The next stop on my Fayette County, Ga. cemetery hopping adventure was Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery. Just down the rode from Woolsey Cemetery. The Sams surname is also here, along with Spurlin, Morris, Callaway, and Whitaker.

This cemetery stands out because it has two parts. When Antioch Baptist Church was established on March 5, 1829, five of the 19 charter members were black. The rest were white. While the cemetery is now integrated, it was segregated at the time of the church’s formation.

I found online the original list of charter members of the church and the first names of those five black members are listed, and who they are a “servant” of. No last names. I assume that means they were slaves unless they were free persons of color (FPOC), who did exist at that time. But most FPOC at would have had their last names listed and they wouldn’t have been servants for whites. They also lived in large cities like Savannah and Charleston, S.C. A few lived in Atlanta. Not in a tiny town like Woolsey.

From what I can tell, black and white members were buried separately. It looks like someone had done ground penetrating radar (GPR) and crosses were placed on unmarked graves. I don’t know what the different colors signify (blue/red/white). Among them are a handful of stone markers with names/dates. According to the sign (see above), the first person of color was buried there in 1848.

Sadly, I could find very little information about the few people who do have stones here. One example is Clifford Watkins. She was the daughter of Lizzie and John Tombs. She died on Sept. 30, 1911. So she was only 18 when she died. Her grandparents (and possibly her parents) were likely slaves.

I had better luck with Pinkie Ray, the wife of Charles Ray, whom she married at 15. According to the 1910 Census, the couple had seven children. Pinkie died at at age of 32 in December 1918. Her cause of death may have been Spanish Flu.

Because there are no dates on this stone, I could find nothing about Charaty Whitaker. I only know that she was 60 when she died.

As you might imagine, the number of white grave markers was much higher. Find a Grave has about 600 memorials recorded, with the earliest being an infant grave from 1830.

The Sams Family

The grave marker for Julia Sams got my attention because it is cross-shaped and has that woodsy Arts and Crafts style that was common during the era. The daughter of Christopher Columbus “Lum” Sams and Sarah Martha Ozborn Sams, Julia was born on Feb. 4, 1867.

Julia’s obituary explained that she had long suffered from consumption (tuberculosis) and this it was the cause of her death on Nov. 4, 1897.

Her father’s large marker is nearby and it made me curious to know more about the man who had been named after the famous Italian explorer. As I began to look at the family tree, it got interesting quickly.

Julia’s mother, Sarah Martha Ozborn, first married Lum’s older brother Lt. William Joseph Sams. They had five children together before William died at age 29 in Virginia during the Civil War in 1862. A first lieutenant in the Confederate Army, he served in the the Georgia 27th Infantry, Co. E. He is buried at Antioch Cemetery but I did not get a photo of his grave marker.

Lum’s first wife was Martha Whitaker Sims, and they wed in 1858. She died on Oct. 5, 1860 after giving birth to their second son, Matthew. Lum then married his brother’s widow, Sarah, in July 1865. The couple had six children together, with Julia being the eldest. So not only were their combined children half-siblings, they were also cousins.

Like his brother, Lum served in the Confederacy during the Civil War but with the Second Battalion of the Georgia Infantry. From what I can tell, he amassed a good bit of property over the years in Fayette, Clayton, and Coweta Counties.

Sarah died at age 62 in 1899. There may have been a third Mrs. Sams but I do know that his last wife was Eliza Connelly, who he married in 1908. Lum died on March 16, 1910, according to his obituary. He was 74. The obituary also said Lum was married four times, which is why I mentioned a potential third Mrs. Sams.

I noticed there was a tree-shaped marker for a Lum Ballard and wondered if he was connected to Lum Columbus. He is. Lum’s step-daughter (and niece) Ada Elvira (born in 1855), named her son after him.

The son of Ada and her husband, Washington Augustus Ballard, Lum Ballard born on Feb. 3, 1879. He married Lois Wallace in July 1901. They had a son, whom was also named Christopher Columbus “Lummie” Ballard. Lum (his father) died on Dec. 6, 1902 at age 23. His obituary did not mention his cause of death.

Ada’s brother, Matthew, born in 1853, has one of the handsomest monuments in the cemetery. That often indicates wealth or a remarkable death. I was right about that, as I soon learned.

