St Nicholas Churchyard

I came upon the Lavant History group early on in my arrival as Rector of Lavant when I was coming up to St Nicholas Church. There I met a group of people stood around in the churchyard. They had some equipment with them and were clearly more than a group of passing walkers. I enquired what they were doing and was then educated into the latest technology. A system of photography which would enable apparently illegible headstone inscriptions to be revealed.

Thus I was introduced to this enthusiastic group of people who were determined that the history of some of the people of Mid Lavant would once more be known and shared. And this enthusiastic group has grown in size to be not only keen but now impressively knowledgeable about the history of our fine village.

By using this guide as you pass around the churchyard and inside the church, you will be able to share in this history. I challenge anyone not to be astonished by both the range of people who lived in Mid Lavant and the rich stories associated with them.

My grateful thanks to all involved in the Lavant History Project. I hope this booklet will inspire some more people to join them, but above all to increase in all of us both knowledge and gratitude for those who have gone before us.

The Rev’d Dr David Jarratt

INTRODUCTION

Every graveyard tells the story of a place and every gravestone tells the story of the people who created the place

Mid Lavant has always been a vibrant and important Village. The 1,000 year old Yew tree standing to the north of St Nicholas has been witness to a variety of events and people.

There are a few masonry remnants from the oldest parts of St Nicholas Church which date from the 12th century, while brass plaques and a remarkable marble statue inside reveal the interesting stories of the May family. In the 17th century Hugh May was an architect who worked with Christopher Wren and re-built parts of Windsor Castle for King Charles II.

The stones which remain in the graveyard stretch from 1724 to 21st century interments of ashes. Since the 18th century the stones tell a tale of the wealthy - Catherine Smith; the literary - Henrietta Poole; the church - Dean Hook; the servant - Joseph Harvey; the soldiers - Leonard Small and the two Tupper boys; the blacksmith - Richard Sanford; the wheelwright with a very elaborate carving - Richard Andrews and the troubled cordwainers - William Cleverly both senior and junior. Many of their homes still exist in Mid Lavant.

By rediscovering their stones we can glimpse the past: we look at the village doors and windows with new eyes.

The oldest stones

Plot 0043 Thomas Caplin, c1710-1723

The two oldest stones at St Nicholas both date from 1724, but Thomas Caplin’s has January 1723 written on it because the New Year did not start until March. Thomas who died aged 13, was the son of Rebekah and Thomas Caplin who farmed Langford Farm. His inscription includes the words:

Departed this life January ye 20th 1723 in hope our Saviour for to

see wiep A way ters and weep no more He is not lost but gon before

Thomas was almost certainly baptised in St Nicholas like all his brothers and sisters. However the clerk failed to enter any names on the baptismal register in that year. On 9 October 1727 Thomas Caplin of Langford, yeoman, being sick and weak in body wrote his will. He bequeathed his soul ‘into the hands of Almighty God believing in remission of sins & everlasting life by the merits death & passion of my Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ.’

His will included his daughter Rebecca, the wife of William Ewen, blacksmith. He only left £50 to his youngest son Richard Caplin ‘because as my youngest son he will have & enjoy a Copyhold estate in the Manor of Mid Lavant whereto he hath been already admitted.’ Thomas Caplin made his mark on the will.

Plot 0009 William Osmer, c1644-1724

William Osmer was buried on 25 October 1724. However there are no other references to him or his family in Mid Lavant. It is possible he had come to live with a married daughter.

Plot 0034 Rose Digasun, c1660-1728

This stone is the third oldest. An entry in the 19th century parish clerk’s book of reads:

On the Stone of Rose ye Wife of Thomas

Digasun who Died May ye 20th 1728 Aged 68 Years

When Christ our Saviour

Shall appear

I shall wake

That sleepth here

Rose Digasun was buried on 22 May 1728. Her husband Thomas was buried on 4 April 1731 at St Nicholas but his stone is lost. Later the spelling of the surname became Diggeson or Diggerson and family members can be traced in Arundel and Chichester.

Plot 0001 William Cleverley, 1735-1816 - The cordwainer’s troubled life

In Memory of William Cleverley

Who died December 22nd 1816 Aged 81

Whatever faults you have seen in me

Be sure take care and shun,

Mention none but look at Home

There’s always Something to be done.

