In the small village where I now lay my head there is an 11th Century Church. It sits, squat, on a hilltop peering over the valley at the Derbyshire Dales. I often go for a mooch about the graveyard especially on a Sunday when feeling bored. I usually stop to pay my respects to Dan Boswell reputed to be (one of the many) King of the Gypsies (1738-1827) the legend reads:

I've lodged in many a town,

I've travelled many a year,

but death at length has brought me down,

to my last lodgings here.

Recently I was in St Malo Brittany that great granite walled corsair city of the sea. It is the birth place of Jacques Cartier who is credited with the discovery of Canada. It is a stunning place with golden sands and islands to explore. One such island, only accessible at low tide, lle du Grand Be, is the last resting place of François-René de Chateaubriand the father of French romantic literature who also had the "Chateaubriand steak" named after him. He was so in love with the place he had his tomb built on the island looking back on his beloved City.

So it made me ponder where I would like to be laid to rest when my time comes. The first question to resolve was did I want to be scattered or buried. On balance I settled on the latter as I never really liked the idea of cremation: for such a firey process I have usually found the services to be impersonal and cold. There then followed the issue of where. I decided that no return to the emerald isle would be practicable so I plumped for a spot not too far from old Dan Boswell Gypsy King.

Both my parents rest in a small graveyard outside Shannon County Clare; my father born and bred on the Lisburn's Longstone has a simple epitaph "Far from the Green Glens of Antrim." So I might have that on mine...

Hildenboy, that was a very interesting read. Don't go yet, though, as we are enjoying all your chat.

I, personally, haven't decided on cremation or burial. I suppose I'll leave that for someone else to decide, or maybe not.

"Far from the green glens of Antrim" is a very apt epitaph for your parents and lovely as well.

I wonder what my epitaph will be. Something like, "She always talked too much" or some such. Do I care - NO. But I will haunt them.

My granddaughter, Clare, is sitting here beside me with a cup of tea. She thinks this is a morbid topic for a Monday afternoon. But then, she's only 20.

Hildenboy, there are still Boswells in Lisburn. They are very attentive to the family grave in Holy Trinity and keep it in immaculate condition.

I'm sure there is a connection.

All this talk about burial never crosses my mind, as I am living & well. I leave all that to whatever happens in the future.

Never in a million years could we have ever thought we would have to leave our home & the home of our ancestors & come to the South of Ireland. So who knows where we will end.?

Stranger things happen than we would ever contemplate, so although we have a lovely grave already, in the hills of Clare, we never know where the end will be.....Canada maybe or somewhere not yet thought of as a home.

As my Grannie used to say when we asked about what she would like... "I'll be that stiff I won't care"[:))

Pat

Hildenboy, During the 2nd World War there was a gpysy family called the "Boswells", who lived in a caravan at the top of Lavery's Lane on the Longstone. They made a living by fortune telling and also selling goods door to door, I remember my aunt and her girl friends used to go over for their forturnes every now and then and come back giggling and carrying on. Mauri

Talking about obituaries, today I heard of two deaths, the fist one my formeer neigbour called to say she was in New Brunsick as her Mother had died, then I go down to pick up my mail and and another resident tell me the guy that we bought this condo from had died last night in his sleep, such a shame as we had met him and his wife and they were moving into a retirement home where everything was done for them, just goes to show you, one never knows,? I wonder who the third one will be???. Mauri

Mauri, don't look at me.

Hi All,

With regards to the name "Boswell" there was a family of gypsies by that name lived in Greenmount Gardens off the Ballynahinch Road, it was a pensioners fold. The old lady told fortunes apparently they came from all around to see old Mrs.Boswell, that was in the late sixties. I know this for a fact as my parents lived in the corner bungalow, and of course, my mother being nosy, she watched all from her front window.
Incidentally the Boswells never closed their front door and they burned peat when it was a smokeless zone.

Beano

Beano, Probably the same family that lived on the Longstone, as Post
war the site their caravan was on was cleared along with a few houses to build a small shopping mall which is probably still there. Mauri

I wonder were they related to Eve. Remember Eve Boswell?