This is a eulogy about a real character, William Watt, who worked for many years as ostler at the Balcarres Arms Hotel. It appeared in the Bon Accord but the original handwritten version is reproduced below. Barrowsgate describes a man of good morals and integrity who loved his animals and treated everyone equally. Barrowsgate contends that, had it not been for the occasional misdemeanour after over-indulgence of alcohol, “Aul Wattie” would more likely have been in service to the gentry. Indeed, Wattie came to the Balcarres in disgrace after an incident where he was too inebriated to drive the Laird’s carriage and sat in the back waving to passers-by whilst the Laird had to drive himself home. According to Barrowsgate, as a horse keeper, Wattie had few equals and he was a loyal servant and a fine representative of a bygone age.
William Watt died in 1918, and the local community paid for and erected a gravestone in Echt Kirkyard which still stands. Barrowsgate’s sister, Jean Baxter, commemorated Wattie in one of her own poems (“The Ostler”) and also in her unpublished autobiography.
