PROFESSIONAL GRAVESTONES.
It is more than likely that somewhere will be found a pictorial
accompaniment to the verse which has been often used as an epitaph
for a village blacksmith. I have met with the lines in two or
three versions, of which the following, copied in the churchyard at
Aberystwith, appears to be the most complete:
"My sledge and hammer lie reclined;
My bellows too have lost their wind;
My fire extinct, my forge decay'd,
And in the dust my vice is laid.
My coal is spent, my iron's gone;
My nails are drove, my worck is done."
There are many instances in which the implements of his craft are
depicted upon an artizan's tomb; these also for the most part being
of the eighteenth century. In the churchyard at Cobham, a village made
famous by the Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, is a gravestone
recording the death of a carpenter, having at the head a shield
bearing three compasses to serve as his crest, and under it the usual
tools of his trade--square, mallet, compasses, wedge, saw, chisel,
hammer, gimlet, plane, and two-foot rule.
FIG. 56.--AT COBHAM, KENT.
"To Richard Gransden, carpenter, died 13th
March, 1760."
This one may serve as a fair sample of all the trade memorials to
which carpenters have been, before all classes of mechanics, the most
prone. The carvings bear the same strong resemblance to each other
that we find in other series of gravestones, but have occasional
variations, as in the following specimen, which mixes up somewhat
grotesquely the emblems of death and eternity with the mundane
instruments of skill and labour, including therein a coffin lid
to shew maybe that the man, besides being a carpenter, was also an
undertaker.
FIG. 57.--AT BARNES.
"To Henry Mitchell, died 1724, aged 72 years."
It was only to be expected that the prominent agriculturists of rural
districts would be figuratively represented on their gravestones,
and this will be found to be the case in a number of instances. The
following illustration is from the churchyard of Frindsbury, a short
distance out of Rochester and on the edge of the Medway meadows.
FIG. 58.--AT FRINDSBURY.
The inscription is effaced, but the date appears
to be 1751.
The overturned sheaf presumably refers metaphorically to the fate of
the farmer whom the stone was set up to commemorate. The old-fashioned
plough is cut only in single profile, but is not an ineffective
emblem. I imagine that the ribbon above the plough bore at one time
some inscribed words which time has obliterated.
[Illustration: FIG. 58. FRINDSBURY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 59. SUTTON AT HONE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 60. BROMLEY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 61. BECKENHAM.]
The design invented by the sculptor at Sutton at Hone, near Dartford,
is less original and also less striking.
FIG. 59.--AT SUTTON AT HONE.
"To Richard Northfield, died Oct. 19, 1767,
aged 71 years."
In the case of John Bone, bricklayer, of Bromley, Kent, it would
probably be wrong to associate with his calling the tools engraved on
his headstone. They were probably meant with the rest of the picture
to represent the emblems of mortality.
FIG. 60.--AT BROMLEY.
"To John Bone, Bricklayer, died Dec. 14,
1794, aged 48 years."
There is, however, one stone which may be included in the category of
trade memorials, though its subject was not a mechanic. Mr. John Cade
was a schoolmaster at Beckenham, and appears to have been well liked
by his pupils, who, when he prematurely died, placed a complimentary
epitaph over his grave. The means by which he had imparted knowledge
are displayed upon the stone, and below are the lines hereinafter set
forth.
FIG. 61.--AT BECKENHAM.
"To the memory of John Cade, of this parish,
schoolmaster. One skilled in his profession
and of extensive ingenuity. As
he lived universally beloved, so he died
as much lamented, August 28th, 1750, aged
35 years. Several of his scholars, moved
by affection and gratitude, at their own
expense erected this in remembrance of
his worth and merit.
"Virtue, good nature, learning, all combined
To render him belov'd of human kind."
Greenford, near Harrow-on-the-Hill, had quite recently a worthy
inhabitant who was a gardener and presumably a beekeeper also.
Accordingly a beehive appropriately decorates his gravestone.
FIG. 62.--AT GREENFORD.
"To William King, upwards of 60 years
gardener of this parish, died Dec. 16th,
1863, aged 84 years."
The next problem is rather more doubtful, and in considering the
possibility of the memorial indicated being "professional," we must
remember that the parish of West Ham, now a populous place, was quite
out of town and almost undiscovered until a comparatively recent time.
Its eighteenth-century gravestones are consequently for the most part
rustic and primitive. The skull and other bones here depicted, decked
with wheat-ears and other vegetation, probably have some literal
reference to the agricultural pursuits of the deceased, although of
course they may be only poetical allusions to the life to come.
FIG. 63.--AT WEST HAM.
"To Andrew James, died 1754, aged 68 years."