Posted on by susurrus

Stone Angel

Angel's face

As a Doctor Who fan, I really ought not to like stone angels as much as I do. My sweetheart loves to visit cemeteries in his quest for tough plants (‘flowers even dead people can grow’). We often see cherubs but the more characterful angels, like this one holding out a lily in remembrance, are rare. 

Angel holding a lily

It’s in a quiet Scottish graveyard that we found while exploring the area around Rosslyn Chapel.

Stone angel

I imagine some people might think they are creepy and perhaps I would have found them so at one time. Now I see comfort – patience – sorrow – faith – resignation, all rolled into one expression.

43 Replies to “Stone Angel”

        1. Christopher Eccleston was my favourite. I liked Tom Baker and Peter Capaldi too, though the scripts for the latter made too much of him being incarnated older – he’s the Doctor, for heavens sake! The first I remember being fond of was Jon Pertwee.

  3. My first thought was of those scary angels in Doctor Who—neat that you’re a fan, too!—but this one is gentle and serene. Maybe there could be a battle of the angels.

  4. I’ve never seen Dr. Who. I don’t think. I imagine I’d remember if I had…right? I like to wonder in cemeteries too, though I’m looking for the family stories often told there. I like to imagine what the people might have been like, the lives they led.

    1. You’d certainly remember watching one of the classic episodes, assuming you have the ability to waive disbelief for an hour or so (one of my relatives, who shall remain nameless, says that Doctor Who is too daft for words).

    1. The one on the hillside in Glasgow is probably the most interesting I’ve been to – not just the statues or monuments, but the different lettering styles and decorative borders.

    1. Reading the comments here, we’re not alone. It’s a tribute to the power a series like that has that it can take something familiar and weave in another response towards it.

  11. I love this angel too! In a cemetery I used to live by, they had a big angel called The Recording Angel….she sat in the middle of the cemetery on a hill, holding a big book that was open in order to write the names. I liked her a lot. She was very serene and peaceful.

  12. I don’t know anything about Dr. Who, but I do know about cemeteries, and I suppose there’s an argument for calling them creepy, but they certainly are very human places. The angel is to me a reminder of how much we value the memory of loved ones. And then there is the cemetery visitor who looks for flowers that even dead people can grow. This, of course, set me off. It was hard to compose myself for the angel.

    1. You’re right – they are very human. I’ve read a few Victorian(?) stories about things happening in cemeteries and have the kind of imagination that doesn’t always work in my favour. Clambering up the moor yesterday, for example – lost; penned in a field with no obvious way out; with a second identical hill being revealed at the top of the current hill and a third behind the second…; spotting unmissable signs of large livestock and hoping it was not the horned kind; remembering that there are said to be adders up there, presumably living off the beaten track in the ferns, heathers and wimberries…

      1. Oh, yes, I can feel those Gothic vibes. I hope you got out without encountering anything that slithers or has horns. I loved the post about wimberries, another whole new thing for me! Thanks!

        1. Rest easy – we escaped unscathed. The wimberries were not ripe enough for us to stain faces or fingers, though we tested a few.

Comments are closed.