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A Sketch of the Parish of Yatesbury. 



The Churchyard. 



The churchyard is, I suppose, one of the smallest in the county, 

 and has long been full, so many generations of the inhabitants 

 having been crowded into the narrow half-acre which is as much as 

 our so-called " God's Acre " will measure. It possesses one grand 

 ornament in the form of a magnificent yew-tree which overshadows 

 the porch and is in the prime of vigour, and is well-grown all round : 

 it is the handsomest undecayed yew-tree — so far as I know — in the 

 neighbourhood, and it is supported by several others of goodly size 

 in the glebe around. 



A very elegant high stone cross, elevated on steps, stands at the 

 north-west corner of the churchyard, and is generally mistaken by 

 strangers for a churchyard cross. It is however merely a modern 

 monument, erected in 1849 over the remains of a Monsieur Joscelin 

 D'Emmerez de Charmoy, a native of the Island of Mauritius, and 

 a friend and pupil of my predecessor. He entertained so pleasing a 

 recollection of the peaceful quiet of our pretty churchyard, that he 

 expressed a wish to be buried here ; and when he died, at the early 

 age of 27, his widow brought his body from London, and, though 

 a Roman Catholic, he was interred here. 



Another pretty little stone cross under the large yew-tree at the 

 south of the Church marks the grave of George Beale, a poor boy 

 who was found dead in a ditch on the borders of two neighbouring 

 parishes, in 1847 ; and when those parishes began to dispute whose 

 business it was to bury the body, my kind-hearted predecessor, 

 shocked at such ungenerous wranglings, settled the matter by 

 bringing the poor boy here and burying him at his own expense. 



The registers are by no means perfect. There is in the parish 

 chest a transcript which the Rev. J. S Money-Kyrle, when Rector, 

 caused to be made at Salisbury of all the registers of the parish 

 which remain in the Registry of the Bishop of Salisbury prior to 

 1706, but these only begin with the year 1616, and have many wide 

 gaps and omissions of years together. Since 1706 the registers are 

 complete, and are scattered over no less than seven volumes, ex- 

 clusive of the book of transcripts. Taking an average from the 

 last thirty years, the following is the annual result : baptisms, 7 ; 



