stirling-1963-vol-1/05_198

Transcription

No. 158 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 159
numbers; in cases where letters or figures seen by him
have become illegible his readings have been adopted,
but four stones which have disappeared altogether since
his day (III, 19; IV, 9; IX, 15; X, 11) have been ignored.
All the stones mentioned here are recumbent slabs.
II, 1;1705 / IC HW. III, 1 to 4 (duplicates);
1673 / WR IM. III, 12; 1667 / IR IF. V, 2; 1691 /
TR BC / JF MF. V, 3; 1694 / IW AM. V, 5; 1694 /
RP JW. VI, 3; 1696 / GE MH. VI, 5 and 6 (duplicates);
1663 / WH ID. VI, unnoted between 11 and 12;
1707 / IM. The initials are cut over earlier ones which
have been obliterated. VII, 4; JAMES MAIKLUM /
JT / 1681 / PM MC. XI, 4. This slab is uninscribed,
but might date from the 17th or early 18th century.
John Smith, the last of a long line of tenants in Craigend,
died in 1647 and his son Robert, the first laird, in 1722. ¹
It bears, in relief on a sunk panel, a shield with mantling
and helm and, for crest, an eagle's head erased. It is
charged, for Smith of Craigend: Gules, a chevron between
two crescents in chief and a garb in base. The motto
MASTE (sic) appears on a ribbon below the shield.
XI, 5 (almost certainly recut); THIS IS THE BURYING
PLACE / OF ROBERT SMITH AND / MARION FERGUS
AND / THEIR DESCENDANTS 1685. XII, 10; 1707 /
WW M [C or G]. The final letter has an R cut within it.
XIV, 2; JAMES NORVAL / 162 [?]. Only a later epitaph
is legible today. XIV, 8. The original inscription on the
margin of this interesting slab has been damaged by
two later transverse ones cut, respectively, in the 18th
and 19th centuries. The whole is also badly weathered,
but with the help of Guthrie Smith's illustration ² the
following version may be suggested for part of the
earliest epitaph [HEIR LYES / IAMES or IOHN
BUC] HANAN OF KIRKH [O] WS WHO / DECISID THE
[?] / OF NOVEMBER 1667 A. The last letter may be
the beginning of the phrase A [ND HIS SPOUSE], which,
with the wife's name and date of death, probably
returned across the stone below the opening words in
the space now occupied by the 18th-century addition.
Below the latter there appears a small sunk shield
parted per pale and charged for Buchanan and Graham:
Dexter, a lion rampant; sinister, three escallops. The
initials IB are placed above its upper corners. XV, 6;
IM IH / 1658. XV, 8; IM IH / 1649 / I Mc [?] / IL.
XV, 14. This is a heraldic slab bearing, at the top,
the date 1663, seen by Guthrie Smith but now illegible,
and below this a shield flanked by the initials WM /
HC. The shield is parted per pale and charged, for
McFarlan and Cunningham: Dexter, a saltire between
four roses; sinister, a shakefork. The original inscription
begins below the shield and continues round the margin;
it reads HEIR LYES ALEX / ANDER MCFARLAN WHO /
ENDED THIS / LYF THE 10 OF SEP 1664. Later
epitaphs follow below the opening line. ³ XV, 16;
1668 / A IS. XV, 20. This is a heraldic slab with a
marginal inscription. The shield occupies the centre,
having above it a panel, now blank, on which Guthrie
Smith read an 18th-century epitaph, and below it
emblems of mortality. The inscription is not given
quite correctly by Guthrie Smith, and actually appears
to read HERE LIES GI [?] EL MCFARLAN [SPOU] SE
TO MA [S] TER DAV [ID] / ELPHINSTONE MINISTER /
OF DUMBRITAN WHO DIED THE [?] 1 OF MARCH /
169 [?]. The shield is charged, for McFarlan ⁴ : A saltire
between four roses. XVI, 2; JF / 1692 / IW. XVI, 5;
IF / 1692 / IW. XVI, 16. This stone, which commemor-
ates John Calder, who died on 2nd August 1672, is
most probably of 18th-century date. XVI, 20; 1626 /
IM IP. XVI, 22. This is a herladic slab commemorating
the Reverend John Cochrane, minister of Strathblane
from 1650 to 1690, and his wife, who was evidently a
McGregor. ⁵ It is now badly wasted, the shield being
barely visible, and the following details are accordingly
taken from Guthrie Smith's record. At the head of the
slab is the date 1688, which is probably the year of
Mrs. Cochrane's death, and below this the shield
accompanied by the initials M / IC / A MCG. The shield
is parted per pale and charged: Dexter, a chevron
between three boars' heads erased; sinister, a pine tree
eradicated and surmounted of a sword. The original
epitaph, which appears below the shield, reads

RELIGIOWS VERTIOWS MODEST / GRAV AND WISE
FROM DVST TO GL (O) RIE / WAITING TO ARISE

A later monument, the one commemorating the
Reverend William Hamilton, ⁶ D.D. (1780-1835), also
deserves mention for the sake of its distinctively Greek
inspiration (Pl. 51 B).

563793 -- NS 57 NE ("Church") -- 10 November 1955

159. Parish Church, Baldernock. The parish church
of Baldernock (Pl. 41 B) stands by the W. side of the
road from Strathblane to Bardowie, about a mile and a
quarter ENE. of Milngavie. It was built in 1795,
evidently taking the place of an older structure of
several periods, ⁷ and is a good example of a "preaching
kirk" with its internal arrangements undisturbed,
It is a plain structure of grey sandstone, the masonry
being large, squared rubble with dressed quoins and an
ogee-moulded eaves-course; it measures 50 ft. 6 in. by
35 ft. over walls 2 ft. 6 in. thick. The roof is slated. In
the centre of the S. side there is a projection which rises
in stages, above a moulded pediment and cornice, to a
bell-cote; the parts of this structure above the level of
the wall-head are of ashlar, and the lower parts have
dressed and backset quoins. Below the pediment is
incised DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO! P (ATRI) F (ILIO)
S (PRITUI) Q (UE) S (ANCTO) / MDCCXCV ("To God,

1 Ibid., 52, 57. See also XI, 5 below.
2 Ibid., 290.
3 For an illustration see ibid., 294.
4 On this lady see ibid., 212. An illustration of the tomb-
stone gives the day of her death as 12, cut upside down, and
this may well be correct. The figure is now illegible.
5 On Mr. Cochrane see ibid., 203-10, with an illustration
of the slab.
6 On whom see ibid., 224 f.
7 Stat. Acct., xv (1795), 277; N.S.A. viii (Stirlingshire), 174.

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