Volume II, song 128, page 134 - 'Bessy Bell, and Mary Gray'...
Volume II, song 128, page 134 - 'Bessy Bell, and Mary Gray' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'O Bessy Bell, and Mary Gray, They are twa bonny lasses; They bigg'd a bower on yon burn brae, And theek'd it o'er with rashes. Fair Bessy Bell I loo'd yestreen, And thought I ne'er cou'd alter; But Mary Gray's twa pawky een, Gard a' my fancy falter.' 'Bigg'd' means built and 'pawky een' are shrewd or sly eyes.
Allan Ramsay is believed to have either written this entire song or created it by expanding an older one. It was first published in 1720. The tune, meanwhile, appeared in printed form under the title 'Bess Bell' in Henry Playford's 'Original Scotch Tunes', which was published in 1700. The incident itself is thought to have occurred around 1645.
According to Robert Riddell of Glenriddell, friend of Burns and commentator on the 'Museum', 'The ladies who were the subject of this song were the daughters of the Laird of Kinvaid and the Laird of Lednoch'. The story goes that during a fatal epidemic, most likely the plague, the two daughters retreated to a secluded spot 'on the side of Brauchie Burn'. They lived there happily for a while, during which time they both received the same lover. The lover could not choose between them and continued to see both until, sadly, they caught the pestilence from him and died.
Volume II, song 128, page 134 - 'Bessy Bell, and Mary Gray' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)