An Incongrous Sight.

There’s a derelict piece of land close to where I live that I’m told was once a brickworks. It covers around ½-¾ acre, and must have gone out of commission some time ago because the plot has quite a few trees growing on it that look to be about thirty to forty years old. The rest of the ground is covered with various sorts of scrub such as nettles and briars, so it isn’t quite a respectable wood yet, but it’s going that way. At the moment it’s still an unkempt piece of wasteland.

In the days before I could afford to buy coal I used to go in there to forage for bits of fallen tree branch to saw up and use as firewood, but I haven’t done that for about three years. I went in again today and found a wide track running across it where the undergrowth had been cleared. I followed it until it turned a shallow bend and disappeared behind some trees. Standing at the end of it was a modern grave, complete with black polished headstone and marble base. The headstone records that it's the grave of an eighty-seven-year-old man who died last November.

This is most unusual. In all my life I’ve only ever seen human graves in cemeteries and churchyards, so the sight of one standing alone among nature’s ragged dereliction, and in a spot that is presumably unhallowed, is a mystery. In fact, it was so bizarre as to be creepy. Enquiries will be made.