This haunting drawing of a Barn Owl is an illustration from “Birds by Night” by Graham Martin.
John was asked for ‘an owl on a skull’ for the frontispiece, but countering that that was a very unlikely combination to be found in nature, offered this picture. The Barn Owl, full of life, perches on a memorial headstone to someone long dead. The name of the person may have eroded over the years but the headstone still sends out a warning to the living!
The churchyard at Humbie in East Lothian is full of highly decorated graves with these ‘memento mori‘ symbols; the skull and crossbones remind the viewer that all shall die, and the hourglass that time is short. These symbols were common in the late 16th and 17th centuries and can still be found where old cemeteries have been undisturbed. Another good example is in Peebles.
Nowadays the symbolism of these Memento Mori is often lost in the commercialisation of Halloween but it’s good to remember that All Hallow’s Eve was the last chance for uneasy spirits to roam the world before All Saints’ Day (1st November) and All Souls’ Day (2nd November) closed them down for another year.