Memoir of Sir Walter Elliot of Wolfelee. 365 



Extract from a Letter from the Rev. John Mair, D.D., to Dr 

 Hardy, dated Southdean Manse, 8th December 1894. 



I am very pleased to learn that a Memoir of the late Sir Walter 

 Elliot is to be entered in the Record of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club. It was a Society greatly after his heart, and I had frequent 

 occasion to know what unceasing and active interest he took in its 

 researches. The Inscription inserted on the Tablet, erected to his 

 Memory, in Hobkirk Church is long; is the longest inscription I have 

 ever met, but every word is in unchallengable accord with rigid 

 and exact truth. The family erected a small Brass Tablet to his 

 Memory in Southdean Church, and it is thus inscribed: — 



" To the Glory of God, and 

 "In loving Memory of Sir 

 "Walter Elliot, K.C.S.I., 

 " Of Wolfelee, Died 1st 

 "March 1887. aged 

 "84. And his Wife, 



" Maria Dorothea, 

 "Died 24th December 1890, 

 "Aged 74. This Tablet 

 " Is erected by their sur- 

 "viving Children." 



The tombstone in the family vault, which is in Southdean 

 Churchyard, is small, plain, and simple, and has a short inscription, 

 all but the same as the one in the Church Tablet. 



From the great privilege of having enjoyed his intimate friendship, 

 I know and feel that the memory of Sir Walter Elliot is worthy of 

 all honour. His Christian work was great, as he was imbued with 

 a decidedly religious spirit, manifested by a truly consistent character, 

 sanctified and beautified by no small degree of divine grace. His 

 intellectual powers were of a high order, and his stores of knowledge, 

 acquired by unceasing reading and inquiry, were most extensive and 

 varied. He was an ardent student in many departments of literature. 

 When leaving Madras, at the time of his retirement from the Indian 

 Service, he was entertained at a public Banquet. The late Sir 

 Charles Trevelyan, who was then Governor of Madras, presided on 

 the occasion, and then said, that if he wished for information on 

 anything relating to India, from the hyssop on the wall to the Cedar 

 of Lebanon, he had only to apply to Walter Elliot. 



He was always deeply interested in the moral, religious, and 

 educational improvement of our community. I have no doubt his old 

 friend, Dr Cleghorn, hsis done full justice to Sir Walter's memory. 