An Abrupt Death

Matthew was a much-respected farmer in Fayette County. He married Ida Gay in 1873 and the couple had several children together. His nickname was Babe. Then I found this article about his death, which happened on Dec. 6, 1900.

I don’t know what happened to Will Patterson or if he was charged in any way. He may have claimed self defense in the matter.

You might recognize the last name of Gay. Ida, Matthew’s wife, was the niece of the Gay siblings I wrote about last week that are buried at Woolsey Cemetery. She did not remarry after her husband’s death. She died at age 77 in 1933 and is buried with Matthew.

Rev. James Spurlin

Born in North Carolina in 1802, James M. Spurlin wed Mary “Polly” Ann Williams in Jasper, Ga. in 1826. They moved to Chambers, Ala. and began raising a family. According to his Find a Grave memorial, James was a missionary to the Creek Indians at some point. He was ordained in the ministry in 1842 and served as pastor of High Pine Baptist Church in Randolph County, Ala.

By the 1850s, the Spurlins had moved to Troup County, Ga. and Rev. Spurlin was pastor of State Line Baptist Church. Sometime in the 1850s, they moved to Fayette County. According to minutes I found, Rev. Spurlin was appointed the superintendent of Antioch Baptist Church’s Sunday School in 1859.

He served as a private in the 13th Georgia Infantry, Co. F, during the Civil War. Some of his sons also served. I believe at some point, he became pastor of Antioch Baptist Church. But he was also a farmer.

Rev. Spurlin died on July 30, 1887 at age 85. I was not surprised to find that the Rev. Isaac G. Woolsey, pastor of Woolsey Baptist Church, preached the sermon at his funeral. I have no doubt the two men were likely good friends.

Rev. Spurlin is buried beside his youngest son, Reuben, who died just a few months later on Oct. 16, 1887 at age 36. Polly Spurlin died at age 84 on April 6, 1892. She is buried with her husband and son.

Confederate Widow

I was taken with the style of Keziah Callaway’s marker and had to find out more about her.

Born in Hancock County in 1832, Keziah was the daughter of Elijah and Edna Turner. She grew up in Dekalb County and married William Monroe Callaway at some point before 1856, when their son Thomas Jefferson Callaway was born. The couple had a daughter, Mary Jane, in 1859. They settled in Webster County.

During the Civil War, William served in the Seventh Georgia Infantry, Co. K. His stone says he was a sergeant but records indicate he was a private. He died on Jan. 7, 1862 in a hospital in Richmond, Va. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond. He was 25 when he died.

I’m guessing that Keziah had family in Fayette County and moved her children from Webster County to Woolsey be closer to them. There is a marker for a Keziah Malinda “Kissie” Morris Turner (1847-1922) at the cemetery. Turner was Keziah Callaway’s maiden name.

When I looked at the 1870 U.S. Census, Keziah Callaway was living next door to the J.G. Morris family. J.G. Morris was Kissie Turner’s father. His wife was Sarah J Callaway Morris. Perhaps Sarah was related to Keziah’s late husband William Callaway.

Keziah Callaway died on March 9, 1877 at the age of 44. That same year, her son Thomas married Telitha Preston. Her daughter, Mary Jane, wed Telitha’s brother Oliver Preston in 1882.

I’ve got a few more stops to make on my Fayette County “hop” so join me for another next week.

After spending eight posts talking about London’s prestigious Westminster Abbey, I’m downshifting to a much smaller burial ground that’s much closer to home.

On Oct. 9, 2019, I spent a day cemetery hopping around Fayette County, Ga. with my mother, Jenny. You may recall that I wasn’t born in Georgia but in Ohio. We moved to Fayette County in the 1970s when I was a child due to a job transfer my Dad took because it was move or lose his job. But I wasn’t interested in cemeteries in my younger days, so I hadn’t visited that many. It was time to remedy that.

Historic Woolsey Church Cemetery

The first place we stopped was Woolsey Cemetery. Woolsey’s always been a tiny town and these days, it has about 200 or so residents. The surnames of Woolsey, Ballard, Gay, Sams, and Peeples, sprinkled throughout the cemetery, can be found in all of my school yearbooks.

