REPORT. Xxiil 
west window, a stone with the date 1615, and a lot of initials, has 
led to some controversy; it doubtless records the initials of 
churchwardens at a time when some of the alterations were made. 
One of the most notable things is the immense mural sun-dial over 
the south entrance, the design of a Mr. Duffin, clerk to a worthy 
magistrate in the neighbourhood, and executed by William Shore, 
a stonemason of Eyam; on which the parallel of the sun’s decli- 
nation for every month in the year, the scale of the sun’s meridian 
altitude, the azimuthal scale, the points of the compass, and a 
number of meridians are all delineated. The roof of the nave still 
has its old beams and bosses, but all the ancient monuments have 
disappeared, and there is little of interest inside the building. 
Many of its ancient details were removed during the ‘ restoration.’ 
Ruskin says (and I fear it is often only too true), ‘restoration 
means the most total destruction which a building can suffer.’ 
“ The churchyard has much to interest the visitor. Most con- 
spicuous, the fine Saxon cross, with its rude carvings and somewhat 
elegant scrolls and interlaced knot-work, standing eight feet high ; 
and though it will be noticed the upper stone of the shaft is miss- 
ing, it is generally acknowledged to be the finest cross in England, 
and is of the same period and workmanship as the one in Bake- 
well Churchyard. Both were executed about the ninth century. 
The tomb of Catherine Mompesson, wife of the heroic rector of 
Eyam, next claims our notice— 
‘Where tears have rained, nor yet shall cease to flow.’ 
This tomb, near the chancel, has a chamfered stone pillar at each 
corner, as have several others in this churchyard ; a peculiarity I 
have not noticed elsewhere. Mrs. Mompesson died of the plague 
on the 25th of August, 1666. On the north side of the churchyard, 
under the shade of the linden trees by which it is surrounded, lies 
Richard Furness, the poet, a native of Eyam. There is a tombstone 
close to the chancel door with a quaint inscription to, or rather 
from, Anne Sellars; and in various parts of this ‘God’s Acre’ 
will be found poetical epitaphs from the pen of the accomplished 
Peter Cunningham, curate of Eyam from 1772 to 1790. 
