View of gravestone of Jas Bruce, 1749. Digital image of AN/5833/5.

Description View of gravestone of Jas Bruce, 1749. Digital image of AN/5833/5.

Date c. 1990

Collection Papers of Betty Willsher, historian, St Andrews, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 794960

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of AN 5833/5

Scope and Content Gravestone of James Bruce, Edzell Old Parish Church, Churchyard, Angus This monument features a large winged soul (symbol of the spirit of the deceased ascending to Heaven) in its curved top section (tympanum). The main face of the stone features a heraldic-style crest with helmet and foliage around a shield bearing a carving of the sock and coulter (metal parts) of a plough (the symbols of a farmer). Below this is a rare depiction of a corpse in its winding sheet, with a row of emblems of death below, including a pair of crossed bones and a winged skull. Winding sheets are a form of shroud used to wrap the body in after death. The representation on this stone shows the feet, face and arm exposed. The face would be left exposed for mourners to view the body whilst it was laid out. It was believed that the feet should be left free to enable the body to rise on the Day of Judgement. This gravestone is dedicated to James Bruce, who died in 1749. It is inscribed: 'This monument was erected by DAVID/BRUCE in Memory of his father James/BRUCE 1749. Here lies James/BRUCE sometime tenant in Westsyde/of Edzell who died Julie 28 1738/aged 72 years, and James Bruce/his son who died in Infancy/Intomb'd we with our fathers ly/In earth and common dust/Compose a man with lofty eye/As we are so thy must/And so must all men that appear/On all the earth sojourn/For of the dust they formed are/and hence they must return'. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/794960

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap