Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/82

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. v. JAN. 27, isxw.

Through a decaying gateway one enters this old burial-ground like too many others in this island, dilapidated and disused. On the upper part of the ground, and within a few yards of its southern extremity, stands a stone obelisk, or four-sided cone of stone, of some 15 or 16 feet in height, on a stone plinth of about 7 feet square. It was erected by their comrades as a tribute to the memory of those officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the old 54th regiment* who died, as the inscription in roman capitals states, "during the service of the corps in the islands of Antigua, St. Kitts, Dominica, and St. Lucia from March, MDCCCXLVIII [?] to June, MDCCCLT."

Originally, I may say, several and distinct colonies, each with its own Lieutenant- Governor under a Governor- General, the first three of these islands have been since 1871 the three principal of the Leeward Islands group, whilst St. Lucia now forms one of the Windward Islands.

1. The face of the eastern side, which con- tains the above description, is devoted to ANTIGUA, the name being engraved in bold roman capitals on a tablet above the names of those whose memory it is designed to per- petuate. This side is by far the best pre- served, and the greater part of the names recorded are still to be read, the upper ones being in the worse state of preservation. They are :

SURGEON SON [full name perished].

ENSIGN GEORGE D...EL KINAHAN.

SERJT VINCENT NEVE (?) SAMUEL COX

JAMES DOUGLAS GEO ORMEROD

HENRY COX...JAS. FITZPATRICK DRUMK HENRY DIBBEN. HENRY GREEN

T. H. DARBYSHIRE.

Then follow in two parallel columns the names of about forty privates, all of which can be fairly decipherea.

2. A similar tablet facing north denotes ST. KITTS but whilst this remains clear and comparatively fresh, all the names recorded below have perished, only a few isolated letters remaining. It is evident, however, that they were much fewer than those under Antigua.

3. On the south side appear those under Dominica, apparently about the same in number as the last. Here again only one name in the top line can be deciphered that of HENRY (?) BROWN. Only a few isolated letters of the rest can be made out.

4. With regard to the south side that to the west the converse seems to have been the case. The title on the tablet intended for

now the 2nd Battalion of the Dorsets (39th).
 * Formerly the West Norfolk Regiment, and

S T LUCIA is gone, the merest trace of the last two letters alone being there. At the top of the left corner the word PTE (Private) still remains legible, and in various degrees of legibility are the names of the following :

MICHAEL GRANT [or GRANTHAM ?] W. CLAREE. JNO CAMPBELL.

DANL FORD ROB MC NAUCHT.

DAVID CROSIER. MICHAEL PHILLIPS.

DANI< FOLOON. D. STUNT.

Apart from the inscription, this side of the monument shows the most signs of wear and stress of weather. This tendency to wear best on the weather side in the kind of stone of which the obelisk is composed (an igneous or volcanic rock) is strongly exemplified in some- massive stone columns of the same material

now in ruins in the old dockyard below.

Close along under the southern wall of the burial-ground, and between it and the obelisk, are numerous oblong heaps of stones, no doubt representing the burial-place of the various soldiers whose names are recorded on the monument, and who were buried in Antigua.

In the south-eastern corner of the ground* and not far from the obelisk, is a stone altar- tomb, showing signs of decay, to the memory of Harriott, wife of Sergeant-Major Whippin, of H.M. 54th Regiment, " who fell a victim to the withering effects of this climate and dysentery," on 23 January, 1851 t aged 33| years.

On a lower part of the burial-ground, to- the west, and further removed from the obelisk, are two large stone altar -tombs enclosed within iron railings. In one of these an incised stone slab records the death

of "CHARLES DAWSON, M.D, surgeon

54th [?J Regiment" perhaps the same as the

" SURGEON SON " on the obelisk. The date

and rest of the inscription are indecipherable, except the words at the bottom, "JANE MARY DAWSON," in roraan letters. The inscription on the other tomb is practically indeci- pherableat least as seen from the railings

only a word here and there being legible.

Close by is an upright stone recording the death of Elizabeth, wife of Philip Crofton, Royal Artillery, who died 20 Oct., 1851, aged 28 ; also the deaths of two small children in infancy.

On what appears to have been an extension of the lower part of the burial-ground, to the north, are several tombstones, mostly upright, or at all events originally so ; but most of hese are in a terrible state of neglect and decay. Amongst these I was able to decipher,