A Fine and Private Place

This must be one of the most attractive gravestones I've seen. Here there are no weeping angels or flowery ornamentation. On the stone itself there is no gushing oratory nor needless detail. The beauty of the marble is sufficient to convey the desired dignity. For me who never knew the man, it is an interesting piece of masonry. For the Macuish family, if there was one, it was a focus of their grief and misery. Perhaps it is still is. Marvell wrote:

The grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace.

When I’m dead, I suspect I’ll have a less stylish headstone, if indeed I get one; my will stipulates the cheapest possible funeral. Either way, I’m not troubled. Wherever my grave, and no matter how stylish the stone, I won’t be there:

‘The way of life winds upward for the wise,

That he may turn away from the grave below.’