Old Mortality

the popular name of a Scottish stone mason. His real name was Robert Paterson (1715-1801). He was a native of Hawick, Scotland. His business was that of a stone-cutter. He worked a quarry, making a specialty of the flat slabs used as gravestones in the district about Galloway. These slabs were of suitable size to cover a grave. They were laid flat on the ground. In 1745 he took part in the insurrection of Prince Charlie, the Pretender. He was taken prisoner and carried to England. On his return he became so much interested in the restoration of the Covenanters' graves that he abandoned his family and traveled about Southern Scotland with a kit of tools. Whenever the inscription on a slab above a Covenanter's grave had been worn down by the hobnails of those frequenting the churchyard so as to become illegible, he set to work cutting the letters anew. An account of the old man reached Walter Scott and was taken as the basis of a novel known as Old Mortality. See Covenanter