Three jobs to be done at Ross last Sunday
Whether it rained or not, my mind was made up to do three things:
1. To dig around the bases of headstones in the burial ground, looking for the stonemason’s signature, particularly Dan Herbert’s.
2. To site the first St John’s Church, using a photograph in Hawley Stancombe’s booklet on the Parish of Ross.
3. Knock on the door of the cottage that is purported to have belonged to Dan Herbert at 2 Badajos St, to determine if my memory of the back yard with sheds was correct.
The Angel on Sarah Ann Ellis’ Grave
Sarah Ann’s angel is tender, personal, idiosyncratic … she tells us that the mason was empathic; that he was sad for this family who had lost their baby girl at one month old. She holds her trumpet and wreath, the symbol of her victory over death as she flies up towards Heaven. It is said Dan Herbert carved the head and footstones; if so, it is clear that he had learned his trade among the gravestones of an ancient people elsewhere in the world.