Page 8 - Graveyard

PREFACE.

MIDST the multitudinous engagements of the writer he has,
during the last twenty-two years, found time to collect the
A following curiosities of churchyards. The history of the collection
might to some be interesting: it now forms a book of some bulk, but in its
compilation only a minute or two now and then has been occupied. When
the author has found himself in a village with a spare moment, he has
frequently been engaged in perusing the literature of the churchyard.
(Sometimes, much to his chagrin, he has been locked out, and so
disallowed the indulgence of his desires.) Many curious verses have been
thus collected in his travels up and down the country.
At first the curiosities collected were simply intended for the author’s
own private amusement; they have now, however, swollen to such
proportions that he has been induced to give them to the world.
Here will be found the epitaphs of many noted persons, and some
curious verses from all parts of the kingdom—the sad, serious, witty, and
sublime have all found a place in the book; but, whilst the collection
embraces many that are sufficiently ludicrous, care has been taken to keep
out all that would be offensive to polite ears.
It has often been a matter of surprise to the writer that so much
nonsense has been allowed to be engraved and erected in churchyards—
showing, no doubt, that our clergymen have not that requisite authority in
this matter which they should have. The burial-grounds of Roman
Catholics are freer from such doggerel, from the fact that the priest
supervises everything that is set up in their churchyards.
For the collection here brought before the public the writer does not
claim that it is exhaustive, but that it forms an amusing miscellany, which
may occasionally be read as an antidote to ennui by those who are
suffering from that complaint.
W. FAIRLEY
th
Lydney, 9 , July, 1873.