The cemetery is located next to Historic Woolsey Church. It began as Harmony Grove Missionary Baptist Church on Aug. 26, 1888 with 23 charter members. On Oct. 2, 1904, they changed the name to Woolsey Baptist Church. It’s now called Historic Woolsey Baptist Church to avoid confusion with another Woolsey Baptist Church, which opened later.

I didn’t get a good photo of the church when I was there. This one below was taken in February 2023 by Gary Laggis. Just a month after I visited in 2019, locals formed a group called Friends of Historic Woolsey, Inc. This week, I explored their web site, and learned much more about the cemetery and community.

The Friends of Historic Woolsey are doing a bang up job getting the church building restored and making improvement to the cemetery. They’ve done GPR (ground-penetrating radar) on the grounds and discovered about 40 unmarked graves. Find a Grave currently lists about 186 memorials.

According to the Friends, the cemetery was originally called Thomas Bolling Gay Burial Ground, based on genealogical research and personal journals. Two of Thomas’ children were buried there in the 1830s. In 1875, Gay’s heirs sold the land to Dr. Isaac G. Woolsey who permitted members of the community to be interred in the cemetery.

Who was Dr. Isaac Woolsey?

When I dove into the life of Dr. Woolsey, I was surprised to find what a unique fellow he was. It’s not often you encounter a man who was a doctor AND a pastor. He cared for both bodies and souls.

Born in 1828 in Kentucky, Isaac was raised in Fentress County, Tenn. After teaching school there for a time, he graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, and practiced medicine in Fentress County until 1861.

Dr. Woolsey was married in 1852 to Clemanza Reagan, who died in 1862, leaving five children. She is buried in Beaty Cemetery in Moody, Tenn. Three of their adult children are buried at Woolsey Cemetery.

During the Civil War, Dr. Woolsey enlisted in the Confederacy as a quartermaster, and served until August 1862, when he organized Company C, 8th Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, in which company he served as captain in Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s division until the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. It was there he was severely wounded and resigned his commission. He wed his second wife Arvazena “Arva” Hutchinson Wood the same year.

The Woolseys moved to Henry County, Ga. and he practiced medicine in Locust Grove. In 1864, Dr. Woolsey also became an ordained minister. Over the years, he usually served three or four churches at a time. In the 1870s, he returned to Cincinnati to improve upon his early medical training.

The community in Fayette County in which he lived in his later years was incorporated as Woolsey in his honor in 1893. When his health began to decline, he limited his pastoral duties to Woolsey Baptist Church. He died on Sept. 11, 1902 of heart failure at age 73. Arva died in 1915 and is buried beside him.

Dr. Woolsey’s daughter Isabella married James Lewis in 1872. She died in 1934 and is buried with her husband in front of her father’s plot.

The Gay Family

I mentioned Thomas Bolling Gay earlier as having buried some of his children at the cemetery. Thomas and his wife Martha’s daughter, Nancy, is buried at Coweta County’s Tranquil Cemetery (not far from where my sister lives). Nancy married Dr. George H. Page, whose story of how he treated two dying Union soldiers during the Civil War, is one I will save for another time.

Thomas, born in 1797, owned property worth $30,000 according to the 1850 Census. He married Martha Bridges in 1818. They had 10 children together. Some died in childhood while three died in their 20s and 30s within a three-year span. Martha died on May 6, 1860 at age 55.

Son Leonard, who enlisted in the Confederacy on April 20, 1861, served in the Second Georgia Infantry Battalion, Co. B. He died at age 22 on Jan. 7, 1862 at a hospital in Norfolk, Va. His remains were brought back to Woolsey Cemetery for burial.

Daughter Sarah Jane, born in 1826, married William Malone in 1845. They had at least three children. Sarah died in February 1862 at age 35. She is buried at Woolsey Cemetery near her parents.

Son John died on Nov. 4, 1862 at age 36 but I could not find a military record for him, so I suspect it was not Civil War-related. He may have had some medical training. He is buried at Tranquil Cemetery near his older sister, Nancy Gay Page.

Thomas Gay, perhaps burdened by his sorrow over the death of his wife and three of his children, died on Oct. 1, 1864 at age 67.

Cpl. Archibald Preston

It’s always a thrill to see a photo of the person whose grave I’ve photographed.

