A clear message

This 18th century grave slab is to be found in the tiny Holyrood graveyard on the edge of the River Ythan. In those days the messages on Scottish gravestones were pretty much to the point. Besides the Bible as a symbol of resurrection and immortality, this stone has stark images to remind us of our own certain mortality; a skull, hourglass, mortbell, a leg bone,  a coffin and, hidden under the debris, a pair of crossed sexton's spades.