TILE BRAVE MEN OF EYAM
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
was glad to sec the bravery of the inhabitants of Eyam at the time of the Great Plague commemorated in the Spectator.
Your correspondent, however, is in error in one matter. She speaks of the commemorative Plague Service being held " in the burial ground where the martyrs lie." There is no such burial ground. The first victims of the plague were buried in the churchyard ; later they were buried in gardens or fields close to where they lived. Many such graves still remain, and the tradition of many others is well known.
When Mr. Mompesson closed the church for fear of infection he held the services in a narrow steep-sided valley on the south of the village known as the Delph. On one side of this an arched rock sticks up, in front of which the preacher stood and addressed the people below, those from the infected houses sitting on one side of the valley and those from the clean on the other. The rock is now known as Cucklet Church. The present Plague Service is held on the other side of this rock.
Mrs. Streatfeild does not mention the principal object of interest at Eyam, the richly carved Saxon Cross in the church- yard. Though the upper half of the shaft has been lost it is, nevertheless, one of the finest crosses in the country.—I am, Sir, &c., Bidford House, Leamington. HERBERT W. H. GREEN. .
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