bell and Mary Gray,
They war twa bonnie lasses;
They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae,
And theekit it oer wi rashes.

This page most recently updated on 06-Mar-2011, 16:42:23.
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