CHARLOTTE E. HAWKER,
FOR NEARLY FORTY YEARS THE WIFE OF ONE OF THE
VICARS OF THIS CHURCH.
She died Feb. 2, 1863.
There is sprung up a light for the righteous, and joyful gladness
for such as are true-hearted.
The text had reference to her blindness.
At the bottom of the stone is a blank space left for his own name, and a place was made by his own orders at the side of his wife for his own body.
Morwenstow, Oct. 16, 1864. My dear Mrs. M——,—I have intended every day to make an effort, and go down to Bude to see you, and to thank you for all your kindness to me in my desolate abode; but I am quite unequal to the attempt. If you return next year, and you will come, you will find me, if I am alive, keeping watch and ward humbly and faithfully by the place where my dead wife still wears her ring in our quiet church. If I am gone, I know you will come and stand by the stone where we rest. My kindest love to Mr. M—— and your happy little children.
After the death of Mrs. Hawker, he fell into a condition of piteous depression. He moped about the cliffs, or in his study, and lost interest in everything. Sciatica added to his misery; and to relieve this he had recourse to opium.