During my 2019 visit, I took this photo of the grave of Corp. Archibald “Archie” Gray Preston. Born in 1840 in Monroe County, Ga., he was the son of James and Permelia Preston.

During the Civil War, Archie enlisted in September 1861 and attained the rank of corporal in the 30th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry. He served in Company A, also known as “Butts’ Invincibles” because many of the men were from Butts County (southeast of Fayette County) where he lived in his early years. It became Company I after reorganization in 1862.

According to records, Archie saw plenty of battle action in Georgia and Tennessee in the 30th. He was imprisoned in Nashville, Tenn. in December 1864. He was also imprisoned at Camp Chase, a prison camp for Confederate soldiers, in Columbus, Ohio. He was released in June 1865. Camp Chase has a Confederate cemetery of its own that I visited in 2021.

In 1867, he married Martha Emily Mayo and the couple had nine children together. The family settled in Fayette County.

Thanks to the Friends of Historic Woolsey’s Facebook page, I learned that Archie played an important role in the community since he operated a blacksmith shop, and locals enjoyed congregating there to chat and share news.

Archie died on Feb. 28, 1905 at age 59. His obituary described him as “an honorable and upright man,” highlighting his sterling character.

Archie shares a marker with his wife, Martha, who died on Dec. 29, 1919 at age 71. There’s a touching inscription on the back that I’m glad I did not miss.

Run with the Horsemen

Finally, I’d like to talk about someone buried here that I personally knew. Like Dr. Woolsey, Dr. Sams had two professions. He was both a doctor and an author.

Born on Sept. 26, 1922, Dr. Ferrol Aubrey Sams, Jr. (known by many as “Sambo”) and his wife, Dr. Helen Fletcher Sams, were the only two doctors I ever saw as a child. They were the healthcare of Fayette County at their office on Jeff Davis Drive for many years, which featured enormous goldfish in an indoor fountain/pond that diverted many a child waiting to be seen.

While I saw “Dr. Helen” the most, I did see Dr. Sams from time to time. They were both kind, salt of the earth people who were regarded with great affection and respect by everyone.

In 1982, Dr. Sams dove into his childhood memories of Fayette County when he wrote Run with the Horseman. It was the start of a trilogy of works featuring Porter Osborne Jr., a character largely based on Dr. Sams himself. The buzz around Fayette County was enormous as people tried to figure out who the other characters might be based on.

In 1991, Sams was awarded the Townsend Prize for fiction for his publication of When All the World Was Young. He wrote a total of eight books.

My most vivid memory of Dr. Sams is when I finished my master’s degree at the University of Georgia in 1992. I was having difficulty finding a job and my training was as a journalist. My father, one of his patients, thought Dr. Sams might have some words of wisdom. So we went to his office to have a chat.

Dr. Sams was kind and asked me a few questions. He told me about his current publisher, Longstreet Press, and suggested I contact them. While I didn’t end up getting hired by them, I was grateful that he took time out of his busy day to see me.

Dr. Sams retired in 2006. He died on Jan. 29, 2013 at age 96. Dr. Helen died only a few weeks later on Feb. 23, 2013 at age 89.

The Sams’ legacy can still be felt today in their children. W. Ferrol Sams is a Superior Court judge and Dr. Ferrol Sams, III, is a physician. Dr. Sams (the younger) was incredibly helpful in assisting my mother in making the decision to bring my father out of a nursing home so he could spend his last days in home hospice care. I will always be grateful to him for that.

I’m thrilled that the folks of Woolsey are working together to preserve the heritage of the community and the cemetery, which are an integral part of Fayette County’s rich history.

For more information on the Friends of Historic Woolsey’s work and how you can get involved, click here.

Many thanks to the amazing Grace Barrett of Tours by Grace for leading us through Westminster Abbey! She was fabulous!

This is my eighth and final blog post about Westminster Abbey. I think that’s a new record for me!

Today I’m rounding up the last bits and pieces that I haven’t gotten to talking about just yet that I think are worth mentioning.

Meet the Russells

In my opinion, the monument to John Russell, and the one for his daughter Elizabeth (which is beside) it), are two of the most fascinating in the Abbey. They are located in the Chapel of St. Edmund.

