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

294 DUMFRIESSHIRE.
The tomb of Colonel Schuyler, who died in 1832, is inscribed
with the following epitaph, composed by himself : —
" Raise no vain structure o'er my grave.
One simple stone is all I crave,
To say, beneath a sinner lies,
Who died in hopes again to rise ;
Through Christ alone to be forgiven.
And fitted for the joys of heaven."
Thomas Hogg is by his son thus celebrated : —
" In this blest grave, amid whose frowning gloom
Mem'ry still loves to guard her votary's tomb.
Shall I withhold what all his virtues claim,
The sacred tribute to a father's name ?
Whose manners gentle, his affections mild.
In wit a man, in simplicity a child ;
Above temptation in an humble state.
And uncorrupted even among the great."
A husband thus laments his early departed wife : —
" Few were the nuptial years that gladdened life
With its supremest bliss, a virtuous wife ;
When, as if sent but as an angel guest.
For her own heaven slie left my widow'd breast."
The Christian virtues of Mrs. Nicholas McDowall are portrayed
thus : —
" No smarting pain, no faithless terrors come
To break thy slumbers in the peaceful tomb ;
Nor mournful eye, nor plaintive voice bemoan, —
child of God, thy Saviour's presence gone.
" Thy Lord appear'd to hush thine every sigh,
To yield thee Faith's triumphant victory ;
At ev'ning tide, ere to the realms of day
Thy long afflicted spirit hied away."
On the gravestone of Eobert Anderson, painter, who died 24th
May, 1792, are these lines
" They may write epitaphs who can,
I say here lies an honest man ! "