Standing Guard

Passing through Minto today, we stopped to have a look at the church and graveyard. 

Both struck us as unusual. When I got home I looked them up in 'The Buildings of Scotland' and discovered that the church was designed by WH Playfair, he of the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy.  And the War Memorial by Thomas J Clapperton, the sculptor of the statue of Robert the Bruce at the entrance to Edinburgh Castle. 

Not what you'd normally find in a little village, originally built for agricultural workers: it proclaims 'the interest of a great landholder'. 

Whatever you think about that, the War Memorial is a very striking piece. It stands high on a mound of boulders, and the figure is looking out towards Ruberslaw, the hill that dominates the landscape of the Teviot valley.