The wonderful cemetery at lower Manhattan's old Trinity Church was open to the public the other day, so I took took the chance to roam around, looking at the graves of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton and other lesser-known Colonial and Revolutionary War-era souls.
I spotted this gravestone above, its name and dates completely worn away by the elements. Good thing that some thoughtful person had gone to the effort to place a metal plaque at the head of the grave to identify the...oops. Guess that didn't work either.
(If you peer intently, you'll see this is the grave of John Moore, one of the founders of the New York Chamber of Commerce. There are other such plaques around the graveyard, all for C. of C. men.)
Of all the inscriptions you'll see on gravestones, nothing beats the epitaph often found in old New England cemeteries:
ReplyDelete"Behold my friend as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, soon you will be,
So prepare for death and follow me."
Peter