Note from The Greig Duncan collection
Jim Carroll

BOGIE'S BONNIE BELL Cf. Kennedy No. 340 "Bogie's Bonny Belle". The following note has been supplied by Peter Hall: "Isabel Morison, the heroine of the song, was born at Boghead, 20 September 1823, as the daughter of Alexander Morison (Old Parish Register, Cairney). She again appears at Boghead in the census of 1841. Her illegitimate son, James, was born on 16 June 1843, the father being James Stephen from the parish of Glass (OPR, Cairney). In the census of 1851, the son was living with his paternal uncle in the parish of Glass, lending credence to the versions of the song which have the father remove the child from the maternal home. Isabel Morrison is no longer at Boghead in 1851."
"The story of the song is about this tinsmith courting the daughter of Bogie (Boghead, he thinks); the man was at that time, probably, a servant with her father. He afterwards became a well-known tinsmith in Huntly, and was famed for his lamps and lanterns, which are named after him, 'Bowmans'. He died only a few years ago." (Alexander, between pp. 8 and 9) A side note states that the last lines given are the "two last lines of song". 3.2 "guid": MS "quid".

SCROGIE'S BELL "There may be occasionally heard about Huntly two local unedited songs 'Bogie's (Boghead Cairnie) Bonny Bell' and 'Scrogie's Bell'. The former has a wide popularity and will easily be recovered words and tune. I have heard a granite mason home from America singing this. When questioned he said it was popular with the men in Canada. The merit of the poem - if it has any - lies in the denouement where after the cruel parent had put effectual bars between the first pair of true lovers, the verse declares:- [Text, 1396 N], The other song is the love story of a navvy - the railway came to Huntly some fifty years ago but that will be easy to ascertain. - [Text.] Perhaps the Huntly Express may be of help for the airs of those pieces. There are relatives of both 'heroines' still to the fore so that the appearance of the songs themselves would not be looked for in such a production as a local newspaper. With the Spalding Club Publications it is different." Alex MacDonald, writing to Duncan. (998/7/3/13)