I love visiting Bunhill. It has an atmosphere like nowhere else I visit in London with the possible exception of Highgate Cemetery.
The east entrance …
Around 123,000 people are interred here, among them the poet and mystic William Blake. Everyone is familiar with the great anthem Jerusalem but I also love his poem Auguries of Innocence:
To see the world in a grain of sand/And heaven in a wild flower/Hold infinity in the palm of your hand/And eternity in an hour/A Robin Red breast in a Cage/Puts all Heaven in a Rage/A Dove house filld with Doves & Pigeons/Shudders Hell thr’ all its regions
He died in poverty and obscurity and it took 14 years of research in order to identify the exact spot where he was buried. The grave is now marked with a splendid stone funded by the Blake Society …
There are other famous folk commemorated here.
John Bunyan’s tomb of 1689 is not quite what it seems since the effigy of the great man and the bas-reliefs (inspired by Pilgrim’s Progress) were only added in 1862 when the tomb was restored …
A preacher who spent over a decade in jail for his beliefs, he holds the bible in his left hand. He started the Christian allegory Pilgrim’s Progress whilst imprisoned and it became one of the most published works in the English language.
Bunhill is a nice place for a quiet spot of lunch …
Turn your back on Bunyan’s tomb and you will be facing the obelisk erected in 1870 to commemorate the 1731 burial of Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe. The monument was funded by an appeal to boys and girls by the weekly newspaper Christian World who were invited to give ‘not less than sixpence’ …
My favourite tombstone …
Somehow it has fared remarkably well against the elements, pigeons and city pollution.
Many have not …
But some inscriptions survive. I was very taken with this marker for the grave of Reverend Joseph Cartwright who died on 5th November 1800 at the age of 72 …
It seems to me that he composed the poem engraved on the stone himself (sadly the last few lines are obliterated). Here it is …
What if death may sleep provide/Should I be of death afraid/What if beams of opening day/Shine around my breathless clay/Tender friends a while may mourn/Me from their embraces torn/Dearer better friends I have/In the realm beneath the grave.
Many memorials bear witnes to the high degree of infant mortality …
The tomb of Reverend Theophilus Lindsey …
Interred with him and his wife is a lady who can’t resist referring to her connection to the ‘Illustrious House of Percy’ …
Popular styles include pyramids …
… ancient Egypt …
… and obelisks, of which this is a particularly fine example …
The inscription is in Welsh and marks the tomb of the Calvinistic Methodist minister, poet and Bible commentator James Hughes. Also inscribed is his Bardic name Iago Trichrug.
Some atmospheric images …
No visit would be complete without saying ‘hello’ to Dame Mary Page and recognising and admiring her fortitude, which she insisted on being recorded in stone on her memorial …
You’ll find more about Dame Mary and other fascinating people in my book Courage, Crime and Charity in the City of London. Only £10! Just click on the link or pop in to the Daunt bookshop in Cheapside or Marylebone High Street.
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