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

340 KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.
Gordon and McCubin were executed on the spot where they
are buried, with a view no doubt to strike terror among the in-
habitants of a parish especially devoted to Presbyterianism.
In the churchyard a monumental pillar, reared by Sir Walter
Scott, commemorates Helen Walker, the prototype of Jeanie Deans,
whose integrity and tenderness are in his "Heart of Mid-Lothian " so
admirably portrayed by that great novelist. The inscription is as
follows :^
"This stone was erected by the author of 'Waverley' to the
memory of Helen Walker, who died in the year of God 1791. This
humble individual practised in real life the virtues with which fic-
tion invested the imaginary character of Jeanie Deans. Eefusing
the slightest departure from veracity, even to save the life of a
sister, she nevertheless showed her kindness and fortitude in rescu-
ing her from the severity of the law, at the expense of personal
exertions which the time rendered as difficult as the motive was
laudable. Eespect the grave of poverty when combined with the
love of tnith and dear affection."
PAEISH OF MINNIGAFF.
A granite column at Dunkitterick commemorates the Rev. Dr.
Alexander Murray, the celebrated Oriental scholar. Dr. Murray
was son a shepherd in the district. He was born on the 22nd
October, 1775. The indigent circumstances of his parents pre-
vented his being early sent to school, yet in his eighth year
his love of reading and wonderful memory were celebrated in
his native glen. When in his fourteenth year he became a pupil in
the parish school, his extraordinary power of acquiring languages
excited the admiration of his teacher. Through the good offices of
the parish minister he was enabled to attend the University of
Edinburgh. In 1806 he was ordained assistant and successor in
the parish of Urr, and six years afterwards was appointed to the
chair of Oriental Languages in Edinburgh College. He had scarcely