"Lich-Stones are,--though very rarely,--to be found at a distance from the churchyard; in this case, doubtless, they are intended as rests for the coffin on its way to burial. "At Lustleigh, in Devonshire, is an octagonal Lich-Stone called Bishop's Stone, having engraved upon it the arms of Bishop Cotton[12]. It seems not unlikely that the several beautiful crosses erected by King Edward I. at the different stages where the corpse of his queen, Eleanor[13], rested on its way from Herdeby in Lincolnshire to Westminster, were built over the Lich-Stone on which her coffin was placed. And now, my kind listeners, I think I have told you all I know about Lich-Stones." Illustration: Lich-Stone at Lustleigh "These simple memorials of Church architecture are very touching," replied Mr. Acres, as he rose to depart; "and the Lich-Stone deserves a record before modern habits and improvements sweep them away. They have a direct meaning, and surely might be more generally adopted in connexion with the Lich-Gate, now gradually re-appearing in many of our rural parishes, as the fitting entrance to the churchyard." _CHAPTER III_ GRAVE-STONES "When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones." 1 Kings xiii. 31. "I've seen The labourer returning from his toil, Here stay his steps, and call the children round, And slowly spell the rudely sculptured rhymes, And in his rustic manner, moralize. We mark'd with what a silent awe he'd spoken, With head uncover'd, his respectful manner, And all the honours which he paid the grave." _H. Kirke White._ "I like that ancient Saxon phrase, which calls The burial-ground God's acre! It is just; It consecrates each grave within its walls, And breathes a benison o'er the sleeping dust. "Into its furrows shall we all be cast, In the sure faith that we shall rise again At the great harvest, when the archangel's blast Shall winnow, like a fan, the chaff and grain. "With thy rude ploughshare, Death, turn up the sod, And spread the furrow for the seed we sow; This is the field and acre of our God: This is the place where human harvests grow." _Longfellow._ Illustration: Church of St. Nicholas, West Pennard GRAVE-STONES Illustration: Grave-Stones in Streatham Churchyard