In Search of Gravestones Old and Curious | Page 7

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 illustration 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."
[Illustration: FIG. 32. HORTON KIRBY.]
[Illustration: 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.
"To Ann Charman, died 1793, aged 54 years."
No one to whom I have shewn this sketch has given a satisfactory interpretation of it, but it will be allowed that the design is as graceful as it is uncommon. That it also in all likelihood refers to the Day of Judgment may perhaps be regarded as a natural supposition.
Even the open or half-open coffin, shewing the skeleton within, may possibly have some reference to the rising at the Last Day. We have this figure employed in a comparatively recent case at Fawkham in Kent, being one example of nineteenth-century sculpture.
FIG. 36.--AT FAWKHAM.
"Thomas Killick, died 1809, aged 1 month 1 day."
A crown is usually the emblem of Victory, but held in the hand, as in this instance, it indicates, I am told, an innocent life.
Other coffins displaying wholly or partly the corpse or skeleton within are perhaps not intended to convey any such pious or poetic thought as do the two foregoing, but simply to pourtray the ghastliness of death, a kind of imagery much fancied by the old stonemasons.
[Illustration: FIG. 34. DARENTH.]
[Illustration: FIG. 35. KINGSDOWN.]
[Illustration: FIG. 36. FAWKHAM.]
[Illustration: FIG. 37. SWANSCOMBE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 38. ASHFORD.]
[Illustration: FIG. 39. COOLING.]
[Illustration: FIG. 40. HENDON.]
[Illustration: FIG. 41. EAST WICKHAM.]
[Illustration: FIG. 42. SNARGATE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 43. EAST HAM.]
FIG. 37.--AT SWANSCOMBE.
"To Elizabeth Hall, died 1779, aged 76 years."
FIG. 38.--AT ASHFORD.
"To Stephen Kennedy, died Sept. 1791, aged 61 years."
In the latter illustration there are three stars to which I can give no signification. The snake-ring is, of course, eternity, and the book, as before surmised, may stand for the record of a good life.
More ingenious, more didactic, and altogether more meritorious than these is another series of designs belonging to the same period of time. They are not only as a rule conceived in better taste, but are, almost consequently, better in their execution. The following example from Cooling, a small village in the Medway Marshes, is an excellent specimen of its class, and a very exceptional "find" for a spot so remote.
FIG. 39.--AT COOLING.
"To M'r Richard Prebble of Cliffe, died April 1775."
One of later date at Hendon, Middlesex, is also to be commended. The lyre, cornet, and tambourine speak of music, and the figures of Fame