At some intersecting point between research & simply having weird interests, I was recently reading a book on epitaphs. It’s one of those books you purchase & then lose in a crowded shelf, wonderfully resurfacing at its most useful time — be it when you’re in the mood for such a topic for pleasure reading or, in my case, when you’re looking for a decent source of old grave inscriptions to base a fictitious one upon.

I understand it may come as a surprise, but despite being a “writer” of horror & weird fiction, I’m quite taken with cemeteries. This fact only makes it all the more disappointing at how grave ornamentation has become less of an art in modern times.

I’m not going to belabor (much) the hows or whys, & with all deserved respect, I’m not attempting to detract from the recently dead. This isn’t meant as an exhaustive musing on the subject either, I’d just like to share some of the older epitaphs I’ve come across — commenting, haphazardly without planning, here & there.

Boston, Mass

The Victorian era restrained the epitaph greatly, but the text was still beautiful, & the stone itself became more art than medium. Cemetery crowding was a major factor in this, & the reason the family plot became much more widespread in the western world.

In a morbid chicken or the egg scenario, I’m curious to the relationship of the epitaph & the obituary. The obituary had already been around since the rise of the printing press, but it was not common until the Victorian era. My guess would be that cemetery crowding & a lack of space for inscription lead to the demand of publishing obituaries, but I’m sure it’s quite possible the obituary removed the need for such comprehensive epitaphs.

Thus simple inscriptions of “We Shall Meet Again” or “Gone To Rest” became common, but that isn’t to say the long epitaph was, by any means, out of use.

Chittenden, Vt.

Julia Eddy was the mother of the Eddy brothers — the rather known, and incredibly interesting, Spiritualism mediums. I’ve a feeling I’ll get around to writing about them here sometime in the future.

Newfane, Vt.

I’ll end — for now — with two of my favorites.

Hartford, Conn.

I was somebody.
Who, is no business
of yours.

D.