|
Nancy Millar
is known as Canada's Cheerful Tombstone Tourist. She's traveled
all over the country exploring graveyards and talking to people,
the result of which is Once Upon A Tomb, a history of Canada from
the back end, as it were. It's history as she found it in graveyards.
This summer, she traveled to England and of course, took time
to visit some graveyards there. In fact, she would be there still
if her family hadn't expected her home. There are so many graveyards,
so many big names buried in big places, so much history in every
corner, that she couldn't take it all in. However, she got some
of it, and here's her account of a visit to Highgate Cemetery
in London.
Highgate
by Nancy Millar
I love graveyards
- not because I'm a creepy morbid soul but because they're full
of stories. I've never been able to resist a good story. But in
the case of graveyards, those stories sometimes occur enroute.
Take, for
example, my recent visit to the famous old London cemetery called
Highgate. It has such a reputation as a bastion of Victorian architecture
and society that it's like walking through the pages of a history
book, or so I was told. Can't miss it, I was told.
So I headed
out one hot Sunday afternoon in June, 2001, to be present at the
gates of Highgate for the 3 pm. tour. You can't just ramble through
Highgate, incidentally, not the western part of it anyway. You
have to be part of a tour. All went well - I made the proper transfers
on the London underground and got myself to Highgate station at
2:45. I'll just take a cab from the station, I thought, and be
at the cemetery in plenty of time.
Guess what-
no cabs. I finally asked a man behind the pub to call me a cab.
"It'll take half an hour to get here, luv," he said.
"Better you just walk up the hill there- just a ten minute
walk, luv. Just find the village of Highgate, then turn left."
So off I trotted. Time was passing but I still had 10 minutes.
Easy.
Not easy.
I walked up the hill alright, I found the village alright, but
couldn't find the left turn. There are no signs pointing to Highgate.
I asked folk along the way, "Where's the Highgate Cemetery?"
Nobody seemed to know. I thought it would be the biggest deal
in Highgate but I was wrong, or else the people I met were all
tourists. Finally I saw a group of people all tagging along behind
a guide. Aha, I thought. I've stumbled onto them. Wrong. They
were looking for ice cream. So was I, by this time. It was hot.
I was bothered. Where was this blasted cemetery?
The guy at
the ice cream place gave me another set of directions. They didn't
work out either and I was hopelessly late by this time. Finally,
I saw a shady almost dark lane leading downwards and I took it,
lacking any other ideas. It was Swain's Lane and lo and behold,
it led me to Highgate.
Of course,
I had missed the 3 pm. tour but fortunately, there was a 4 pm.
tour as well. Can I go in and just look around while I'm waiting?
I asked. No. The Friends of Highgate volunteers who sell the tickets
and man the gates make it clear that this is serious business.
You must wait on the bench until your tour guide comes, you must
cover your shoulders while in the cemetery as a sign of respect,
you must surrender any electronic equipment like cell phones,
you must maintain a decorum suitable to the setting.
There were
only about 10 of us waiting to be guided through the western section,
all of us a bit surprised to be treated like schoolchildren. One
girl, eg, was wearing a strappy top, it being a very hot day.
She was handed a black fleecy jacket and told to cover her shoulders
with it. She did as told. We all did as told, but in the long
run, the rules and the no-nonsense way in which they were delivered,
made sense. This is a graveyard. It is not a tourist attraction
like a castle or the Globe Theatre. It is different.
So what did
we see after all? Surprisingly, not a whole lot because the western
side is so overgrown with trees, shrubs, plants, ivy and flowers
that most tombstones are hidden. In fact, I felt like I had been
transported to a Grimm fairy tale where the forests are dark,
deep, impenetrable. There was no way I could sprint off and check
out the angel over there or the dog on his master's grave nearby.
I could only stay on the path and admire from afar. The guide
was great. At one point, she had us looking at an angel for some
reason or other. I can't remember why now, but her timing was
impeccable. Now turn around, she said, and behold.
There was
the beginning of the Egyptian section, the entrance to which features
huge columns and obelisks and other stuff vaguely Egyptian. Egyptian
was apparently a favorite design element in Victorian days, so
it was used in this section of the cemetery for those who had
the money to buy a family mausoleum in the fashionable "Egyptian
Avenue."
If, however,
you were too late for the Egyptian Avenue, you could buy in The
Lebanon Circle, an area defined by a very old Cedars of Lebanon
tree. That's what I read in the book I bought at the end of the
tour but do you know, I can't remember the Cedars of Lebanon tree
now. Did I see it? I hope somebody will tell me whether it's still
there. I do remember a circle of catacombs, which are said to
be beneath the famous tree. How could I have forgotten it? Easy.
The place is all amazing, all bigger than life, bigger than death
for that matter. My book tells me there are 166,800 persons buried
at Highgate (both sides). That's a lot to see and even more to
remember.
Anyway, it
was a grand experience. Those buried there include Queen Victoria's
midwife who, by all accounts, must have earned her place here.
Queen Victoria, after all, had nine children. Her horse slaughterer
is there too. Don't ask. So are members of Charles Dickens family,
the Emmeline Pankhurst family and the Rossettis. Carl Marx is
buried in the eastern part of the cemetery.
Those with
Canadian connections include Col. W.N. Kennedy who commanded Canadian
troops up the Nile to relieve Gordon at Khartoum, Sir A.T. Taylor
who designed McGill University in Montreal and Lord Strathcona,
aka Donald Smith, who was behind the building of the CPR. It was
he who got to hammer in the last spike at the opening of the railroad
promised to join Canadians "sea to sea."
There's a
good story about the Strathcona mausoleum, which is a fairly grand
red granite structure just inside the gate of the eastern part
of the cemetery. It was restored some years ago and when the present
Lord Strathcona came to check on the restoration work, he noticed
that volunteers with the Friends of Highgate had no shelter. Rain
or shine, they stood at the iron gate (no roof or overhang) and
greeted visitors, collected donations and sold souvenirs. It was
then he offered his family's mausoleum as a shelter for the volunteers
and a place to store their materials. That's on the east side,
mind you. The volunteers on the west side, the older side, are
able to keep their materials in the curved entrance building which
used to include chapels for those who were Church of England and
those who were Dissenters. Apparently, never the two could mix.
Even in death. Imagine.
Second
installment, R.B.
Bennett
Coming
soon from Nancy Millar... Lady MacDonald, a continuation of Nancy's
journey to England's cemeteries.
Nancy
Millar's books about graveyards include Remember Me As You
Pass By, (stories from Alberta graveyards) and Once Upon A
Tomb (stories from Canadian graveyards.) Both are a combination
of history, story and travel. They are available from many
bookstores, see the Links provided, or from Deadwood Distribution,
e-mail nemillar@shaw.ca.
Her other books include Once Upon A Wedding - Canadian history
through actual weddings; The Famous Five: Emily Murphy and
the Case of the Missing Persons, and Once Upon An Outhouse.
Also available from Deadwood. |
R.B.Bennett
Lady
MacDonald - The Mystery of Mary
A
Graveyard Tale Closer to Home
More
Graveyard Tales
The
REAL Sam McGee
The
Titanic Cemetery
|
