Monday 21 November 2011

Swine and other profanation

Still in Chiswick, the wall of St Nicholas's churchyard carries an interesting inscription. It's rather worn and difficult to read now, so I'm grateful for the transcription on the church website:
This wall was made at ye charges of ye right honourable and trulie pious Lorde Francis Russell Earle of Bedford oute of true zeale and care for ye keeping of this churchyard and ye wardrobe of Goddes saintes, whose bodies lay therein buryed from violating of swine and other profanation so witnesseth William Walker, v.1623’ Rebuilt in 1831: refaced in 1884.
Nearby is a flood marker, which doesn't look that remarkable until the passer-by notices the considerable slope from the river's edge to this point in the road. The date is also a hint that this flooding was out of the ordinary: it marks the high point of the lethal 1928 floods which affected much of riverside London.



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