St. Mary’s Parish Church, Ratho – Ink/Watercolour Pencils on a watercolour Moleskine

We had some snow again today but, by the time I finished this wee picture, it had all vanished. St Mary’s is a very old church. There has been a place of worship, on this spot, for many hundreds of years and parts of the existing building are said to have been here since the reformation. The graveyard “boasts” an unusual gravestone which is in the shape of a coffin and is very heavy looking. This was probably made to stop body snatchers(also called resurrectionists) digging up the body to sell for medical research. In the late 18th century Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular, was at the forefront of medical science. To discover how human anatomy worked, physicians needed dead bodies. When the supply of the legally obtained, deceased dried up resurrectionists turned to other sources. (Read about the infamous case of Burke and Hare) http://www.edinburgh-royalmile.com/famous-scots/burke-and-hare.html These days it’s just the government that skins you.