Searching For Sarah

We're still in Stow Bardolph for one more post. From the rare breeds farm you get a pleasant view across towards the church - well, it is called Church Farm so it's what you'd expect. Lets toddle across there and take a look.

First impressions are of a clean and well-maintained church, fairly typical of the area but with no obviously remarkable features.

Then I spotted this superbly carved royal coat of arms. It dates from the reign of Charles II and is very similar to one in the church at Therfield. And once again there's a spelling mistake in the word PENSE, this time it's been rendered as PENCE whereas in Therfield it's PENES. If it's the same carver then I think we can assume that he wasn't particularly literate.

On one of the pews there's a carved hare holding the arms of the Hare family of Stow Hall. It looks medieval but is actually nineteenth century. But then you notice there's a side door in the chancel leading into a side chapel filled with memorials to various Hares from past centuries.

There's great variety and great artistry here. Lets have a look at some of them.

Above is the rather striking memorial to Radulph Hare. It has a very odd inscription in Latin which is handily translated on a card placed nearby.

I lived almost nine times eight years

(if you take four away) thence to death succumb

and for me you, July, were the month of my birth,

and you, June, the month of my death...

it goes on to list his virtues and concludes...

I was small of body, but the neighbourhood said,

In body I was a pygmy, but in good deeds a giant.

The skilfully carved monument above is to Susannæ Hare. It is by the great Peter Scheemakers the Younger, a Flemish sculptor who worked in London, who is regarded as the father of modern sculpture. He is responsible for the monument to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey amongst other great works. If you're thinking that it looks similar to one of the monuments in Wimpole church, which I showed you recently, then give yourself a pat on the back; that was by Scheemakers too.

But there's a detail in the Latin inscription which I can find no mention of elsewhere. it is the single Latin word "cineres" or ashes. It says that Susannæ's ashes lie here. But this was 1741 and cremation was not made legal for another century or so. The Romans had used cremation but the Christian church had always outlawed the practice. It is known that there was a cremation, of one Honoretta Pratt, in 1769 and that's usually considered to be the first cremation in the UK in recent centuries. That was also in Norfolk.

What was going on here back in the eighteenth century? I'd like to know.

I can however hazard a guess at why no one's noticed the details in the inscription on Susannæ's memorial. They were all in a hurry to see the little wooden cupboard that stands in the corner. For it contains the memorial to Susannæ's sister, Sarah.

Sarah was considered eccentric in her lifetime and in death she was particularly unconventional. She left instructions that a wax effigy should be made and displayed so that future generations might see her, dressed in her real clothes.

As you can see she wasn't particularly beautiful, but apart from the funereal effigies of royalty which were carried in their funeral processions and are stored in Westminster Abbey, she has a unique (and rather unsettling) memorial.

(I read online that the Westminster Abbey effigies are going to be displayed during 2018, if you want to see them).

Take care.