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.