In Search of Gravestones Old and Curious Part 3

FIG. 24.--AT HORNSEY.

"To Mr John Gibson, whipmaker, died Oct.

30, 1766, aged 44 years."

The hand seems to be pointing to the record of a well-spent life which has won the crown of glory.

There is another of the lower jaw series at Teddington, which is also, in all probability, the only instance of a man's nightcap figuring in such gruesome circ.u.mstances.

FIG. 25.--AT TEDDINGTON.

"To Sarah Lewis, died June 11, 1766, aged 63 years."

The emblem of Death was quite early crowned with laurel to signify glory, and a.s.sociated with foliage and flowers in token of the Resurrection. One at Finchley is, for its years, well preserved.

FIG. 26.--AT FINCHLEY.

"To Richard Scarlett, died July 23, 1725."

Another at Farnborough is, considering the date, of exceptional merit.

FIG. 27.--AT FARNBOROUGH.

"To Elizabeth Stow, died 1744, aged 75 years."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 25. TEDDINGTON.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26. FINCHLEY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27. FARNBOROUGH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28. CHISELHURST.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29. HARTLEY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 30. WEST WICKHAM.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 31. HORNSEY.]

A few others of the skull pattern with various additaments may conclude this chapter. The cup in the Chiselhurst case is somewhat uncommon.

FIG. 28.--AT CHISELHURST.

Name obliterated; date Nov. 1786.

The conventional symbols in the next example are clearly to be read.

FIG. 29.--AT HARTLEY.

"To Eliza Andersen, died 1771, aged 70 years."

The West Wickham specimen has its prototype in the old churchyard at Hackney, and in other places.

FIG. 30.--AT WEST WICKHAM.

"To Richard Whiffen, died 1732, aged 3 years."

In Fig. 31, from Hornsey, the two skulls present the appearance of having been pitched up from the grave.

FIG. 31.--AT HORNSEY.

"To William Fleetwood, died Jan. 30, 1750, aged 15 months."

CHAPTER III.

ARTISTIC GRAVESTONES.

In the later half of the eighteenth century greater pains and finer workmanship appear to have been bestowed upon the symbolic figurement of the gravestone, and the more elaborate allegorical representations of which a few sketches have been given came into vogue and grew in popular favour until the century's end. Nor did the opening of a new century altogether abolish the fashion; perhaps it can hardly be said to have been abolished even now at the century's close, but the evidences extant combine to shew that the flourishing period of the pictorial headstone lay well within the twenty-five years preceding Anno Domini 1800. For the sake of comparison one with another, I have taken, in addition to the sketch at page 1 (Fig. 1), three examples of the device which seems most frequently to typify the resurrection of the dead. In two of these the ill.u.s.tration is accompanied by a quotation explanatory of its subject, but the words are not the same in both cases. The stone at Horton Kirby, near Dartford, depicted in Fig. 32, shews the inscription clearly.

FIG. 32.--AT HORTON KIRBY.

"To John Davidge. died April 22, 1775, aged 75 years."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 32. HORTON KIRBY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 33. CLIFFE.]

In the second instance, at Cliffe, the inscription has been in great part obliterated by time, but the words written were evidently those of the chapter from Corinthians which is part of the Burial Service: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

They are, however, almost illegible, and I have made no attempt to reproduce them in the picture.

FIG. 33.--AT CLIFFE.

"To Mary Jackson, died March 26, 1768."

There is a second stone of similar pattern in Cliffe Churchyard, dated 1790. It differs from the foregoing only in having the spear broken.

The sculptor of another specimen at Darenth, near Dartford, thought the subject worthy of broader treatment, and transferred it to a stone about double the ordinary width, but did not vary the idea to any great extent. Indeed, Horton Kirby and Darenth, being next-door neighbours, have most features in common; the falling tower, which symbolizes the Day of Judgment, appearing in both, while it is absent from the more distant examples at Cliffe and Newhaven. The introduction of the omniscient eye in the Cliffe case is, however, a stroke of genius compared with the conventional palm branches at Horton Kirby, or the flight through mid-air of the tower-tops both at Horton Kirby and at Darenth.

FIG. 34.--AT DARENTH.

"To John Millen, died June 11th, 1786, aged 82 years."

Outside the county of Kent I have met with nothing of this pattern, and pictorial art on a similar scale is seldom seen on the gravestones anywhere. Specimens from Lee, Cheshunt, Stapleford Tawney, and elsewhere, will, however, be seen in subsequent pages.

The day of joyful resurrection is prefigured possibly in more acceptable shape in the next instance, no imitation of which I have seen in any of my rambles.

FIG. 35.--AT KINGSDOWN.