The Heart of Mid-Lothian

NOTE B.—TOMBSTONE TO HELEN WALKER.

On Helen Walker's tombstone in Irongray churchyard, Dumfriesshire, there is engraved the following epitaph, written by Sir Walter Scott:

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 FICTION HAS INVESTED

THE IMAGINARY CHARACTER OF

JEANIE DEANS;

REFUSING THE SLIGHTEST DEPARTURE

FROM VERACITY,

EVEN TO SAVE THE LIFE OF A SISTER,

SHE NEVERTHELESS SHOWED HER

KINDNESS AND FORTITUDE,

IN RESCUING HER FROM THE SEVERITY OF THE LAW

AT THE EXPENSE OF PERSONAL EXERTIONS

WHICH THE TIME RENDERED AS DIFFICULT

AS THE MOTIVE WAS LAUDABLE.

RESPECT THE GRAVE OF POVERTY

WHEN COMBINED WITH LOVE OF TRUTH

AND DEAR AFFECTION.

Erected October 1831.