with the fresh and lively quotation: "To die young, said one, is the leaving of a superfloues feast before the drunken cups are presented.'~ The only churchyard remnant of an artistic character is a quaintly designed slab which shows a couple of winged cherub-heads, a skul and hour-glass over the pilasters flanking the undecipherable inscription The only other slab that is worthy of record is the memorial of a carpenter (fig. 19), a much-worn monument, now placed against the south wall of the churchyard. The emblems of mortality, a skull and cross-bones superimposed, are of the usual grisly type; a fractured hour-glass leads. the thought towards the secular symbols, a square carved in bold relief, and an incised axe. Very evidently the axe was an after-thought (as the design is completely proportioned without it), and has been added to demonstrate that no mere mason lay buried here. A joiner's compass and a spade appear on the other side of this stone, but no date or inscription is traceable.

EAST CALDER.

The burial ground of St Cuthbert's Church, East Calder, is as rich in graveyard symbolism as its western neighbour is poor. But there is not in this roadside "howff" the variety of design found in many churchyards, a strong family resemblance affecting the whole, and making doubly welcome a trio of notable remnants, the reputed twelfth-century church, the fragment of a medieval cross built into its western gable, and the massive "Templar Stone" which, in itself, would redeem any site from contempt.

Winged cherubs, life- and death-heads, hearts, bones, and other symbols of mortality abound, and on a comparatively modern monument occurs the only representation of costume to be seen here, a bewigged figure of the Georgian period, supported by a mill-rhynd under an open book, and a coffin over an hour-glass. A very crude stone of 1688 shows several quaint details, among them a curious portrait face. "Mento Morom" is its rendering of the common legend, and it bears three hearts, one of them being inverted. An interesting stone of 1722 shows a

winged cherub, two heads, a heart, and a sand-glass; another old stone shows a couple of single bones, and a coffin in bold relief; another a crude face, crossed ribs, and cross-bones; a small slab, of 1673, exhibiting one of the most archaic incisions of a winged cherub ever made.

A single example of these crude sculptures may be advanced as typical of the whole. The photograph (fig. 20) shows the west face of a sharply pedimented slab, with a deeply moulded panel, well filled with the emblems peculiar to the site. In the upper portion of the panel is a rather pleasant female face, set in a "mutch "-like arrangement of hair, for hair it is meant to be, as its parting in the centre clearly shows. Under that, 16

VOL. XL.

and in a line, are a couple of hearts inverted and a couple of ribs intersected, both of these emblems being a distinctive feature of the somewhat insipid and much-rounded sculpture of this churchyard. The east face bears the inscription, the date 1753, a couple of small heads placed horizontally, neck to neck-another original feature-a monogram, and a couple of spiral pilasters supporting winged cherub-heads. Serpents ornament the panelled sides, and the slopes of the top bear some rude projections which it is impossible to characterise.

The ancient church of St Cuthbert was founded in the twelfth century, and if the existing roofless but well-preserved building cannot boast of the great age claimed for it by some writers, it certainly is a very venerable structure. The remains of fifteenth-century tracery appear in its east window, the old doorways near it are of contemporary work, and the west gable shows, by the insertion now to be noticed, that it cannot be regarded as being older than these other portions of the fabric.

The west gable of the church might be described as being partly ancient and partly the result of very old repairs. The picturesque belfry is, presumably, of fifteenth-century work, and is a pleasing object both to artist and antiquary; but the great charm of the gable is a remarkable sculptured stone (fig. 21) an insertion which bears clear traces of fourteenth-century influences, and has an appearance at once distinguished and artistic.

This interesting fragment shows very clearly the elaborately carved head of a Maltese cross, with a portion of its stem. This is not only attached to the circular nimbus, but runs right through it to a forked apex, a feature rather unusual in nimbus-bound crosses. Foliation of a somewhat elaborate character springs from the shaft and the nimbus, giving to the whole an effect peculiarly rich and pleasing. The stone measures about 20 inches by 14 inches, and has originally been about 20 inches in width, as may be determined by the proportions remaining.

1 It measures 70 feet long by 24 feet wide, externally.

The most important relic of the churchyard, however, is a large slab of the coffin-cover type (fig. 22), known as a "Templar Stone," but differing in many respects from the somewhat severe examples of its class already known to us. Perhaps this handsome sculpture might most correctly be regarded as an example of a transitional type of memorial, occupying a fairly definite place between the shrine-shaped tombstones of early periods and the flatter and more ornate slabs of later developments. It

measures 5 feet 4 inches in length, 17 inches in breadth, and 12 inches in depth or thickness. This massive stone is sculptured on all its faces, which are five in number, counting the bevelled angles that give it a pyramidal form. The ends also are splayed and sculptured, that at the west, shown in the photograph, bearing the worn impress of a petalled ornament, not unlike a Gothic quatrefoil.

In all probability this ornament is the head of the cross whose shaft is still fairly traceable along the somewhat narrow top of the stone; and,

if that be so, we have here an example of a cross type that may fairly be regarded as uncommon.

The ornamentation on the splay resembles drapery arranged in a series of loops, the regularity of the design being broken to allow the interpolation of a symbolic feature resembling a pair of shears, and a curious cross-hilted knife or dagger. A twist in the blade adds mystery to the

latter symbol, which may well demand a revised reading. The opposing bevel shows a hand or glove, life-size, with a few worn lines that suggest a sword with an ornamental hilt and, presumably, a scabbard. The flat or base portion of the same side bears the long incised figure of a key, the ward checks appearing quite clearly, though the encrustation and weathering are not very helpful in deciphering the details. No design is apparent on the flat portion of the side shown in the illustration, and the sloping end, not shown, is similarly destitute of