Burial-grounds contain numerous “freak” memorials, notwithstanding that clergymen, as a rule, discountenance that form of eccentricity which strives after novelty in post-mortem advertisement. The most curious churchyard memorial in England, perhaps, is at Pinner. It resembles a church tower, and half-way up it a coffin projects on each side. Beneath, and supporting the structure, are arches filled in with ironwork, bearing the words, “Byde-my-Tyme.” The “my” appears to stand for one William London, who was interred (or interned) here in 1809.
“’TWIXT EARTH AND SKY”—AN EXTRAORDINARY GRAVE IN PINNER CHURCHYARD.
From a Photograph.
Legends cluster round this strange object. The stone coffin, according to the most circumstantial, contains the remains of a Scotch merchant, whose descendants retain his property as long as he “remains above ground.” Nothing definite, however, is known about the tomb. If its constructor wished to furnish posterity with an insoluble puzzle, he has succeeded to perfection.
ANOTHER REMARKABLE MEMORIAL—A LIGHT BURNS IN THE TOWER NIGHT AND DAY.
From a Photograph.
Of the “freak” memorials in public cemeteries, a lighthouse is easily first. This is at Ulverston, and is not merely a stonemason’s model, for it actually contains a plate-glass lantern, in which a gas-jet is burning continuously day and night. The most remarkable thing about this elaborate token of affection, perhaps, is that it is not a glorified tombstone. It was erected by a daughter in memory of her father, who is buried elsewhere, and was placed on its present site because the two had paid several visits to Ulverston Priory. Neither had any real connection with the town. A feature which differentiates this handsome tribute from all, or nearly all, others is obvious, and that is the cost of maintenance consequent on the gas consumed in the lantern.
Public memorials include numbers of “freaks,” the singularity of some of which is greatly heightened by their surroundings. This is notably so in the case of a drinking fountain which stands in the middle of the East Anglian town of Swaffham. Unromantic as its environment is, this structure is a modern heart shrine, containing as it does the cardiac organ of a local magnate, Sir William Bagge, who died in 1880. It was at his own request that his heart was deposited within the memorial, that he might remain after death, in a sense, in a place which he had loved so well in life.
A MODERN “HEART SHRINE,” AT SWAFFHAM, NORFOLK.
From a Photograph.