SOME EPITAPHS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 223, 3 November 1916, Page 6 (Supplement)

SOME EPITAPHS.

QUAINT CUTS ON WIGTOWN TOMBSTONES. A holiday among the tombs sounds .-. dismal affair, but in the old country kirkyards, where the sun and the winci play among the long deep grass, and the clover-scented air brings no sound but the busy hum of hoes, the impression -Is of peace rather than melanchoy, hope rather than despair. Such a kirkvard is Wigtown. On one side rise the blue Ktcwartry hills, and on the other side lies the white shimmer of the roeedrnc soi Wa saw it on a hot August afternoon; the town Stoelf soemM asleep, ror most of the blinds, even n the shops, were drawn down to keep out tha sun, and a larpe dock, bj which we had hoped to guide, oorww as to time, registered five o clock during the whole length of our sojourn I o tired senses seeking repose during those days of stress it felt indeed as it we had come into the land of the otuseaters, "in which it seemed always afternoon." This, however, must he ,aken as merely our summer-day impression, and not as an .niputation tha fndustry and energy arc scarce at W * town.

A DISGRUNTLED jiURGLSS. Ther are several quaint tombstones Jo hands and cross-bones and n " lseit f 23. "such as Stevenson aptly senbed or bearing epitaphs in versa wS blend something of both hum ju and pathos in their doggerel. On tho tomb of a burgess o' Wigtown, who die I in 1738, we read : -Farewell, vain world, I've had enough of thee, And now I'm careless what t.sou say .... Thy smiles 0 ! court not, nor thy frowns My daysTre past, my head lys quiet Vain "worldly pomp and grandeur shun; , , ,„ -i My "lass is done-ard yours far run. '• I'htt was erected at the expenses of l'atk. and And. Herons, his sous, Unea drapers in London." Another odd epitaph sums up the attributes and history ot one John Cowan iKfuU inscription, .beginning modestl) in nrose runs as follows: 'K lies the corpse of Andrew Onto of W «*° *^* U & X * (ith 1776 aged 71) years. AadM™ Wmiam, hi besicle h.m who d^ February the 21st, 1778. aged 1/ year*. "And his son John of honest fame, Of stature small, and a leg lame, Content he was with port.on small, Keep'd shop in Wigtown, and that > Who dietWst the 21st, 1775) agei 32 years. •' What there was about poor John J: e than about his father or_b.c ho to awake the go*J never know. He aoes no* have been very *fftfhouiv a™ keener and the virtues of hoi., sty an - ffitment under *** characterised him are, happily- not un -common.

THE SOLWAY MARTYRS. lt i, the stone i™" l^ l famous "Wigtown Marty, s vUm. lends the chief interest to yfP™ 1 Kyard. heard two women, one c jdo rl£ one a <rirl, who during the t , over it the™ is no me. * «£ ,ng smoke of f an * m ?C' eldpr woman, flame or sp.r t. }h« el « r , {to .. n„. O Ives Margarat Wilson, Doußhter^G^^oninGle^noe,., who was Dround Anno, 163. Aged K ■• I et earth and stone still W tness bear© Murthered for owning Chtist bupreaa Head of His Church, and no moio crime „ . , But not abjuring Presbytery And her not owning *»"*g. fc La , v Thev her condemn d by unjust J.a* Of Heaven nor Hell tney stoodno A«. (irahame. ~ „.,„ Neither young yores not yet old age Coud stop the fury of their rage.

REFLECTIONS. Standing by such a tomb in this yeai, 1916, strange thoughts come to one, t is impossible not to realise that they are different thought, from hose winch might have arisen, sav in kiln those peaceful, humdn.m days, lyisaod among " carpet intei ests an l .opennyconcernv." our duties and e. „.nonces were, Ike John Cowan s ct the comfortaible and fam.har type. b..t.crinp and exaltations such as tho u of Margaret Wilson, whether we traced thempftymgly to an obsolete fanat,cisn or W ere moved »y them to ak,nd 't worshipful awe, were so i»hn tel> r ,noto as to I* incomprehens.ble. Uu* omothing ha. altered; through™t ah Scotland something has More or less, we understand. \ J « lH! on the levels ourselves but we w; ■■ loV er doubt the heights .: dept is again; >n these years we have sen 'And captains that we thought were dead, , . . And dreamers that we thought wen. dumb, , ,i , And voices that we thought were tied Ari-e and call us, and we c< mo. . ■ Yes it is not possible to forget th> w,r~evon in Wigtown Kirkyard.