I spend the morning in West Linton Graveyard where I now feel very much at home. But despite that I still haven't seen all the gravestones in detail and today I discovered this very old stone, dating back to 1707 and decorated beautifully with symbols of mortality such as skull, crossbones and Memento Mori text. Also on the other side of the stone, the pillars at the side (think "theatre of life"), as well as the winged soul at the top of this side, a symbol of immortality.
On the other side of the stone is the actual information about who was buried here. And to make it extra clear what the occupation of James Melrose was there is a carved shoemaker's knife at the top of the gravestone The text on this gravestone is now barely legible and I have Sheila A Scott's book Peeblesshire Monumental Inscriptions pre 1855 to thank for the additional information on the text that no longer could be read.
Here it is:
Here it is:
I M
B P
1707
Hear lyes
James Melrose
shoemaker
...........died.... 1709
and also Bessie
Purdie his spouse
who died 11th Sept 1725 (??)
aged 79 (?)
There are more words and they look as if they were added at a later date but try as I may, I can't make any sense of them.
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