Alexander Sanderson

After the snow the graveyard is now back to normal. There was a bit of frost on the ground but all the inscriptions could be read again. Here is the full text for the above stone:

Erected

In Memory of

Alexander Sanderson

who died the 9th day of June

1851, aged 78 years

Janet Sanderson spouse

to Alex Sanderson

who died 24 of August

1827 aged 47 years also

Charles Sanderson, son to

Alex Sanderson, wright

in Linton, who died Mar

ch the 6th 1809 aged 3 years

Also John Sanderson his

son who died June the 11

1810 aged 8 years

At the top is a very ornate urn which you can see above.

Robert Aitken

The snow has completely disappeared and the gravestones are once more in proper view. I don't usually feature too many modern gravestones but for this blog I will eventually record all the stones in West Linton graveyard so when my eye fell on this impressive one, with beautiful patterns, I could not resist.

It was erected for Sir Robert Aitken and the full inscription reads:

In

loving memory

of

Robert Aitken

born May 1863

died 18th April 1924

and his wife

Caroline

Mary Lobb

who died

13th February 1937

Also their daughter

Margery Grace Black

born 5th November 1897

died 11th July 1961

Apparently Sir Robert had something to do with the Imperial Bank of India in his day.

Don't you just love the Celtic knot patterns on this stone? Very inspirational.

William Cairns gravestone in the snow

I have to apologize for not updating this blog for quite some time. We had lots of snow here in West Linton and that's not a good condition for registering the gravestones and more especially reading the information on them. But on the other hand the graveyard looks very scenic in the snow and I was in fact the very first person to disturb the snow since it started to fall last week.

This is the gravestone of William Cairns. I love the way the snow is providing covering for the skull. To read all the information about this gravestone you can refer to an earlier post here.

Snow!

Somehow snow is so very appropriate in graveyards. The transient nature of snow seems to resonate with the message Memento Mori as seen on a large variety of gravestones. West Linton graveyard looked beautiful first thing this morning.

I love the way the snow seems to wrap itself around the stones and specially the ornamention such as the urn.

Elizabeth Ballantine and family

The picture above was taken several days ago before the snow began to fall.

This impressive stone has the following inscriptions:

Erected in 1860

in affectionate remembrance of

Elizabeth Ballantine

eldest daughter of George Ballentine

late of Langleyhill and wife of John Alston

late of Peggy's Lea, who died at Pakes Hill

18th May 1856, aged 76 years

and of

her eldest daughter Agnes Alston

wife of Thomas R(or B?) ouch, who lies 16 feet south of this

who died at Grange 6th September 1837

aged 32 years

and of

her son Hugh Alston

who died at West Linton 23rd September 1885

aged 75 years

and of

her daughter Marion Alston

who died at Peebles 21st February 1894

aged 80 years

The righteous shall be hid in everlasting remembrance.

John Allan

John Allan has a remarkable gravestone in West Linton graveyard. He's buried very close to the side wall to the right if you enter from the Main street and towards the back near the wall separating the graveyard from the Lower Green.

The inscription is very hard to read, only an occasional word can now be traced and I have Sheila A. Scott's book Peeblesshire Monumental Inscriptions - pre-1855 to thank for the text. Once I consulted the book I could even deciper some of the text on the stone. She doesn' mention the date of the gravestone but by closely looking at it I could see the year 1798.

The gravestone belongs to John Allan Leat Col (which is Colonel) Master in Collie Burn. This probably means he was in charge at Coalyburn Mine, which is the open cast mine the remnants of which can still be seen in our neighbouring field. The nearest house to ours is in fact called Coalyburn, so this gravestone is of very local interest.

His gravestones is adorned with this wonderful compass rose

as well as this circle of instruments which include (again according to Sheila Scott) 2 picks, a shovel, hammer and a couple of wedges, no doubt the tools of his trade.

This is the reverse of his gravestone with pillars, a winged (although the wings are hard to distinguish) soul and crossbones. There was also text on this side, now sadly lost to us. A detail of the top of this side can be seen at the very top of this post and became my blip for today!

James Scott's family

Trying to keep up with updating this site during some very busy weeks and today it's the time for the family of James Scott. He himself doesn't seem to be buried here.

The text reads:

Erected

by James Scott

in memory of his father

Thomas Scott who died in August 1840

also Isabella Smellie

his mother who died in June 1852

also Margaret Scott

his daughter who died February 1849

also Margaret Stewart

his wife died in November 1855