View of gravestone. Digital image of B 4310/0

Description View of gravestone. Digital image of B 4310/0

Date 1991

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

Catalogue Number SC 801018

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 4310/0

Scope and Content Gravestone commemorating Andre Mill, Roberton Parish Church and Churchyard, South Lanarkshire With its prominent rib-cage, this skeleton offers a grisly and immediate metaphor for death. The figure stands within a recessed panel, oblong in shape, which could be interpreted as a coffin's outline suggesting this was a portrait of Andre Mill's earthly remains. Hanging on the ribbons are crossed turf-cutters and spades, the tools of the sexton or gravedigger. Although the stone has sunk, obscuring any other symbols, this type of decoration usually consisted of three or four pairs of crossed emblems, each tied on the ribbon. The skeletal figure seen here evokes the message of Job 19: 26: 'And though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God', a popular text used for epitaphs between the late 17th and 19th centuries. This gravestone commemorates Andre Mill, a tenant farmer, who died around 1770. The inscription is worn, but a transcript made around 1990 reads: 'HERE LYES THE BODY OF/ANDRE MILL IN WANDEL/WHO DIED MAY 14 DAY 177-'. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/801018

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap