John Patersone, merchant, late Bailie of Dumfries, who dyed the 17 of January, 1722, aged 65 years." If monumental magnificence were the true gauge of worth we ought to find here an imposing structure, as beneath the stone sleeps the dust of a philanthropist to whom the town is greatly indebted for its high educational status. By his liberality he did more than any one to make the Dumfries Academy. Before his time the provision for fostering the higher branches was very inadequate : it was no longer so when the fund which he bequeathed for its encouragement became an ever-flowing fount for the sustenance of masters commissioned to "teach children in ane free schooll the Latin Rudiments and grammar, rhetorick, classick authors, and Greek New Testament." Towards this end Bailie Paterson left eight thousand merks; and in order to give a similar stimulus to more generally useful, though less scholarly branches, he left seven thousand merks for teaching the "arts of writing, arithmetic, book-keeping, and navigation" to the children of burgesses—the pupils always to include eight children of decayed merchants, who were to be specially privileged on account of their parents' poverty. These sums, amounting to £835 6s 8d sterling, were secured on landed property, the Dumfries Town Council acting as administrators of the trust. Untrophied though the Paterson tombstone is, it is honoured by bearing upon it the escutcheon of a good man's name, which ought never to be mentioned in the Burgh save with respect and gratitude. A stone raised near by, in memory of a youthful son of Bailie Paterson, has within the last few years been subjected to ignominious treatment. Thrown down upon its face, its feet, instead of supporting it, laid lumberingly upon it, the stone ought, for the father's sake, if not for the son's, to be placed in its right position, forthwith to reveal its pathetic inscription, which runs thus: “When parents, friends, and neighbours hoped to see And temper good, produce some fruit, Behold Death plucks the plant up by the root." Proceeding still in the same direction, we reach several structures which must at an early period have been among the most imposing in the whole yard, but looking upon them now we see "Sepulchral columns wrestle but in vain With all-subduing Time: his cankering hand They still bear traces of their pristine magnificence, and while rich in an artistic sense they are still more replete with historical memories. The inscriptions, some of them half-erased, furnish texts from which the old annals of the town might be expounded for two centuries or more. Here is the monument of the Corsanes-a family of municipal patricians; near by rises the renovated monument of the Irvings, who long occupied a similar position; further on a little stands the less ambitious tombstone of the Crosbies, several of whom wielded civic rule in troublous times; and when the circle is slightly extended, it takes in such names as Gilchrist, Bell, Johnstone, and Dickson-all noted burgh magnates in their day. The Corsane monument has suffered terribly from the hand of Time. For several centuries "a most influential family, the Corsanes," says the continuator of "Nisbet's Heraldry," "have it handed down from age to age that the first of their ancestors in Scotland was an Italian gentleman of the Corsini family, who came into this realm with an abbot of Newabbey or Dulce Cor about the year 1280;" "though," says another author, "it is right we should state that frequently in old writs the name appears with the prefix 'A' or 'Ap,' indicating a British or Celtic origin." The Corsanes were designated of Glen till, in the reign of James IV., the barony so called passed with Marion, daughter of Sir Robert Acorsane, to her husband, Sir Robert Gordon, who thereupon styled himself of Glen, but afterwards of Lochinvar, on the death of his elder brother, who fell at Flodden. From Gordon of Lochinvar and his wife Marion sprang the barons of that ilk and the Lords of Kenmure. "Sir John Corsane, an early cadet and next heir male of Glen, settled at Dumfries, where he increased in riches and honour, and had a lineal succession of heirs male for eighteen generations; and that they were all of the name John has been constantly asserted by that family. That there were so many generations of them appears as well by other vouchers as by an excellent inscription on the funeral monument of John Corsane, Provost of Dumfries in the reign of King James VI., who was the thirteenth in order descended from the said Sir John Corsane inclusive, in a direct masculine course of succession." This Provost Corsane was also representative of the Burgh in the Parliament that passed the notorious Prelatic decrees known as the "Five Articles of Perth." He espoused the daughter of the seventh Lord Maxwell (slain in the great clan battle of Dryfe Sands, and buried in Lincluden Abbey), by whom he had several children, one of whom was wedded to Stephen Laurie of Maxwelton, and had for daughter the celebrated lyrical heroine, "Bonnie Annie Laurie." 