Bunhill Fields 2

[poliphilo]

 Bunhill Fields is the Westminster Abbey of English nonconformity. There are some very famous people buried here.

The Victorians honoured John Bunyan with a catafalque and recumbent effigy.





Daniel Defoe gets an obelisk-. Again it's Victorian.



Just to the right of the obelisk is one of Blake's two gravestones. It says that he and his wife Catherine are buried nearby.

Two gravestones?

Yes. A while after that first stone had been erected someone did some research and believed they had found the exact spot. Hence this- which is 20th century...



"I give you the end of a golden string
Only wind it into a ball
It will lead you in at Heaven's gate
Built in Jerusalem's wall."

Comments

[cmcmck]

The Victorians didn't understand that Quaker burial grounds often have no memorials at all- the one in Coalbrookdale doesn't although the one in Broseley does.

[poliphilo]

I don't think Bunyan would have been happy with a tomb better suited to a mediaeval knight.

There are grave markers in the Quaker burial ground in Lewes- simple, small headstones.

[paserbyp]

John Bunyan (1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and nonconformist preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which also became an influential literary model. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.

[paserbyp]

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age.

[paserbyp]

Daniel Defoe (1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.