In Search of Gravestones Old and Curious

uates the author to follow up and develop the new field of antiquarian research which it has attempted to introduce. As old Weever says, in his quaint style:-"I

d within a comparatively small radius. It is only the hoard of one collector and the contents of one sketch-book, all gleaned in about a h

n. I have searched the Museum libraries, and consulted book-collectors, well-read archaeologists, and others likely to know if there is any work descriptive of old gravestones in existence, and nothing with the remotest relation thereto can I discover.1 There are, of

these excursions, for then the pew-openers are dusting out the church, and the sexton is usually about, sweeping the paths or cutting the grass. The church door will in most cases be open, and you can get the guidance you want from the best possible sources. A chat with the village sexton is seldom uninviting, and he can generally point out everything worth your observation. But the faculty of finding that of which you are in search will soon come to you. In the first place, the new portion of a churchyard-there is nearly always a new

no harm, and will often bring to view letters and figures which have apparently quite disappeared. If a camera be taken, a carpenter's pencil may be of service in strengthening half-vanished lines, and a folded foot-rule should always be in the pocket. A mariner's compass is sometimes useful in strange places, but the eastward position of a church will always give the bearings, and a native is usually to be found to point the way. A road map of the county which you are about to explore, or, if in the vicinity of London, one of those admirable and well-known handbooks of the field paths, is useful, and the journey should be carefully plotted out before the

64.-A

yton, died 11

extinguish the lamp of Life. The sun may mean the brig

k of churches, but it is only reasonable to suppose that the student who is capable of taking up as a pastime the investigation of churchyards has previously acquired something more or less of archaeological taste, and will not fail to notice the churches.2 We reach the churchyard of Orpington, visit the church, and then my

AT ORPING

field, daught

ield, died 2

s. Also Jame

and Martha M

1746, age

rather than the earlier date. The two bones are not often found in so lateral a position, and the vampire wings are clumsy in the extreme. I have collected varieties of the skull and crossbone character in many places, and seen the eccentricities of many masons in the way of wings, but have met with very few so far astray as t

he body of Ma

she died Mar

58

Mary, never

r neighbours

and Dove we

er where I m

ith, husband

nk under

bly symbolized by the not infrequent scythe and possibly also by the pierced heart. The latter might refer to the bereaved survivor, but, being a-fl

-AT ST.

ott, died May

yea

allegory was immediately duplicated, apparently by another hand, with just a little variation to redeem the piracy. The coffin is quite o

AT ST. PA

y, died 1st Se

yea

t novel specimen, which is a combination of ordinary emblems, with little attempt at symmet

-AT FOOT

Wood, died Feb

58 ye

a beautifully kept ground surrounding a delightful church well repaid the visit. A call at Old Bexley Church com

.-AT OL

, wife of He

ember 1805, a

and the figure reading the Holy Book suggests consolation. From Bexley Chu