66 The anonymous continuator of Nisbet (whose work we have twice quoted from above) makes the following remarkable statements with reference to Provost Corsane: Having in his younger years executed the inferior offices of the magistracy in Dumfries, he was Provost of the said Burgh forty-five years, died when he was aged seventy-five years and a half, in anno 1629, and was buried with eleven of his grandfathers, as appears by the said funeral monument erected to his memory that same year by Mr John Corsane, advocate, his son and heir; upon which, with his coat of arms, are many excellent inscriptions in commemoration of his learning, justice, and other good qualifications." Doubtless this distinguished magnate often bore magisterial rule over the Burgh, but that he occupied the civic chair fortyfive years is simply incredible; the list of Dumfries Provosts still extant shews that various other gentlemen acted as chief magistrate during the fanciful forty-five years of office assigned to Mr Corsane. A misinterpretation of one of the inscriptions mentioned by the writer has evidently led to the mistake. Whatever "excellent inscriptions" may have been engraved upon the monument at first, only one is now traceable, besides the following intimation :— "In memoriam viri optimi hujus ur bis Consulis Joannis Corsane filius Hoc monumentum extruxit Qui obiit. 7 Maii 1629." In memory of the most illustrious man, John Corsane, Provost of this town, his son has raised this monument. He died 7 May 1629. In vain we try to decipher the lines by which filial love sought to set forth the honours heaped upon the head of the illustrious deceased. So corroded are they that only a word here and there reveals itself or can be resuscitated by any amount of scrutiny or labour; little mysterious ridges, that yield up scarcely any meaning, being nearly all that remain of the sculptor's handiwork. One of three epitaphs given by Nisbet's colleague is in the following terms: "Ter tria fatales et bis tria lustra sorores. Ter tria civiles humerum circumdare fasces Ter tribus ac binis, tandem prognatus eodem The lines may be thus translated : The fateful sisters assigned thrice three and twice three lustres and a half [year] to thy lifetime [i.e, seventy-five and a half years]. Regard due to thy wisdom caused thy shoulders to wear the badges of civic authority for thrice three lustres [forty-five years]. Sprung at length from thrice three and two progenitors of Corsane, thou also art buried with them in the same place. These words only warrant the conclusion that the deceased was a councillor, bailie, and chief magistrate for "thrice three lustres," and not perched at the top of the municipal tree for such a protracted period, to the exclusion of the Cunninghams, Kirkpatricks, and Irvings, who we know occupied that coveted altitude alternately with himself. We feel pleasure in stating that the structure was carefully repaired last autumn by Mr. William Flint, sculptor, Dumfries, at the instance of the proprietors. During the process the inscription was brought into full view by the temporary withdrawal of a headstone which stood before it; but even then the injured epitaph refused to yield up its secret; though it became sufficiently clear that the words were not identical with those just quoted, as we fancied they might have been, or with either of the other two inscriptions in honour of "Joannes Corsanus" that are given by Nisbet's continuator. One of these is in the following terms: "Fascibus in nostra urbe, senex, reliquoque juventa Functus honore, sub hoc clausus atro tumulo.' Which may be thus translated : The old man having in our town discharged the highest official duties and enjoyed the other honours* in his youth, lies under this gloomy tomb. A versified form might be given to the couplet, thus: Consul in age, all other honours won; The veteran lies beneath this gloomy stone. The other incription is as follows : 66 'Anagramma, An sanus, Corsanus ?" The ingenious play upon the name of the deceased here indulged in will be perceived by ordinary readers from the subjoined rendering of this curious epitaph: Sane thou hadst been in thy youth, Corsane; Sane too thou'dst been in ripe age, O heart! (Cor) Fronting the ruined structure stands a table tombstone in memory of Robert Corsane of Meikleknox, died 17th of February, 1759, aged 61; his wife, Agnes M'Gowne, and Janet, their daughter, the latter being designated "as relict of the deceased David M'Culloch, Esq. of Ardwall, who died here the 16th March, 1824, aged 84 years." When Burns was about to make a brief tour through Galloway in June, 1794, he trysted Mr M'Culloch to accompany him; and it will be remembered by all who are familiar with the poet's biography that when, later in the same year, during *Those of bailie and councillor. + Flourishing |