Born in 1553, John Russell was the son of Francis, second Earl of Bedford. John was summoned to Parliament in January 1581 as Lord Russell. He died on July 24, 1584.

Elizabeth, his wife, was born in 1528 and moved in exclusive circles. She was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cook (who tutored Edward VI) and widow of Sir Thomas Hoby. By her first husband, she had two sons and two daughters.

After Sir Thomas died in France, she commissioned Dutch sculptor William Cure to create a very handsome alabaster tomb at Bisham Church in Marlow on which repose the effigies Sir Thomas and his half-brother, Sir Phillip Hoby. This William Cure was the father of Cornelius Cure, who carved Queen Elizabeth I’s monument at Westminster Abbey. William Cure II was his grandson.

There’s a reason I’m mentioning all this that I’ll get to shortly.

She married John Russell on December 23, 1574 and had two daughters (Elizabeth and Anne), as well as a son Francis who died in infancy.

I have some issues with the dates. Elizabeth would have been 25 years John’s senior when they married. This would mean Elizabeth was having children in her late 40s. So I’m not at all sure if those dates are correct. Elizabeth is thought to have died in 1609 at age 81. She is interred at Bishan Church with her first husband.

Here’s how the Westminster Abbey web page describes John Russell’s monument:

His large monument of alabaster and marble shows his effigy reclining in his ermine-lined red Parliamentary robes, with his head supported on his elbow. There are columns and many shields of arms (including those of Russell, De la Tour, Meschems, Herring, Froxmere, Wise, Sapcote, Semark and Cook). Two female bedeswomen support the achievement of arms. The monument was redecorated by order of the Earl of Bedford in the 19th century and the most recent re-painting was done in the 1960s.

“Bedeswoman” is from the Old English biddan, “to pray”; literally  ”a man of prayer”; and from the Anglo-Saxon bed), was generally a pensioner or almsman whose duty was to pray for his benefactor.

The inscriptions were written by his John’s wife, Elizabeth, who was thought to be one of the most accomplished women of her day. One of them was written by their son-in-law. They are in English, Latin, and Greek.

There’s a reason Elizabeth chose this pose and it goes back to the Bisham Church monument she designed. The effigies of her first husband and his half-brother are situated in a very similar position. She was likely inspired by a monument she saw in the Celestine convent in Paris. I suspect Elizabeth had a hand in designing John’s monument, too. She was very much a hands on kind of woman.

Before Elizabeth died in 1609, she designed another monument at Bishan Church that represents herself and her five children. The web site for Bisham Church describes it like this:

In the form of a tableau, we see her kneeling at a prayer desk. Behind her kneel her three daughters who predeceased her: Elizabeth Russell (daughter to Elizabeth and Lord John Russell, her second husband), Elizabeth Hoby and Anne Hoby. Lying beneath her is the effigy of her infant son Francis Russell, who sadly died shortly after birth. Facing her outside the canopy is her only surviving daughter, Anne. At the opposite end of the monument and outside the canopy are her two sons, Sir Edward Hoby and Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby, the latter having been born in Paris shortly after the death of his father.

Back to Westminster Abbey. Let’s take a look at the monument to John and Elizabeth Russell’s daughter, Elizabeth. Notice she’s also resting her chin on her hand. And she’s got a skull under her foot!

Elizabeth was born in the precincts of London’s Westminster Abbey and baptized in the Abbey. Queen Elizabeth I and the Countess of Sussex were her godmothers and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, her godfather. She was a maid of honor to the queen but died young of tuberculosis in 1601. We don’t know her exact age but she was unmarried.

Her monument consists of an alabaster and marble pedestal, on which is her statue, seated in a wicker chair with her right foot resting on a skull. As I mentioned, her head reclines on her right elbow and her left arm points down to the skull.

This led to the idea that she died by pricking her finger. But the skull is simply a symbol of mortality. The pedestal is decorated with ribbons, swags, ox heads and an eagle. Hers was the first memorial in England to depict a seated figure on a free-standing monument.

The Latin inscription can be translated:

“She is not dead, but sleepeth. Sacred to the happy memory of Elizabeth Russell, her afflicted sister Anne has erected this monument.”

