Before It Was Built There Were Two
Churches And Two Chitternes - Two Parishes With One Village, Each With
Its Own Proper Church.
These were situated at opposite ends of the one
long street, and were small ancient buildings, each standing in its own
churchyard.
One of these disused burying-places, with a part of the old
building still standing in it, is a peculiarly attractive spot, all the
more so because of long years of neglect and of ivy, bramble, and weed
and flower of many kinds that flourish in it, and have long obliterated
the mounds and grown over the few tombs and headstones that still exist
in the ground.
It was an excessively hot August afternoon when I last visited
Chitterne, and, wishing to rest for an hour before proceeding on my
way, I went to this old churchyard, naturally thinking that I should
have it all to myself. But I found two persons there, both old women of
the peasant class, meanly dressed; yet it was evident they had their
good clothes on and were neat and clean, each with a basket on her arm,
probably containing her luncheon. For they were only visitors and
strangers there, and strangers to one another as they were to me - that,
too, I could guess: also that they had come there with some object -
perhaps to find some long unvisited grave, for they were walking about,
crossing and recrossing each other's track, pausing from time to time
to look round, then pulling the ivy aside from some old tomb and
reading or trying to read the worn, moss-grown inscription.
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