Detail of tombstone inscribed 'Life how short, Eternity how Long', St Mary's Church burial ground, Banff.

Description Detail of tombstone inscribed 'Life how short, Eternity how Long', St Mary's Church burial ground, Banff.

Date 8/1965

Collection Records of the Scottish National Buildings Record, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 801747

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of BN 145

Scope and Content Written on verso of the mounted print: 'Shire: Banffshire. Place: Banff. Building: St Mary's Church, Carmelite Street. Photographer: G.N. Date: August 1965'. Gravestone of a gardener, St Mary's Church and Burial Ground, Church Street, Banff, Aberdeenshire This gravestone commemorates a gardener. Within the roundel at the top of the stone are a crossed scythe, spade and rake, the emblems of a gardener. The stone is inscribed: 'Life how short/Eternity how long', a phrase which appears several times on the monuments in this graveyard. Scottish gravestones feature a wealth of imagery and symbolic devices which represent trade emblems, symbols of death and resurrection, and Biblical scenes. They offer a fascinating insight into how our ancestors saw themselves and how they wanted to be remembered, as well as providing a store of information for people interested in family or local history, and folk art. This gravestone to a gardener dates from the mid-18th century, and stands amongst many other such memorials in a crowded burial-ground which dates from the medieval period. Most of the monuments date from between the 16th century and the 19th century. No details of the inscription are available. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

External Reference MW/BR/BAN/119

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/801747

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap