TWA BONNIE LASSIES (ASC #1)*
Have you ever wondered what the early settlers here in this Shenandoah Valley of Virginia did to entertain themselves?
It was self-made; you can count on that. And,there must have been a great deal of singing at times.
We have fragments of one Scottish ballad which, by way of Ireland, reached these shores and welled up from the hearts and souls of the first Irish to come into the Valley. They remembered their homeland and its traditions and tales and rephrase them to suit their need. In a sense, it was sung, were other such ballads, not only to treasure and sustain stories of love and romance or of adventure and danger but for comfort found in familiarity. These people, around 1730, faced the a wilderness in a very real sense, and they sustained themselves and each other by recounting memories of attainments and courageous actions in their past.
You can “see” this particular song I mentioned every time you visit Staunton, Virginia - in its early days known as Beverley's Mill Place. It was, at that time, about nine miles south of Augusta Meeting House on the Old Indian Trail. You “see” the song in the form of two dominant hills - ”mountains” to some folks. In time, you will come to know them by their proper names: “Betsy Bell” and “Mary Gray”.
There is a local story saying that the hills were named after two girls from the settlements killed by Indians, but there seems to be little truth in the tale because Indian raids did not become common until some years later.
The song itself was almost lost to us. We have only the first and last verses.
We sometimes forget the languages of our forebears was unlike our own in many ways, so much so that even these fragments need some translation. They will, however, easily come to have meaning for you if you just relax and let it all flow....
“O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray
They were two bonnie lasses ....”
Notice, we prefer the old Scottish selling the first name: Bessie Bell, rather than the harsher, clipped “Betsy”. It was Bessie in the old song.
The were real girls. Tradition holds they were pretty (“bonnie”) young girls, as well. The names are of Scottish origin and records indicate Mary Gray's father was Laird of Lednoch – sometimes spelled as “Lyndocks”. Bessie Bell's father was Laird of Kinvaid.
An intimate friendship sprang up between the two young girls and when Bessie was visiting Mary in her home – the year would have been 1645, the terror known as “The Plague”struck the neighborhood. In an attempt to escape the pestilence, the two girls went into seclusion. The constructed a hut
or, bower, for themselves on a hill near Lednoch House and lived there ,in quarantine, for some time. They covered their bower all over with rushes, green reeds and decorated it with heather.
But the plague raged on in great fury,and a young man who loved both - his name lost forever with the missing verses of the song - brought them – and also- in time – the plague as well!
Next: ASC#2* - ”WE SING THE SONG.” - a closer look at the old ballad itself. his will be the second a series of essays titled ASC dealing, in some way, with the history of Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church, of Fort Defiance,Virginia.
A.L.M. August 4, 2003 [c608wds]
