‘Let’s talk of graves’ Richard Il iii ii.

This is a property magazine and what more valuable, long lasting piece of real estate can be bought than a burial plot. Once purchased, dug and occupied then a suitable inscription is required. What should be placed on a head stone? 

               Joe Bloggs 14/7/1958 – 19/5/2031.

Perhaps a comment:   

               ‘Much loved father and grandfather’

even a snippet of poetry or a phrase:  

               ‘Rest in Peace’.

Factual and dull. In Aldeburgh Churchyard rest two graves side by side. On one the words:

             BENJAMIN BRITTEN  1913-1976 on the other PETER PEARS 1910-1986

Succinct and celebrated. Is it necessary to embellish stones further?

            ‘This grave shall have a living monument’ Hamlet V i 

I suggest that gravestones can act as a form of local, social history. They can help to create a picture of the society and those involved in shaping it. Why not more facts? ‘Farmer of this Parish’, ‘Postman for 40 years,’ ‘Landlord of The Pig and Whistle’. We are very conservative in what we say on these head pieces. 

            ‘In the Memory of James Grey.

             Gamekeeper at Roydon Hall

    who was shot by poachers on January 22nd 1862 Aged 39′.

What a feast of information and questions and research possibilities accompany these words on this gravestone on a remote, hill top churchyard in Kent. Were the perpetrators captured and hanged? Was the crime committed for profit, for a dare, for a genuine need for food? Was it a planned murder or an accident? Words placed below:

            ‘Man cometh forth like a flower and is cut down’ Job XIV verse ii,

promotes biblical authority. The bold lettering and the size of the grave suggests that his employer wanted to respect his memory. The  granite grave has suffered from weather and time. The wording now is almost illegible.

            ‘Let my gravestone be your oracle’ Timon of Athens  V ii.

As a young country, the reading of gravestones is seldom a problem in New Zealand. 

More information is generally offered and random roaming in upcountry village churchyards never disappoints.

             ‘Sam Mitchell VC 

    Drowned Mikonui River 16th March 1894 Aged 52′ 

leads to investigation into the winning of that VC in the Maori Wars and the reason for the tragic death. 

             ‘The resting place of Arthur Sharpe who with John Smith discovered New Zealand’s largest gold nugget ‘The Honourable Roddy’ 99oz 12dwt on 10th Sept 1909.’

             ‘Stuart William Crutchley 8th October 1954 – 8th January 2014 who died at Lees Valley while mustering. A man of the land and has returned to his beloved hills’

Both these characters have far deeper tales to tell and had they been a name and a date their significance in the social history would probably have been lost.

                 ‘And in his grave rained many a tear.’  Hamlet Vv 

Young deaths are particularly poignant and the wording can hide ambiguities amongst the sweet epitaph.  

            ‘He lived his life fully for fun’ for a 17 year old.

              ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ for another.

No mention of the tragic suicide of the latter after sordid grooming by an adult.  The biting words on the gravestone of another youth reads

               ‘Killed through the carelessness of others’.

A lasting testament, sad and bitter.

               ‘Toward my grave l have travelled’  Twelfth Night V i.

Military graves are common. Service and sacrifice for one’s country is acknowledged far and wide. Picking but one grave empathises the extreme pathos. 

             Captain George M. Lyons killed in action in France March 29th 1918 Aged 40.   

              Lance Cpl John M. Lyons killed in action in France March 28th 1918 Aged 35. 

             ‘Whose grave’s this sirrah? mine, sir’.

On a lighter note, this epitaph does deserve a smile:

    JERRY KIEFER  ENIGMA – ECCENTRIC – VISIONARY.   14 NOV. 1925 – 1 JUNE 1989

             ” ……….something just came up”.

Who was he? He certainly made an impression. Did he see himself as an enigmatic, eccentric visionary? Was the quotation his regular catch phrase? What were his visionary ideas? Perhaps he was a candidate for that well quoted epitaph:

               ‘He left us in Peace’.

     The Real Estate purchase of a grave plot does not offer much opportunity for resale. A few well chosen words may gain posterity for the owner or alternatively those found in a Peterborough churchyard have the last ‘word’:

                           ‘Reader, pass on nor idly waste your time

                            In bad biography, or bitter rhyme

                            For what l am, this cumbrous clay ensures                            And what l was is no affair of yours’.