Nicaragua.His name appears on one of the crosses in the front cover painting. sof 71 May 2005 The Levelled Churchyard O passenger, pray list and catch Our sighs and piteous groans, Half stifled in this jumbled patch Of wrenched memorial stones!
We late-lamented, resting here, Are mixed to human jam, And each to each exclaims in fear: “I know not which I am!” The wicked people have annexed The verses of the good; A roaring drunkard sports the text Teetotal Tommy should!
Where we are huddled none can trace, And if our names remain, They pave some path or p---ing place Where we have never lain!
There’s not a modest maiden elf But dreads the final Trumpet, Lest half of her should rise herself And half the local strumpet!’ As a young architect in the 1860s, poet Thomas Hardy (who wrote ‘God’s Funeral’) was employed in the removal of graves in Old St Pancras Churchyard to build the Midland Railway. He stacked some of the tombstones in a circle round a young ash, foreseeing the mature tree, roots intertwining with the tombs, as it stands today. It is known as the Hardy Tree and powerfully embodies the organic continuity of death and life. Hardy also wrote the satirical poem ‘The Levelled Churchyard’, an extract from which is printed above.
As a young architect in the 1860s, Thomas Hardy (who wrote 'God's Funeral') was employed in the removal of graves in Old St Pancras Churchyard to build the Midland Railway; the Hardy Tree there embodies the organic continuity of death and life.