I love to walk through cemeteries. I know that might be a little odd but there is just something so intriguing to me about seeing old stones with weathered writing, leaning or fallen down, upright, adorned with flags or flowers or little mementos. They tell a story in their own way so I never turn down the opportunity to stop and take one in on our travels.
On our recent trip to Bermuda we toured St. Peter’s Church (you can read my post here) and the Unfinished Church (you can read that post here). Both were beautiful examples of architecture and craftsmanship and the bonus for me was that St. Peter’s Church had a lovely graveyard on its grounds.
The interesting thing is that there are two separate graveyards in the grounds of the church. There is a walled area to the west of the church that was for black slaves, whereas the white parishioners were buried on the east side. Many burials date back over three centuries. Important interments here include Sir Richard Sharples, the 1973 Governor of Bermuda who was assassinated while walking a dog on the grounds of Government House, along with his aide, Capt. Hugh Sayers; American Midshipman Richard Dale who was the last victim of the war of 1912; and Anne Willing Bingham who was supposed to have been the model for the famous Draped Bust portrait on the obverse of the American silver dollars created by Gilbert Stuart, but there were also soldiers who died of yellow fever and many generations of gentry and commoners, governors and slaves, privateers and statesmen.
It was a pretty amazing place to tour after our church tour and I took a few pictures. Click on any picture in the mosaic to enlarge and initiate a slide show. How about you? Do you like to stroll around cemeteries like me or do they make you nervous?
