A chance to return to Ravensgill Beck to search for the memorial inscription on a rock to George Watson, an employee at the brickworks who, in 1872, took his own life “in a state of temporary insanity“, to use the language of the time1‘SUICIDE NEAR GUISBOROUGH’ | Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser | Saturday 26 August 1876 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2022. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002975/18760826/035/0004> [accessed 2 October 2022]2Whitworth, Alan. ‘Esk Valley Railway through Time’. Amberley Publishing Limited, 2011 Available online at <https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HmuIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT131&lpg=PT131&dq=%22George+Watson%22+commondale+ravensgill&source=bl&ots=YfM9OYehkT&sig=ACfU3U0UL_ts_e93j324rJCihs-EvQgROA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbxNr1m8L6AhVGUcAKHQbEAJ0Q6AF6BAgEEAM#v=onepage&q=%22George%20Watson%22%20commondale%20ravensgill&f=false> [accessed 2 October 2022].
I had failed on my previous visit. It was further up the beck that I thought.
Watson worked at the Commondale Pottery, finished his shift as usual, but went missing for several days before his body was found in the beck3‘Local and District Inteligenca | Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser | Saturday 26 August 1876 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002975/18760826/035/0004> [accessed 8 January 2023]
A simple inscription is carved on a rock which looks like could be frequently submersed by the flow in the beck hence is a bit worn. But I understand it says:
“George Watson
FELO.DE.SE.
HOMINIS ES ERRARE”
The Latin needs a bit of explaining.
‘Felo de se‘ is an archaic legal expression meaning ‘a crime committed against oneself‘, i.e. suicide, which was decriminalised in 19614‘Felo de Se – Wiktionary’. 2022. Wiktionary.org <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/felo_de_se> [accessed 2 October 2022]5Wikipedia Contributors. 2022. ‘Suicide Act 1961’, Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Act_1961> [accessed 2 October 2022].
‘Hominis es errare’ is a phrase from a speech by the Roman philosopher Cicero:
Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare,
which translates as ‘It is for every man to err, for none but a fool to persevere in error.’6‘In M. Antonium Philippicae/Philippica XII – Wikisource’. 2022. Wikisource.org <https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/In_M._Antonium_Philippicae/Philippica_XII#%5B5%5D> [accessed 8 January 2023]
So ‘Hominis es errare’ is generally translated as ‘To err is human’.
- 1‘SUICIDE NEAR GUISBOROUGH’ | Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser | Saturday 26 August 1876 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2022. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002975/18760826/035/0004> [accessed 2 October 2022]
- 2Whitworth, Alan. ‘Esk Valley Railway through Time’. Amberley Publishing Limited, 2011 Available online at <https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HmuIAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT131&lpg=PT131&dq=%22George+Watson%22+commondale+ravensgill&source=bl&ots=YfM9OYehkT&sig=ACfU3U0UL_ts_e93j324rJCihs-EvQgROA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbxNr1m8L6AhVGUcAKHQbEAJ0Q6AF6BAgEEAM#v=onepage&q=%22George%20Watson%22%20commondale%20ravensgill&f=false> [accessed 2 October 2022]
- 3‘Local and District Inteligenca | Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser | Saturday 26 August 1876 | British Newspaper Archive’. 2023. Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002975/18760826/035/0004> [accessed 8 January 2023]
- 4‘Felo de Se – Wiktionary’. 2022. Wiktionary.org <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/felo_de_se> [accessed 2 October 2022]
- 5Wikipedia Contributors. 2022. ‘Suicide Act 1961’, Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Act_1961> [accessed 2 October 2022]
- 6‘In M. Antonium Philippicae/Philippica XII – Wikisource’. 2022. Wikisource.org <https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/In_M._Antonium_Philippicae/Philippica_XII#%5B5%5D> [accessed 8 January 2023]
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