The coming of the laird's monumental stone had a great effect on me,
then in a state of deep despondency for the loss of the first Mrs
Balwhidder; and I thought I could not do a better thing, just by way
of diversion in my heavy sorrow, than to get a well-shapen headstone
made for her--which, as I have hinted at in the record of the last
year, was done and set up. But a headstone without an epitaph, is
no better than a body without the breath of life in't; and so it
behoved me to make a poesy for the monument, the which I conned and
pondered upon for many days. I thought as Mrs Balwhidder, worthy
woman as she was, did not understand the Latin tongue, it would not
do to put on what I had to say in that language, as the laird had
done--nor indeed would it have been easy, as I found upon the
experimenting, to tell what I had to tell in Latin, which is
naturally a crabbed language, and very difficult to write properly.
I therefore, after mentioning her age and the dates of her birth and
departure, composed in sedate poetry the following epitaph, which
may yet be seen on the tombstone.


EPITAPH

A lovely Christian, spouse, and friend,
Pleasant in life, and at her end. -
A pale consumption dealt the blow
That laid her here, with dust below.
Sore was the cough that shook her frame;
That cough her patience did proclaim -
And as she drew her latest breath,
She said, "The Lord is sweet in death."