Mr.
EBENEZER HALL
DIED JUNE 28, 1818
AEt. 63.
Kindred & friends once near & dear
Unto my Grave I pray draw near
Walk o’er my dust, see where I lie
And learn this truth you too must die.
As far as I can tell, Ebenezer Hall’s epitaph is an original composition, It is a somewhat late variation of the classic Memento Mori message: “as I am now, so you must be…” Note that the key word “prepare” is not used here; whoever wrote this quatrain is no longer drawing on the Calvinist tradition of emphasizing preparing one’s soul every day for death which could come at any minute. But the message is still one of a kindly, friendly admonishment: come close, walk over my dust, ponder this stone and your own mortality — for your own good.
The carving is wonderful and very distinctive. Look at those intricate oak leaves all around the panel containing the epitaph, the rich folds of the curtains separating us from the world beyond where Ebenezer Hall has gone, those half-hidden columns that hint at the architecture of Paradise, and above all that distinctive portrait profile. I don’t know how realistic a representation that is of Hall’s face, but it is surely meant to be a portrait of the deceased, not an abstract Soul Effigy.
I am grateful to Bob Drinkwater for this image from several years ago
; I was in Mill River more recently and the stone is much less clearly legible.
