In Search of Gravestones Old and Curious Part 2

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 12. HOO.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13. ERITH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 14. HIGH HALSTOW.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15. FRINDSBURY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16. HIGHAM.]

FIG. 14.--AT HIGH HALSTOW.

"To Susan Barber." The date is buried, but there is a similar stone close by dated 1699.

Nearer Rochester, at Frindsbury, there is the next ill.u.s.tration, still like a mask rather than a death's head, but making its purpose clear by the two bones, such as are nearly always employed in more recent productions.

FIG. 15.--AT FRINDSBURY.

"To William David Jones, died 1721."

There is, however, another at Higham of about the same date, in which, supposing a skull to be intended, the inspiration of the bones appears not to have caught the artist. The portrait theory may possibly better fit this case.

FIG. 16.--AT HIGHAM.

"To Mr Wm Boghurst, died 5th of April 1720, aged 65."

That some of the carvings were meant for portraits cannot be denied, and, in order to shew them with unimpeachable accuracy, I have taken rubbings off a few and present an untouched photograph of them just as I rubbed them off the stones (Fig. 17). The whole of the originals are to be found in the neighbouring churchyards of Shorne and Chalk, two rural parishes on the Rochester Road, and exhibit with all the fidelity possible the craftsmanship of the village sculptors. They will doubtless also excite some speculation as to their meaning.

My belief, as already expressed, is that the uppermost four are the embodiment of the rustic yearning for the ideal; in other words, attempts to represent the emblem of death--the skull. Nos. 1 and 2 are from Shorne; Nos. 3, 4, and 5 from the churchyard at Chalk.

In No. 1 we have, perhaps, the crudest conception extant of the skeleton head. The lower bars are probably meant for teeth; what the radial lines on the crown are supposed to be is again conjecture.

Perhaps a nimbus, perhaps hair or a cap, or merely an ornamental finish. The inscription states that the stone was erected to the memory of "Thomas Vdall," who died in 1704, aged 63 years.

No. 2 has the inscription buried, but it is of about the same date, judging by its general appearance. The strange feature in this case is the zig-zag "toothing" which is employed to represent the jaws.

Doubtless the artist thought that anything he might have lost in accuracy he regained in the picturesque.

No. 3, in which part of the inscription "Here lyeth" intrudes into the arch belonging by right to the ill.u.s.tration, is equally primitive and artless. The eyebrows, cheeks--in fact all the features--are evidently una.s.sisted studies from the living, not the dead, frontispiece of humanity; but what are the serifs, or projections, on either side?

Wondrous as it is, there can be only one answer. They must be meant for _ears_! This curious effigy commemorates Mary, wife of William Greenhill, who died in 1717, aged 47 years.

No. 4 is one of the rude efforts to imitate the skull and crossbones of which we find many examples. It is dedicated to one Grinhill (probably a kinsman of the Greenhills aforesaid), who died in 1720, aged 56 years.

Most strange of all is No. 5, in which the mason leaps to the real from the emblematic, and gives us something which is evidently meant for a portrait of the departed. The stone records that Mary, wife of Thomas Jackson, died in 1730, aged 43 years. It is one of the double tombstones frequently met with in Kent and some other counties.

The second half, which is headed by a picture of two united hearts, records that the widower Thomas Jackson followed his spouse in 1748, aged 55 years.

Upon a stone adjacent, to Mary London, who died in 1731, there has been another portrait of a lady with braided hair, but time has almost obliterated it. I mention the circ.u.mstance to shew that this special department of obituary masonry, as all others, was p.r.o.ne to imitations. I may also remark that intelligent inhabitants and constant frequenters of these two churchyards have informed me that in all the hundreds of times of pa.s.sing these stones they never observed any of their peculiarities. It ought, however, to be said that these primitive carvings or scratchings are not often conspicuous, and generally require some seeking. They are always on a small scale of drawing, in nearly every instance within the diminished curve of the most antiquated form of headstone (such as is shewn in the Frontispiece), and as a rule they are overgrown with lichen, which has to be rubbed off before the lines are visible. It may safely be averred, on the other hand, that the majority of the old stones when found of this shape contain or have contained these remarkable figures, and in some places, particularly in Kent, they literally swarm. There is a numerous a.s.sortment of them at Meopham, a once remote hamlet, now a station on the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. I have copied only one--an early attempt apparently to produce a cherub resting with outstretched wings upon a cloud, but there are a good many of the same order to keep it in countenance.

FIG. 18.--AT MEOPHAM.

"To Sarah Edmeades, died 1728, aged 35 years."

In the churchyards of Hawkhurst, Benenden, Bodiam, Cranbrook, Goudhurst, and all through the Great Weald these incised stones are to be discovered by hundreds, very much of one type perhaps, but displaying nevertheless some extraordinary variations. I know of no district so fruitful of these examples as the Weald of Kent.

Even when the rude system of cutting into the stone ceased to be practised and relief carving became general, grossness of idea seems to have survived in many rural parishes. One specimen is to be seen in the churchyard of Stanstead in Kent, and is, for relief work, childish.

FIG. 19.--AT STANSTEAD.

"To William Lock, died 1751, aged 16 years."

However, the vast number of gravestones carved in relief are, on the whole, creditable, especially if we consider the difficulty which met the workmen in having to avoid giving to their crossbones and other ornaments the appearance of horns growing out of their skulls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18. MEOPHAM.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19. STANSTEAD.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 20. OLD ROMNEY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21. CRAYFORD.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22. Sh.o.r.eHAM.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23. LEWISHAM.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24. HOBNSEY.]

FIG. 20.--AT OLD ROMNEY.

"To William Dowll, died 1710, aged 40 years."

The winged skull probably typifies flight above.

FIG. 21.--AT CRAYFORD.

"To John Farrington, died Dec. 8, 1717, aged above fourty years."

In the appropriate design from Sh.o.r.eham the same idea is better conveyed both by the winged head and by the torch, which when elevated signifies the rising sun, and when depressed the setting sun. The trumpet in this case would seem to mean the summons. The two little coffins are eloquent without words.

FIG. 22.--AT Sh.o.r.eHAM.

"The children of Thomas and Jane Stringer, died Sept'r 1754, aged 10 and 7 years."

In Lewisham Churchyard is one of the death's head series almost _sui generis_.

FIG. 23.--AT LEWISHAM.

"To Richard Evens, died May 18, 1707, aged 67 years."

The chaplet of bay-leaves or laurel doubtless indicates "Victory."

Not only is this an early and well-accomplished effort, but it is remarkable for the presence of a lower jaw, which is seldom seen on a gravestone. The skull turned up by the s.e.xton is usually the typical object, and to that we may presume the nether jaw is not often attached. It is found, however, on a headstone of a somewhat weak design in Old Hornsey Churchyard.