I have real double, triple and probably quadruple standards when it comes to grafitti.
I like it.
I don't mean wilful destruction of a monument.
I do mean the human desire to make their mark and say "I was here".
I really like this capstone and its many "I was here" markings...
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/img_fullsize/92197.jpg
Yup! That is carved from scottish shortbread, knobbly kneed, theatrical knobshiner Sir Harry Lauder's name chiselled there mid-top left. As are dozens of others. One poignant inscription on this capstone is (mid-top right) to a WWII navy crew lost at sea after they sailed from Lamlash, round Kintyre and out into the North Atlantic. The only reason there are few more modern initials on it is that there is so little room now and folks tend not to carry hammers and chisels these days. A stone can carry lots of histories. I can see all of those marks as part of a continuing tradition.
There was a lovely "cock and balls" carved stone which was originally part of an Antonine Wall Fort which some landowner purloined for his country estate wall last century . Someone nicked it from there fairly recently. I have a photo of it - it was a real stonker. Today I found a poorly drawn "cock and balls" scrawled on the back inside cover of a Maths textbook and felt a pang of disappointment at its shabby execution and the poor definition of curve and line. What is happening to the world's values when such details are lost?
A bunch of schoolgirls writing on a stone in felt pen? I'm not gonna twitch at that one. The rain will gently wash it away like yesterday's playground chalk. Let's be glad they only brought their felt tips and not the hammer and chisels so popular last century. HS will not send out a wee man in a van with a bucket and mop!
PS. Had my full half-century MOT earlier this year. Funny feeling. Glad to hear your doin' fine Mr Sanctuary. Long may the NHS run. They do it, despite what vestedly interested politicians try to tell us. Envy of the world. Don't go changin'...
