Eye - 18 March 2011

From Bunhill to birds

Buried at Bunhill

One of the most important four acres in Britain, associated with Quakerism and the dissenting tradition, has been given a stamp of approval by the establishment. The cemetery at Bunhill Fields in London has been declared a grade one listed park by the government.

Founded in the 1660s as a burial ground for non-conformists, radicals and dissenters, the cemetery holds the remains of figures such as John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, Daniel Defoe, who wrote Robinson Crusoe and the artist William Blake.

Nearby is the Bunhill Fields Quaker Meeting House and the Quaker gardens where early Friends, such as George Fox (1624-1691), are buried.

‘Many of these people suffered a lifetime’s persecution for their beliefs before coming to rest here,’ said David Garrard of English Heritage. He advised the government that such a unique place in the history of the dissenting tradition deserved the highest grade listing and protection.

‘Paradoxically, the fact that many of those buried here would cheerfully have damned one another to hell on some minute point of theological dispute has brought them all together in this peaceful place,’ he added.

Eye feels that there is a poetic justice that, after three hundred and fifty years, the establishment has recognised, and protected, the remains of people who were persecuted for a simple belief – that their worship be dictated by their conscience and not by the state.

Census suggestions
Friends preparing to address the census may have noticed a letter in the Guardian of 11 March by Philip Gilligan. Susan Robson informs Eye that she was ‘dithering about which precise ethical point to bring to the notice of the census organisers’ when she noticed the letter. The author writes: ‘Question 20 of the form provides me with exactly the right number of spaces to tell them my religion is: “Stop Selling Arms”.’

Eye wonders how many other points can be made in a mere seventeen characters. Any suggestions?

The wrong dress?
Across the country, royalists and fashion enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting news of who will design and make the dress for the royal wedding.

Eye was amused, therefore, and puzzled by an advertisement in the Worthing and Shoreham Quaker news. It reads: ‘Wedding dress for sale (worn once by mistake)’

An Eye for the birds
Birdwatcher Philip Morris has drawn Eye’s attention to a remarkable renaissance in the world of our feathered friends.

He writes in to ask whether other readers have spotted any redpoles on their bird feeders this winter. He says: ‘I have been birdwatching for eighty years and had never seen one until this winter when I have had as many as five at once on my seed feeder.’

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