Next is a copy of an acrostic epitaph from Tewkesbury Abbey.
Here lyeth the body of THOMAS MERRETT, of Tewkesbury, Barber-chirurgeon, who departed this life the 22nd day of October, 1699.
T hough only Stone Salutes the reader's eye, H ere (in deep silence) precious dust doth lye, O bscurely Sleeping in Death's mighty store, M ingled with common earth till time's no more, A gainst Death's Stubborne laws, who dares repine, S ince So much Merrett did his life resigne.
M urmurs and Teares are useless in the grave, E lse hee whole Vollies at his Tomb might have. R est in Peace; who like a faithful steward, R epair'd the Church, the Poore and needy cur'd; E ternall mansions do attend the Just, T o clothe with Immortality their dust, T ainted (whilst under ground) with wormes and rust.
In the churchyard of Irongray a table stone, reared by Sir Walter Scott, commemorates Helen Walker, the prototype of Jeanie Deans, whose integrity and tenderness are, in his "Heart of Midlothian," so admirably portrayed by that great novelist. The following is the inscription:--
This stone was erected by the author of Waverley to the memory of HELEN WALKER, who died in the year of God 1791. This humble individual practised in real life the virtues with which fiction has invested the imaginary character of Jeanie Deans; refusing the slightest departure from veracity, even to save the life of a sister, she nevertheless showed her kindness and fortitude, in rescuing her from the severity of the law at the expense of personal exertions which the time rendered as difficult as the motive was laudable. Respect the grave of poverty when combined with love of truth and dear affection. Erected October 1831.
Robert Paterson, better known as "Old Mortality," rests in the churchyard of Caerlaverock, Dumfriesshire. We learn from Dr. Charles Rogers's "Monuments and Monumental Inscriptions in Scotland" (1871) that Paterson was born in 1715, and was the youngest son of Walter Paterson and Margaret Scott, who rented the farm of Haggista, parish of Hawick. He some time served an elder brother who had a farm in Comcockle-muir, near Lochmaben. He married Elizabeth Gray, who, having been cook in the family of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, of Closeburn, procured for him an advantageous lease of a freestone quarry at Morton. Here he resided many years, labouring with exemplary diligence. From his youth attached to the sect of the Cameronians, he evinced a deep interest in the memory of those who had suffered in the cause of Presbytery. Occasionally he restored their tombstones. At length his zeal in the restoration of these stony memorials acquired the force of a passion. In 1758 he began to travel from parish to parish, ever working with hammer and chisel in renewing the epitaphs of the martyrs. His self-imposed task no entreaties of wife or children could induce him to abandon. Though reduced to the verge of poverty, he persisted in his labours till the last day of his existence. He died at Banpend village, near Lockerbie, on the 29th January, 1801, aged eighty-six. At his death he was found possessed of twenty-seven shillings and sixpence, which were applied to the expenses of his funeral. Sir Walter Scott, who has made "Old Mortality" the subject of a novel, intended to rear a tombstone to his memory, but was unable to discover his place of sepulture. Since the discovery has been made, Messrs. Black, of Edinburgh, who possess the copyright of the Waverley novels, have reared at the grave of the old enthusiast a suitable memorial stone. It is thus inscribed:--