SEARCH OF
GRAVESTONES
OLD AND CURIOUS.
With One Hundred and Two Illustrations
BY
W. T. VINCENT,
PRESIDENT OF THE WOOLWICH DISTRICT ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY; AUTHOR OF "THE
RECORDS OF THE WOOLWICH DISTRICT," ETC., ETC.
LONDON:
MITCHELL & HUGHES, 140, WARDOUR STREET.
1896.
IN SEARCH OF
GRAVESTONES
OLD AND CURIOUS.
_Frontispiece_.
[Illustration: AN EARLY SAMPLE AT HIGHAM.] (Page 11.)
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I. OLD GRAVESTONES 1
II. THE EVOLUTION OF GRAVESTONES 9
III. ARTISTIC GRAVESTONES 20
IV. PROFESSIONAL GRAVESTONES 31
V. A TYPICAL TRAMP IN KENT 35
VI. MORE TYPICAL TRAMPS 43
VII. EARLIER GRAVESTONES 49
VIII. REFORM AMONG THE GRAVESTONES 57
IX. PRESERVING THE GRAVESTONES 62
X. OLD GRAVESTONES IN IRELAND 78
XI. OLD GRAVESTONES IN SCOTLAND 84
XII. OLD GRAVESTONES ABROAD 91
XIII. VERY OLD GRAVESTONES 97
XIV. THE REGULATION OF GRAVESTONES 105
INDEX 111
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
EARL STANHOPE, F.S.A.,
LORD LIEUTENANT OF KENT,
PRESIDENT OF THE KENT ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
ETC.,
THIS COLLECTION OF
OLD AND CURIOUS GRAVESTONES
IS BY SPECIAL PERMISSION
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF GRAVESTONES.
AN EARLY EXAMPLE AT HIGHAM
1 AND 2, NEWHAVEN
3, WIDCOMBE; 4, NEWHAVEN; 5, LEWES
6, PLUMSTEAD; 7 AND 8, DARTFORD
9, FRANKFORT; 10, EAST WICKHAM
11, RIDLEY; 12, HOO
13, ERITH; 14, HIGH HALSTOW
15, FRINDSBURY; 16, HIGHAM
17, SHORNE AND CHALK
18, MEOPHAM; 19, STANSTEAD; 20, OLD ROMNEY
21, CRAYFORD; 22, SHOREHAM
23, LEWISHAM; 24, HORNSEY
25, TEDDINGTON; 26, FINCHLEY; 27, FARNBOROUGH
28, CHISELHURST; 29, HARTLEY
30, WEST WICKHAM; 31, HORNSEY
32, HORTON KIRBY; 33, CLIFFE
34, DARENTH; 35, KINGSDOWN
36, FAWKHAM; 37, SWANSCOMBE
38, ASHFORD; 39, COOLING
40, HENDON; 41, EAST WICKHAM
42, SNARGATE; 43, EAST HAM
44, WILMINGTON; 45, WANSTEAD; 46, SOUTHFLEET; 47, WILMINGTON
48, LEWISHAM; 49, BUNHILL FIELDS
50, WOOLWICH; 51, LONGFIELD
52, LYDD; 53, BERMONDSEY
54, RICHMOND; 55, RIPLEY
56, COBHAM; 57, BARNES
58, FRINDSBURY; 59, SUTTON AT HONE
60, BROMLEY; 61, BECKENHAM
62, GREEENFORD; 63, WEST HAM
64, LEE; 65, ORPINGTON
66, ST. MARY CRAY; 67, ST. PAUL'S CRAY
68, FOOT'S CRAY; 69, BEXLEY
70, BARKING; 71, WOOLWICH
72, DEPTFORD; 73, WEST HAM
74, AND 75, WANSTEAD
76, WALTHAMSTOW; 77, BROXBOURNE
78, STAPLEFORD TAWNEY; 79, SHORNE
80, BETHNAL GREEN; 81, PLUMSTEAD
82, CHESHUNT; 83, HATFIELD
84, NORTHOLT; 85, TWICKENHAM
86, HIGH BARNET; 87, KINGSTON-ON-THAMES
88, SWORDS
89, DROGHEDA
90, BANGOR; 91, MUCKROSS AND QUEENSTOWN
92, INVERNESS; 93, BRAEMAR
94, STIRLING
95, BLAIRGOWRIE
96, LAUFEN
97, NEUHAUSEN
98, HEIDELBERG; 99, LUCERNE
100, THE BRESSAY STONE; 101, LUNNASTING AND KILBAR STONES
PREFACE.
I am a Gravestone Rambler, and I beg you to bear me company.
This Book is not a Sermon. It is a lure to decoy other Ramblers, and
the bait is something to ramble for. It also provides a fresh object
for study.