The final words of this inscription gives us a hint of the early life of William Cleverley who, like his father, was a cordwainer, making boots and shoes from new leather. William lived in a cottage on the Midhurst Road, badly damaged by fire in 1771 and rebuilt by public subscription. The commemorative stone and cottage are still there.

Despite his social status William’s early life was not a happy one. His wife and two children were dead by the time he was 37 and his relationship with his father was strained. William Cleverley senior left his son one shilling (5p) ‘on request’.

He added: ‘I desire that my son William Cleverley be dutifull and respectfull to his Mother as long as she lives.’ William lived until he was 81. We do not know who wrote the inscription but it could have been on William’s own instruction - maybe his later life continued to be beset by trouble.

Plots 0002, 0003, 0007, 0061 and 0153 Sanford family, 1711-1869 - The Blacksmith’s family history

As is to be expected, there are many family groupings in the graveyard. At least ten members of the Sanford family are buried here. Richard Sanford senior (1711-1782; Plot 0006) was clerk of the parish between 1755 and 1781 and his wife, Eleanor Razell, was buried at St Nicholas in 1758, but no gravestone has been found. Their son Richard Sanford junior (1749-1825; Plot 0002) was also a blacksmith as the inscription on his gravestone makes clear:

My sledge and hammers lie reclin’d

My bellows too have lost

their wind My fire’s extinct my forge decay’d

And in the dust my vice is lay’d

My cast is spent my iron gone

My nails are drove, my work is done

1d per letter seems to have been the going rate for carving at that time. So this stone was amongst the most expensive in the graveyard. The words of this inscription were well known and published in 1743. Both the headstones and the footstones for Richard junior and his wife Sarah (née Collis) (1756-1818) can be seen. The footstone for John Ewen (1782-1867) who married

Richard and Sarah’s daughter, Mary, is also in this group [Plot 0007]. Their forge in Mid Lavant was located at the top of Sheepwash Lane; the building still stands.

Plot 0022 Clement Freeborn, 1657-1735 - The servant’s surprisingly elaborate stone

Clement Freeborn was probably one of the five sons of Richard and Jane Freeborn and was baptised in Catherington, Hampshire on 15 March 1657.

He entered the service of the May family, who were the Lords of the Manor of Mid Lavant or Raughmere as it was known.

A 1704 deed stated that Clement Freeborn was to receive an annual sum of £10 if he was still in the employment of Sir Thomas May and Dame Anne May at the time of their deaths. Freeborn was still a servant of Thomas May when he wrote his will in 1714 which shows this £10 was honoured. When Anne May wrote her will in 1725 she left Clement Freeborn a further £20 a year which he received after her death in 1726.

Perhaps these large inheritances could explain how a bachelor servant had enough funds to pay for such a fine stone.

This stone is one of the oldest in the Graveyard, the inscription is of good quality and the stone remains in its original position.

Plots 0012, 0013, 0014 and 0015Andrews Family, 1669-1758 - The wheelwright’s elaborate carving

Through these stones, we can learn much about social attitudes to and cost of death in the 17th and 18th centuries. Richard Andrews (1669-1733; Plot 0013) whose headstone is the fifth oldest in the churchyard, is expensively carved. It depicts a skull and crossbones, a common symbol in this era.

Richard was a wheelwright, we think he lived opposite St Nicholas church now the site of the corner house - 58-59 Mid Lavant. He was successful enough to take on an apprentice wheelwright in 1714 – one William Goodyer of Singleton, who married his daughter Mary. The wording of his inscription,

When all is gone ye Lord above

Do still with us remain

With mercies, kindnefs and with love

Ofsuaging all our pain

gives an insight to the devotion felt and the carving shows the honesty with which death was faced.

The grave of his wife, Mary Andrews who died in 1758, and their 6 year old son Thomas who had died in 1711, also has a skull, bone and palm leaf. A palm was a symbol of victory over death, the belief in the life everlasting and was commonly used.

Their daughter Grace’s stone who died aged 25 includes the words:

I Tremble Lord yet must I say

This was my longed for wedding day

My Bridegroom is my sovereign Lord

My jointure drawn in his fair word

It suggests the depth and importance of peoples’ relationships with God.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries many stones like these of the Andrews were painted in what we would

consider gaudy colours.

Blackwood’s Magazine in 1820 refers to a ’frightful fashion of black tombstones’ – painted black with gilt lettering. One F. E. Paget, in A Tract on Tombstones: or, suggestions for the consideration of persons intending to set up that kind of monument, 1843 (catchy title!), mentions that the painting of angels with pink and white faces, red checks, gilt hair and wings seems to have been widespread. So the graveyard would have been a fairly colourful place.

