An everyday story of a rural butcher

I never cease to enjoy a good 18th Century Scottish gravestone, particularly those carved with symbols of the owner's trade or profession.

This remarkable gravestone is to be found the tiny kirkyard of Abernyte and commemorates James Lawson, a flesher or butcher, who died in 1729 aged 63, and his wife, who is also buried here. Their son erected the stone in their memory.

On the stone there are carvings that remind us of our certain mortality and possible immortality. At the bottom, a skull and crossbones and an hour-glass remind us that our own time is rapidly running out, while the chilling phrase Memento Mori, remember that you must die, reinforces the message. At the top, a pair of winged cherubs symbolises the souls of James and his wife ascending to heaven.

The central panel of the stone illustrates the daily life of the butcher. Within a heart there are tools of the flesher's trade, axe, cleaver, sharpening steel and knives. Below is a scene from the slaughter-house where the butcher's dog is hanging on to the ear of an unfortunate cow as his master prepares to dispatch it with a blow to the head with a pole-axe. On either side various cattle, goats and sheep look on with some interest, awaiting their own turn on the killing floor.

You will need to use the magnifying glass to best see the detail.