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Publication Account
Date 1951
Event ID 1096082
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1096082
204. Carved Stone, Ashfield, Chamberlain Road.
In the front garden of this villa is a 17th century burial-enclosure, the burial place of John Livingstone and his wife Elizabeth Rig, who purchased these lands of Greenhill in 1636 (1). The entrance has an edge-roll moulding and is surmounted by a curvilinear broken pediment, on one side of which appear the initials I L and E R, above the incised date 1645, and on the other a shield, flanked by the initials I L and charged: Three cinquefoils, two and one. John Livingstone's tombstone is built into the W. wall of the enclosure. At the top is incised a skull with cross-bones, surmounted by a winged hour-glass with the motto MORS PATET HORA LATET on a label over all. In the centre of the stone is a shield flanked by the initials I L and charged as above. The inscription runs below:
THIS SAINT WHOS CORPS LYES BU/RIED HEIR
LET ALL POSTERITIE ADMEIR
FOR VPRIGHT LIF IN GODLY FEIR
WHEN IUDGMENTS DID THIS LAND / SURROUND
HE WITH GOD WAS WALKING FOUND
FOR WHICH FROM MIDST OF FERS / HE'S CROUND
HEIR TO BE INTERRD BOTH HE
AND FRIENDS BY PROVIDENC AGRIE
NO AGE SHAL LOS HIS MEMORIE
HIS AGE 53 DIED / 1645.
The four corners of the stone are enriched with scrolls. It is sometimes said that Livingstone was Chamberlain of the town and that Chamberlain Road was so named in consequence. This cannot be the case, however, seeing that the first Chamberlain, Thomas Fisher, was only appointed in 1700.
RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941
(1) O.E.C., iii, pp. 198-200.
