Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (Roud 237, Child 201) is an English-language folk song. The two titular characters sought refuge from the plague in 1645 in a remote spot away from habitation. The story has been much embellished in a poem and ballad that were written many years later.
According to the ballad, Bessy and Mary were daughters of two Perthshire gentlemen, who in 1666 built themselves a bower to avoid catching a devastating plague. The girls were supplied with food by a lad in love with both of them; the lad caught the plague and gave it to them, and all three sickened and died.
The supposed site of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray's bower, and of their grave, is recorded in a c.1860 Ordnance Survey name book, with the following comments: [1]
The site of bower and grave is on the banks of the River Almond and east of Burn Brae. ( 56°26′37″N3°34′44″W / 56.4436°N 3.5789°W )
Two similar hills near Omagh, County Tyrone (Northern Ireland) were named after Bessy Bell and Mary Gray by Scottish immigrants who went to Ireland to make their passage to America. Sliabh Troim ('mountain of elder') is the original Irish name of Bessy Bell, also recorded as Sliab Toad. There also exist twin hills in Staunton, Virginia which were named after the girls by Scottish immigrants. Two adjacent volcanic cones in the Auckland volcanic field, New Zealand, (Otara Hill and Green Hill) were referred to by 19th-century European settlers as Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (See 1859 map).
Perthshire, officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south; it borders the counties of Inverness-shire and Aberdeenshire to the north, Angus to the east, Fife, Kinross-shire, Clackmannanshire, Stirlingshire and Dunbartonshire to the south and Argyllshire to the west.
Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as Thomas the Rhymer, also known as Thomas Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston in the Borders. Thomas' gift of prophecy is linked to his poetic ability.
The Battle of Inverlochy occurred on 2 February 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, when a Royalist force of Highlanders and Confederate Irish troops under the overall command of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, routed and largely destroyed the pursuing forces of Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, who had been encamped under the walls of Inverlochy Castle.
Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer. After his education at Oxford, he inherited a substantial estate in Scotland, married and settled down to a quiet career as a landowning gentleman. However, with the death of his wife, when he was aged 42, he immersed himself in a military career, during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
Ratho is a village in the rural west part of the City of Edinburgh council area, Scotland. Its population at the 2011 census was 1,634 based on the 2010 definition of the locality. It was formerly in the old county of Midlothian. Ratho Station, Newbridge and Kirkliston are other villages in the area. The Union Canal passes through Ratho. Edinburgh Airport is situated only 4 miles (7 km) away. The village has a high ratio of its older houses built from whin stone due to a whin quarry nearby. The older, historical, part of the village was designated a Conservation Area in 1971 by Midlothian County Council.
The Famous Flower of Serving-Men or The Lady Turned Serving-Man is a traditional English language folk song and murder ballad. Child considered it as closely related to the ballad "The Lament of the Border Widow" or "The Border Widow's Lament".
"Unusually, it is possible to give a precise date and authorship to this ballad. It was written by the prolific balladeer, Laurence Price, and published in July 1656, under the title of The famous Flower of Serving-Men. Or, The Lady turn'd Serving-Man. It lasted in the mouths of ordinary people for three hundred years: what a tribute to the work of any writer, leave alone the obscure Laurence Price. Oral tradition, however, has made changes. The original has twenty-eight verses and a fairy-tale ending: “And then for fear of further strife, / he took Sweet William to be his Wife: / The like before was never seen, / A Serving-man to be a Queen”. – Roy Palmer, A Book of British Ballads
The Battle of Glenlivet was a Scottish clan battle fought on 3 October 1594 near Glenlivet, Moray, Scotland. It was fought between Protestant forces loyal to King James VI of Scotland who were commanded by Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll, against Catholic forces who were commanded by George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly, and Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll. The Catholics won a decisive victory in the battle, but in the aftermath were subdued by King James.
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border is an anthology of Border ballads, together with some from north-east Scotland and a few modern literary ballads, edited by Walter Scott. It was first published by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh in 1802, but was expanded in several later editions, reaching its final state in 1830, two years before Scott's death. It includes many of the most famous Scottish ballads, such as "Sir Patrick Spens", "The Young Tamlane", "The Twa Corbies", "The Douglas Tragedy", "Clerk Saunders", "Kempion", "The Wife of Usher's Well", "The Cruel Sister", "The Dæmon Lover", and "Thomas the Rhymer". Scott enlisted the help of several collaborators, notably John Leyden, and found his ballads both by field research of his own and by consulting the manuscript collections of others. Controversially, in the editing of his texts he preferred literary quality over scholarly rigour, but Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border nevertheless attracted high praise from the first. It was influential both in Britain and on the Continent, and helped to decide the course of Scott's later career as a poet and novelist. In recent years it has been called "the most exciting collection of ballads ever to appear".
