'THE
BONNIE LASS 0' BON-ACCORD
James Lees tells the touching story of the servant girl who inspired an immortal tune. Taken from an article in the “Aberdeen Leopard” to whom copyright is acknowledged.
One of the most famous tunes composed by the
'Strathspey King', James Scott Skinner, was The
Bonnie Lass o' Bon-Accord. It was Aberdeen's very own song long before The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen took over that
position. But who was the 'Bonnie Lass o' Bon-Accord'? Not many people know but
a visit to Fetteresso Cemetery, Stonehaven, will give the answer.
Few visitors to the cemetery which overlooks the Stonehaven by-pass
have probably spotted the gravestone erected in her memory. The inscription
reads: "In loving memory of Mina
Bell, who died 8th June, 1938, aged 72 years, immortalised in James Scott
Skinner's masterpiece The Bonnie Lass o' Bon-Accord. Also David Bell, who died
20th March, 1948."
My inquiries led me to the man who was responsible for getting the
stone erected. He also arranges for it to be kept clean and for fresh flowers
to be placed on the grave periodically. He is Douglas Bell of Hilton Drive,
Aberdeen, nephew of Mina Bell. Mina looked after him and his three sisters for
five years after their mother died when the family were quite young. David Bell
was his father.
Douglas Bell is a mine of information, not only on his Aunt Mina, one
of a family of 11, but on the works of Scott Skinner. A copious file on Scott
Skinner includes his life story which was serialised in the People's Journal in the early 1920s. And
it is in that life story that Skinner, who died in 1927, aged 84, tells the
unusual tale of how Mina Bell became his inspiration for The Bonnie Lass o' Bon-Accord.
In December 1884, Skinner was holding dancing
classes in the Silver Street Hall, Aberdeen, and one evening he and some
friends were invited to a house in nearby Union Terrace. Skinner wrote:
"There I found a girl performing the menial task of a servant, who it was
plainly to be seen was a 'cut' above the ordinary servant lass of those days. 1
was both interested and surprised and my surprise was heightened when the floor
was cleared for dancing for Wilhelmina proved herself a splendid 'tripper of
the light fantastic toe'."
At the first opportunity Skinner spoke to her and
she told him that her father used to play bass fiddle for Skinner's father.
Skinner said she was a splendid dancer and asked: "Hoo comes it that you
are a servant lass here?" The girl's eyes filled with tears and replied,
"My father was a farmer at Cockley, Maryculter, but he's living oot at
Newtonhill now."
"How's that?" asked Skinner, sensing
tragedy. "Oh", sobbed Mina, "my father signed a bill for a freen
and got it a' tae pey. That was his ruin. He is now glad of a day's work and
that is why I am here."
"Never mind, my lassie", said Skinner,
slapping her on the shoulder "I'll mak' a tune that'll keep ye in min'
when we’re baith deid." Next
morning Skinner composed The Bonnie Lass o' Bon-Accord.
In the afternoon with the tune in his pocket he met
Alexander Dinnie, an Aberdeen photographer, and showed him the score.
"Man", said Dinnie "there's something great in that tune. Ye'll
need to mak' it something about Bon-Accord." Just at that moment Mina
passed. "There", whispered Skinner to Dinnie "goes the bonnie
lass the tune's about."
"I've got it", exclaimed Dinnie "Ca' it The Bonnie Lass o' Bon-Accord". And
he did, as every fiddle player and lover of fiddle music knows. When the
memorial to Scott Skinner was unveiled at Allenvale Cemetery in Aberdeen, on
November 28, 1931, Mina Bell was an honoured guest. The tribute to the
Strathspey King was paid by Sir Harry Lauder.
Older Aberdonians will recall the names of
yesteryear on some of the programmes Mr Bell has kept - Violet Davidson of the
Beach Pavilion, Willie Kemp, the 'Cornkister King', Alec Sim of the Aberdeen
Strathspey and Reel Society, Donald Davidson and William Johnston.
Mina Bell's name never appeared on a musical programme but she inspired
a great tune. Her headstone at Fetteresso Cemetery faces north to the farm of
Clayfolds Newtonhill, where she was born on May 27,1866.