Newport's ancient dead, scattered here and there throughout the town, Jew and gentile, Catholic and Protestant and Quaker, sleep the long sleep in hope of the resurrection. Today they snuggle deeper under a new-fallen blanket of snow and ice. It's a good day to be under the covers.
St. Mary's Cemetery
The Common Burying Ground
The Quaker Cemetery
The Clifton Burying Ground
Extra picture for the day:
Frozen Holly
I love cemeteries, for those who don't fear death they are a very peaceful place.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post
hey down there swaney3!!
ReplyDeleteroy, your third photo down has got to be one of my favorites. i have never seen so many crowded headstones - quite eerie.
and that holly, amazing!
Thanks, Jody.
ReplyDeleteArleen, that's what those old New England boneyards were all about. The Puritans (and the groups who spun off them, like Roger Williams' and John Clarke's Baptists) figured once you were dead you were a case of "out of sight, out of mind" and didn't really care how and where the remains were disposed of. So all the really old colonial burying grounds are crowded, stones on top of each other, etc. You notice how much neater the Quaker Cemetery is? That's from the same era, but they had more respect for the body than the Puritans had. And the later cemeteries date from an era where there was more of a "nostalgic", for lack of a better word, approach to death and the dead. "Burying grounds" became cemeteries, planted trees, and placed benches for the families to come sit with the dear departed. Big change, don't you think?
a huge change, i just made the third photo down my laptop background. i just love it.
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