The scull

In Coxwold, in the porch at St. Michaels Church, next to the epitaphstone*, we found this framed facsimile clipping from The Times on Thursday June the 5th 1969, on the reburied scull — and nearby found skeletal bones — in Coxwold. One thing further — among many others — for us to ponder upon: Tristrams nose, as well as his fathers — and his great grandfathers, that was shaped like an ace of clubs — was quite diminutive. But what about Sterne? Was he just as flat-nosed?

*)http://sterneetcetera.blogspot.dk/2015/08/sternes-stones.html

Alas, poor Yorick!

— "Then everything turns black!" — Black page in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Penguin Classics. London, 2003. Copy at the Main Library in Copenhagen. 

Sternes stones 2

In 1893 a second stone was erected on Sternes assumed grave at St George’s Field Burial Ground, London. The stone corrects some factual errors on the first stone (the date of death) This photo shoving the first and the second stone at St George’s Field Burial Ground is found in Shelly, Henry C.: Untrodden English Ways. Boston, 1908. Shelly writes: "Although the grave of Laurence Sterne is within a stone's throw of one of the most crowded thoroughfares of London, there are few save Americans who turn aside from the stream of life in Bayswater Road to gaze upon his resting-place in the St. George's burial-ground. He had boasted in "Tristram Shandy" that his preference would be to die in an inn, untroubled by the presence and services of his friends; yet when, in his London lodgings, he began to realize that death might be near, he pined for his daughter Lydia to nurse him. Only a hired nurse and a footman stood by Sterne's deathbed. The latter had been sent to inquire after the health of the famous author, and, being told by the landlady of the house to go upstairs and see for himself, he reached the death-chamber just as Sterne was passing away. Putting up his hand as though to ward off a blow, he ejaculated, "Now it is come," and so died. The story goes that even as he was dying, the nurse was busy possessing herself of the gold sleeve-links from his wrists.

Despite the fame he had won, only two mourners followed Sterne to his grave. But other eyes, it seems, watched the burial; for it is affirmed that two days later the body was taken from the grave and sold to a professor of anatomy for dissection. Only an accident revealed the identity of the "subject." Happening to have some friends visiting him at the time, the professor invited them to witness a demonstration, and on their following him to his surgery one of them was horrified to recognize in the partially dissected corpse the features of his friend Laurence Sterne. Such is the story, and most authorities agree in thinking it likely to be true. Perhaps it was not unknown to the two masons who erected the first stone over the grave, for their inscription began with the significant words, "Near to this place lies the body," etc. How near, or how far away, the actual remains of Sterne at length found a resting-place will probably never be known."

Sternes stones

When Sterne died in London of consumption, he was buried at the St George’s Field Burial Ground. Two days after the burial, it is said, Sterne’s body was stolen from the grave, and sold to the anatomist at the Cambridge University for dissection. Someone recognised the corpse as being Sterne, in some versions of the story it was a student, in others a friend of the anatomist, in others a member of the public who was paying to see a public dissection. — Sterne’s corpse was discretely returned to St George’s Field, and two years later two freemasons erected this memorial stone near to his original burial place. The text says that although Sterne wasn't a member of their society, he might have been, if just he has lived a bit longer. The stone also states that Sterne died the 13. sep. 1768 — even that Sterne actual died 6 month earlier on the 18. march that year — The stone was in 1969, along with Sternes scull and the nearby found skeletal bones, moved to Coxwold and reburied. The epitaphstone was hanged in the porch at St. Michaels Church in Coxwold.

Reading Sterne

Reading: "Alas, poor YORICK!" in Tristram Shandys levned og meninger 1. danish ed. (Borgen, 1976) at Sternes grave at the churchyard in Coxwold. Actually, it is not the whole corpse of Sterne that is resting here; in 1969 was here reburied, what "as sure as it could be" is Sternes scull and some assorted bones.