CHURCHYARDS THEN AND NOW 



297 



proportion, with sufficient and well-placed ornament and 

 well-drawn mouldings. 



Even the humblest graves of all, where no stone or 

 Listing memorial was ever to be placed, were more care- 

 fully covered with turf than they are now, and the newly- 

 laid turfs were bound with hazel or osier withes crossing 



The Old Altar-Tomb 



■each other diagonally, with wooden pegs, where one withe 

 passed over the other. 



Graves of people of a middle class had head and foot- 

 stones ; the head-stone either plain as to its face or Avith 

 some ornamental carving in low relief; but usually with the 

 upper line pleasantly treated in one or two traditional ways. 



The monuments, if any, to members of the labouring 



■class, or people who could not well afford stone, were the 



dignified but unpretentious grave-boards. Each district had 



a traditional pattern of tinial at the heads of the posts, and 



•of ornamental outline of the lower edge of the board. The 



latest I know in this district bears the date 1861. 



2 p 



