James Melrose and Bessie Purdie

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:

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.

James Alexander and Janet Johnstoune

A very old stone decorated on both sides. The text reads:

Hear Lyes James

Alexander who died

the 12th Day of Sept

1718 his age 63 and

Janet Johnstoune

his spuse who died

the 24 of December 1720

her age 48 who live

d in Whitefeld

As you can tell a stone with some interesting spelling mistakes!

A detail of the winged soul (making it's way to heaven according to all the books I've so far read on the subject and thus a symbol of immortality)

And here is the back of the gravestone, adorned with skull and crossbones, a winged hour-glass (all symbols of immortality or mortality, depending on your point of view!)and the text, barely decipherable, Memento Mori.