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:—

Erected to the memory of Robert Paterson,
the “Old Mortality” of Sir Walter Scott,
who was buried here February, 1801.
“Why seeks he with unwearied toil
Through death’s dim walk to urge his way
Reclaim his long asserted spoil,
And lead oblivion into day.”

Here is a picture of the stone placed over the grave of William Shakespeare, at Stratford-on-Avon, with its well-known and frequently quoted inscription:—

At Loddon, in Norfolk, is buried one who, like the bard of Avon, had a great horror of his bones being removed. The epitaph is as follows:—

When on this spot affection’s downcast eye,
The lucid tribute shall no more bestow;
When friendship’s breast no more shall heave a sigh,
In kind remembrance of the dust below;
Should the rude sexton digging near this tomb,
A place of rest for others to prepare,
The vault beneath to violate presume;
May some opposing Christian cry “Forbear”—
Forbear! rash mortal, as thou hop’st to rest
When death shall lodge thee in thy destined bed,
With ruthless spade, unkindly to molest
The peaceful slumbers of the kindred dead.

In Tideswell churchyard, among several other singular gravestone inscriptions, the following occurs, and is worth reprinting:—

In memory of
Brian, son of John and Martha Haigh,
who died 22nd December, 1795,
Aged 17 years.
Come, honest sexton, with thy spade,
And let my grave be quickly made;
Make my cold bed secure and deep,
That, undisturbed, my bones may sleep.
Until that great tremendous day,
When from above a voice shall say,—
“Awake, ye dead, lift up your eyes,
Your great Creator bids you rise!”
Then, free from this polluted dust,
I hope to be amongst the just.

Under the shadow of the ancient church of Bakewell, Derbyshire, is a stone containing a long inscription to the memory of John Dale, barber-surgeon, and his two wives, Elizabeth Foljambe and Sarah Bloodworth. It ends thus:—