Do You Ever Get That Sinking Feeling

Haverhill, Suffolk

Call me a sensitive Soul if you like, but I never fail to find the sight of a listing and sinking memorial, filling me with a despondency regarding its neglect. It seems to make the monument to loss and grief all the sadder. So I try and look on the bright side and hope that it is due to a timely reunion of loved ones, or that maybe the grieving have moved on with their lives and no longer need the focus of a gravesite to help them remember.
And then there are those underground graveyard rabbit warrens.......................

Manor Park, London

Mill Road, Cambridge

Manor Park, London

Coston, Leicestershire

Manor Park, London

  

The Road to Eternity

I think it's fair to say that some men love their cars and would most certainly drive them on the road to Eternity if they could.
And in the mists of time things were no different, for even the Ancient Egyptians were buried with their chariots ......

Both of the above from Cambridge City

Haverhill, Suffolk

Manor Park, London

Manor Park, London 

The photos above and below are both part of the same momunment in Chelmsford, Essex

Serpents and Snakes

Whilst visiting the cemetery in Haverhill, Suffolk yesterday, I was drawn to this monument that I assumed to be the Virgin Mary, even though there is no Sacred heart symbol or any of the other usual indicators as to her identity. However, when I took a closer look, I noticed that she was standing on a serpent with an apple in it's mouth.

  

In the Bible Genesis 3: 1-15: when Eve said that the serpent had beguiled her to eat the forbidden fruit, God told the serpent that it was cursed above all other animals, saying that it shall crawl upon its belly and eat dust all the days of its life and the Lord told the serpent that Eve and all her her offspring would crush the serpents head and that it would bite their heel.

So is this Mary or could it be Eve ?  and is this serpent a symbol of mortal temptation ?

This monument in the Histon Road Cemetry, Cambridge, has a snake on each of its four sides, each one in a different position. The first snake above is an Ouroboros ( a snake biting or eating it's own tail ) a symbol of immortality, rejuvenation and eternity.  

And lastly, this snake from Mill Road cemetery in Cambridge, holds the cloth which is draped around the urn.