Old-lore is an evergreen tree with many branches. This is a young
shoot. It is part of an old theme, but is itself new.
Books about Tombs there are many, and volumes of Epitaphs by the
hundred. But of the Common Gravestones--the quaint and curious, often
grotesque, headstones of the churchyard--there is no record.
These gravestones belong to the past, and are hastening to decay. In
one or two centuries none will survive unless they be in Museums.
To preserve the counterfeit presentment of some which remain seems a
duty.
Many may share the quest, but no one has yet come out to start. Let
your servant shew the way.
I begin my book as I began my Rambles, and pursue as I have pursued.
WILLIAM THOMAS VINCENT.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. NEWHAVEN.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2. NEWHAVEN.]
IN SEARCH OF
GRAVESTONES
OLD AND CURIOUS.
CHAPTER I.
OLD GRAVESTONES.
I was sauntering about the churchyard at Newhaven in Sussex, reading
the inscriptions on the tombs, when my eyes fell upon a headstone
somewhat elaborately carved. Although aged, it was in good
preservation, and without much trouble I succeeded in deciphering
all the details and sketching the subject in my note-book. It is
represented in Fig. 1.
FIG. 1--AT NEWHAVEN, SUSSEX.
The inscription below the design reads as follows:
"Here lyeth the remains of Andrew Brown,
who departed this life the 14th day of
January 1768, aged 66 years. Also of
Mary his wife, who departed this life the
3d day of July 1802, aged 88 years."
This was the first time I had been struck by an allegorical gravestone
of a pronounced character.
The subject scarcely needs to be interpreted, being obviously intended
to illustrate the well-known passage in the Burial Service: "For the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised ... then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
Victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
The reference in another ritual to the Lord of Life trampling the King
of Terrors beneath his feet seems also to be indicated, and it will
be noticed that the artist has employed a rather emphatic smile to
pourtray triumph.
It was but natural to suppose that this work was the production of
some local genius of the period, and I searched for other evidences
of his skill. Not far away I found the next design, very nearly of the
same date.
FIG. 2.--AT NEWHAVEN, SUSSEX.
The words below were:
"To the memory of Thomas, the son of
Thomas and Ann Alderton, who departed
this life the 10th day of April 1767, in the
13th year of his age."
The same artist almost of a certainty produced both of these
figurative tombstones. The handicraft is similar, the idea in each is
equally daring and grotesque, and the phraseology of the inscriptions
is nearly identical. I thought both conceptions original and native
to the place, but I do not think so now. In point of taste, the first,
which is really second in order of date, is perhaps less questionable
than the other. The hope of a joyful resurrection, however rudely
displayed, may bring comfort to wounded hearts; but it is difficult
to conceive the feelings of bereaved parents who could sanction the
representation of a beloved boy, cut off in the brightest hour of
life, coffined and skeletoned in the grave!
[Illustration: FIG. 3. WIDCOMBE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 4. NEWHAVEN.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5. LEWES.]
Above the coffin on Alderton's headstone is an ornament, apparently
palms. It is not unusual to find such meaningless, or apparently
meaningless, designs employed to fill in otherwise blank spaces,
though symbols of death, eternity, and the future state are in
plentiful command for such purposes. Something like this same ornament
may be found on a very old flat stone in the churchyard of Widcombe,
near Bath. It stretches the full width of the stone, and is in high
relief, which has preserved it long after the accompanying inscription
has vanished. The probable date may be about 1650.
FIG. 3.--AT WIDCOMBE, NEAR BATH.
In Newhaven Churchyard, though there are but these two striking
examples of the allegorical gravestone, there is one other singular
exemplification of the graver's skill and ingenuity, but it is nearly
a score of years later in date than the others, and probably by
another mason. It represents the old and extinct bridge over the
Sussex Avon at Newhaven, and it honours a certain brewer of the town,
whose brewery is still carried on there and is famous for its "Tipper"
ale. Allowing that it was carved by a different workman, it is only
fair to suppose that it may have been suggested by its predecessors.
Its originality is beyond all question, which can very rarely be
said of an old gravestone, and, as a churchyard record of a local
institution, I have never seen it equalled or approached.
FIG. 4.--AT NEWHAVEN, SUSSEX.
Under the design is the following inscription:
"To the Memory of Thomas Tipper, who
departed this life May y'e 14th, 1785, Aged
54 Years.
"READER, with kind regard this GRAVE survey
Nor heedless pass where TIPPER'S ashes lay.
Honest he was, ingenuous, blunt, and kind;
And dared do, what few dare do, speak his mind.
PHILOSOPHY and History well he knew,
Was versed in PHYSICK and in Surgery too.
The best old STINGO he both brewed and sold,
Nor did one knavish act to get his Gold.
He played through Life a varied comic part,
And knew immortal HUDIBRAS by heart.
