I have followed in your footsteps to visit Prior Weston …

http://www.andrewwhitehead.net/1/post/2013/10/so-prior-weston-how-did-you-like-the-talk.html

… to find of course that you have been there first.

Wah!

A

What a delight your site is! I’ve just spent the better part of an evening perusing a few of your pages, taking much delight in the “Death of a Linen Draper” series; the plight of the Jewish Maternity Hospital and his would-be savior, Tom Ridge; the “Dead Man in Clerkwell”; and, last but not least, the “Signs of Old London” and “Manhole covers of Spitalfields.” Being a graphic designer, you can imagine the last two topics were rather close to my heart.

I’d like to contribute two small points to your text about Prior Weston’s tomb.

First, this type of sepulchral tomb is actually called a “transi” or “cadaver tomb,” and has a rich Northern European tradition. If you are so inclined, check the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_tomb

The first reference there is to a most wonderful book which I just happen to own:

Kathleen Cohen, Metamorphosis of a Death Symbol: The Transi Tomb in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1973.

All in all, a wonderful read. Would love to buy one of your Spitalfields hand-limited prints but, alas, my pecuniary resources are rather meager. The pocket-sized will have to do!

Saludos, gentle friend.