LOOK YE ALSO AT THE WONDER OF THE WORLD

Has a puzzle been solved? Karen over on Cornflower was trying to source the following quotation:

"The wonder of the world, the beauty and the power, the shapes of things, their colours, lights, and shades; these I saw. Look ye also while life lasts."

The reason for the search is explained here and here. Being related to a walking dictionary (Iseabail) and walking encyclopedia-cum-book-ferret (John) I thought they'd enjoy the challenge! Too right! John sourced* it - word for word!

The text is chiseled into a large memorial wall for Alexander Morton (1844-1924) which is located in Darvel, East Ayrshire, Scotland. He was a Victorian industrialist who built up a textile industry. His biography is here. The wall is on the side of the road, on the west side of Darvel, adjacent to where he lived, not in a cemetery. It seems it was erected in 1927 and BB's [see footnotes] first book was 1938 so it could fit.

The inscription appears along the top of the wall under the coping stones and starts on the left-hand side.

Text under figure on left edge reads: Erected by public subscription

Text under the bust reads: Alexander Morton who led this valley to industrial fame and prosperity

Compare this text with lines from Fra Lippo Lippi by Robert Browning (1812-1889):

"You speak no Latin more than I, belike; However, you're my man, you've seen the world -- The beauty and the wonder and the power, The shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades, Changes, surprises, -- and God made it all!"

So ... more questions! Who is the author of the inscription on the Alexander Morton Memorial? Is this the reference to which the author 'BB' referred when he stated "his father copied them from a north country tombstone"?

* AQA (Any Questions Answered)- text them a question on 63336. Cost £1.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * FOOTNOTES * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

April 2014 in answer to a comment about the source of the poem in the inscription:  By chance I came across this memorial 6 years ago. I do not know anything in particular about it, i.e. other than what I looked up as written above.  This is not a relative; indeed, I had never heard of this person.    

In case it is missing there is a published comment below which states "Alexander Morton was my great great grandfather and my father tells me Alexander's motto was [the aforementioned] Watkins-Pitchford's poem ."

 Yet above, I mentioned that Watkins-Pitchford's son stated that he copied them from a north country tombstone.  By that I would have thought he meant Yorkshire, Northumberland or Cumbria and not Scotland.

I should have mentioned above that Denys Watkins-Pitchford "wrote under the nom de plume of 'BB', a name based on the size of lead shot he used to shoot geese."  [Wikipedia]