Today's Where in the World Wednesday takes us to…
H
[insert maniacal laughter here]
Yes, if I had any logic and planning at all I would save this until closer to Halloween, but where is the fun in that? I’ve never been there but my next trip to London, this spot will be on my agenda. Not only is it filled with lovely Victorian gothic excess…
And not only is it filled with creepy loveliness….
But the tales! The famous people! The history!
Okay, so of course Karl Marx is buried there, common knowledge, whot?
But check this. The poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti buried a volume of unpublished poetry with his young wife, Lizzie, (yes, she was dead, do I need to add that detail?) who is pictured famously here, as Ophelia by the artist Millais:
So. She died. (She had a wee bit of a laudanum problem.) Bereft, he stuck his poetry in the casket to be buried with her.
Six years later, changed his mind, dug her up in the middle of the night and got it back so he could publish them. (He had a wee bit of a money problem.)
Oh, the tales that Highgate can tell…
Let the Sexton tell you a few.
[insert more maniacal laughter here]
That is one creepy graveyard. Just in time for Halloween season, too.
Chills.
We visited Pere Lachase cemetery in Paris over the summer, that place is full of famous graves. Chopin, Morrison, Wilder… Supposedly the most visited graveyard in the world.
The Cemetere Montmartre (Paris) has all the grieving widow headstones and I’ve tried to go there a few times but no luck, it was closed each time.
It’s definitely more famous, and I know they’re trying to find a way to evict Morrison. That sexton’s tales site has some pretty cool stories. And in 1970 about 100 people staged a serious vampire hunt in Highgate Cemetery. Lots of people thought there was one in there.
That Sexton site is so well done. You find some of the coolest things on the web Pooks.
Fascinating images!
Thanks. I’m really jonesing to go there.