Transactions. 11 
inscription is in prose; the second part, extending to fourteen 
lines, isin rhyme. The first part tells the story. It is: 
HERE * LYES * THE * CORPS * OF * JOHN * 
CORBET * WHO * DIED ‘ THE‘ 17°' oF‘ 
MARCH ‘ 1706 * AND * OF * HIS * AGE * 
63 * YEAKS *‘ WHO * WAS ‘ TAKEN * 
IN ‘ THE * YEAR ‘ 1684 * BY * A‘ PARTY‘ 
OF * CLAVERHOUSE * HIS ‘ TROUPE ° 
AND ' WAS ‘ BANISHED ‘ BY * THE * 
WICKED ‘ COUNSELL ‘ OF * SCOTLAND’ ~ 
TO * EAST * JARSEY * 1685 * AND * 
RETURNED * 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 the 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. He is most likely to have been the 
author of the epitaph upon tle 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. Rutherford’s epitaph in the 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 
rhymes 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 Closeburn 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. xili., 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. 
