Nevertheless, I believe the church was built
above a thousand years ago,--some parts of it, at least,--and the surface
of the tower and walls is worn away and hollowed in shallow sweeps by the
hand of Time. There were broken niches in several places, where statues
had formerly stood. All, except two or three, had fallen or crumbled
away, and those which remained were much damaged. The face and details
of the figure were almost obliterated. There were many gravestones round
the church, but none of them of any antiquity. Probably, as the names
become indistinguishable on the older stones, the graves are dug over
again, and filled with new occupants and covered with new stones, or
perhaps with the old ones newly inscribed.
Closely connected with the church was the clergyman's house, a
comfortable-looking residence; and likewise in the churchyard, with
tombstones all about it, even almost at the threshold, so that the
doorstep itself might have been a tombstone, was another house, of
respectable size and aspect. We surmised that this might be the sexton's
dwelling, but it proved not to be so; and a woman, answering our knock,
directed us to the place where he might be found. So Mr. Bradford and I
went in search of him, leaving S----- seated on a tombstone. The sexton
was a jolly-looking, ruddy-faced man, a mechanic of some sort,
apparently, and he followed us to the churchyard with much alacrity. We
found S----- standing at a gateway, which opened into the most ancient,
and now quite ruinous, part of the church, the present edifice covering
much less ground than it did some centuries ago.
Pages:
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123