Polwarth Kirk gravestone, Scotland

Canmore Id 58498. Polwarth Parish Church, Scottish Borders, was built in 1703 on the site of an earlier church. It is surrounded by an oval-shaped burial-ground, which contains gravestones dating from the seventeenth century. A Latin inscription on the south wall of the church records that a church was first built on this site in the year 900, although the first known reference to a church here is a re-dedication to St Mungo in 1242. The 1703 building is rectangular on plan with a later square tower to the west and a nineteenth-century north aisle. It is harled, with dressings of smooth red sandstone. It incorporates an earlier burial-vault, used by the Marchmont family. In 1684, the vault famously served as the hiding-place of Sir Patrick Hume, who had been implicated in the Rye House plot, a conspiracy to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York. A crowned finial at the east end of the church is a reference to William of Orange, who restored the Hume's fortunes in 1688.