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.