Families paid stonemasons to touch up the paint and it would certainly show when families ceased to maintain a stone.

Local diary entries from 1712-27 state that £6 would pay for a headstone and footstone. This was approximately 66 days wages of a skilled tradesman, well beyond most people’s means.

In the 21st century it is through the use of digital technology - Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) that we are able to see the marvellous detail of the carving. For more information on RTI see this site.

Victorian and more Recent Stones

Plot 0052 Walter Hook, 1798-1875 - The Dean who choose to be with his wife

Walter Hook was Dean of Chichester from 1859 to 1875. He had made his name in Leeds where he promoted the need to educate children and to make the Church accessible to poorer people. A Dean of his energy and standing is usually interred in his Cathedral.

But, the Very Reverend Walter Hook chose to be buried in Mid Lavant next to his wife, Anna (1811-1871). The reason for this choice lies in their connection through marriage with Lavant. Their daughter, Catherine Jane, had married the Rector of Lavant, William Wood Stephens, later Dean of Winchester, and Anna chose to be buried in her son-in-law’s parish.

A newspaper account of Dean Hook’s burial describes how, when the cortége reached the churchyard, the choir sang ‘Brief life is here our portion’ and at the grave ‘Thou knowest Lord’ (Purcell's 1694 anthem). Although the ceremony sounds like a grand affair it was very modest by the standards of the day.

Plot 0057 Dora Mary Stanhope Boyd & Eleanor Susan Browne Boyd, 1857-1863 - The Children from Chichester

He shall Gather the Lambs

In his arms and Carry

Them in His Bosom

This Biblical verse from Isaiah: 40:11 was widely used for children’s gravestones.

Not everyone who was buried in the graveyard had strong connections with Mid Lavant. Dora Mary was born on 12 January 1860 but died aged a mere four months on the 13 May. Her older sister, Eleanor Susan, born on 27 September 1857 also died young, aged five years, on 30 March 1863.

At the time their father, Major Robert Boyd (1815-1869), was paymaster of the Depot Battalion Chichester. This is a small unit left behind to be trained and to recruit when the main regiment was serving abroad. The family lived at 49, North Street, Chichester (on the corner of North Walls) and no links with Lavant have been found. Even their burial service was conducted by a chaplain to the Forces, the Reverend Beresford Haines.

We can only speculate why St Nicholas rather than St Paul’s was chosen. An image of St Nicholas in 1850 suggests the church was a quiet rural place.

Plot 0115 The Tupper Family, 1852-1924 - The Soldier’s Family and the cost of WWI

William Tupper (1852-1908), the father, lived in Welldown Cottage (on the Lavant- Chilgrove road). He began his working life on Langford Farm and later became a bricklayer. He and his wife, Elizabeth Martin (1858-1924), had eight children - all of whom survived into adulthood, however the First World War took their only two sons.

William George Tupper the oldest was baptised in St. Nicholas on 25 June 1893. He worked as an undergardener before the war and became a Lance Corporal in 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment. William died on 30 June 1916 in France during an attack on the German lines at North Maroc, Grenay, N.W. of Lens. Private Tupper was buried at Arras where his name is on the memorial.

Alfred John Tupper was a member of the 6th Battalion Buffs (East Kent) Regiment and became a Prisoner of War at Mussterlaager in Germany. He died of pneumonia on 21 October 1918 aged 20 years. The stonemason had to correct the way he spelled ‘pneumonia’ and, unsurprisingly, was not familiar with the spelling of Munsterlager.

Both boys are listed on the Roll of Honour in St Mary’s Church, East Lavant and the Lavant Memorial Hall which was opened on 26 June 1921 as a memorial to those of the parish who died in the First World War.

Plot 0130 John Spershott, 1816-1835 (aged 18) - The son’s tragic story

One of the most poignant inscriptions in the graveyard is on the memorial to John Spershott. It contains the words:

He is gone, he is gone,

the dear Boy at whose birth I

hail’d as a Stranger, and

pilgrim on earth

The sojourn is ended, the

journey is trod.

Baptised on 22 December 1816 in St Nicholas Church, John was the eighth and youngest child of John Spershott, the miller, and his wife Susanna Bealer.

