Evergreen
I’m interested in the significance of evergreens, well known is the association of the Laurel and the Bay being used by the Greeks to make crowns for their victors, I’ve been reading about emblems of immortality in A Guide to Some Remarkable Eighteenth Century Gravestones by Betty Willsher & Doreen Hunter (1978). Willsher says ‘Of the Bay tree it is said that when it is apparently dead to the roots, it will revive; it’s withered branches will come into leaf again…’ Willsher noted that sprigs of Bay appear on headstones in all regions. I looked up one of the examples she described from Kennoway in Fife, I was wowed to see her photograph of it, she describes the design ‘…sprigs of Bay flanking the face of a leopard (the leopard with the shuttle in its mouth comes from the crest of the Guild of Weavers).’
Also from the same churchyard I saw an image of a very unusual stone, it features a girl’s head at the top, her arms are up, with her hands at shoulder height. Willsher notes ‘…there must be some significance in the position of the hands : one with palm facing out, the other with palm inwards – saying farewell? It seems to be a portrayal of a Resurrection figure (it is naked).’ I didn’t realise until I visited the churchyard that this is the front and back of the same stone.
Willsher surveyed stones dating up to 1800 in parish graveyards of the Scottish Lowlands on behalf of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. She had a very interesting life, and was a kenspeckled character in St Andrews, here is an excerpt of biographical information on her from Historic Environment Scotland’s trove.scot website:
‘…Betty Willsher was born in a small mining village near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1915. She studied at the University of St Andrews from 1933-36, before completing a one year certificate in nursery education at the Rachel McMillan Nursery School Training College in Deptford, Greater London. During the war, Willsher ran a nursery in Suffolk before returning to St Andrews in 1951 and setting up her own nursery school. In 1965, she completed a part-time Diploma in Education at Dundee and spent time working in residential units for disturbed children in Stratheden Hospital, Fife, and then Vancouver. Willsher taught story-telling, drama and creative units in primary schools for four years before becoming a senior lecturer in child development at Stevenson College. In the 1970s Willsher became interested in the declining state of Scotland’s graveyards, particularly post-reformation stones, and set about recording them for future generations.’
Please note the churchyard is locked, access can be arranged through Fife Council.
Betty Willsher’s papers can be viewed via the trove.scot website.
