Grampian Club > Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland > Volume 1

PARISH OF YARROW. 275
habited in a loose travelling cloak, with under-belt. The head,
which is uncovered, presents an open massive brow, the features
being in perfect repose. The likeness is admirable.
Park was on the 10th September, 1771, born at Fowlshiels, on
the banks of tlie Yarrow, near Selkirk. Having studied medicine
at the University of Edinburgh and passed surgeon, he procured,
on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, a professional appoint-
ment on board the Worcester, an East Indiaman. In 1792 he
visited the island of Sumatra, and contributed a paper on its
natural history to the Transactions of the Linnoean Society.
Under the auspices of the African Association he undertook an
expedition to the interior of Africa, for the purpose of exploring
the source of the Niger. He sailed from Portsmouth on the 22nd
May, 1795. After many perils he returned to England in Decem-
ber, 1797. His travels were published in the following year. He
now sought practice as a surgeon at Peebles, but a proposal having
been made to him by Government to undertake a second expedition
to Africa, he left Britain for Central Africa on the 30th January,
1805. From Pisania he started with a company of forty-five,
of whom thirty-six were Europeans; but when he reached tlie
Niger in August his attendants were reduced to seven. With four
companions he reached the kingdom of Houssa, where, in at-
tempting to escape from a murderous attack of the natives, he and
his attendants perished in the river. From Sansanding on the
Niger in the kingdom of Bambarra he had sent his journals to
Gambia in November, 1805. These, with a narrative of his second
journey, were published at London in 1815. The precise date of
his death is unknown.
PAEISH OF YAREOW.
On the hill-side north-east of St. Mary's Loch a graveyard
occupies the site of the old chapel of St. Mary, or the Forest
Kirk. Within this structure Sir William Wallace was in 1297