A Jewel Revisited

The Day Lilies are running wild and all the different members of the Aster family (Asters, Daisies, etc.) are in bloom, so I figured it was time to revisit the Clifton Burying Ground to look at all the gardens that border it (and often spill into it) at their best. You can see my earlier photo essay on this graveyard here.

Approaching the burying ground from Thomas St., the first view of flowers is a patch along the front picket fence:

Walk past this to the entrance where Thomas St. and Golden Hill St. meet at a 90º angle. When you go into the burying ground, just look at how the neighbors' gardens surround and even spill into it.

And a little farewell as we leave the burying ground:

Nice, isn't it?

Comments: 13

Sue M. Jul 13, 2008, 8:21pm EDT

How pretty, Roy! Very nice photo essay!

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Ina ♥ Tagline Free Since September '09 ♥ Jul 13, 2008, 9:21pm EDT

Nice? NICE! NO! This was spectacular for me; me who adores gardens and graveyards. I just got the greatest case of shits and giggles from this.

Thanks, Roy!

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Vicky Duggins Jul 13, 2008, 10:41pm EDT

Very interesting and beautiful photo essay. I've never seen stones that old. It's wonderful how the flowers from the neighboring land lends so much beauty to the cemetery.

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Roy ☯ Hilbinger Jul 14, 2008, 12:35am EDT

Thanks everybody! As I said in my original photo essay about this place, I love hanging out here. Between the age of the stones, the surrounding houses, and the encroaching gardens, this is the coziest graveyard I've ever been in!

Ivy, there are a lot more graves in this plot than you see in the pictures here. If you follow the link in the first paragraph above you'll get a better idea of the whole; I just concentrated on the flowers today. But you're right in describing it as a neighborhood graveyard - right smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Vicky, there are graves in here back to the 1650s. Newport was officially granted a charter in 1639, so yeah, these stones are old.

Kate, I'm glad this piqued your genealogical interests. And as for historical, there are some colonial governors and their families buried here.

Ina, I knew you loved gardens, but I didn't know about the graveyards thing. See? Two birds with one stone! (Sorry about the bird metaphor!)

Sue, I'm glad you liked it.

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elizabeth e. Jul 14, 2008, 7:20pm EDT

If I was going to be buried and not cremated, this would be the "garden" I would choose to be planted in. Alas, I want to blow in the wind.

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Ellie !. Jul 16, 2008, 12:01am EDT

I love graveyards because of the history...and probably because I spent Sundays visiting graveyards with my mother and grandmother. who were these people who came before us? What will we leave for those who follow us? I want to see those stones and run my fingers over them. But NEVER, NEVER walk on their graves....gramma taught me well.

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