Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/551

 The grave slab shown in Fig. 1494 is built into one of the walls of the existing ruins. It is of red sandstone, and measures 6 feet 4 inches high by 2 feet 5 inches wide. It is very much mutilated, and from its exposed situation and the friableness of the stone, it is rapidly decaying, and unless some proper means are taken to preserve it, will at no distant date be obliterated. The figure represents that of a stout yeoman with hands folded on the breast, having a belt round his waist. On a shield at his feet is a bend, any other charges which may have been on it being obliterated. The inscription in raised letters is more than half gone, but from the first syllable of the place of Aikwood being still legible, and in

—Selkirk Parish Church. Stoup.

conjunction with the arms, it is supposed by Mr. T. Craig Brown to commemorate one of the Scots of Harden, who lived at Aikwood or Oakwood, a tower still standing not far from Selkirk. The stone probably dates from about the early part of the sixteenth century.

The following figures represent three stoups in the possession of Mr. Craig Brown, Selkirk. Fig. 1495 shows the five sides of one of these. On one face is a lion rampant, and on the adjoining space to the right is a human face, the mouth of which forms an opening for emptying the basin. On the space to the left is carved the figure of a buck or hart. The other two faces are broken. On one is the hind quarters of an ox