On June 17 I was out and about with an old friend of mine and his wife from the days I did medicine.I was in Cumbria because I was doing my show 'Getting Through It' at the Theatre by the Lake - next to Derwentwater - a show that is about recovery from illness, loss, and bereavement. We went to Cartmel Priory which is 800 years old.
One of the gravestones on the Priory floor had the following inscriptions on it.
Here lies the Body of Robert
Harrison Son of Thomas
[?]aret Harrison who wa[ ]
drowned on Lancaster Sand
the 13th day of January 1782 in
the 24th. Year of his Age.
The waters they do compass me
And no assistance I can see
Which makes me to lament and cry
Lord send me help least here I die.
It is in vain for to withstand,
What is decreed by Gods command
My dying day I cannot shun
Farewell dear Friends my life is run.
Also here lies Margaret Harrison
who was Drowned January the
1st 1783 near the same
[ ]ce where her son was
Drowned. AE 48
From toilsome labour & from troubles pain
Beside my son I come to sleep at last.
Hoping at the last day to rise again
And be set free from all our grief & pain
----
So this tells the story of Robert who died in the sand(s) aged 24 and his mother Margaret who died in the same place a year later,. aged 48.
We can only guess that in some sense Margaret went to look for Robert, and, perhaps, wanted to join him in the hereafter. If any of that guess is right, then we might also guess that the church took the view that it was an accident, otherwise they wouldn't have given Margaret a full church burial.
My phone was out of charge so I couldn't take a photo of the gravestone but on a fascinating site called Old Cumbria Gazetteer, there's a photo of the gravestone, which I'm attaching below.
