Scotch Romance

In 1707 Scotland was struggling to preserve its Presbyterianism, establish free trade with the English colonies, seat her peers in the House of Lords. But in a lonely castle on Maxwelton's hillside the year's real problem was a pretty, dark-eyed girl who fancied she loved a rakish soldier. The girl was Annie Laurie. The soldier, one Willie Douglas of Fingland, wrote verses to her, offered to lay himself "doon an' dee." Annie Laurie's parents locked her in her stone-walled bedroom until she stopped her mooning, sadly consented to marry respectable Alexander Fergusson who had rich holdings in Cragdarroch down the glen. Willie Douglas went off and got married soon after. Annie Fergusson grew plump and placid. Nearly 150 years passed before Willie Douglas' poem was discovered by Lady (John) Scott, who married into Sir Walter's clan and spent half her time riding over the countryside looking for antiques. Lady Scott wrote the music for "Annie Laurie," first popularized by the British soldiers at Sebastopol. She edited the poem thoroughly, made the second stanza read: Her brow is like the snowdrift, Her neck is like the swan, Her face it is the fairest That e'er the sun shone on. . . . Willie Douglas' version: She's backit like the peacock, She's briestit like the swan; She's jimp about the middle, Her waist ye weel micht span. . . . Last week in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, Captain Reginald Houldsworth was married to Margaret May Laurie, Annie Laurie's great-great-great-great-great-great niece. The bride was given away by her uncle, Sir Wilfrid Laurie, who lives in Maxwelton House where Annie was born.

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