London, England

Focus on Bunhill Fields Burial Ground:  Here lies 'the father of English hymnody': Isaac Watts D.D.  You know him best for the lyrics to a hymn we have made a Christmas carol: "Joy to the World." In all though, he wrote over 750 hymns, including "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," which Charles Wesley admired above all others. Right across City Road, many of Watts's hymns are sung every Sunday and Wednesday at Wesley's Chapel. [2015]

London England

Focus on Bunhill Fields Burial Ground:  This is what everyone knows about Susanna Wesley (much of which is commemorated on her headstone below): (1) She is called the mother of Methodism because of her two sons, John and Charles. (2) She was the 25th of 25 children of Rev. Samuel Annesley and his wife Mary. (3) With her husband, Rev. Samuel Wesley, she had 19 children of her own, the 15th of whom was John Wesley, Methodist patriarch. Nonconformist, evangelical Christianity ran in the family. Her father, husband, and two sons were all prominent preachers who operated on the periphery of Anglican Christianity. Right across the street from Bunhill Fields is Wesley's Chapel, and she has a monument there, too. When she was buried in Bunhill Fields, however, the chapel did not exist. Otherwise, she would probably have been buried in the churchyard. [2015]

London, England

Focus on Bunhill Fields Burial Ground:  His cap betrays his employer: the City of London. He is one of the groundskeepers at Bunhill Fields, but he also doubles as 'attendant with key.' Want to see the grave of the father of Bayesian statistics or the mother of John Wesley? He will unlock the gate and take you there. In other words: Conform to the rules! Non-conformists not welcome. Or it might just be a conservation measure. On the map below, all graves along the winding white paths are closed to the public unless you find an attendant. [2015]

London, England

Focus on Bunhill Fields Burial Ground:  The Pilgrim's Progress was first published in 1678 and has never been out of print. Its celebrated author was John Bunyan, who died ten years later. What you see below is neither his original burial plot nor his original tomb. In the 1860s, however, his celebrity status had generated such a pilgrimage trail that a new vault, based on the original but without the effigy or bas reliefs, was commissioned by one of the well-known sculptors of the day. As he lies looking upward at the heavens (the ultimate goal of pilgrims' progress), an recumbent reincarnated Bunyan serves as the centerpiece of London's famous mortuary garden. [2015]

London, England

Focus on Bunhill Fields Burial Ground:  Because of its antiquity and the many famous people buried here, Bunhill Fields may be London's most well known cemetery. The last known burial took place in 1860: seems like over 200 years of entombment had filled the place up! Those interred here had one thing in common: They were non-conformists like Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalists. Perhaps that tendency to think outside the box is the reason we can find here at least three foundation stones of British literature: Bunyan, De-Foe, and Blake. [2015]

London, United Kingdom

Books in the Contiguous Zone:  By the grave of George du Maurier someone has left a copy of Peter Pan, a tribute not to the author (who is buried in Scotland) but to the family who inspired the play and novel, the family of cartoonist George du Maurier. Hampstead, now a part of London, is Peter's hometown and a pilgrimage site for people in love with the idea that they will never grow old, an idea hardly supported by a cemetery. St. John-at-Hampstead Churchyard. [2005]