Review of Related Literature

* [1900:] Maxwelton, the estate of a family of rank, is beautifully situated on the banks of the valley of the Cairn, in Dumfriesshire; and there is the scene of the song. Sir Robert Laurie, the first Baronet of the Maxwelton family - so created in 1685 - by his second wife, Jean, a daughter of Riddell of Minto, had three sons and four daughters, of whom Annie, the youngest, was much celebrated for her beauty. She made a conquest of William Douglas of Fingland, a cadet of the Queensberry family, who is said to have composed these verses to express his passion:
Maxwelton braes are bonnie, where early fa's the dew
Where me and Annie Laurie made up the promise true
Made up the promise true, and ne'er forget will I
And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay doun my head and die
She's backit like the peacock, she's breistit like the swan
She's jimp aboot the middle, her waist ye weel may span
Her waist ye weel may span, and she has a rolling eye
And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay doun my head and die
Very ardent indeed. No apparent sham about that fellow's love. But the lady - even although, according to the song, she had of her own accord been a party to the making of "the promise true" - was not destined to be won by her poetical lover, but, in 1710, became the wife of Alexander Fergusson of Craigdarroch, a handsome and well-to-do country laird, who was also a neighbour.
[...] Annie, or Anna as she is styled in the register, and as she invariably signed herself, seems really to have been a bit of a flirt, and is credited with jilting more than her poetical admirer. But we anticipate. About ten years ago, when a discussion arose in the public prints in respect of the song and its personal application and locality, the following letter, written by Miss Stuart-Monteith, a great-grand-daughter of the song-sanctified lady, appeared: "That Annie Laurie of Maxwelton," said the writer, "was the heroine of the song bearing her name can be proven beyond doubt by