Re: The Dirge of Rosabelle

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

At 18:51 10/10/28 -0500, you wrote:

>Just for fun once in a while I get in my old 78 record collection, wind up
>the crank, change the needle and put on the  Rosalinda Waltz.  What a
>beautiful sound.
>
>    Donald H. Sinclair
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Rose" <jeannie@brookmarket.freeserve.co.uk>
>To: <sinclair@matrix.net>
>Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 12:46 PM
>Subject: Re: Pierre Elliot Trudeau
>
>
> > I have just read Nivens letter re Margaret Sinclair and can't help adding
>my
> > own "tuppence". 50 years ago when I was a wee girl of 11, my little sister
> > was born. Our Father was James Irvine Sinclair from St. Margarets Hope,
> > Orkney.  My Mother and I tried to think of a name which was not in the
> > family and settled on Margaret Rosalind Sinclair. We later realised that
>not
> > only did Dad come from St. Margarets Hope, he also had a Sister who still
> > lived there in a house called Roselea,and was called
>Maggie...i.e,Margaret.
> > In those days Orkney was the other end of the world as far as we were
> > concerned as we were poor.
> > To add to the "coincidence" my daughter Heidi. called her first daughter
> > Roselea.....I spent a year working there and got to know some of my
>Fathers
> > friends and Heidi enjoyed going to see Auntie Maggie and her daughters and
> > fell in love with the house.
> > Roselea is now almost 13 and is a computer whiz. She has Cystic Fibrosis
>and
> > is the bravest little lady I know. She started writing short stories when
> > she was 10 and her heroine was called Rosebelle. She now "runs" her own
> > Equestrian Centre called Rose Acres.as she is madly into ponies.
> > I lived in Stirling for 15 years and never knew about Rosslyn until last
> > year.....4 years after leaving Scotland and only visited for the first
>time
> > last year whilst visiting my friends in Stirling.
> > Even stranger is the fact that my Father had a tattoo on his arm with a
>pink
> > Rose on. When I had grown up I found out that my Father had lost his first
> > wife Rose in childbirth. My Mother was called Warder Rosalaid Wells.
> > My Sister  married Paul Ellis and their only son is Steven..for no
> > particular reason.
> > What  I am trying to say, I guess is that sometimes 2+2=5.  Margaret was
> > also the fourth child.
> > Yours in kinship  Mary Jean Sinclair.
> >What a lovely story.

     And, of course, there is "The Dirge of Rosabelle" which begins:


                                 "Oh listen! listen ladies gay
                                   No haughty feat of arms I tell:
                                   Soft is the note, and sad the lay,
                                    That mourns the lovely Rosabelle"

And, after a further 10 verses, ends:

                                 "There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold
                                   Lie buried within that prou chapelle;
                                   Each one the holy vault does hold -
                                   But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!

                                 "And each Saint Clair was buried there,
                                   With candle, with book, and with knell;
                                   But the sea-caves rung, and the wild 
winds sung
                                   The dirge of lovely Rosabelle".

It is the story of Rosabelle, who lived at Ravenscraig Castle on the Fife 
side of the Firth
of Forth, but who, having heard of a great ball which was to be held at 
Rosslyn Castle, was
determined to attend although she had been told that the weather was too 
bad to attempt
a sea-crossing the Firth that night.  Her determination was reinforced with 
the knowledge that
Lord Lindsay's son and heir was attending the ball and he had already 
caught her eye
as being a fine horseman.  Surely, he would also be a fine dancer!

Alas, the wild winds won and, in the mind's eye, one can see the lovely 
Rosabelle,
trapped in one of the sea-caves, - and still longing to reach the ball so 
that she could
show off her new dress and dance the night away with gallant young 
Lindsay!  What
a beau he would make!!

Perhaps, it is the story of life itself: the longing for the unattainable - 
in sight but out of reach!

"The Dirge of Rosabelle" is one of the saddest and, yet, one of the 
loveliest poems in the
English language.

Niven Sinclair



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