READER, in real truth, such was the Man,
Be better, wiser, laugh more if you can."
That these were all the especial eccentricities of this burial-place
disappointed me, but, with my after-knowledge, may say that three such
choice specimens from one enclosure is a very liberal allowance.
Suspecting that sculptors of the quality necessary for such
high-class work would be unlikely to dwell in a small and unimportant
fisher-village such as Newhaven was in the middle of the eighteenth
century, I went over to Lewes, the county town being only seven miles
by railway. But I found nothing to shew that Lewes was the seat of so
much skill, and I have since failed to discover the source in Brighton
or any other adjacent town. Indeed, it may be said at once that large
towns are the most unlikely of all places in which to find peculiar
gravestones. At Lewes, however, I lighted on one novelty somewhat to
my purpose, and, although a comparatively simple illustration, it
is not without its merits, and I was glad to add it to my small
collection. The mattock and spade are realistic of the grave; the open
book proclaims the promise of the heaven beyond.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. PLUMSTEAD.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7. DARTFORD.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8. DARTFORD.]
FIG. 5.--AT LEWES.
"To Samuel Earnes, died May 6th, 1757, aged
21 years."
The coincidence of date would almost warrant a belief that this piece
of imagery may have emanated from the same brain and been executed by
the same hands as are accountable for the two which we have seen seven
miles away, but the workmanship is really not in the least alike, and
I have learnt almost to discard in this connection the theory of local
idiosyncrasies. Even when we find, as we do find, similar, and
almost identical, designs in neighbouring churchyards, or in the
same churchyard, it is safer to conjecture that a meaner sculptor has
copied the earlier work than that the first designer would weaken his
inventive character by a replication. The following, which cannot
be described as less than a distortion of a worthier model, is to be
found in many places, and in such abundance as to suggest a wholesale
manufacture.
FIG. 6.--AT PLUMSTEAD, KENT.
"To Elizabeth Bennett, died 1781, aged
53 years."
It is obvious that the idea intended to be represented is figurative
of death in infancy or childhood, and illustrates the well-known words
of the Saviour, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid
them not: for of such is the kingdom of God," quoted on the stone
itself. In this and many similar cases in which the design and text
are used for old or elderly people, they have been certainly strained
from their true significance. The figure of a little child is,
however, employed occasionally to represent the soul, and may also be
taken to indicate the "new birth."
There is an almost exact reproduction of the foregoing example in
the same churchyard, even more remarkably at variance with Scriptural
interpretation.
It is dedicated
"To John Clark, died 1793, aged 62 years;
and Rebecca his wife, died 1794, aged 61
years."
The inscription adds:
"What manner of persons these were the last
day will discover."
Gravestone plagiarism of this sort is very common, and there is to be
found at West Ham, Essex, the same symbolical flight of the angel and
child repeated as many as five times.
The pilfering is not so weak and lamentable when the copyist
appropriates merely the idea and works it out in a new fashion. The
term new can hardly be attributed to the notion of a plucked flower
as a type of death, but it occurs in so many varieties as almost to
redeem its conventionality.
The sculptor of a stone which is in Dartford burial-ground probably
had the suggestion from a predecessor.
FIG. 7.--AT DARTFORD.
"To James Terry, died 1755, aged 31 years."
But not far from it in the same burial-ground, which is really a
cemetery separated from the parish church, and one of the oldest
cemeteries in England, is another imitation quite differently brought
out, but in principle essentially the same.
FIG. 8.--AT DARTFORD.
"To....Callow, died....1794...."
At the churchyard of Stone (or Greenhithe), two or three miles
from Dartford, both these floral emblems are reproduced with strict
fidelity.
This first chapter and the sketches which illustrate it will serve to
introduce and explain my work and its scope.
In pursuing my investigations it was soon evident that the period of
the allegorical gravestone was confined sharply and almost exclusively
to the eighteenth century. I have seldom met one earlier than 1700,
and those subsequent to 1800 are very rare. Of gravestones generally
it may almost be said that specimens of seventeenth-century date
are exceedingly few. There are reasons for this, as will afterwards
appear. But the endurance even of the longest-lived of all the old
memorials cannot be very much longer extended, and this may be my
excuse for preserving and perpetuating the features of some of them as
a not uninteresting phase of the vanishing past. I do not claim for
my subject any great importance, but present it as one of the small
contributions which make up history. One other plea I may urge in my
defence. This is a branch of study which, so far as I can ascertain,
has been quite neglected. There are books by the score dealing with
the marble, alabaster, and other tombs within the churches, there
are books of epitaphs and elegies by the hundred, and there are
meditations among the graves sufficient to satisfy the most devout and
exacting of readers, but the simple gravestone of the churchyard as an
object of sculptured interest has I believe found hitherto no student
and is still looking for its historian.