Edinburgh, Coburg Street, North Leith Burial Ground

219. Carved Stones, North Leith Burial Ground.

The parishioners of North Leith had been deprived of their burial-ground by the construction of the Citadel (No. 230) in 1650, and it was not until 1664 that the loss was made good by the grant of garden ground lying on the left bank of the Water of Leith for the purposes of a new cemetery (1). This still exists at the E. end of Coburg Street, and contains the following memorials of earlier date than 1707.

(1) A headstone resting against the W. boundary wall, and probably dateable to about 1700. It has a moulded ogival top with finials in the shape of cherub’s heads. On both front and back are panels, one of which displays a pierced heart, with a skull and cross-bones. Neither of them is inscribed. These panels have at each side a pilaster supporting pediment above; one pair of pilasters is enriched with scroll-work, the other with a turf-cutter and a spade. The tympanum on one side contains a cherub’s head, and in the other is an uncarved shield.

(2) A headstone with a curvilinear and scrolled top, decorated with a rose in relief on either edge. On the front appears a cherub's head, from which fall draperies framing the inscription HERE LYS THOMAS HALL / SMITH AND JEAN HORN HIS / WIFE HE DIED THE 19 OF DECEMBER 1701 / HIS AGE 63 YEARS & / SHE DIED THE 18 / OF JANUARY 1702 I HER AGE 54 YEARS.

WHAT IS MANS LIFE/ A VALLEY FVLL OF ILL

BEGINNING MIDS[T] / AND END LAMENTING / STILL

On the back, surmounted by a crown, is a cartouche displaying a hammer, emblematic of the deceased man’s craft, flanked by the initials of husband and wife. To right and left of the cartouche appear two mottoes which were much in favour at this time, MORS PATET / HORA LATET and HODIE MIHI /CRAS TIBI, with a skull, cross-bones and hour-glass below. On one edge of the stone is incised a quotation from Horace (Odes, i, 4, 13).

PALLIDA MORS (A)EQUO PULSAT PED[E] / PAUPERUM

TABERNAS

REGUM[QUE] / TORRI

which is translated on the other edge as WITH EQWA[L] FOOTE/ DEATH KNOCKS/ AT DOO[R]ES [THE COTS OF POOR ALIKE AS PRINCELY TOWERS].

(3) A headstone with shaped sides and top, bearing one inscription on the front HEIR LYETH / IOHN HVITON / WHO D[I]ED / DECON OF THE / WEIVARS IN NORTH LEITH / THE 25 IAR 1669 I AND OF AIG 39 and another on the top edge MEMENTO MORI / death WHERE IS THY STING / O GRAVE WHERE IS THY VICTORE. On the back is a sunk panel with a foliated margin containing a skull and cross-bones accompanied by the initials I H and W H.

(4) A headstone with a scrolled top and square, bellied panel below, the latter framed by a moulding breaking out into lugs at the two top corners. On the panel is incised HEIR LYS [M]AR[GARE]T [BORTHWICK]/ SPOWS [T]O T[HOMAS ZEMAN] / INDWALERIN NOR[TH LEITH] / WITH THER CHILDR[EN SHE] / DIED THE 20 DAY [OF] A[PRIL] / 1690 HER AGE 62 YEARS / HERE LYS THOMAS ZE[MAN INDWELLER IN]NORTH LEITH HE DIED [3] OF OCTO/BER 1702 HIS AGE 70 YEARS /

AH ME I GRAVILL AM AND DWST /

AND TO THE GRAVE DESHEND I MOST /

O PAINTED PIEC OF LIVING CLAY /

BE THOW NOT PROWD OF THY SHORT DAY

The back of the stone bears a cartouche with a rose at either side and a skull, cross-bones and hourglass below. On it are carved the initials T Z and M B.*

(5) The broken pediment of a headstone containing in the tympanum a shield flanked by mantling and charged: Three hunting-horns, two and one, for Forrester.

(6) The tympanum of a pediment containing a cartouche flanked by carved swags and charged: Paly of six, a bend charged with three cushions, for Lundy. Beside this, but not necessarily related to it, lies a fragment of a foliated frieze. The former, and possibly the latter item also, is almost certain to have been part of the "Reverend Mr. James Lundie's Monument" (2). He died in 1696, after having been minister of this parish for eight and a half years.

(7) A fragment of a headstone which must have been generally similar to No. 4. It is inscribed [HERE] LYS CATHRE[IN] I [ ... SPOVS] TO ALEX LAW[ASON]I [. .] II WITH THER T[......AN]D ALEX LAWASON / [HER]HUSBAND W[Ho] / DIED THE [..] OF / [ ..] 16[91].

(8) The lower part of a headstone bearing a panel flanked by fluted pilasters and inscribed HERE LYES THE I [CO]RPS OF IOHN / [G]RAY SMITH & [B]VRGES &FRIE/MAN OF THE / [c]ANNIGATE / INDWELER IN /LIETH WHO DE/PAR[TED] THIS / LIFE[ ...M]AY 16/84 [HIS AGE 5]0 YEA[RES]

RCAHMS 1951, visited c.1941

(1) Maitland, History, p. 498. (2) Monteith, An Theater of Mortality ( 1704), pp. 73 f.

*The missing letters have been supplied from Monteith's An Theater of Mortality, p. 76.