Bessy Bell and Mary Gray
The common tradition respecting these celebrated beauties is as follows:—"In the year 1666, when the plague raged at Perth, these ladies retired into solitude, to avoid infection; built on a small streamlet, tributary to the Almond, in a sequestered corner called Burn-brae, a bower, and lived in it together, till a young man, whom they both tenderly loved, in his visits communicated to them the fatal contagion, of which they soon after died."
“Bessy Bell and Mary Gray,
They were two bonny lasses:
They built their house upon the lea,
And covered it with rashes.
Bessy kept the garden gate,
And Mary kept the pantry:
Bessy always had to wait,
While Mary lived in plenty.”
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Citation
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"Bessy Bell and Mary Gray Nursery rhyme." Rhymes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 21 Apr. 2021. <https://www.rhymes.net/nursery/578/bessy-bell-and-mary-gray>.