inscription · the cut block · under the yew
limestone block · 1962 · letterer e. hartwick
Hartwick cut this himself, late in his keeping. it is set under the old yew at the corner of the garden where the path goes round. he claimed it was the only seat in the grounds that put the sun on his neck without putting the chapel bell in his ear.
the inscription is the only joke on stone in the grounds. it is a good one, of the kind that improves with seventy-odd years and a little lichen. the parish allowed it because it was true, and because Hartwick had earned the right, and because the lettering was clean.
the seat is warmer than its neighbours; the south-east face takes the longest sun. children read it, mostly. they do not understand it, but they sit on it anyway, which Hartwick would have called the correct response.
field-note · sit before reading. the joke is for sitters.
see also · memorial bench custodian the watch garden the keeper