John, junior, was a labourer when he was caught on the 9th July 1835 engaged in a crime so ‘unspeakable’ that the newspapers refused to say what it was. He was hanged in Horsham gaol on 22 August 1835 and was buried in St Nicholas churchyard on 24 August 1835. It is not clear why an 18 year old boy was hanged for his homosexual activity, or why the newly appointed rector, Charles Blagden, was prepared to have him buried in a brick vaulted tomb in the graveyard.

John’s crime was reported at length in local and national newspapers. His family continued to live in Mid Lavant and participated fully in all the activities of the village.

Plot 0303 John Spershott, c1768 -1838 - A Mid Lavant Mystery - solved

Right up to September 2018 the occupant of this rare grass covered brick vault was a mystery. There is a similar vault at St Mary’s in East Lavant and about 17 of them in Tangmere, (as seen in the image below) they would have been expensive and seem to have been popular between the 17th and middle 19th centuries.

The Mid Lavant vault wasn’t recorded in Mitchell’s book of the 1860s, and it stayed hidden in the survey of the 1980s. However, in 2018 the broken 19th century headstone of local miller John Spershott was found. It was leaning against that of his son [Plot 0130] also named John Spershott.

A bit of careful photography and it can be seen that the broken stone had come from the end of the brick vault. It seems highly likely that along with John Spershott, who died in December 1838, his wife and possibly some children are buried there as well. A bit more investigation reveals John Spershott junior’s stone also heads a brick barrel-vaulted tomb, just like his father’s.

Mid Lavant doesn’t have one, but two brick barrel-vaulted tombs.

Plot 0138 Henrietta Poole, 1747-1827 - The wealthy literary lady with famous connections

And did those feet in ancient time

walk upon England's mountains green:

And was the holy Lamb of God,

On England's pleasant pastures seen!

William Blake’s poem, Jerusalem, was partly inspired by the views towards the Trundle from Henrietta Poole’s house in Mid Lavant.

Henrietta was a close friend of the then famous poet and writer, William Hayley, and it was he who introduced his protégé, William Blake, to her. When Blake was staying in Felpham between 1800 and 1803 he visited Miss Poole at least once a week to take part in a literary breakfast.

Henrietta Poole also had a great admiration for Amelia Opie, who became a Quaker and worked, partly through the writing of poems for the emancipation of slaves.

Henrietta also lived in Chichester, and liked to ‘escape’ in the summer. She came to Lavant in 1795 and began building her house, in 1797, which is now divided into three, just south of the Earl of March pub. She lived there until her death in 1827.

Plot 0137 Catherine Smith, 1761-1839 - The wealthy Londoner and an unexplained request

In her will Catherine Smith wrote: ‘if I should die at Midlavant or in its immediate neighbourhood I desire to be buried at Midlavant as near as possible to the place where Mrs Poole lies.’ Indeed Mrs Smith does lie next to Henrietta Poole. However, so far no close link between Catherine and Henrietta has been established, although Catherine’s niece and husband bought Henrietta Poole’s house.

When she was 19 Catherine Mason married John Smith at St George’s, Bloomsbury. Many years later Catherine was living with her niece Catherine Webber in Lavant who later inherited the bulk of her Aunt’s fortune. This included London property which would today sell for over £20 million. Despite - or perhaps because of - her wealth Catherine did not approve of ceremony. She also instructed that, ‘my funeral should be conducted without unnecessary pomp and in as plain and unostentatious a manner as is consistent with propriety ... not more than one carriage shall follow the procession.’ If she died in London, Catherine wanted to be buried in the vault alongside her husband in St Giles. In fact she died 30 April 1839 at Lavant Lodge, the house Henrietta Poole had built and lived in.

Her stone was surrounded by iron railings, which were used to protect graves from foxes and grave robbers. Look carefully and you can see the railing slots.

Plot 0139 Joseph Harvey, 1771-1845 - No ordinary servant

Joseph Harvey was a servant for the two wealthy ladies referred to previously. He was footman to Henrietta Poole [Plot 0138] for at least 12 years and after her death he worked for Catherine Smith [Plot 0137]. In the 1841 census, aged 70, he called himself a gardener.

But, Joseph was no ordinary servant as he owned a property in East Lavant and in 1841 was one of only eight men from East Lavant entitled to vote in Parliamentary elections. In common with other important members of the village including the Duke of Richmond, Joseph owned two of the expensive and exclusive seats in St Mary’s Church, East Lavant which he was able to let out.

