In Search of Gravestones Old and Curious

f my first questions, and, having seen much of Kent, time was soon found for a sc

old Abbey gate, I came upon

0.-AT

egible. Date ap

pon the hour-glass, and may help the other emblems in symbolizing time and eternity. The nickering candle is also of doubtful interpretation. It may mean the brevity of life; it can hardly be needed,

.-AT WO

mpion, died 27

ter the birth

28 ye

be that where it is represented in a state of burning it may be meant as a lesson on the number of

.-AT DE

th, died 1724,

g cherubs rather prettily rendered, but to be found in vari

.-AT WE

Moore, d

74) which carries more distinctly the fanciful idea suggested at West Ham (page 34, Fig. 63); flowers and fo

.-AT WA

osely, died 1

top corners two projecting skulls, the one facing nearly to the front and the other in profile, both standing out in full relief, carefully and accurately sculptur

.-AT WA

an, died 1715,

ping Forest to Chingford, also without profit, and walked on to Walthamstow, where another of the enfoliated dea

-AT WALT

rn, died 1734,

are used with good decorative effect on either side of a porch in which is seated a mourning figur

.-AT BR

, widow, die

observation in a number of counties that, although there are occasional evidences of local invention, or at least of local

d sadly unproductive of the special novelties I sought, but it afforded me the contemplation of some landscapes which I can never forget, and it printed on my brain a little papier-maché-like church at Totteridge which was worth going miles to see. Better fortune next time should be the beacon of the gentle tramp. The long jaunt I had from Chigwell Lane Station through the pretty but unpopulous country west of Theydon Bois, uneventful as it was, made an ineffaceable mark on my memory. I picture now the long and solitary walk across fields and woodlands, with never a soul to tell the way for miles and miles, crossing and recrossing the winding Roden, startling the partridges from the turnips, and surprising, at some sudden bend in the footpath, the rabbits at their play. It is not without excitement to steer one's course over unknown and forsaken ground by chart and compass. These needful guides then prove their valu

T STAPLEFO

right, died 3

76 ye

r Gravesend, which, is here given for comparison, and I have seen two others at Cranbrook. They

9.-AT

n, died Jan. 1

May 21, 175

ied Aug.

named, a native, the first I had seen for a mile or two, stopped at the unwonted sight of a stranger sketching in the churchyard, and I consulted him as to application of the parable of the Good Samaritan in the case under notice. His reply was that, though he had lived there "man and boy for fifty year," he had "never see'd the thing afore." He condescended, however, to take an interest in my ex