STONEGRAVE. I9i 



" These are the tombs of such as cannot die! 

 u Crown'd with eternal fame, they sit sublime 

 " And laugh at all the little strifes of time." 



The Library, Crabbe's Poems, vol, 2. 



The north aisle, which is destitute of seats, and 

 raised by the vaults in it nearly to a level with the 

 tops of the pews in the body of the church, an ar- 

 rangement which completely destroys the unifor- 

 mity of it, and rentiers the north aisle an unsightly 

 appendage, appears to have been exclusively the 

 burial place of the family of the Combers, arid their 

 ancestors the de Thorntons, of east Newton. In 

 this aisle occur many things worthy of notice, On, 

 ascending the steps which lead to the raised plat- 

 form composed of these vaults, we are first struck 

 by the appearance of three stone figures on the left, 

 in a recumbent posture. Two representing females, 

 the third might be taken for a knight Templar, 

 for the legs are crossed* and the hands raised, and 

 resting on the breast in a supplicating posture : 

 but the inscriptions placed on the flags by the side 

 of them, appear, though in a singular situation, to 

 have some reference to the figures, and not to indi- 

 cate distinct tombs ; and from them we gather that 

 the females are Elizabeth, the wife of Robert 

 Thornton, Esq., who died in 1604, and Elizabeth 

 her daughter, who died in 1668; and that the male 



* " Figures cross-legged, in which posture were buri 

 **ed in that age, to remark en passant, those who had 

 " taken the cross for a croisade to recover the holy land 

 " from the Mahometans." 



Camden ; III; p. 493. 



