In Search of Gravestones Old and Curious by W.T. (William Thomas) Vincent
page 41 of 137 (29%)
page 41 of 137 (29%)
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the churchyard free from ridicule; but, broadly speaking, there is
no doubt that the rectors and vicars in London and other large cities began quite a hundred years earlier than those of the villages that control and supervision over the carving and inscriptions on the tombstone which is now the almost universal rule. It was unquestionably the adoption of this practice by the country parson, late in the eighteenth century or early in the nineteenth century, that put an end in rural places to the "period" of illustrated epitaphs which had long gone out of fashion, or, more likely, had never come into being, among the busier hives of humanity. A rare variety of the cloud-and-angel series, which are so frequent, is seen in Longfield Churchyard on the Maidstone Road. Trumpets of the speaking or musical order are frequently introduced to typify the summons to resurrection, but here we have the listener pourtrayed by the introduction of an ear-trumpet. [Illustration: FIG. 50. WOOLWICH.] [Illustration: FIG. 51. LONGFIELD.] FIG. 51.--AT LONGFIELD. "To Mary Davidge, died 1772, aged 69 years." Allegorical gravestones of recent date, that is of the time which we call the present day, are very seldom seen, and such as there are do not come within the scope of this work. There is one in West Wickham Churchyard devoted to a chorister, and sculptured with a representation of the church organ-pipes. Memorials to deceased |
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