"The Trees They Grow So High" is a Scottish folk song. The song is known by many titles, including "The Trees They Do Grow High", "Daily Growing", "Long A-Growing" and "Lady Mary Ann".
Duncan MacGregor Crerar was a Scottish poet who spent much of his adult life in western Ontario and New York City, writing sentimental poetry commemorating places and friends in Scotland. A native Gaelic speaker, he wrote primarily in English, with Gaelic phrases and diction. He was referred to by some contemporaries as "The Breadalbane Bard" or "Bard of Amulree". In his book Scottish Poets in America, John D. Ross described him:
In conclusion, we would state that Mr. Crerar is one of the most genial of men, kind, sympathetic, and generous in all his actions. In his own quiet, unobtrusive way, and unknown to the world, he has rendered assistance to many when they found the clouds of adversity hovering over them: and there are few men similarly circumstance who can boast of so large and so sincere a following of friends.
Fingask Castle is a country house in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is perched 200 feet (61 m) above Rait, three miles (5 km) north-east of Errol, in the Braes of the Carse, on the fringes of the Sidlaw Hills. Thus it overlooks both the Carse of Gowrie and the Firth of Tay and beyond into the Kingdom of Fife. The name derives from Gaelic fionn-gasg: a white or light-coloured appendage.
Elizabeth "Betsy" Gray, is a folkloric figure in the annals of 1798 Rebellion in Ireland. Ballads, poems and popular histories celebrate her presence in the ranks of the United Irishmen, and her death, on 12 June 1798 at the Battle of Ballynahinch. Contemporary records are unable to confirm the tale that has been told in all its detail, but they do point to the role of women in supporting the insurrection, including as combatants in the field. Contesting ownership of her memory, in 1898 local unionists disrupted Irish nationalist centenary commemorations and destroyed her grave marker.
Kindrogan House is located near Enochdhu, Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross in Moulin parish, at the head of Strath Ardle, 7 miles (11 km) ENE of Pitlochry and 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) northwest of Kirkmichael. It is run by Somerville Enterprises CIC, a not-for-profit community interest company.
Queen of Elphame or "Elf-hame", in the folklore belief of Lowland Scotland and Northern England, designates the elfin queen of Faerie, mentioned in Scottish witch trials. In ballads and contemporary texts, she is referred to as Queen of Elphane, Elphen, or the Fairies. She is equivalent to the Queen of Fairy who rules Faërie or Fairyland. The character as described in witch trials has many parallels with the legends of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin.
Green Hill is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field, located in the suburb of East Tāmaki. It erupted approximately 20,000 years ago, and its scoria cone had a peak 78 metres above sea level and had a grove of karaka trees. The hill was the site of a Ngāi Tai iwi pā.
Otara Hill is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field. Its scoria cone reached 89 m above sea level before it was quarried away. The hill was the site of a pā named "Te Puke Ō Tara" meaning 'hill belonging to Tara', who was a Ngāi Tai Rangatira of the area.
Dirnanean House is part of a private, traditional Highland estate located near Enochdhu in Moulin parish, Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, 10 miles ENE of Pitlochry. The Dirnanean estate is situated adjacent to the 64-mile waymarked Cateran Trail.
Mary Campbell, also known as Highland Mary, was the daughter of Archibald Campbell of Daling, a sailor in a revenue cutter, whose wife was Agnes Campbell of Achnamore or Auchamore. Mary was the eldest of a family of four. Robert Burns had an affair with her after he felt that he had been "deserted" by Jean Armour following her move to Paisley in March 1786. The brief affair started in April 1786, and the parting took place on 14 May of that year. Mary's pronunciation of English was heavily accented with the lilt of local indigenous language, Gaelic - and this led to her becoming known as 'Highland Mary.'
Christian Gray was a Scottish poet. Blind from a young age, Gray was known as the "blind poet" and wrote in both Scots and English. She published two volumes of poems in a variety of genres, including political, religious, and autobiographical.
The Forest Minstrel (1810) is an anthology of 83 songs, assembled by James Hogg, divided into four sections: 'Pathetic Songs', 'Love Songs', 'Humorous Songs', and 'National Songs'. Hogg himself is the author of 56 items. There are also 15 by Thomas Mounsey Cunningham, 5 by John Grieve, 3 by William Laidlaw, 3 by James Gray, and one perhaps by John Ballantyne.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Wood, James, ed. (1907). The Nuttall Encyclopædia . London and New York: Frederick Warne.{{cite encyclopedia}}
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