Sleepy Hollow II: Return of the Headless Horseman

Our experience at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery could not have been more different than the last time we were there.  Rolling up on Sunday afternoon, it was hard to find a place to park!  Gone were the early morning fog and silence. Instead, tour groups roamed the broad drive up to the cemetery and dotted the hills between headstones.

On the plus side, the headless horseman was there, posing for photos.

We also enjoyed reading the late 18th and early 19th century epitaphs.  No disrespect meant to the dead, but some of them are especially entertaining to modern eyes. 

Corruption, earth and worms

Shall but refine my flesh,

Till my triumphant spirit comes,

To put it on afresh.

Let's be real, Revolutionary War soldier zombies are the best kind of zombies. 

Affliction sore, long time I bore

Phycisians try, in vain:

Till God at last, his sentence past

That death should ease me of my

                                            pain.

Those early 19th century tombstone carvers were a big fan of mixing <p align="center"> with <p align="right">

Suffic'd with life

My Spirits fled

And I'm at rest

Among the dead

I want to play Oregon Trail again just to see if the computer would allow this.

The Boisterous Winds and Neptune

Waves have Tost me too and Fro

By Gods decree you Plainly See

I am Harbour'd here Below -

Great one for a sailor.  Bonus points for getting the word "Neptune" in.

You my friends look down and view

The hollow, gaping tomb

This gloomy prison waits for you

When e'er the summons come.

Puritans took this Memento Mori thing pretty seriously.  And poor Deleverance Acker needed not one, but two inscriptions to absolve him/herself...

Call and see as you pass by

As you are now so once was I.

As I am now so must you be

Prepare for death and follow me.

Shew pity Lord, O Lord forgive,

Let a repenting rebel live

Are not thy mercies large and free

May not a sinner trust in thee?

O wash my soul from ev'ry sin,

And make my guilty conscience clean

Here on my heart the burden lies

And past offences pain mine eyes

My crimes are great, but not surpass

The pow'r and glory of thy grace;

Great God, thy nature hath no bound,

So let thy pard'ning love by found.

What I want to know is this - just how much sinning can you get up to in 20 years and six months?