IG. 43.--AT EAST HAM.

"To Mr Richard Wright, died July 28, 1781,
aged 39 years."

The winged scroll in Fig. 44 is unfolded to display, we may suppose, a
register of good and holy deeds done in an extended life. The scythes
and the reversed torches may be taken at their usual significance,
which is death. This is copied from a stone in the churchyard of
Wilmington by Dartford Heath.

[Illustration: FIG. 44. WILMINGTON.]

[Illustration: FIG. 45. WANSTEAD.]

[Illustration: FIG. 46. SOUTHFLEET.]

[Illustration: FIG. 47. WILMINGTON.]

[Illustration: FIG. 48. LEWISHAM.]

[Illustration: FIG. 49. BUNHILL FIELDS.]

FIG. 44.--AT WILMINGTON.

"To Richard Barman, died 1793, aged 71 years."

More elegant testimony is paid by the figure of a winged urn in
Wanstead Old Churchyard, the flame which burns above indicating,
it would seem, that though the body be reduced to ashes, the soul
survives.

FIG. 45.--AT WANSTEAD.

"To William Cleverly, died 1780, aged
40 years."

Eternity is usually, as we have seen, represented by an endless
ring--often as a serpent. It is so in the Southfleet sketch, in which
appear the two horns of the archangels, and the living torch, with
some other objects which are not quite clearly defined.

FIG. 46.--AT SOUTHFLEET.

"To John Palmer, died 1781, aged 61 years."

In another selection from Wilmington the winged hour-glass may be read
as the flight of time, the cloud is probably the future life, and the
bones below convey their customary moral.

FIG. 47.--AT WILMINGTON.

"To Ann Parsons, died Nov. 3, 1777, aged
60 years."

Sometimes, but not often, will be found engraved on a stone the
suggestive fancy of an axe laid at the foot of a tree, or some
metaphorical figure to the same intent. An instance occurs at
Lewisham in which the idea is conveyed by the pick and shovel under a
flourishing palm.

FIG. 48.--AT LEWISHAM.

"To Thomas Lambert, died Nov. 25, 1781,
aged 59 years."

A symbol so simple and yet so significant as this is scarcely to be
surpassed. One almost in the same category is the following, a small
anaglyph in Bunhill Fields Burial-ground, London.

FIG. 49.--AT BUNHILL FIELDS, LONDON.

"To Elizabeth Sharp, who died Oct. 20, 1752,
aged 31 years."

It is easy to read in this illustration the parable of death
destroying a fruitful vine, and as a picture it is not inelegant. It
is more remarkable as