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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Ballads  »  176. Bessie Bell and Mary Gray

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. (1863–1944). The Oxford Book of Ballads. 1910.

176

176. Bessie Bell and Mary Gray

I

O BESSIE BELL and Mary Gray,

They war twa bonnie lasses;

They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae,

And theekit it o’er wi’ rashes.

II

They theekit it o’er wi’ rashes green,

They theekit it o’er wi’ heather;

But the pest cam frae the burrows-town,

And slew them baith thegither.

III

They thought to lye in Methven kirkyard,

Amang their noble kin;

But they maun lye in Stronach haugh,

To bick forenent the sin.

IV

And Bessie Bell and Mary Gray,

They war twa bonnie lasses;

They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae,

And theekit it o’er wi’ rashes.


biggit] built.theekit] thatched.haugh] water-mead.biek] bask.sin] sun.