MAN WITH TWO TOMBS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20644, 16 February 1929, Page 8

MAN WITH TWO TOMBS.

KNIGHT’S "BROKEN HEART.” CHAGRIN OF HEREFORD. AFTER THREE HUNDRED YEARS. The people of Hereford have suffered a disillusionment. For over 300 years they have been cherishing a story of young love, a broken heart, and a tomb. In the light of an accidental discovery, their sentiment has had a severe check.

Every visitor to Hereford Cathedral has been shown the richly wrought alabaster tomb of Sir Alexander Denton, his wife Anne, and their child; has understood from the inscription the tragedy of their short married life, and has gone away the better for the luxury of a moment’s melancholy. There was no denying the pathos of the inscription. It runs as follows:—“Here lyethe Alexander Denton, Kt., of Hyllesdon, in ye Counte of Buckyngham, and Anne, hys wyffe, dowghter and heyre of Richard Wyllyson of Suggerwas in ye Counte of Hereford, wch Anne deceased ye XXIX of October, Ao. DNI. 1556, ye XVII yere of her age, the XXIII of hys age.” As the story has been told, Sir Alexander Denton married his 17-year-old wife in 1555, when he was 22. A year later she died, and a few months afterwards the Knight also died—of a broken heart. It is essential to remember the broken heart, for out of the magnitude of its grief rise the disillusionment and chagrin of Hereford. Not long ago a former resident of the Buckinghamshire village of Hillsden, the “ Hyllesdon ” of Sir Alexander Denton, visited Hereford Cathedral and was shown the inscription. To the astonishment of his guide he declared that in Hillsden Church there is a tomb identical in every respect, except that in the name of Sir Alexander Denton’s wife is not Anne. Hereford was forced to revise its opinion of the extent of the strain upon Sir Alexander Denton’s heart.

The most reasonable conclusion (says a Hereford correspondent) appeared to be that, having lost his young wife and believing it to be impossible that he could ever marry again, lie hud had the inscription beginning, “Here lyethe Alexander Denton, Kt,” carved upon the tomb with the conviction that he would one day lie there himself. Returning to “ Hyllesdon,” however, ho fourid earthly consolation and life a memorial of his second matrimonial state. The tomb in Hereford Cathedral is to be opened by a Birmingham archscologist, who has been studying the life and death of Sir Alexander Denton from other sources He refuses at present to disclose what he has discovered without the additional testimony, which only the contents of the tomb can give.