Trnnsactioiis. 1 1 



inscription is in prose ; the second part, extending to fourteen 

 lines, is in rJiyuie. The first pa^t tells the story. It is : 



HKRE ■ LYES ' THE " CORPS ■ OF • JOHN " 

 CORBET ■ WHO ' DIED ' THE ' 17 ' OF ' 

 MARCH • 1706 • AND * OF ' HIS * AGE • 

 63 • TEAhS • WHO • WAS " TAKEN " 

 IN • THE • YEAR " 1684 ' BY ' A ' PARTY ' 

 OF • CLAVERHOUSE • HIS " TRODPE • 

 AND • WAS • BANISHED • BY " THE " 

 WICKED • COCNSELL ' OF ' SCOTLAND ' 

 TO • EAST • JARSET " 1685 ' AND • 

 RKTURNED " THE ' YEAR ' 1687 ' 



The letters on the stone have been recently re-cut and deepened, 

 and the stone itself set upon supports about a foot from the 

 ground. The stone, previous to its being re-cut, had the marks 

 of age. The letters were all but obliterated by the feet of pilgrims 

 that had come to visit it, and it had quite tlie appearance of 

 being the work of the first half of last century, probably not long 

 after the death of Corbet. There was a society in Tinwald, and 

 a William Wilson, the writer of a number of forgotten pamphlets 

 and books, was connected with it. Several of his books are in a 

 species of rude rhyme. lie is most likely to have been the 

 author of the epitaph upon tlie gravestone of Samuel Rutherford 

 in St. Andrews, that seems to have been first published in the 

 fourth edition of the " Cloud of Witnesses," issued in Glasgow in 

 1741. Rutlaerford's epitaph in tlie Cloud has the note " Oct. 9th, 

 1735, by W. W.," and its rhyme is remarkably like that of 

 Wilson in his published books. If I am correct in assigning the 

 rliymes upon Corbet's tombstone to William Wilson, it is not at 

 all unlikely that he wrote the inscriptions on the two stones next 

 to be mentioned. 



In Oloseburn Churchyard there is a stone to the memory of 

 John Mathieson. The stone has had an eventful history. Dr 

 Simpson, in his Traditions of the Covenanters, cLap. xiii., p. 165 

 (new edition of 1889), says the stone was erected by his children. 

 On it were the names of Mathieson and the persons who were 

 banished along with him, and also the name of the informer who 

 led to their apprehension. This stone was one night destroyed 

 by the informer, but Mathieson's descendants compelled him to 

 restore it, with the omission of what was said about himself. 



