The office felt more like a lockdown walk today with a trip to the Three Brethren and then Tibby Tamson's grave. Tibbie Tamson was a Selkirk woman who died in 1790. Not much is known of her life and her death too, is shrouded in mystery. One theory has it that she was accused of being a witch and subsequently burned at the stake. Perhaps a more realistic account is that she was accused and convicted of petty theft. It is suggested that her fragile mental state was such that the shame, or fear, or both, caused her to take her own life. Other theories exist but, in any event, it seems that she could not be buried in consecrated ground within the town boundary, so her grave is here on the side of a windswept hill. The grave is, however, regularly tended and bunches of flowers appear from time to time. Each year members of the Selkirk Common Riding pass by and place a wreath at the grave in remembrance of her.
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