Anne, her sister, married Henry Somerset, the first Marquees of Worcester, in 1600. Queen Elizabeth I, who had been close to their mother Elizabeth, attended the wedding. That’s only a year before Elizabeth (the sister) died. Anne had nine sons and four daughters with the Marquees, who was a prominent Royalist during the early years of the English Civil War.

The Talbots

Also located in the Chapel of St. Edmund is a large monument to Edward Talbot (1561-1618), the eighth Earl of Shrewsbury, and his wife, Jane (died 1626), the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Cuthbert, seventh Baron Ogle, by his wife, Catharine Carnaby. We don’t have an exact birth year for her but she did outlive her husband. The couple wed in 1583.

In 1616, Edward succeeded his brother Gilbert as eighth Earl of Shrewsbury. He was a member of Parliament for Northumberland and member of the Council of Wales. He died on Feb. 8, 1618.

A kneeling figure of a child, dressed in blue, is shown near the feet of the effigies. They had one son who predeceased his father so this is probably him although dressed as a girl, which was usual for small children at this period. There is no record of them ever having a daughter.

After Edward died, Jane had the monument designed in his honor. She died in January 1626 and was interred with him.

Edward’s effigy is attired in armor, with a talbot (a medieval hunting dog) at his feet. You can see it in the photo below. I’m glad the Abbey web page explained this because I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. Jane, who wears an ermine-lined red mantle, has a griffin at her feet.

The recess is ornamented with 13 shields of arms connected with the family, with names underneath. At the top of the monument is a large achievement of arms, with two talbot supporters and the motto Prest d’accomplir (ready to accomplish). The monument was repainted and missing hands replaced during the late 1950s cleaning of the Abbey.

Oliver Cromwell’s Brief Abbey Rest

The last person I’m going to talk about had a brief “rest” at the Abbey that only lasted a few years.

When we came upon a small marker in the Lady Chapel with his name on it, Chris and I looked at Grace (our lovely tour guide) with hopes of an explanation and she gave it.

I’m not going to give you a long-winded version of the history of the Reformation, you can find plenty of information on that elsewhere.

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was a country squire and Member of Parliament for Huntingdon, and then for Cambridge. He became a Puritan and came to prominence while serving in the Parliamentary army fighting against the Royalists.

When he defeated Charles I, Cromwell had the king executed in 1649 and became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1653. Charles II fled across the Channel. This was the only time in English history that the monarchy had been ousted.

For his second investiture as Protector in 1657, the 14th-century Coronation Chair was taken from Westminster Abbey to Westminster Hall, and Cromwell sat in it arrayed in royal robes. After his death at Whitehall on Sept. 3, 1658, his son Richard, who had little interest in politics, gave up the government and lived abroad. This paved the way for the Restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660.

After being embalmed and lying in state for a few weeks, Cromwell was buried privately without ceremony (according to contemporary sources) in a vault at the east end of Henry VII’s chapel in the Abbey on the night of Nov. 10, 1658. But he didn’t stay there long. Charles II was out for revenge. The Westminster Abbey web page explains the gruesome activities like this:

When Charles II was restored to the throne, the House of Commons voted on Dec. 4, 1660 that the coffins of regicides Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, and John Bradshaw should be dug up from the Abbey, drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn and the bodies hung up on the gallows there. So on Jan. 26, 1661 Cromwell and Ireton were removed and taken to the Red Lion Inn at Holborn, where they were joined a few days later by Bradshaw’s coffin (the delay was caused by the fact that Bradshaw’s body had not been embalmed like the others and smelt badly).

On January 30, the anniversary of the execution of Charles I, the hangings took place and then the heads were cut off and stuck on spikes outside Westminster Hall. The bodies were buried under Tyburn gallows (near the modern Marble Arch). Cromwell’s head is believed to [now] be buried at Sidney Sussex College [Cambridge].

There are a great many stories/theories concerning what exactly happened to Cromwell’s head over the years but that’s a rabbit hole you can go down on your own.

As we made out way to the exit and bid goodbye to Grace, I felt exhilarated and exhausted at the same time. One of my biggest Bucket List items had finally been crossed off. I almost floated down the steps toward the obligatory Westminster Abbey gift shop.

As a taphophile, it will remain a highlight of my cemetery hopping career. I hope you enjoyed reading about it (all eight parts!).