puzzle

ETA: This is too long! An interesting gravestone at Eaglesham. If you want detail, read on.


This is back at Eaglesham Church graveyard, where I had a bit more time to have a look - but not anything like enough time - there is so much in here for the graveyard enthusiast that I hopped around excitedly making new discoveries at every turn.

This stone is an interesting one. Rhymes as epitaphs are not usual in Scotland, though they are seen – bible verses, pious exhortations or brief accounts of birth and death dates were preferred in the strict Presbyterian tradition. One Kirk Session in 1619 complained that stones contained words ‘partlie rediculous and partlie ontrew’ and ordained that local kirks must give permission for epitaphs. But there is an eight line verse here:

Adieu, blest woman partner of my life/ Thou tender mother, and thou faithful wife/From scandal free, most ready to commend/Most loath to hurt, most proud to be a friend/Her partner's comfort, and his life's relief/ Once his chief joy, but now his greatest grief/ Her God hath call'd her where he hopes she'll have/ A bliss more solid than herself once gave.

The lower lines are obscured by sinking but I was able to complete them fairly easily by googling, because these exact lines are recorded on a stone in Winterton, Humberside – the date is not given, nor the name of the spouse of one John Popper – and in Kirkby, Westmoreland in 1826 for Susanna, wife of Michael Fothergill and, as far as I can find, nowhere else.

This stone was erected by William Baird, a farmer, for his spouse, Agnes Rankin who was 74 when she died in 1811. Was it a popular sentimental verse that has slipped from the record except for these three obscure references? I find it hard to imagine an elderly farmer in early nineteenth century Scotland seeking out and ordering a sentimental poem for his wife’s grave, yet there it is. It’s also lettering of extremely high quality – not only the depth and clarity of the letters but the perfect spacing of each line to fit. He did not stint on her stone.

Part of the charm of gravestones is the potential for speculation, but equally it can be frustrating to realise that some puzzles will never be solved.