Yet another unusual aspect is that Joseph wrote his own signature when he witnessed a number of documents from the 1820s onwards. It is likely that he received £20 for mourning and a £10 payment from Catherine Smith on her death in 1839. Apart from the fact that he was not born in Sussex and that the Mary Low named on his gravestone was his sister, little else is known of Joseph Harvey. One key question we have is, why did a man of some wealth choose to remain in service?

Plot 0156 Leonard Charles Small, 1898-1917 - A War Grave

One hundred and thirty one men from Lavant served in World War 1 and 27 were killed. This is the only Commonwealth War Commission gravestone in Mid Lavant.

Leonard Small was the second of the four children of William Small (1871-1941), farm labourer, and his wife Martha Welch (1872-1941). The family moved into 3 Redman Cottages in the early 1890s and stayed there until 1941. The eldest son, Edward (1896-1945), saw active service with the 12th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment before being transferred to the Labour Corps sometime after September 1916 because of his trench foot. He was granted leave in August 1915 to work on the harvest at Manor Farm, East Lavant.

Leonard was baptised in St Nicholas Church on 3 April 1898. Because of his youth he became a member of a Training Reserve Battalion but died at the Herbert Hospital in Woolwich, London along with three other lads aged 18 and 19 on 3 February 1917. It is possible that there was an explosion at the Arsenal. Private Leonard Small was buried at St Nicholas on 7 February 1917. His headstone was put up in 1922. The inscription includes the verse:

OVER THE SILENT RIVER

REST IN THE LAND OF PEACE

These lines are from ‘After the Mist and Shadow’ by the blind American hymnist Frances (Fanny) Jane Crosby.

Plots 0157 & 0158 Francis Humphry, c1767-1837 - The Shepherd’s Stone

Sheepwash Lane, the Village Pound, the names hint to us that sheep were a very important part of Lavant and Francis Humphry was just one of the shepherds. Francis married Martha Harris (1771-1848) in West Wittering in 1792 and the couple had at least nine children, including Ann, wife of William Billinghurst [Plot 0161], whose gravestone is almost opposite.

Inscribed ‘F.H. 1837’, Lavant has both the footstone and headstone of this key member of Lavant’s community. Gravestones were expensive and it is unlikely that a shepherd would have been able to afford the stones we see today.

As the inscription says, Francis Humphrey’s gravestone was put up by his grateful employer, probably Edmund Sadler at Langford Farm, as a token of respect. It reads:

Francis Humphry.

Died Feby 7th 1837. Aged 69 Years

Fifty of which he was a trusty shepherd

In one family, his Character and

Conduct as a Husband and the

Father of a large family and the faithful

discharge

Of his duties call from his master this

slight

Tribute of regard to his Memory

Plot 0050 Thomas Roser Mitchell, 1791-1861 - Clerk of this Parish, schoolmistress, property owner, a felon and a lasting legacy

The story begins in Angmering where Thomas Roser Mitchell was baptised on 23 January 1791. Only his mother’s name is given: Sarah Mitchell. Either his father was dead or Thomas was born out of wedlock. It seems she married a Richard Mills in 1793.

Still in Angmering, Thomas married Hannah Reeves in 1813 but their daughter, Hannah, was baptised in St Nicholas, on 6 November 1814. Since there are no other baptisms registered, it is likely that Thomas and his wife did not have any more children. Hannah became as the stone says, ‘many years schoolmistress of this parish.’ She died 16 February 1849, aged 64.

My days are gone like a shadow & I am withered

Like grass.

Daughter Hannah perhaps repeated history and had an illegitimate child, Thomas James Jenman Mitchell, in 1843. Later that year, on 17th April, she married James Jenman, a fruiterer from Tangmere. By March 1851 the widowed Thomas was living in Mid Lavant with his daughter Hannah, her husband, and his four grandchildren, Mary Ann, Richard, Mitchell and Charles. However, relations between Thomas Mitchell and James Jenman broke down and Mitchell tried, but failed, to get a court order in 1856 to evict him. It seems Jenman was a bit of a ‘wrong un’ as he was convicted for receiving stolen goods in 1871 and was sent to Brixton Gaol where

he remained until 1875. He was described as being 5ft 1 inch tall, brown hair, grey eyes, fair complexion and having a scar on his upper lip. He had been a groom before his conviction.

