File:Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries- Volume 7, page 22, February 12, 1855.jpg

Transcription:

we went to the Church, where he [Mr. Franklin] left me, for half an hour to go over it. The spacious Church yard has a plentiful crop of grave stones, amid which you may spy the stump and pedestal of a crop. The Church is a fine one, with plain Norman doorway in its thick walled tower, small columns on either side of it, perpendicular windows in the clove-story, early English ones elsewhere, and a bastard classic (!) porch. Young small leaved ivy grew here and there, the snow lay thick on the graves, and a congealed stream from a pipe on the tower wall was visible.

By the aid of the Clerk & Sexton’s wife I entred. The only note worthy object is the tomb of Sir Anthony Foster, Walter Scott’s “Anthony Fire-the-faggot.” He lies in the chancel, beneath a squarely-shaped tomb with a stone canopy over it, under which, upon the wall is a brass effigy of himself and his wife, both kneeling in the customary ungraceful attitudes, he clad in a suit of armour, she with three quaintly delineated children at her tail. (Was one of these Scott’s pretty Puritan?) There is also a latin epitaph, which if it lie not after the manner of most Epitaphs, would make Sir Anthony to be a most estimable personage, rather than the hypocrite and scoundrel described by Sir Walter. Mrs S C Hall takes Tony’s part, so one naturally inclines to the other side.

Nought remains of Cumnor Hall, the scene of poor Amy Robert’s imprisonment and death, but the stones, which form the rear wall of the Churchyard. The building stood in the field immediately beyond, the uneven surface of which warrents the fact. For the wall itself it is a veritable bit of antiquity, the gnarled ivy roots having everywhere grown into its strong substance. There is also a closed doorway, but across to the field was gained, on my part, by clambering over a broken space. Under the shelter of the wall and the tall trees, (with their ivy hid trunks,)