God's Acre

Railings - Godshill

Chapel of St. Benedict - Westminster Abbey

1. Archbishop Langham, 1376. 2. Countess of Hertford, 1598. 3. Dr. Goodman, Dean of Westminster, died 1601.	4. Son of Dr. Sprat, 1683. 5. Cranfield, Earl and Countess of Middlesex, 1645. 6. Dr. Bill, first Dean under Q. Elizabeth, 1561.
Under the Monuments of Deans Goodman and Sprat, was interred (Dean Vincent), the late Dean, 1815.

n the Chapel of St. Benedict is an ancient tomb of stone, having formerly a canopy of wood, on which lies the effigy of Archbishop Langham, who, as the Latin epitaph round his tomb sets forth, “was Monk, Prior, and Abbot of this Abbey; afterwards elected Bishop of London; but Ely being then also vacant, he made choice of that see; that he was Primate and Chancellor of England; Priest-Cardinal, afterwards Bishop-Cardinal, of Preneste, and Nuncio from the Pope; and that he died on the Feast of St. Mary Magdalen, in the year 1376, on whose soul God have mercy, and grant him the joys of heaven for the merits of Christ.”

Historical Description of Westminster Abbey:
Its Monuments and Curiosities
Project Gutenburg

The wilderness that is Fakenham

Saint Egwin -Burial in Church

He was of the royal blood of the Mercian kings, devoted himself to the divine service in his youth, and succeeded in the episcopal see of Worcester, in 692. by his zeal and severity in reproving vice, he stirred up some of his own flock to persecute him, which gave him an opportunity of performing a penitential pilgrimage Rome. Some legends tell us, that setting out he put on his legs iron shackles, and threw the key into the river Severn, others say the Avon; but found it in the belly of a fish, some say at Rome, others in his passage from France to England. After his return, with the assistance of Coenred or Kenred, king of Mercia, he founded the famous abbey of Evesham, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin. After this he undertook a second journey to Rome, in the company of Coenred, king of the Mercians, and of Offa, of the East Saxons, who gave up their temporal principalities to labor with greater earnestness to secure an eternal crown. St. Egwin died on the 30th of December, in 717, and was buried in the monastery of Evesham. His body was translated to a more honorable place in 1183, probably on the 11th of January, on which day many English Martyrologies mark his festival

Buried under the hearth

Bones, both human and of animals, have been found under hearthstones of houses. When we consider that the hearth is the centre, as it were, and most sacred spot of a house, and that the chimney above it is the highest portion built, and the most difficult to complete, it seems easy to understand why the victim was buried under the hearthstone or jamb of the chimney.