John and William Blair

A stiff wind was blowing and it was very cold for my visit to the graveyard this morning. But it was a lot brighter than during the past few weeks so much better for photography. I owe all the information about the above gravestone to Sheila A. Scott's book Peeblesshire Monumental Inscriptions - pre 1855 as the inscription itself can no longer be read (at least not by me!) as you can see on the picture below

According to her this stone belongs to John and William Blair, and the stone also features (barely discernable now!) a pair of scales as well as a merchant's mark. She dates it back to 1709. As you can see moss is well on the way to gobbling up this stone completely and the carving is being worn away by the weather on a daily base. Without the book I would not have noticed the scales at all.