AN OLD SCOTTISH STORY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8965, 16 April 1890, Page 6

AN OLD SCOTTISH STORY.

BESSIE BELL. AND MARY GRAY, According to the old and unvarying tradition, Bessie Bell was daughter of the Laird of Kinvaid, in Moneydie pariah, and Mary Cray, daughter of the Laird of Lednoch or Lynedoch, in the parish of Methven, They had been playmates in childhood, and their riper years cemented more firmly the ties of mutual regard and affectionate companion, ship. Both endowed with rare grace and beauty (says R. S, Flttia in • Heroines of Scotland’), they were In the hey-day of youth at this fata! time. Bessie Bell waa on a visit to her friend at Lynedoch when the near approach of the pest was announced ; and, seclusion being thought their best resource in so perilous a time, it was arranged that they should retire to some leafy solitude on Almoud’a banks, where, amid the sylvan freshness and purity, they might abide perchance in safety unt 1 the destroyer’s hand W !.B stayed. So if was done ; and they took up their hermitage in a green, wattled, rush covered hut or bower, hastily constructed for them in a solitary place, where stranger’s foot rarely intruded—at a sweet spot called Barnbraes, by the side of the Brachie Burn, on the north bank of the Almond, and about three-quarters of a mile distant from the present mansion-house of Lynedoch, The site of this verdant refuge is still pointed out. It is reached after a pleasant walk —the water of the Almond cc. c wionally glancing on the eye at turns of the winding path. Arriving at the scene, the visitor is shown a small plot of ground, about four yards square, circumscribed by a alight elevation which seems to mark the foundatioas of the cot. Thither came the_ two friends, in that sad autumn when pestilence and war swept the land. In that lone retreat they seemed as twin dryads of the silent woods or naiads of the rippling river that sparkled in the sunshine. Happy in their own society, and reposing all their confidence in the gracious protection of heaven, they trustfully looked forward to the dawning of a better day for afflicted Scotland. . . . Well might it have been with the fair recluses had there not intervened a thoughtless disregard of reasonable precaution, bringing about a calamitous issue. The rustic bower by the Almond became a pilgrimage. One of the maidens—tradition names her Bessie Bell—was beloved by a young swain of the vicinity, who made them frequent visits, bringing provisions, or, more probably, delicacies of the season, and preservatives and charms against the Plague, 'fhe fair recluses welcomed him with tedium of long days, and kept up their connection with the world from which they had fled. Better far that ho had Ufb them to their seclusion—that they bad never seen his face I One day he brought with him a gift for his betrothed, which he had purchased of a Jew peddlar near the town of Perth. It was either a rich handkerchief or a pearl necklace ; but whether one or other is immaterial. It was of considerable value, and the youth bestowed it on the idol of his heart. She wore it with fond pride, never thinking that it was charged with death ! Not many hours had flown when the bloomicg girl fell suddenly ill with every symptom of the Plague ! She and her companion, still trusting in the false security of their habitation, hoped, as it were, against hope. But that fatal souvenir of affection ! —it had been purloined by the crafty Jew from the person of a victim of the Pestilence in the city, and the unseen poison clinging to it was communicated to the unsuspecting wearer in the bower of the Almond, The malady seized upon the other inmate, and, after a brief term of suffering, placidly borne as the dispensation of an inscrutable Providence both maidens yielded up their gentle spirits, and lay side by side in death ! Tradition adds that the lover also caught the infection, and died soon after returning to his home.