Thomas married again in 1851 to Elizabeth Rogers (1791-1878) from Iping and her grave is Plot 0102. By the 1861 census Thomas was a proprietor of seventeen houses, earlier he had been described as a carpenter.

His stone simply states:

Died December 18. 1861

For 27 years clerk of this Parish

But Thomas Roser Mitchell left Lavant with a lasting legacy. During his 27 years as parish clerk he copied all the inscriptions in St Nicholas Graveyard. His books, which are kept in the West Sussex Record Office in Chichester, have been transcribed by the Lavant History Project. They have been invaluable in helping us rediscover Lavant’s Lives.

Image courtesy of WSRO

Plot 0112 Isaac Shepherd, 1829-1909 - The Publican

Isaac Shepherd was the landlord of the Earl of March Public House. At this time a pub functioned as an important community space. Earl of March Arms (as it was called) was used for holding auctions of livestock, houses and household goods. In 1865 Isaac prepared a great feast for about forty players (including himself) and friends of the Lavant and Chichester cricket teams after a match held at Lavant House.

Some of these events could be rather ‘lively’. In the 19th century there were regular convictions of farm labourers for being drunk and disorderly in the Earl of March. In 1880 Isaac struck a man who refused to leave the pub, the man fell backwards and died. Verdict – ‘accidental death’. Shortly before Isaac died he had a giddy ‘fit’, fell down and badly broke his leg ‘which could not be set’.

Isaac had two wives, Charlotte who died in 1873 [Plot 0105] and Mary who was the sister of James Taylor [Plot 0129]. He was the previous landlord of the Earl of March. During his time The Ancient Order of Foresters held their ‘court’ at the pub. The coroners’ court used pubs because an inquest needed to be held close to the event; the body could be kept in the cool of the cellar.

Mary and Isaac had six children including Violet who married Arthur Elcock in 1911. About ten years later, they took over the Royal Oak Pub in East Lavant.

Plot 0145 Jane Dearling, 1770-1855 - The independent woman

The condition of this grave is an example of time passing and connections lost. What we see now conceals the ups and downs of life. The grave is that of Jane, ‘relict’ of William Dearling. Jane was the youngest of four children, her parents James and Jane Piggot probably lived in the Brick Building now in the Weald and Downland Museum which they rented from their daughter. She had bought it from William Cleverley in 1807 [Plot 0001].

Jane had married William Dearling on 2nd June 1791 at West Dean. Oakwood House (now Oakwood School), Funtington was built in about 1811 for her husband. By 1813 he was High Sheriff of Sussex and seems to be doing well. However, in 1816 local newspapers were asking his creditors to come along to a meeting in Chichester; William was in debt and fled to Le Havre.

Despite her husband’s problems Jane was well provided for by her father who left her the interest on £5,367 for life. She owned several houses including one in North Street, Chichester and one in Mid Lavant. We know she had four servants including a lady’s maid, and a coachman. Jane died in Mid Lavant. The Hampshire Chronicle recorded William’s death in July 1830. We know that William was buried at the Baptist Meeting House, 27 July 1830, aged 63, so he had probably returned to Sussex.

Plot 0125 Canon Arthur Rawson Ashwell, 1824-1879 - A Canon’s Funeral

Canon Ashwell was ‘buried at Mid Lavant on Tuesday …, the Feast of S. Simon and S. Jude’. So records an account in ‘The Literary Churchman and Church Fortnightly’, November 1 1879. It continues: ‘Some time ago he took over an old friend to visit the grave of Dean Hook, [Plot 0052] and remarked what a peaceful resting place it seemed.’

It then describes the service at the Cathedral and lists some of the mourners including ‘Rev. J.S. Teulon, Vice Principal of the Chichester Theological College, with the students.’

We may wonder why so many chose St Nicholas as their final resting place. The following description may help us understand:

‘…a long line of carriages [not mourning coaches] followed the hearse from the Cathedral to the Churchyard of Mid Lavant, where the breezy slopes of the Sussex Downs seemed, like Nature’s green pillows, to invite repose…

‘The walls or sides of the grave were faced with ferns and jeweled with flowers, and I bethought me, as I looked down on the coffin, that as it was in the Garden that by Man came Death, so also in a Garden, by the Son of Man, was wrought the resurrection of Eternal Life: and this was the thought I carried away as an abiding source of Comfort and of Hope. R.I.P.’