Betsy Bell and Mary Grey

Today I was one of the Kelvingrove Guides giving a ten minute talk to the others on a favourite item from the galleries. I chose a lovely piece of stained glass designed by Harrington Mann, one of the Glasgow Boys and produced by J & W Guthrie in 1896.
The Guthries owned one of the 58 decorative glass firms in Glasgow in the period 1870-1914. The panel was commissioned for the Ferry Inn Rosneath, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Harrington Mann produced several beautiful panels for the Guthries and this is typical of what came to be known as the Glasgow Style.

The subject matter was inspired by the old Scottish ballad Betsy Bell and Mary Gray. It’s an exquisite scene of two fair, young women walking together on a cobblestone path. A red-roofed estate looms in the distance on what appears to be a warm summer’s day. There are as many different versions of the story as the ballad itself, but the differences are quite minor and, unfortunately, they all end the same way.

Betsy Bell was the daughter of the Laird of Kinnaird, and Mary Gray of the Laird of Lynedoch. In 1665 the threat of the plague in Perth persuaded their parents to try and protect their daughters from its ravages. They were sent to a secluded spot on the near-by Brauchie Burn, called Burn Brae. There they lived in a temporary shelter made of tree branches, rushes and heather. A young lover of Bessie’s secretly brought them food parcels but on one trip he inadvertently also brought the plague and passed it on to Bessie and Mary. Both died soon afterwards.