em just as
I rubbed them off the stones (Fig. 17). The whole of the originals are
to be found in the neighbouring churchyards of Shorne and Chalk,
two rural parishes on the Rochester Road, and exhibit with all the
fidelity possible the craftsmanship of the village sculptors. They
will doubtless also excite some speculation as to their meaning.
My belief, as already expressed, is that the uppermost four are the
embodiment of the rustic yearning for the ideal; in other words,
attempts to represent the emblem of death--the skull. Nos. 1 and 2 are
from Shorne; Nos. 3, 4, and 5 from the churchyard at Chalk.

In No. 1 we have, perhaps, the crudest conception extant of the
skeleton head. The lower bars are probably meant for teeth; what the
radial lines on the crown are supposed to be is again conjecture.
Perhaps a nimbus, perhaps hair or a cap, or merely an ornamental
finish. The inscription states that the stone was erected to the
memory of "Thomas Vdall," who died in 1704, aged 63 years.

No. 2 has the inscription buried, but it is of about the same date,
judging by its general appearance. The strange feature in this case
is the zig-zag "toothing" which is employed to represent the jaws.
Doubtless the artist thought that anything he might have lost in
accuracy he regained in the picturesque.

No. 3, in which part of the inscription "Here lyeth" intrudes into the
arch belonging by right to the illustration, is equally primitive and
artless. The eyebrows, cheeks--in fact all the features--are evidently
unassisted studies from the living, not the dead, frontispiece of
humanity; but what are the serifs, or projections, on either side?
Wondrous as it is, there can be only one answer. They must be meant
for _ears_! This curious effigy commemorates Mary, wife of William
Greenhill, who died in 1717, aged 47 years.

No. 4 is one of the rude efforts to imitate the skull and crossbones
of which we find many examples. It is dedicated to one Grinhill
(probably a kinsman of the Greenhills aforesaid), who died in 1720,
aged 56 years.

Most strange of all is No. 5, in which the mason leaps to the real
from the emblematic, and gives us something which is evidently meant
for a portrait of the departed. The stone records that Mary, wife of
Thomas Jackson, died in 1730, aged 43 years. It is one of the double
tombstones frequently met with in Kent and some other counties.
The second half, which is headed by a picture of two united hearts,