nscription has been in great
part obliterated by time, but the words written were evidently those
of the chapter from Corinthians which is part of the Burial Service:
"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
They are, however, almost illegible, and I have made no attempt to
reproduce them in the picture.

FIG. 33.--AT CLIFFE.

"To Mary Jackson, died March 26, 1768."

There is a second stone of similar pattern in Cliffe Churchyard, dated
1790. It differs from the foregoing only in having the spear broken.
The sculptor of another specimen at Darenth, near Dartford, thought
the subject worthy of broader treatment, and transferred it to a stone
about double the ordinary width, but did not vary the idea to any
great extent. Indeed, Horton Kirby and Darenth, being next-door
neighbours, have most features in common; the falling tower, which
symbolizes the Day of Judgment, appearing in both, while it is
absent from the more distant examples at Cliffe and Newhaven. The
introduction of the omniscient eye in the Cliffe case is, however,
a stroke of genius compared with the conventional palm branches at
Horton Kirby, or the flight through mid-air of the tower-tops both at
Horton Kirby and at Darenth.

FIG. 34.--AT DARENTH.

"To John Millen, died June 11th, 1786, aged
82 years."

Outside the county of Kent I have met with nothing of this pattern,
and pictorial art on a similar scale is seldom seen on the gravestones
anywhere. Specimens from Lee, Cheshunt, Stapleford Tawney, and
elsewhere, will, however, be seen in subsequent pages.

The day of joyful resurrection is prefigured possibly in more
acceptable shape in the next instance, no imitation of which I have
seen in any of my rambles.

FIG. 35.--AT KINGSDOWN.

"To Ann Charman, died 1793, aged 54 years."

No one to whom I have shewn this sketch has given a satisfactory
interpretation of it, but it will be allowed that the design is as
graceful as it is uncommon. That it also in all likelihood refers to
the Day of Judgment may perhaps be regarded as a natural supposition.

Even the open or half-open coffin, shewing the skeleton within, may
possibly have some reference to the rising at the Last Day. We have
this figure employed in a comparatively recent case at Fawkham in
Kent, being one example of nineteenth-century sculpture.

FIG. 36.--AT FAWKHAM.

"Thomas Killick, died 1809, aged 1 month
1 day."

A crown is